Practical Life--Cake Decorating

B recently turned 4 and Birthday cakes are a big part of the celebration here at The Middle of Somewhere. 

It always seems that the birthday child has a fantasy cake in mind that I am to reproduce from their brain to the plate.  I use to make the cake in private and keep it all a secret but over time I have started letting the birthday child take part in the cake making and decorating.  So a few afternoons ago when B was complaining that there was "nofing to do," I suggested that he help me make his cake.  This year his main request was that the cake be chocolate with red frosting.  In 10 years of parenting this was my first ever request for a chocolate cake, I know amazing!  Last year green was the demanded icing color, so I can't wait until next year's color of choice.

 I was so glad B helped because him with frosting all of his face was adorable and we found a new practical life activity.

Do you have a cake decorating set of tips and such hiding in the dark corner of a cabinet?

 Well, pull it out and put it on a tray and watch the fine motor practice happen as your little one removes, explores and puts back the tips or twists and turns the couplers.

 So much fun and interest was right under our noses and I didn't even know it.

Today is Montessori Monday, stop over for a visit to see more Montessori in action.

Finishing Preschool Year 1

Last week's post was a look at some of E and A's final school activities, so I thought we would take a look at how B ended his year. B's preschool was primarily lead by him saying "can you do trays' with me?" So some weeks we were busy and others we may have done nothing. I am happy with B's learning and as he matures he is showing more and more interest in academics through counting and letter recognition. I hope in the coming season to work with him more but I am unsure of how to fit it in. I do know that I will continue to set work out for him focusing on counting, letters, storybook centers and block play.

This reusable sticker book is one of B's favorites.  It is called Play Scene Around Town.

B is concentrating so hard to put this Rhyming Words Photo Puzzle together.

More puzzle work, using numbers.

I was so excited when I found this mini pegboard at a children's consignment shop.  The set came with a lot of pegs and pattern cards.  B is not up to using the pattern cards and his attention span is currently very short for this activity but it is wonderful fine motor practice.

Working on matching cartoon animals to real life animals in our Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center.

Using Dot Painters to paint Spud and Bob.

Exploring an I Spy book or should I say "I Py?"

This Lauri Toddler Tote has gotten so much use by our children.  It has very simple, one piece puzzles for shapes and animals as well as 2 mini shapes to put pegs in.

Learning With The Sister--Sometimes B just wants to be in the thick of it all, so here are 2 times that he joined K for a bit of advanced work

Puppy Phonics--I bought this at a children's consignment store.  The game has 2 levels of play--short vowels and beginning blends.  This game is way above B's capabilities but letting him play includes him in our learning, shows him learning is fun and exposes him to the idea of taking turns and a lot of letters.

Here B joined us for a bit of money sorting.  I remember years ago a friend offered me s set of fake money for math activities, sometimes I wish I had taken it but nothing feels like the weight of real coins in one's hand.  The coin practice was a good primer for our summertime trips to the neighborhood general store.

This is the last week of our six week break, it is amazing how time flies.  I am working on 7 weeks of lesson plans while the children attend VBS this week.  Our work for the summer term will include nature study, math review, blue series work, copywork, building challenges, American History and crafts.  Pray for us: it is a busy summer, more busy than I would prefer so come September when everything slows down we will have another 3 week break before launching into our fall term.

Bless you all for stopping by.

I am linking up with Deb's Montessori Monday.

Preschool: Fine Motor, Letters and Numbers

It is always my desire to keep our learning shelves fresh with inspiring work and creative ideas but in reality I get to them every 4 to 6 weeks.  So in today's post you will see a bit of both Winter and Easter but remember the content being taught by these materials, although having dated seasonal themes, are necessary skills to the early learner.  So while I get to the shelf refreshing  take a look at what B has been working on as we close out winter and welcome Spring.  (We live in snow country so spring comes very late if at all.)

Fine Motor

We finally go to some nuts and bolts activities.  I think these were a bit to small for B's skill level but he enjoyed working with real life objects instead of our toy version.

I saw this tree idea a few years back on My Montessori Journey.  I think she used it at Christmas time but our Easter version is a fun seasonal change up.  I got the eggs and tree at The Dollar Tree 2 Easters ago.  Here is a link to My Montessori Journey, not exactly matching up to the decorating activity but  a wonderful blog to visit for inspiration.

Using office supply stickers to fill in the mitten's circles.  I think the mitten pattern came from Making Learning Fun. I didn't find the exact match but these would be fun as well.

Connect Four--such a fun game at this age.  No, they don't get the concept of four in a row but B loves to practice taking turns with this game and it is so cute when he yells "blocked ya!" Connect four is also great to use when introducing the concept of patterning.  I am working on patterning with B but he is not yet following along.

Numbers

Number matching using snowman number cards and old tiles from a Rummy Kub game.

Heart counting

Matching the numbers and dots to make Easter Eggs.

It is always so great to do these review posts because it gives me a chance to step back and see what we have been doing.  I notice that in B's number work there is a lot of paper and not a lot of sensory offerings.  I think I need to pull out some numbers and the bead stair or just some numbers and interesting counters like cars or rocks.  You see these pictures here but B has not really taken to any of the counting work, so thanks for letting me review and brainstorm as you read.  If you have any other ideas let me know.

All of the above card materials are from two wonderful blogs:
Confessions of a Homeschooler
1+1+1=1

Letters

I know you have seen this activity before but I think it must be B's favorite work.  Every time we sit down together this is what he picks to work on.  I think I may add another basket.  This activity is called Magnet School by Parents

Simple letter matching.  B surprises me on this type of thing.  He can match letters so easily and quickly.  I just started having him watch the Leapfrog Letter Factory video.  If you have a preschooler, seriously think about investing in this video, it is how all of our children have learned their sounds.

Other Fun Work

Nesting Blocks are our substitution for the sensorial pink stair and broad stair. 

B sorting nest cards from the largest to the smallest.  I think these cards are from Confessions of a Homeschooler, see the link above.

Grandma came for a visit and brought B this Melissa and Doug puzzle.  It is four puzzles all in one little box.

Another once of B's favorite activities--Magnet Motor Match. I couldn't find a link to the Motor Match but here is a link to a Magnetic Dino Match.

Thanks for visiting and leave a comment so I know you were here--Thanks!

I'm linking up to the Preschool Corner.

Tot School

Yes, we are still doing Tot School, unfortunately, less than I would like. B does request to do activities from his shelf area and we have an enjoyable time when we get the opportunity to play together. So here are a few things that keep us busy.

putting paper clips into a slotted lid

wooden puzzles

Can we say addict? This little boys love Little People books, videos and his Little People Garage. We have been doing a lot of reading, especially when sitting on the potty, a book or shall I say books, are a must. We have also been enjoying books by Byron Barton, Richard Scarry and the Brown, Bear, Brown Bear series.

Connect Four is a great fine motor activity.

Our fall sensory bin filled with corn, raffia, leaves, pine cones and various containers and scoopers.

magnets on the white board

stacking pegs

playing with branch blocks, made by daddy from last year's Christmas tree

Our Christmas sensory box filled with pompoms, paper clips, napkin rings, clothes pins, bottles, spoons and ice cream scoop and rice. B loves to collect all of his dump trucks and play with them in the rice. I place the bin on a blanket for easier clean up.

I hope this gives everyone some ideas of things to do with your tot for both fun and learning.

Tot School--it has been awhile

We have been consistently doing Tot School activities about 2 or 3 times a week, despite my lack of posting. We have actually started doing a lot more pre-school activities that are letter and number focused. I would love to share those things to, but we are currently out of a camera so I will have to wait for now but here is a look at some of what K was busy with this winter term.



Stringing lids on string, skewers or pipe cleaners--great fine motor practice. Just collect different sized, types and colors of lids, poke or drill a hole in the middle and put them in a basket and watch the concentration begin.



Another use for baby links. More fine motor practice and concentration for both linking them up and pulling them apart. We keep ours in a little purse to make it more interesting and enticing.



Clothespins--this one is tough. K could do it but it caused mild frustration, we need to do this more often. I found clothespins at the $ store and cut a circle shape out of craft foam.



Cuisenaire Rods--I put out tongs for transferring from one container to another but K used the tongs to put "blueberries" on her "waffle."



Pouring--K had her own personal tea party and practiced pouring from both her teapot and creamer.



Connect Four--great fine motor skills and practicing turn taking, we could also use this for making patterns.



Cutting--cutting is always an enjoyable activity for K. the other day she made her own cutting activity by drawing multi-colored lines on a paper and then cutting them. We usually use scrapbooking scraps in interesting patterns or seasonal colors. A lot of times we save the cut pieces for K to later make a collage .



Old fashioned block building-- building as high as she could reach.



Pete's a Pizza has been a favorite story of K's. Here she is playing with the Melissa and Doug pizza set she got for her birthday.



More stringing with cheerios. I told K she had to string them first and them she could eat them, she obeyed. In the picture she is using a pipe cleaner to string them on and she also enjoys our cheerio activity book. It is a fun book with circle to place the cereal in for glasses, wheels ect.


I hope you have enjoyed a peek at what one of our Littles does during lesson time.