MaMaws' Montessori

 Getting presents is always good fun, especially when you can make 'em educational!!! As you observe: What do you see... Shapes? Colors? Letters? If you participate at home: What do you feel... What sticks? What floats? Where is slippery? Here is an idea that literally popped in my head while in the tub. Foam alphabet letters from Amazon and Crayola toddler crayons can help parents and caregivers get that quick 10 minute lesson in before the fun begins. What you don't see is us tracing the letters in shaving cream. You don't hear the giggles as he explored how the shaving cream smears, sticks, and ultimately dissolves. You dont feel the elation as we discover that we can, then use them as stamps.  Finally, you  also don't see all the drawings on the tub walls, a perfecto opportunity to have a splish splash clean up party. (Hint, the foams letters work great as a mock sponge!) Yes, it takes time. Yes, it takes moneies. And, yes, it also takes a lot of effort. Butt,  i...

  TO SEE RESULTS, CLICK HERE:   Pour and Explore: Day 2 What is it?         Pour and Explore  is how Montessori Maws' do sensory play.  What is sensory play? Lets do some research! *googles the question* "  Sensory exploration is a  child's way of examining, discovering, categorizing, and making sense of the world, and it's beneficial to provide them with opportunities for  sensory  play."   (Mar 5, 2020   www.verywellfamily.com  › why-sensory-play-is-importa... )        Ok, yes technically everything that you do can be considered sensory exploration, but we as Maws need some time for us to treat ourselves!  So, create a goal that is reasonable to your family (at least once a week) so the time spent can be 100% focused  on the activity.          In our home, with our LO, we try to theme these and spend at least 3 days before we 'exit' the activity.  Yes,...

TO SEE DAY ONE, CLICK HERE:  Pour and Explore: Day 1 The goal:  to create an edible play dough for Outdoor Sensory time.  Last week's rice based 'Pour and Explore' was a hit and I hoped this would have similar results.  After comparing the ingredient list to my pantry, I halved the recipe to mix the following: 1 cup Flour (extra to roll) 1/2 cup Salt 1/2 cup Water (extra to sight) I decided to go from basic to extra and add in a bit of food coloring and flavoring; seeing as how we only has yellow available, the lemon flavoring/scent was the only real choice. How to: Check our our page for full instructions: https://mamawsmontessori.blogspot.com/p/diy-play-dough.html The Results: So, we successfully created the dough and placed it in the activity we still had going from the day before; (Pour and Explore: Puff Rice Edition) and it seemed to fit in quite well!  I have "heard' you can create shapes with the dough and through it in the oven @ 200 until hard, but...

****************************** ****************** Ok yall, disclaimer alert!  I know this blog has been all over the place; however, from here on out I will be focusing A-LOT on parenting and brain/baby development.  If this is going to be weird for you, or make you feel uncomfortable, please feel free to find another blog.  If you decide to stay, thank you for your support! ❣ ****************************** ****************** If you have been around, you know how much time we (B and I) have been spending on research… Research about WHAT you ask?  Well, about… -            Parenting strategies,  -            Sleeping options, -            Bottle vs breast feeding, -            To sleep train or not, -      ...