Friday, March 18, 2011

The Montessori Experience

I have been taking my 22 month old son to a Montessori Playgroup, we both love it, I enjoy actually going with him because as a working Mum you dont always get to do those things so at the moment it feels really special. It's really lots of hands on stuff, puzzles, wooden box's with drawers and doors and slots, touch and feel/sensory type activities combined with everyday life. We set the table when we want to have our morning tea and then we wash our plate and cutlery, we water the pot plant (A LOT!) we sweep the floor if someone else makes a mess (well thats Bob, he is a bit of a clean freak, he watches over other mummies while they clean up, sort of in a supervisor type roll.....exactly what Poppy would do so we will blame Poppy for that gene because I dont think I have it) We use spoons to transfer things from one bowl to another, the same with tongs and pegs and thread pipe cleaners with beads and then put them into tiny holes like a flower arrangement, All the tiny motor skills that we all need to learn for other things in life.

Me being the hands on lets jump in with both feet and put our necks over the finishing line have also offered my skills as a "Make it Mum", Im the Mum who gets and idea and then has to make it, some ideas are also planted as a seed and then I grow it into something for Playgroup, I have made lots of felt food, and plenty of bean bags in just about every colour and texture, its been fun. Then came some number bags, they were a whole different story, I loved making the bags and sewing on pretty hand cut felt numbers but hated sewing on the buttons but thats a whole other blooper story. (Thats the nicest thing I have to say about those buttons, oh and "Thanks Inna for your input")
Then I was given the task of making a birthday blanket, didnt really have a clue what I was doing or what it should look like but it turned out ok in the end. The birthday blanket I believe has a lot to do with the sun and the world and the creation of yourself, not 100% sure on that because I havnt seen it in action and I havnt had a break from sewing to actually study the reason but anyway that mission was also completed with a certain satisfaction and a tick of approval from our Montessori Guru.
Anyway here are the photos of some of the things I have created in the last few weeks for Playgroup.

My creation, a simple pocket quilt with different openings on the pockets, a toggle, a button and a velcro
Each pocket is also a primary colour with a matching coloured object inside which can then be hung on the appropriate coloured buttons at the bottom


Some of the things that go in the pockets


Some of the items hanging on the correct colour button


The 4 different steps in making some dry felt easter eggs


The finished eggs ready and waiting in their carton for easter


"The Funky Chicken" also adapted from a idea of a Thanksgiving Turkey that had button on tail feathers


My Funky Chicken has different coloured feathers glued onto pegs so the child colour matches the tail feathers and using the pegs prepares them for holding a pen (but dont quote me on that, I only make the things, I dont teach montessori) Also this chicken has some magic coloured eggs because you never know when you might need a magic egg



The Birthday Quilt, featuring the sun and the months of the year


A close up of the months


The unforgettable number counting bags
Quite pretty really but quite a project


Some peas I made with beads inside so it feels like there are real peas growing in the pods
I picture them with a bowl of green beads to represent peas but have not seen them in action yet
I loved them because they are very life like


The bean bag mat-bag, this will go with all the bean bags I have made
There is one spot for each matching beanbag
As the kids get older they can reach into the bag without looking and try to find the matching bag just by texture-feel
Sounds like fun to me

Some yummy Strawberries


Some tasty carrots
Good enough for a rabbit to eat


Six little green apples all on a plate

Just a small taste of the things I have been making for playgroup, also in the production line is some felt fried eggs, one down and five to go. And the weekend will be for painting some tiny picket fences onto some wooden blocks for next terms farm life activities. No doubt there will be more masterpieces to come but right now its bedtime.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Bib's & Blankies

This particular post is for Tama who now has a baby all of her own, its the easiest way of showing her lots of photo's with least amount of fuss and for other readers I make bibs and blankies because I just cant find nice bibs for my own kids, they are either too expensive or rubbish quality, this is why us crafty mothers make our own, of course I had so much fun making them that I couldnt stop. I confess I love fabric, I love the colours and the textures, I love what they can morf into, I love to create beautifull things and sometimes I create usefull things. I started making these particular bibs for my baby "Esther" but there are so many lovely fabrics that I just couldnt stop so I decided to make some for her and sell the rest at the new"Mini Me Market".
I also have a little boy and I know how hard it is to get nice things for little boys so everytime I saw a nice boy fabric I also turned that into bibs or blankies. They must have been well liked because a lot of the boy bibs just sold out. This wasnt the case for blankies but to be honest our table was quite small and there were a lot of things on there and they were just not displayed as good as they should have been anyway here are the photo's of what I have left.



this is a small selection of what I made

3 different looking bibs all from the same fabric

Front & back


All of the above bibs are $5.00 each

Red spots & stars pram blankie $15.00
the stars are polar fleece and the spots is a cotton

Boy's airoplane blankie $5.00
Planes are polar fleece & robots on the reverse side is flanelette

Dinosour Blankie
Dinosours in polar fleece and robots in flanalette $5.00

Polar fleece dinosours & flanalette airoplanes $5.00

Girls polar fleece & cotton Elephants $10.00

A close up of the reverse side fabric

Monkey Blankie $15.00
Moneys are in a fine corderoy and the back in polar fleece

Elephant/stripe blankie $10.00
Polar fleece elephants and flanelette stripe