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.

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

 

Blog Guilt

To blog or not to blog that is my guilt question, I just cant seem to find the time to blog and feel guilty when reading Sara's blog everyday and not blog myself so to my few readers sorry I have nothing to blog about other than what my children have been doing


Esthers first ride in the walker and she loved it

 Much to Bob's disgust, his sister is now the proud owner of a secondhand walker complete with sound effects, now Bob I know that it was ONCE yours but it is now your sisters so hand over the registration papers buddy cause Esther has wheels


Tillie and Lexie helped me build a castle

 I got a $100 voucher from  Target for filling in some online sureys so Bob got this climbing castle for his birthday, I know its not his birthday until May but everyday is your birthday when your that age and he dosnt know when his birthday is anyway so I gave it to him now and Tillie and Lexie were very helpfull when it came to putting it together because there were no instructions. I have cut and shut it since the photos were taken and put a floor in on the secondfloor so Bob can climb up himself and then go across to the slide without much effort. He is loving it and Im sure it will have a lot of use in the years to come.


And Bob loves it




Bob and Esther watching TV together

 Bob hadnt slept all day so when this photo was taken so he was very tired, I think thats why he sat next to his sister for so long. Today seems to be another day of not sleeping, its now 3pm and he is still making silly noises in his bedroom instead of sleeping, I guess I will leave him a bit longer and if he dosnt go quiet I will get him up, he may as well be playing because he is a lot quieter when he is playing and I dont want him to wake his sister up




Grandma's Australia Day Party



Grandma had an Australia Day BBQ at her nursing home so we went along to help her celebrate.





Tillie and Lexie

Two of my beautifull nieces Tillie and Lexie put together a "Shoebox of Love" for the QLD flood victims
An Adelaide based Rotary club organised it all. You just got a shoebox or similar sized container and filled it with nice things to send to a flood victim, they both did one for a girl the same age as themselves, they filled them with coloured pencils, paper, pencil cases, a toy or nice trinkets etc you know the drill, something nice to give to someone who has lost everything, I did a sewing box with scissors, measure tape, needles, pins, buttons etc etc. Two complete truck loads were send over and at this moment are being distributed by another rotary club, we have been following it on Facebook so its been nice to see that something small we did this end has made someone somewhere else very happy and we know they werent just thrown away as rubbish or left in a warehouse somewhere. The three of us had a great time doing them and I hope they are being put to good use.

Stuff I made for Christmas

Ha harrrrr now I can blog about the stuff  I made for christmas. My blog has laid idol as there were a lot off top secret projects going on that just couldnt be spoken about, now the gifts have been given Im free to show pictures.
I made the three youngest nieces a photo board each


This was for Tillie, she picked the fabric
Pink Babushkas of course




This was for Maddie, some lovely ladies dressed with flowers




and my personal favourite went to Lexie

 Glad they are all done as there was quite a bit off work in them and especially having to sew all those buttons. I hope they enjoy them.



Lexie got lucky with the next creation, I adapted a pattern I found in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
I had to hand draw my own pattern  and made her twice as large as she was meant to be, I redesigned her feet from silly felt, flat boots to some lovely big feet with buckle up shoes. I also added a frill to the bottom of her dress and a hand cut flower to embellish her hair.

 and finally I made Kelsey a pin cushion from some reproduction prints I bought to do Esther a quilt but the fabric was so lovely it was just asking to be used. I liked it so much I wanted to keep it myself, I guess I will have to make myself a similar one. Well one day when I get around to it.

Nothing new

Not much crafting gone on over the last couple of days, Princess Whiney has been constipated, I must admit its been terrible for her but I think she is liking all the attention from Mummy and now she is just putting it on so to speak so I drop everything and run to her, waiting and hoping that the little pebble poops make an appearance. I have been giving her brown sugar in water which she is liking a lot and its definatly helping her situation but it dosnt get my crafting done. I know that sounds selfish and mothers arnt meant to be selfish but Im trying to make christmas presents and stuff for the up coming market in February.
I did get a little pair of shorts made for Bob yesterday, Tillie found some very cute jersey fabric in Spotlight on the weekend and I thought it would make a lovely pair of pyjama shorts for Bob, it took me a day to lay the pattern out, a day to cut it up and another day to get it sewn. No Im not a slow sewer but as I said earlier Princess Whiney as she is now known has had a bottom issue, actually so has Bob but at least you dont hear him whinging about it, he is ok now though, just a bad couple of days. Personally I think its the water, the town supply changed to bore water and the water is brown and most of the time smells like sewerage.
Anyway the shorts are done, I changed the pattern a bit as there where four pieces and I adapted it to just two. I hate sewing jersey as I dont have an overlocker and when I started sewing I remembered why I dont like sewing. They turned out ok but I think I will stick to cottons from now on. They are in the wash as we speak so the photo will have to be taken another day.

I do have a couple of promised shots of the baby bunting though

The kids had a bit of a play in the ball pit the other day, well Esther was in there first and Bob just couldnt bare it so he hopped in to, it was pretty funny really. Esther quited enjoyed all the pretty coloured balls and when she layed down Im sure the balls sounded funny on her ears. Bob did a funny jiggy thing on the side, he seems to ride it like a pony, obviously his newest latest trick he has learnt all on his own.



Ohhhhh preddy!




Bob getting jiggy with it




Mum kept putting balls in Bob's shirt