I saw this.....

And then I saw this....... I knew it had to be bad. I cleaned some of it up before I took the picture. The phone rang, and the two year old had glue everywhere!

This is one of our new baby kittens. They don't even have their eyes open yet. This is the kind of "school" that I like. They learn sooo much from just observing nature.

This is Big A doing her phonogram booklets. Surprisingly, she enjoyed these! She worked on this for about 30 minutes and then decided to move to something else. They are very simple to make. You just make up a little booklet with 3 or four pages and write a phonogram on the outside. The child then has to think of words that have that phonogram in them and give a try at spelling it in the book. If they get it wrong, make a note of it and incorporate it in another lesson.

This is little A, doing her color matching cards from http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com I love this little store. We will be utilizing lots from her.

I got these wonderful manipulatives at Childcareland.com. They were quite challenging at first becasue she not only had to match the color, but the number of shapes as well. Visit my lovely links in the side bar to get these! They're free!

I got this idea from Chasing Cherrios! She called it "Muffin tin Monday". This was a big hit! I had chocolate rice cakes, carrot curls with raisins, mandarin oranges, nuts, and cheese and cracker. A ate her cheese before I could snap the picture. The idea behind this, at least for us, is that I make up these trays and put them on their montessori shelves and by the end of the day they have to have eaten everything in the cups. This way I know they are getting part of their daily 4.... or five of the food pyramid. How many are there now? I really wish they wouldn't change that stuff! I still haven't gotten used to the fact that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. My husband and I were discussing how to change the mneumonic, last night. What do you say?.... "My new machine just showed us nine....what" We finally decided to just say " Mynew machine just showed us ....nothing." Cheap machine. hee hee.

First "Official" day of montessori school!

No, this is not how we started out the day. This is nap time. The girls usually fight me on this one, but for some reason, when you go out and buy two 8 dollar plastic mats, and put them on a hard floor with their pillows, it becomes "fun"...not just a "nap"! go figure? Anyways, this is my favorite time of the day! heeheheee .... well, not really.....most days.

Montessori Activities

This is A showing of her nature collection! She found pinecones, pine needles, leaves , acorns and small pine and oak trees! We had just spent the morning reading about all of these!

Do you have a basement full of old baby food jars, just waiting to be used? We used 4 for color mixing. A used a dropper to then mix the primary colors and get secondary colors! She loves science!

This is A doing an activity from the library. We have an awesome resource room with lots of montessori materials. This box and all the wooden cards would normally cost me about $80! I get it free. I can only keep it a month, but she's usually bored with it by then, anyway

This is a preschool activity that I found online somewhere. I went to Lowes and got some of their FREE paint chips and then bought some of the mini clothespins in the craft section at Walmart. I colored a section of the clothespin to match the colors and A has to clip the clip to the card that it matches! So far she has learned, purple, orange, and yellow!

Well, now for pictures of our montessori adventure! I have gleaned sooooo much from other blogger's who post pics of their montessori activities! My 15 year old told me that I needed a blog so that I could document things and it not take so long! Thanks Ash! Anyways, here is my 1st grader, learning to use the smelling jars! The tray is a Melissa and Doug tray from something that we no longer use and the jars came from a little flea market up the street! They were actually part of a brandnew spice rack ( I gave $4) I filled 6 of the jars with herbs and the other six were their matches. She only missed one on the first try! Then, she wanted to do it again with me!

Children with cancer

I realize that this is not the happiest of topics to begin my blog with, but it is something that has pricked my heart severely in the last two weeks. I, personally, do not know anyone right now, that is battling cancer, but for the past two weeks, I have had a very tiny glimpse into what a parent might go through if they suspect their child has cancer. My 6 year old daughter suddenly developed a chain of lymph nodes up one side of her neck and they have remained painless and quite large for two weeks. ( indicators of Hodgkin's Lymphoma) After reading all the worst case scenarios online, we took her in to the doctor. Unfortunately he couldn't figure out what was wrong, but put her on antibiotics to see if it would help. She has had Lyme Disease twice this summer, so we weren't sure if it wasn't somehow related to this. I have been a basket case for the past two weeks. I have prayed continuously and on a few days, I could hardly function at all. I simply jsut wanted to hold my little girl, color with her, play with her and not let her out of my sight. The thought of my child developing cancer was absolutely heart wrenching. In the end, the antibiotic worked and more than likely she had a simple case of cat scratch disease from one of our cats. God is good and he is merciful. He is the Great Physcian. But, as I tried to move on and glory in the fact that my daughter was well and happy, I couldn't help but think of all those parents whose news was not good. I have prayed many times for these parents and these children whose lives are full of uncertainties, pain, and helplessness. I have no specific names to pray for, but God knows who they are and he will do what is best. Do you know someone who has cancer? Do you have cancer? If so, post your story. What have I learned from the past two weeks?....Life is short. We are not in control, God is. We are all appointed to death eventually. No matter our circumstance, sick or healthy, poor or wealthy, we all need God's forgiveness and we only get that through following and trusting in his son Jesus. Do you know him? Are you ready when your time comes? And lastly, I have learned that children are beautiful. They are gifts from God, each with an eternal purpose that only God knows. They should be wanted, loved, and respected as the God-given rewards that they are. ( Psalm 127:3).

Hello and Welcome to Pride and Joy Montessori

This is my attempt at starting a blog. I am a stay at home mom, who loves her kiddos and I needed a way to journal that would be easy. I love to take pictures so there will be plenty of those on the site. I also have the desire to help other SAHMs who are teaching their children at home and who are interested in the montessori style learning environment. I completed two years of college and as a part of those two years, I had the chance to observe at a montessori school. I have since rediscovered this style of learning and have decided to teach my 2 1/2 year old and 6 1/2 year old in this way. I will be posting pictures each day of our activities and I hope they will help and inspire you in your efforts as well.