The Riding Club

I feel very strongly that it's important for children to learn about the natural world from a young age. They need to feel connected to what is around them because if they don't have that connection then they won't appreciate it or think twice about destroying it. That's why this year I started incorporating some zoology into Abe and Mimi's schooling so from an early age they are aware of the natural world and all the amazing plants and animals that inhabit it. So far we have gone through living and non-living for the month of October and mammals for November. They both really enjoyed learning the similarities between humans and other animals.

For the last week of mammal study we focused on horses since Abe and Mimi have both been very interested in them lately. So that meant some horse-themed work to learn about horses and a trip to the local riding club in Dubai! It was such a blast. The kids were so happy to see the horses, ride them and feed them.

I was really surprised that Abe got right on the horse without hesitation. He took to it very quickly and it seemed so natural for him. Mimi was a little scared but eventually warmed up to it after holding my hand for a few minutes. It was a great first experience for them and will definitely be something we do more often.

The Pink Tower

The pink tower is one of the many educational materials Dr. Montessori made for her students. I gave Abe and Mimi a lesson on the pink tower (stacking largest to smallest) many months ago just before we left Saudi Arabia using guidelines from infomontessori and "Basic Montessori" by David Gettman, but we recently revisited the lesson mainly for Mimi since she was just 2 years old at the time of the first lesson and now she is 2.5 and showing lots of interest in it. You might wonder, "What makes the pink tower so special?" Well all the materials Dr. Montessori made are the result of her careful observations of children and their development. Every material she designed was to aid the child's development. The pink tower has two distinct purposes and that is to develop visual discrimination of differences in three dimensions and fine muscular coordination, but also indirectly "prepares the child for the concept of numbers" and for "later work in geometry," according to Gettman. 

In this video below you will see Mimi doing the pink tower on her own for the first time. She chose to do this activity, first rolling out the work mat and carefully setting out each piece. If you watch carefully you will see her correct herself as she tries one block and realizes it is not correct for stacking largest to smallest. Also notice that I never interrupted her! I let the process flow, and it is just so beautiful to see her thinking and figuring it out for herself :)

I also just want to note that the formal lesson on the pink tower is making a tower from the largest block to the smallest but the pink tower can be manipulated in many ways. Abe and Mimi explore many other possibilities with the pink tower, which is absolutely fine. 

Thanksgiving!

With its all its controversy, we love Thanksgiving. We always make our own decorations, prepare food and clean together to get ready for the holiday, but the kids really enjoyed having some themed trays last year so we did it again this year!



We have been going through a lot of transitions and one of the biggest ones has been settling into a new country. Homeschooling has adapted a bit to cater to our small hotel apartment but we are making it work. This is what our work table looked like for Thanksgiving week. The work available to them is a lot less than our usual shelves with up to ten rotating weekly activities back in Saudi, but for now we are making the best of what we have.

The Work Table (clockwise): Clothespin turkey, Thanksgiving images on cutting strips, gluing practice, pencil sharpening, pumpkin sensory basket and book on autumn

Making a clothespin turkey and Thanksgiving cards were Abe and Mimi's favorite trays. The clothespin turkey was especially good for Mimi in helping her work on strengthening her hands. For the first day she was quite frustrated because she couldn't open the clothespins but she was persistent and I continued to model for her how to carefully open the clothespin using the tips of my fingers. By the end of the week she was finally able to make her own turkey and boy was she happy. "I did it, look!" Music to my ears :)

Abe making a clothespin turkey

I used these cutting strips and cut a few out myself to make a gluing tray where they could make Thanksgiving cards.

Thanksgiving card with images glued

And of course there were Thanksgiving preparations to be done as well! This year we made a Thanksgiving banner painting stencils, and then I cut them out and strung them on some gardening twine.

Painting Stencils!

 And, of course there was the food. They were really only interested in making the pies this year! We made the pie crust from scratch and completely by hand. They loved digging their little fingers into the dough and smacking it together to form a disc-shape. Scooping pumpkins did not get the same excitement but they still enjoyed scooping the "guts" out.

Scooping pumpkins for pumpkin pie

We also made a "Thankful" tree (no photo, sorry!), inspired by Craftionary. The kids are a bit young to understand the concept but the idea was to get them thinking about what they have and being thankful for it. They were really interested in tacking the leaves on the tree but not so much about talking about being thankful. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Montessori-Inspired Kitchen

I really miss it. Our kitchen in Saudi Arabia. This is where so many wonderful memories took place and lots of bonding while we cooked together and explored new recipes. 

Abe and Mimi's eating space and cleaning space (left)

The kitchen is an important place in every home. It is the heart of the home and that's why it's so important to accommodate your child by giving them opportunities to participate in kitchen work.

As always, when setting up a space for your child you must keep it very organized and simple. It helps to break down the steps in your brain and even practice how you model setting the table, putting away the dishes, doing the dishes, cleaning up a mess etc., before introducing these things to your toddler. You want to make sure all the tools and materials your child might need to complete these tasks are easily accessible. So here is a look our (old) setup!

Table Setup Drawer #1

 I was foruntate enough to have three empty drawers in my kitchen so I arranged them in order of what goes first to last when setting the table. For drawer one, I had place mats, napkins and cutlery.  

Table Setup Drawer #2

Plates and bowls were in the next drawer below.

Table Setup Drawer #3

In the next drawer below drawer two I placed cups and pitchers (milk creamers). Milk creamers worked great for us as pitchers. They were just the right size for their small hands and also didn't take up so much space on the table. 

Dirty Dish Bucket

The clean up is just as important as the setup, so I also set up a place to put the dirty dishes. Since the sink was not easily accessible without a stool this was the best option for us. When they were finished they knew to put their dishes in the bucket, though they needed a reminder sometimes!

Hand Washing Station

  This was my attempt to make a hand washing station. This was mostly set up for Mimi since at that time (about 18 months - 2 years) she couldn't reach the sink in our bathroom even with a stool and faucet extender. When she wanted to wash her hands she would ask for water in the pitcher. She would then pour the water in the basin and complete her hand washing and dump the water in the bucket below. Although there was some dependency on me, she was still very happy to be able to care of herself. 

So that's a quick view of our (old) kitchen. With a little thought and effort you can really make such a huge difference in your child's home environment. Stay tuned for some fun posts on our schooling adventures in Dubai!

Our Montessori-Inspired Bedroom

Abe and Mimi's first Montessori bedroom

This is the first in a series of posts on the importance of environment set up in the Montessori world. This was Abe and Mimi's first bedroom in Saudi Arabia that I completely transformed to make it child-friendly (aside from the crib - it just worked for us.) 

A big attraction in the room was the self-care area (below), which was where we spent the year practicing blowing noses and putting on shirts, along with brushing hair, of course! I took a nightstand and used that as a table for them to stand at and they had two trays - brushes to the left and folded tissues to the right.  I used a simple adhesive mirror from IKEA since it was such a pain to hang anything on cement walls. There was also a small trash bin which they both took pride in emptying out regularly.

Next to the self-care area was just a small open floor space where we hung our map and I would rotate the types of puzzles on the rug, or some times none at all. I highly encourage every parent invest in a map. Children are so interested in geography!

As a separator between the reading corner and open space I used a small Kallax shelving unit where I would store puzzles and books, and rotate them weekly or bi-weekly, or not at all if they were still being used regularly.

I also used some sticky hooks and hung dressing frames on the side. 

Now for the most beloved part of the room, the reading corner! This was a space for a lot of bonding time for everyone, whether it be sitting to read a book, working through a tantrum or just hanging out. Abe and Mimi really loved this space.

As you can see...

The closet was a bit challenging to set up at first because I was trying to find a way to accommodate Mimi and make her clothing accessible to her, since she is small for her age. I finally settled on using a small step stool so she could access her clothing on the rack. I also installed a low shelf to store their games, which they could also access themselves. 

**Something important to note is that I only gave them two options for clothing everyday. They each had a side of the closet with two shirts hanging and two bottoms in the labeled baskets (pajamas were also in baskets). This allowed them to easily choose without frustration and gave them autonomy.** 

And finally, a small corner where we kept a few toys. These were never rotated because they were always being used.

Abe and Mimi really miss their room, but I know once we settle in our new place they will love the new one just as much. It doesn't take tons of money and fancy stuff to make a bedroom like this - all you need is some planning and thinking of ways to accommodate your little one! 

Kindness and Heart Health (2/7 - 2/18)

Kindness Week Decorations <3

We don't do Valentine's Day, along with many other typical American holidays, but I'm always trying to find a way to make our own special traditions for our family during these holiday times. Thanks to Deb Chitwood of Living Montessori Now I learned about the "100 Acts of Kindness Challenge." I was hooked from the start and thanks to Deb I had some inspiration to make this challenge toddler-friendly.

So we started out our week with some fun decorating (see above) and discussion of the word kind and what it means to be kind. Abe is really into vocabulary these days so he was very interested to learn a new word and how to implement it. Grace and courtesy is a big part of Montessori teaching, so we're always working on lessons in this category, but I introduced some new lessons that the kids needed, such as interrupting and how to cough and sneeze.

Kindness Challenge Chart

This sticker chart idea was inspired by Living Montessori Now and it was a huge hit. The kids loved putting the little smiley face stickers on the chart. We made it to about 70 acts of kindness, which is not bad for only one week! This chart was not hung up on the wall and stickers were not given at the moment a kind act was done. Why? In Montessori philosophy reward charts are not used. Rewards and gratification are developed intrinsically in a child by simply being able to do something themselves or in the case of being kind, "Thank you for being so gentle." or, "Being gentle with your sister is a kind act." rather than saying "Good job!" or "Good girl!"So instead of giving stickers in the moment I would make a mental tally and at the end of the day I would tell them how many stickers they could put on the chart, so for example "I counted seven acts of kindness today! You can put on seven stickers." All of this was completely inspired by Deb.

Working Together :)

Collaboration and cooperation are things I'm also trying to instill in Abe and Mimi. When they do it on their own it makes me so happy. Here they are (above) working on the pink tower together.

Some new things on the shelves:

Cutting Work

Transferring Buttons (Fine Motor Work)

Heart Health Week:

Since February is American Heart Month I decided to make some fun activities to teach Abe and Mimi about the heart. They love learning about the body so this was also a very interesting topic for them. We started out the week discussing the heart and learning about what it does. Thanks to my Mom they have their own stethoscopes, so we took turns listening to our hearts, which they always find amazing. 

Find the Hearts Game

Another fun circle time activity was "Find the Hearts." I printed and laminated 10 small real hearts in a tray of rice. This gets messy but is a lot of fun. 

Scavenger Hunt

I also set up this scavenger hunt that was very basic and simple for toddlers. I printed out some images from Every Star is Different. I simply cut out the cards and placed each card in an envelope and hid them around the house. When an envelope was found we did the action on the card.

 On the shelves:

Healthy Foods Match Up

Random pieces of wood

Busy building (yes, that's a real hammer)

Mimi is starting to explore the pink tower, too!

 Excuse the typos! No time to edit :)

Remember Who You're Working With

"A look at what goes on in most classrooms these days makes it abundantly clear that when people think about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child, or what makes childhood an important and valuable stage of life in its own right. "

My favorite excerpt from this great editorial piece. 

When I was working as a first grade teacher in an international school (following an American curriculum) I was constantly struggling with what I was expected to do and what I wanted to do with my students. In every weekly meeting my first grade team and I would discuss test results and testing for most of the time. There would be more exams and more strategies to get the students to get better results. In every meeting I would have to remind my co-workers that we are dealing with children! These are not little corporate puppets. They are just kids and we are worrying about how they do on some test rather than how they are enjoying learning the topic we are studying right now. How about how can we make this more interesting and engaging? How can we keep the love of learning and exploration alive in our students?

But instead we forced material down their throats to meet the deadline of finishing a curriculum to keep with the "standards." I was always behind all the other classes because I took time with my students to just let them be them. We had a lot of free time in the classroom ( and extra outside time, too!) and I almost never gave homework until parents started protesting. 

This is one of the big reasons I love the Montessori method and homeschooling because my kids can be kids. They can practice the alphabet in their underwear or do a firefighter puzzle and then be inspired to start pretending to be a firefighter for the rest of the morning. They are free to be who they are and to do what interests them. How beautiful is that? I hope and pray Abe and Mimi can go through their childhood free of being forced fed information, sitting in a seat all day and stressing over exams. May they be free learners to learn at their own pace in their own way and ENJOY it 😌

What We Did This Week (1/31 - 2/6)

Some highlights from the past week!

The sandpit is still a big attraction these days

I really need to get better at taking photos of what we are doing and what is on the shelves. We started our homeschool co-op and it has been going great. The kids are really enjoying the extra company and it's been nice having another mom around during school time. I'll have my details on our progress in the coming weeks.

Wash basin set up

So last week, I set up a wash basin for Mimi in the kitchen. It's plastic and more "Montessori-inspired" than authentic, but I'm really impressed with how excited Mimi has been to wash her hands by herself. I'm still guiding her with the actual hand washing part though because she just likes pouring the water and does so about ten times a day.

Dumping dirty water in the bucket

Emptying the bucket in the shower

A few other things we did this week:

Spooning Rice

Spooning rice was a disaster to say the least. I don't think we will be revisiting that one for a few weeks.

Abe using the pink tower in his own way

 One thing I love about the Montessori method is following the child. It leaves room for so much creativity on the child's part and the guide's (teacher). I introduced the Pink Tower and Abe loved it of course! He wasn't interested in making a tower but loved arranging the cubes as shown above.

Pouring water

Pouring water is still a big attraction. I leave this tray on the kitchen shelf and whenever they want to pour I give them a small amount of water in the pitcher.

The Creator

This week we started learning the names of Allah. This week's name was, Al Khaliq (The Creator). I just talk to the kids about God's (Allah) many names and introduced this name. I printed out this paper and we all worked together to draw things that God has made. Whatever they said they were drawing, I would say, for example, "Yes, Allah made the circles." We hung it up on the fridge where we can keep practicing this name all week.

Stay tuned for next week's post on Kindness Week!

This Week (1/17 - 1/20)

So this is what we did last week, actually, and some of the new tray activities we used.

Toddler-sized magnifying glass and rocks to inspect (this was a huge hit!)

 Lately the kids have been really into pouring, scooping, transferring and watching things spill. I have been struggling with them with a lot at mealtimes lately because they keep wanting to experiment with their water - dumping it, mixing it in their food, etc. - so I realized they really need more pouring work/play. Stuff like this plus extra time at the sandpit have helped a lot. Follow the child!

Scooping

Scooping and Examining!

Put the beans in the hole - fine motor work too!

Our kitchen work shelves are still in transition, but I put out this one tray of transferring pom poms with miniature tongs, and Mimi really enjoyed it. She has weak hand muscles so learning to squeeze the tongs was a good exercise for her.

Transferring pom poms

We only did one language activity this week for Arabic. I set up their letters and some objects in a box for them to match the object with its matching letter sound. We did this as a circle time activity and they never really took out the letters to try the activity on their own after that, so I have to work on the presentation a bit more I think.

Matching objects to Arabic letter sounds

Well that's our (last) weekly highlights!