A comment about comments

I was wondering today, why it is that people hardly leave comments on my blog. I do get a few every now and then usually from the same people. I know that my blog is read by many more people as my counter is going up and I can see I get readers from all over the world.
Comments really help me blog more and at times when I don't get any comments I wonder whether its worth blogging and whether people actually enjoy what I'm sharing. I love to share and I love to know what people think about my blog, activities and ideas. So please if you read my blog, leave a comment it would mean a lot to me. If you have a suggestion, an idea or even a correction to something I have written just let me know. Thank you.

My feather and fan comfort shawl

YES! I finally finished my shawl. I wanted to make it bit bigger however my mum convinced me it was big enough.

I like how the yarn looks in this pattern. I love purple so these shades were just right for me.

I used this free pattern and yes this time I followed a pattern except for a tiny change.

Practice with the tens beads

Recently a child had been working with Seguin Board B and the tens beads. I didn't feel that the child had fully understood the concepts behind this piece of material and so I needed to develop a practice material to allow the child to work further with this material until she was ready to move on.

I came up with the following practice cards. On one side a two digit number is written and on the other side is a picture of beads. The child uses these cards with the tens bead box. The child chooses a card, makes the quantity with the beads and then turns over the card to check if she has the right answer.

Sorry about the second picture [it's not clear], Annabel was playing with the beads and I had to take the picture quickly before she messed up the materials.

I have added the file to my box.net account, feel free to download it and please do leave a comment if you do. I'd love to know how you used the material and whether it worked for you or not. To make it up, print all six pages, then cut out all cards and glue the corresponding cards together and make sure u stick the correct pieces together. Then laminate.

Map work

So what do you need so that the children can absorb maps? Well.... you need the Montessori map puzzle, a labeled control chart and a good reader!

This week Little-N and his new best friend have been working everyday on the puzzle maps. They find a puzzle piece they want to know, find it on the atlas and read out the name. Its amazing that they don't even need me there and they're learning. Sometimes I may choose a few countries and do the three period lesson to teach the names, however it doesn't look like I will need to do that anymore as once a child reads they teach themselves so much without my guidance.

The straw shape activity

To my class I added this straw shape activity that I did with Little-N in the summer holidays. They children loved it and spent hours building things. For this activity to work best you need narrow straws and thick pipe cleaners.

An addition to the family

The other day I and my mum bought a kitten. We have always loved cats and have had many in our lives, however due to moving countries we had to leave our cats behind. This was so hard for me and I miss our cats and especially my cat.

This is Annabel [that's her name for now] she is 8 weeks old and is truly a delightful kitten. She sleeps with me in the bed, plays with Little-N and does all those cute things one would want from a kitten. Having her is a pleasure but its also a pain as it brings back the memories of my cat Remus who is in Egypt, I had to leave him behind when I got divorced and moved back to the UK.

Remus was the sweetest cat ever, he was the son of my mothers pedigree cat and so I had the pleasure of caring for him since his birth. He slept on my head as a kitten, shared my marmite sandwiches and hugged me when ever i needed it. He talked to me in his cat language and we had a connection that was a true gift. He now lives with a friend in Egypt, I cant wait to see him when i visit.

The sun game

Today the children learnt about the importance of the sun through playing the Sun Game. In this activity the children place pictures of plants and animals around the sun. In the basket I have big sun and three sets of cards, set 1 contains 18 pictures of plants including trees, flowers, fruits and vegetables. Set 2 contains 12 pictures of herbivorous animals. Set 3 contains 8 pictures of carnivorous animals. The cards are placed around the sun starting with set one, then set two around that and finally set 3. Each set is colour coded. I also have a forth set that i didn't introduce yet this includes animals that are omnivores. This activity is the first step to introducing the food chain, which they will take in more detail later on.

The file is available here, feel free to download it and please leave a comment if you do.