Our Montessori Space, Final Version

I have spent hours planning, re-designing and  re-organizing our Montessori Space. I have finally cleared and sorted out the extra shelving I had planned to use for materials and now have four defined 'stations' for our Montessori work. At the moment, these are each dedicated to one of what I see as 'core' subjects: Practical Life, Sensorial, Language and Maths. Later, I will have to make space for materials from other subjects.

Our Practical Life Station

Practical Life shelves

This unit is in my kitchen. I have dedicated the bottom four shelves to PL and art activities. Nicholas enjoys being able to peep through the handles of the trays to see what the activity is. The rest of the unit stores spare games and puzzles.

Our Language Station

Language shelves

This unit holds all our language activities, including pre-reading and pre-writing and Russian. Directly opposite these shelves is our reading station - a lovely wooden magazine rack which holds all the books I have out for daytime reading this week.

Reading station

Our Sensorial Station

Sensorial station

This area is dedicated to sensorial materials and puzzles. Depending on what is out, it can hold a lot of different activities.

Our Maths Station

Maths station

Our maths area is not the most easily accessible area, being that it is located under part of my desk... I often have to help Nicholas remove the activities until he is safe to stand up, but otherwise there is no problem. There is also a shelf ideal for storing one of out rugs.

Overall, I am surprised just how many different materials I can have set up at any one time without losing a whole lot of space - the language and PL shelves were already being used for Nikki's things, and the other two areas previously held books which I have managed to find a new home for.

Linking up to Montessori Mondays

Our School Space

There is not a lot of space in our flat. Montessori materials need a lot of space. The compromise - Nikki will only ever have a few materials out at a time. The most space-consuming are the sensorial materials; I plan to keep them out until he masters the presentation and then swap them out for a while before adding the next presentation for that material.

At the moment, I have only converted half of the available Nikki-height shelves for our materials. I am slowly re-organizing my storage to clear up the other shelves, which will eventually hold materials for the subjects I will introduce later.

This is how I have transformed Nikki's 'corner' into our Montessori area:

Sensorial, Maths and Russian activities.

The tall bookshelf has taken the place of the play kitchen, which has moved around the corner for easier access. There is just about enough space to roll out a rug between the bookcase and the shelves, though Nikki generally doesn't. He is, of course, free to put his rug anywhere he pleases - as long as it isn't under my feet!

Sorting, Language, Maths and Puzzle activities.

 The books on top of the shelves are for our artist and composer of the month. I have also hung an art print in the hall at Nikki-height, which I'll change once or twice a month.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish the Practical Life/Art shelves in the kitchen...

Linking up to Montessori Mondays

Sorting Fruit

I saw this ice cube tray in a charity shop the other week and instantly thought Nikki has miniature fruits exactly that size!

Set-up for transferring fruits with tweezers

Well, I was mostly right - the bananas, which were a small bunch in my mind's eye, are single and long and don't quite fit in the tray...

Nevertheless, Nikki loves this new game and will sort his fruit for ages. He especially enjoys putting them in the wrong place, pestering me to look at what he's done and then shouting "Oh No!" or "Don't be silly!"

What's on the Tray Wednesday

Here are this week's tray activities:

Fine Motor - Tweezing Pompoms and Spooning Buttons

Our first fine motor tray this week is Tweezing Pompoms. This is a great challenge for Nicholas - he hasn't done a lot of tweezing as he has struggled with holding the tweezers tight enough for more than a second or two (and he has broken the two sets of easy tongs I bought for him...) but I thought he might be ready to try again. I was right - when I presented this tray to him, he struggled for about ten seconds before getting the hang of it and flying through all the pompoms in minutes!

colour matching with pompoms

 
He can also practice matching colours as there are two of each pompom which can be nicely paired up in the ice cube tray.


Our second fine motor tray - Spooning Buttons. Nikki is fairly expert at spooning, so I added the challenge of a clip-lock box that he has to open first. He also has to try to spoon only one button at a time...

The small measuring spoon fits the buttons perfectly!

Maths

I finally caved and bought the Melissa and Doug pattern board set. It is expensive, but worth it! We are using this to practice shapes, puzzles and colours all at the same time!

Language

Daddy bought Nicholas this lovely set of alphabet cards which we can write on. We are using them to practice reading and writing Russian letters. Also in the box is a set of English letter cards which, although smaller, serve exactly the same purpose.

Dry-wipe flashcards for Russian fun!

We also have our Kumon pre-writing exercises, which are almost being used the way the book intends now - rather than the background to multiple circles!

Music

This week we have a new activity! Nicholas was given this lovely set of sound balls by his father - there are four pairs of sound (I am guessing salt, rice, beans and a nut) and you have to listen carefully to find the pairs. Nikki doesn't quite get it yet, but has great fun shaking the balls and following my lead! 

Sound shaker balls - each big one pairs with a small one.

I'm linking up to H is for Homeschooling and Montessori Mondays