The metal insets are an important part of the Montessori 3-6 curriculum, and one of the most visible in my mind. When you walk into a classroom, they really stand out. They are beautiful and inviting and inspire creativity. The youngest children don’t bring home much to show for the work they do in the classroom (expect maybe some cutting or gluing or painting). Learning the letters’ sounds, exploring the geometic solids, or learning to do practical life exercises (spooning, pouring) does not make something to bring home. But the metal insets do.

So I was surprised and pleased recently to see the first evidence of C’s work with the Montessori materials. I’m sure he does lots of important work everyday, but these metal inset tracings are the first tangible products he’s brought home. I was so excited!

Katy(posted on Dec 7, 2006 at 12:30 pm)

C has recently enjoyed pulling all the sofa cushions off the sofa and rolling around on them. He had sandwiched himself cutely and peeked at me a little bit.

Katy(posted on Nov 13, 2006 at 9:40 pm)

C has had The Big Red Barn memorized for over a year. Ruby is starting, also. This series of movies show Ruby and Chris reading the book, with C filling in the blanks as he does his own work near them.

Katy(posted on Nov 16, 2006 at 11:30 pm)

This was the first knot that C has ever tied! (Ok, it’s the second. He untied the first before I got the camera.)

Katy(posted on Oct 24, 2006 at 10:27 am)

Lauren was with the children this evening, because Chris and I were at our Norwegian class. They were having pasta for dinner, and Lauren taught C how to twirl his pasta on a spoon.

Katy(posted on Nov 13, 2006 at 9:38 pm)

A couple pictures of me with the children. We set up the timer after dinner.

Katy(posted on Nov 17, 2006 at 2:09 pm)

Ok, this picture is a little weird at first blush. I was helping Ruby go potty after lunch, and sometimes she likes to hold onto me when she’s sitting on the potty. We don’t have a potty seat and I don’t think she always likes how far her little bum dangles into the bowl. Anyway, I’m sitting there waiting for her to be done and she’s got her head down on my shoulder. Then I noticed how slow and regular her breathing was… she’d falled asleep! Add this one to the list of funny places to fall asleep… (Grandma Susie’s funniest is while playing the guitar; my funniest was while riding a bike!)

Katy(posted on Nov 13, 2006 at 9:59 pm)

Chris and the kids cuddled up cutely on the sofa to look at a book.

Katy(posted on Nov 13, 2006 at 9:51 pm)

The weather was truly beautiful this weekend. And it was clear that this would be the last nice weekend for a while… winter is descending quickly! We made the trek out to the forest again, and visited some new trails. C found the very last blueberry in all of the forest. He said it tasted good.

Katy(posted on Oct 16, 2006 at 11:30 pm)

A short little movie of Ruby being moderately cute. Ruby sits with Mojo Jojo and rocks him. She says “Jojo” and “song”. And you can hear C in the background.

As the only thing I did with the camera this week, this will have the be the Sunday Picture…

The weather is getting chillier and the leaves are beginning to turn. We are enjoying exploring the cycling of the seasons with C.

We started the No Nap experiment with C. I’m skeptical about whether he’s ready — he’s not even 3 ½ yet — but the other children all stay at school until 4 with no nap. I’ve been picking him up early and bringin him home to nap, but it seems right that he should be on their schedule if he can, and the teachers suggested we give it a try again (first attempt failed sleepily). So I continued to pick C up early, but brought him home for no-nap and observation. In general he’d get very grumpy and tired around dinner and collapse into bed at 7. Not great, in my opinion. But I think next week we’ll try C staying at school all afternoon.

Chris and I had been taking the new Norwegian class at Opera together, but since Lauren started her job this week and the schedules interfere, we will have to split up. I stayed in the more advanced class and Chris tried the beginning class. The classes have such a wide range of abilities, it’s hard to pick where we fit in. I’m staying in the advanced class, though I am clearly of the lowest ability. Everyone is patient with me :).

Game Night Wednesday saw our newest recruits, Christian and Davisha. It was a big group (with Johannes, Alan, and Arne Martin), but we had fun playing Ricochet Robots and then Mystery of the Abbey.

When I picked C up from school this Thursday, I saw him playing with a group of the other children and running around and being very active. This is a bit of a change — usually he is sitting in the sandbox by himself or near other children but not really engaged with them. I hope this signals a turning point in his relationship to the community, and that he can become more active in it. He seems to be laying good foundations for his Norwegian. He’s come home asking about lots of words, like “ikke for deg” (“not for you”), “ikke gjør det” (“don’t do that”), “bra” (“good”), and “takk for maten” (“thanks for the food” — a traditional thing to say at mealtime). Ruby has started branching out to two words in the last couple of week, and more strongly this week. “Let go” was her new phrase this week, pronounced very clearly.

In other news: Lauren started her new nanny job. And we got the French translation of Chris’s book this week. Looks fancy!

Katy(posted on Nov 13, 2006 at 9:49 pm)