Another awesome give away.
http://blog.montessoriprintshop.com/2012/07/13/the-animal-kingdom-bundle---giveaway.aspx
Good Luck!

Wet Pouring
We moved on to wet pouring this month. It's nice and hot outside so any spills will quickly dry. I added 1 drop of blue food coloring to 1/4 cup of water, just to make it even more inviting.

In May I put out a flower shaped ice cube tray with one yellow pom pom that fit in each flower.  She used her fingers to pinch the pom poms out and then put them back.  This month I put blue pom poms into a starfish shaped ice cube tray. I increased the level of the skill by adding tweezers for her to use to pick up the pom poms.

Since June is beach weather I decided on a beach theme this month.  It only took Gosling a few minutes to find the new box full of sea shells, star fish and coral.  She takes them out, one by one, investigating as she goes, then she puts them back in the box.  These are real items so being gentle was something for us to work on. Her favorite item is the star fish, partly because she knows it's name and partly because it feels so neat.

I saw this on Facebook this morning.  I've decided I'm going to hang it in our home school room as a reminder to me more than as a reminder to the girls.

Edible Rosary

I saw this on someone else's blog this morning and had to share. It's made of raisins and grapes with a cookie cross of course. The blog is called Catholic Icing and the owner said that her sister, Stephanie, made these. Funny that her sister is Stephanie. I saw that as a sign! I will be doing this in the future.

Knobbed Cylinders Teach About Size

I introduced Gosling to a new Montessori activity today. It is called "knobbed cylinders."  It was designed for the study of size. The knobs at the top of the cylinders allow for her to practice the "pincher grasp" which she will need later for writing.  There are 4 blocks of knobbed cylinders.  I started with the easiest one. (I am also using the "toddler sized" version.)  There are 5 cylinders in the first block, each is has different diameter but the same length.  They are set in order from largest to smallest or vice versa. I modeled for her how to remove each of the cylinders and place them above the block.  After taking all 5 cylinders out, I modeled how to put all 5 cylinders back in, pinching each one by the knob and placing it back in the correct hole in the block.