Insects- infinitely interesting

Here's what we found in the garden today. The dragon fly was drying out after a typical Malaysian downpour!

Garden Update

Basil Seedlings in a converted milk carton

Basil seedlings in an old sprite bottle

Zucchini seedlings in an old milk bottle

A few weeks ago I showed some reused items that I had created pots out of here. Above are some pictures of the seedlings that have sprouted. Proving that another mans junk truly can be another's treasure.

Self care-an important life skill

Part of the Montessori tradition is learning to take care of yourself and your surroundings. Its never to early to learn to tidy up and to help at home. Here are some pictures of Betty working in the garden! She enjoys working with her shovel and sweeping. If you want to have a go, remember to try and provide scaled down models of the items that you want your children to use.

Tomato's are a ripening

Today when we looked out of the window, Betty and I noticed that the tomatoes from a few weeks ago are almost ready... sadly we also have a terrible infestation of white ash fly... so the tomato plants will not be with us long I fear. All part of the circle of life... happy Wednesday!

Eat dirt!

Ahh Monday again and some time was spent in the garden this weekend as well as making gingerbread. Kids learn so much from the garden including what dirt tastes like! Getting an opportunity to work with the concrete items in the garden is an important learning experience that allows kids to develop an interest in the environment and an understanding of where their food comes from. So don't worry about the germs and the dirt and get out there!

Gingerbread

Its almost Christmas and time to start making those cookies or at least working ouit which recipe you would like to use. I found an excellent one at http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gingerbread_men_99096. So go on fill your house with the smell of ginger and happiness and make some today.

Pray Mantis' are cool.

Inside

Back in the garden

Having a garden is a great opportunity to study insect life. Today when I went outside to gather herbs I bought in a little friend on the basil... a baby Pray Mantis. Betty was not that impressed!

Then there were two!

The tomatoes in question!

Well,  yesterday when we were in the garden I noticed with joy that there were 2 green cherry tomatoes on one of the bushes that I grew from a seed.  These tomato plants have cost me nothing more then water and time! I just squeezed the tomato seeds onto the soil and covered lightly. In the tropics it took 4 days for tomato seeds to sprout and about 12 weeks for them to produce these fruit.  So pleased!

Magic Mushrooms

Provided by N Sheridan

Decomposers are a natural and integral part of all terrestrial ecosystems. What better way to illustrate this to kids than to growing your own mushrooms. Mushrooms are fungi they can not photosynesise and make energy from broken down plant material and manure. They reproduce through spore production. Why not try to grow some today! The mushrooms above are portabello and were grown in a pantry!

Gardening cheaply!

I am now using milk containers as pots as a cheap alternative from bought ones. Here is a link to my Permaculture page- where there are pictures. http://mymontessorimusings.blogspot.com/p/permaculture-activities.html

More Cooking!

Well we are back from our holiday and once more enjoying the warmth of Malaysia. Last night as I was surfing the net I found a wonderfully named cooking, cakes and children. There is a monthly challenge to bake and post pictures sounds like lots of fun! We will start today with cooking a Ginger cake. See my page on cooking for the link. Happy Tuesday!

Kitchen fun

Need to make dinner and entertain your toddler? Well its never to soon to introduce your child to the kitchen there are a myriad of things to smell, name and play with. Today Betty was entertained with 3 plastic cups and 5 teaspoons and 3 tablespoons. She investigated the sounds that could be made by banging spoons together, banging cups with the spoons, banging cups together, comparing the size of the spoons, motor skills were practiced by moving the spoons from cup to cup. All in all an entertaining and educational time whilst a quiche was cooked!

Getting dirty!

Well Malaysia is home of the public holiday! Today was a replacement day for Malaysia Day! So today we went into the garden and did some re-potting. I purchased some herbs from Carrefore  for the sum of 10 RM  each. We got some Peppermint, Dill, Red Basil and Sweet Basil.  Betty had a wonderful time with the dirt. She moved the dirt from one pot to another, ate some dirt, used a trowel, used a rake and washed her hands. Learning made fun! See my page on Permaculture for more hints on how to use gardening to teach your little one.

Learning doesn't stop just because its the weekend!

Today we went swimming. Betty practiced  jumping off the side into my arms, blowing bubbles in the water, splashing. playing with balls in the water, kicking, riding on Mummy's back, words to use in the pool like water bubbles, cold, warm, wet.

All in all a successful day!

Well I have started! This is my first post about my adventure into Montessori Learning! and as Big Kev would say  (God rest him!) "I am excited!"

I am one term from taking a sabbatical to teach my now 18 month old daughter Betty. I am a teacher, a high school teacher. I have only ever done relief lessons with young children. I love teaching. I love IT and I love finding new things to do to help kids learn.

I have been researching the sorts of things that we will do and due to my uncontrollable excitement I have started now. I am aiming to document what can be done at home with some will and some imagination to give your child the best start in life.

B