Making your own Montessori materials

[happymomof5]

In one of my posts i mentioned about making my own Montessori materials & had a few PMs asking for ideas.
There are a whole lot of things for sale & it can get very overwhelming to decide what is right for your baby & how to pay for it all, as prices are exuberant!
Through my 15 years of teaching & homeschooling my own children, I can tell you one thing, simple is best. You do not need everything on the market, your baby will not be disadvantaged if you don't get everything & you can make many theaching materials on your own.
I love Montessori. It's a very beautiful way to teach our children, it opens amazing doors of discoveries & development for our kids. But to buy all of their stuff is unreal!!!!
But it is real to have a Montessori classroom in your home. For one, the stacking cups, puzzles, & many other toys do not have to bear the name Montessori, they can be any simple brand stacking cups! I also feel many things, like tieing shoe laces, for example, do not need to be a complicated process, just practice it naturally.
Here are a couple of things I did very easily & almost for free for my teaching.
1. sandpaper alphabet - cut letters out of medium/fine sandpaper & glue them on cardstock with white glue. Get daddy/grandparents/older kids, etc. involved in cutting & gluing - you'll save of time.
2. sound shakers - collect vitamin jars, baby food jars, any containers you get regularly the same of. Pour the same amount of rice into two, beans into two, flour into two, sugar, salt, etc. & close them tightly. The child, by shaking & listening to the sounds has to find pairs.
3. The same as 2., but with different smells - child can do blindfolded; different weights, etc.
4. Pouring practice - just use anything you have in the kitchen: spoons & bowls, your regular table pitchers (safer to have plastic ones, they're super cheap in supermarkets), your regular tray. They can pour or spoon from one container into another water, beans of different sizes, etc. Actually, just have you little one work with you in the kitchen (SAFELY!!!) & he'll get all the cutting, pouring, wiping practice he needs.
5. Shoe lacing, button buttoning, zipper zipping - for one, just let your little one try it when he's getting himself dressed, etc. But if you want, the "frames" can be made very easily bu either sawing zippers/buttons etc. on cloth & getting daddy to make a thin simple frame to attach them on, or cutting out from the old clothes parts that have those things & attaching them to simple wooden frames. For sawing practice - cut out an item your little one likes (flowers, dollies, etc. for girls, cars for boys), try to make it colorful, cover with contact paper on both sides. use a hole punch to make holes around the perimeter & let your baby poke in & out with a shoelace.
Hope these help. Please also share your ideas of how to create different materials for teaching & developing our children, i Love news ideas & you, amazing creative people sure have a lot of them!
looking forward to hearing from you

[happymomof5]

Oh, I just came across this book that inspired me many years ago & where I got many of my ideas from, It's terrific, practical, interesting1 I really recommend it! I had a very old one before & now couldn't remember the name & authors, but just came across it browsing a homeschooling curriculum site. I didn't even know it was in print any more! They also used to have one for elementary school. Pls let me know if you find that one!
Teaching Montessori in the Home
Pre-School Years
by Elizabeth G. Hainstock, Lee Havis
The author also gives instructions for making many of the Montessori materials at home, with common household items or easy-to-obtain craft supplies.

[PY]

I love the ideas,Thanks for sharing with us, I will definitly read the book.
karma to you.
 

[kizudo]

Thanks HappyMomof5!

I was one of your PMers   I appreciate the ideas.

I've been doing other fine motor activities with my son, but I always appreciate new ideas. 

Regarding the POURING suggestions, I bought a bag of pompoms at the dollar store a while back and my son loves scooping these out with a gravy ladle. He pours them into ice-cube trays, glass jars of various shapes & sizes, an empty tissue box, his dumptruck...and an extra perk on those days when mommy isn't at her best, it's completely soundless - other than a few giggles as he works!

I also bought some little tong thingies at the dollarstore.  When he's ready for that challenge the pompoms will be great to practice with.

By the way, I visited a local mom who is starting up a Montessori-style school.  I saw all of her stuff and there is no way I'm going to buy a $500 puzzle for my son.  But, she declared that some stuff is worth the money and some stuff I could just find at a dollar store or a 2nd hand store.  Then she proceeded to show me all of the stuff she had that was superbly inexpensive.  Since then you wouldn't believe all the cool stuff I've found 2nd hand...tongs, tweezers, gravy "syringes", ladles, garlic press for squeezing mini sponges out, an old chinese checkers board with the little game pieces to put into place, litebrite game, sorting trays, carrying trays, beads for beading, alphabet game pieces like Scrabble, alphabet die, pick-up sticks in crazy shapes (wrench, ladder, flagpole, sword, etc), funky thumbtacks, that hanging monkey game, house numbers to put in order, little craft things to pick up and sort...  Once your mind goes to "this place" it's amazing how creative you can be and what you will find.

[PY]

I agree, Sometimes you CAN find some cool stuff in second hand stores, yesterday I bought 20 nice books for my toddler, I paid for each book $0.60, and each 4 books they give you one book free. It amazed me how cheap they are. Everytime we wanted to buy books for Catalina we used to go to bookstores at least for each book will pay $5 to $11. Crazy expensive!! Now I ll go to second hand store  for books and creative stuff..they have really good deals!
In my town we don't really have $1 stores unfortunatly...

[luckymommy1307]

Hi mommies,
Would like to check if anyone of you diy puzzles. I want to do some 2-3 pc puzzles but can't decide if I should just
1 - print out, cut and laminate
2 - print out, glue to cardboard n laminate
3 - print out, cut, laminate and put velco at the back for the child to stick.

Which would be easier for the child to handle?
Thanks!

[howardboys]

When it comes to pouring, my son just showed me his own preference!

He began to point to our cup of pens and now has a great time pouring out the pens and putting them back in the cup...

[Emily Moore]

The Montessori Method has been and is very popular around the world with early childhood professionals and parents. The Montessori approach is designed to support the natural development of children in a well-prepared environment.

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