some montessori schooling & scissors

Last I visited with my awesome sis, she showed me around her new work areas at the school she teaches. It's a Montessori pre-k school (or whatever they're called) and I was amazed at how much stuff they had.

Lately, I've been getting overwhelmed just thinking in my head how I can be helping Andrew learn more and more, and if he's progressing enough and all those mother-y things that one does...

It's not good for me, I freak out when I hear other 3 year olds speaking longer and better words than he does, but then I smile smugly when I know they can't pee by themselves...'cause you know, Andrew can. 

So all this stuff has me spinning out of control of how to teach him and he's ONLY 3.5 years, I mean he's got the rest of his life to learn, right? But gotta get on a move-on in life....

This fall, I will be enrolling him in pre-k and hopefully not taking him out (like we did last October). I could not bear that, he loved going to his school for the short month he attended, he still asks if he can go to school, it tears my heart into little pieces when I tell him "Not yet, love."

So my sister's classroom is full of activities kids can do to practice on their concentration, their motor skills, and yadda yadda. I promise, she can tell you the better story and I'm just ruining it for you all, but really, it was amazing how much stuff they had there. Andrew would have a seizure if he were left unsupervised in that school house. 

Their areas look likes this:

source

Neat, colorful, and organized. One of the activities that my sister recommended was pouring objects/liquids into containers of different sizes. Having them repeat the task over and over. 

They can use beads, rice, sand, water, anything that's pour-able and have a blast doing it.

Now, I've never been a fan of little trinkets or knick knacks, mostly because they have no purpose other than to look pretty on a shelf. But my sis convinced me that if I ever went thrifting, to grab little things that Andrew could play with and learn from.

So I did.

And they're ceramic and white, and he fell in love with them at first sight.

 As soon as we arrived home from good ole Goodwill, Andrew knew that he was going to get to play with them. He said, "I wan TEAAA!" I really don't know what they're called so we're gonna go with tea pitchers, mkay?!

So I got his 'station' all set up, and he began pouring. 

Pour, pour, spill, spill more, pour, pour.

 I even encouraged the use of a funnel...dunno if that was smart come to think of it.

Every time he would pour stuff, he would hunch down and say "waaattteeeerrrrrr" in a very Frankensteinian way...sorta creepy. But when he knew I was recording, he didn't want anything to do with it and frankly, I hate being interrupted as well so I just let him be.

{Sorry it's so dark, when I upload to youtube/blogger, it makes it darker than it actually is}

Brother was SUPER upset that he couldn't get to the water....

You ask, "what's wrong with his face?" Well, I'll tell you. He rolled down some cement steps and scraped his face off. And the other stuff was chocolate cookies. Yeah, I know, I'm a terrific mom.

Some time this past week, I encountered Jonah's first piece of furniture art:

What? It wasn't me, says he.

 I used Clickin' Mom's Amethyst Lightroom filter.

Andrew also had his first scissor test. I tried showing him to follow the line, but he had other plans. 

It was obviously to make Valentine's Day confetti!!!....all over my floor.

The great thing is that he was learning his shapes while cutting it all up. He correctly stated he had cut up a 'triangle'. I guess this whole teaching thing sticks!

I gave the hubs his early V-day present...and wrapped it all pretty for him.

He ate all his cookies like the cookie monster, and then preceded to watch his movies that I gifted with extreme pleasure.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S ERRRBODY!