While the holiday season should be a time of joy and fun family activities, it’s also a time of year when it’s easy to feel totally overwhelmed. Finding your family’s rhythm and creating Montessori-inspired activity trays can help. With activity trays, you’re less likely to feel you need a new craft each day. If you…
I’m excited about a kids’ art-appreciation movement that’s online. While I always loved Montessori-inspired art appreciation, many of us Montessorians don’t follow up by intentionally encouraging children to create in the style or technique of a particular artist. Today is Pablo Picasso’s birthday (born October 25, 1881). What a great day to focus on art…
September is a great month to focus on playdough. National Play-Doh Day is celebrated either September 16 or September 18 (Celebrate National Play-Doh Day in September by Meghan Ross at Examiner). While playdough isn’t an activity that’s typically associated with Montessori, you’ll find playdough in most Montessori schools and homeschools. You can use Montessori principles…
Although this isn’t a traditional Montessori activity, I love the idea of Montessori-inspired food art for fun, creativity, and encouraging healthy eating. Montessori-inspired food art can be as simple or as complex as you and your child or students wish. It can be used as a creative activity in some form at any age. Montessori-Inspired…
Even though I’m definitely drawing/painting-challenged, art appreciation is one of my favorite subjects to teach. Montessori education has wonderful ideas and resources for helping children develop an appreciation of art from the earliest age. Montessori principles encourage parents to expose children to fine art from birth on. Dr. Montessori wanted parents and teachers to provide…
Cutting is an important, yet difficult, skill for preschoolers. It’s helpful to have a Montessori-inspired paper cutting activity available to encourage your preschooler’s mastery of cutting. Here are some helpful Montessori-inspired resources from around the blogosphere: Cutting with Scissors Information: Andrea Coventry has helpful information in a post on Montessori Preschool Guide to Cutting at…
My kids had lots of fun with their first experiences taking photos on family vacations. Family vacations are great for photos. But with digital photography, there isn’t any reason kids can’t be allowed to take photos whenever they wish from preschool age onward. Choosing a Camera Typically, at age 3, a child is ready to…
You can turn many Valentine’s Day craft ideas into Montessori-oriented activities. Not only will your child have a chance to repeat the activity as often as he or she wishes, but you will give your child extra opportunities to develop important skills. Giving your child a chance to repeat activities is especially important when your…
Most Christmas crafts – and other crafts throughout the year – can be turned into Montessori-oriented activities. Your child will often want to repeat activities over and over when working to meet the needs of a sensitive period. By turning a craft into a Montessori activity, you will help your child meet his or her needs for a particular…
What did we do for homeschool art? Considering that our children inherited the genes of two drawing/painting-challenged individuals, my husband and I were lucky to have Montessori principles to give our children an enjoyable – even rewarding – experience with homeschool art. 1. We had an easel with paints available for Will and Christina to…
I'm Deb Chitwood. My header photo models are my children, Christina, at 1 1/2, my son, Will, at 3, and Christina again at 16. Christina is now 22, and Will is 27. Please see the About Me page for more information about my family and me. Please see the About Montessori page for information about Montessori.
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