Montessori Preschool on the Range

Last year, I created a bunch of homemade Montessori materials based on Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Pre-School Years (read my recent review here) and then decided not to use most of them. This summer I expanded our materials a bit and am hoping to use them more deliberately this year.

I've scheduled some "preschool" time into each day. So far (and we're in week four now), we spend a little time four days a week with one of the Montessori activities. (On the fifth day, we attend story hour at our local library which includes work on letters and numbers in addition to running around in the gym and a story.) The activities cover a wide range of abilities; some will best challenge First Son, some First Daughter and some Second Daughter. Mostly I work with First Daughter. First Son watches with some interest (and would be welcome to take part if he likes) while Second Daughter entertains herself. I also read one book I pick specifically for the girls. We read a lot of books together, especially ones Second Daughter chooses every time I sit down, because that of course means I'm going to read to her. The ones I count as "preschool" tend to be my favorites, though, like One Morning in Maine (Picture Puffins), Owl Moon and Bear Snores On.

I decided to put together a single post on all the Montessori materials I made so I can find the links myself. Someday I'll look back and either be impressed with all the stuff I made or laugh at myself for dreaming we'd ever use all this stuff!

Here's a list of what I'm planning for our preschool this year:

1. Practical Life Exercises - pouring rice, dusting, folding, washing dishes, setting a table, washing a table, sweeping, lacing, tying, stringing beads, using a dropper, cutting, puzzles, cardboard sewing cards, dressing frames (see the ones my mom and I made here), bottles and tops (see our lovely box here).
2. Early Sensorial Exercises - tower building, fabric basket, button games, rough and smooth boards (see ours here), silence game, walking the line, mystery bag, scent and sound bottles (see ours here), color tablets (see ours here), geometric insets (see ours here), geometric shapes (see ours here), color circles (a few more pictures here).
3. Reading and Writing Exercises - sandpaper letters (I made some last year), command cards (our commands are here), pictures and sounds (see ours here), movable alphabet (see ours here), tracing letters, sticker series (see our sticker pre-reading exercise here).
4. Arithmetic Exercises - number rods (see mine here), spindle box (see ours here), sandpaper numbers (which I made the same way as the letters), tracing numbers, number progression (I just cut up one of our extra hundreds boards like this one), measuring exercises.

Practical Life Exercises and a Call for Advice

Most practical life exercises use what you'd expect - items around the home for learning practical life skills. Oh, it might be nice to have some smaller sized items around (like a small broom) for little ones to use, but for the most part you just teach them with what they have. We did make some dressing frames last year and I plan to use our bottles and tops more, too. I just saved some plastic bottles with different shaped lids and put them together in this box. Fancy, huh?

I'm debating about actually buying a few things for other practical exercises, though. I plan to work with First Son and First Daughter on lacing shoes. (First Son may know how to do that already; I haven't asked him to see.) You can buy or make a dressing frame or little toy for that, but it seems to make sense to me that using a regular shoe will work.

I would also like to teach First Son to tie his own shoes, however. I've looked around a bit because I'd really like some laces that are different colored, to make it easier to see where the different ends are going as he's tying (or as we're showing him how to tie). I can't seem to find any. There are a few books or toys with laces like that, but I really just want the laces. Anyone know where I could find them?

I'm also thinking about buying some eye droppers. It was clear to me during a summer reading program experiment that both First Son and First Daughter could use some practice. There is a science supply store in town that probably carries them, but it's not really close to other places we regularly go. I found some online (here, for example) and they're very inexpensive, but with shipping it seems a little ridiculous. My local hobby store carries them (at least they are in the online store), but they're twice as much. Anyone know of an online store that might have them that offers free shipping? Or with enough cool stuff at good prices I could make a decent sized order?

Buttons, Snaps and Buckles, Oh My!

I've wanted dressing frames for a while. I thought about buying some, but they were surprisingly hard to find and not particularly cheap. Teaching Montessori in the Home: The Pre-School Years presented them like it would be easy to make your own by sewing buttons and such on left-over material, but that seemed way too ambitious for me. I can sew a button on just fine, but I didn't want the hassle of making button holes! I hadn't decided what to do when I happened across this post. I was inspired to make my own because she made it seem pretty simple just using old clothes.

I already had a bunch of old frames at home and I pulled a few baby clothes out. Then, while my mom was in town, we hit Goodwill. I picked up a few belts, some larger frames, and a shirt with big buttons. A few days later, we had these:


It was easy enough to remove the glass and backs from the frames. It was a little more complicated to attach them than I had anticipated. I started with a staple gun, but the staples weren't going into the frames. Kansas Dad bought some brads for the gun, but those didn't go all the way in, either. (You may be able to see where we hammered them down a bit.) The best way I found to attach the clothes to the frames: Aleene's Tacky Glue, which you should be able to find at any superstore or crafts store.

Did you notice the great fish one in the corner?


I bought some hooks at the craft store and my mom sewed them on to scraps from an old pair of jeans. (Thanks, Kansas Dad, for giving up a work pair!) Then she cut the fish from some material we had bought to make mystery bags (worth a post all their own) to make a fun surprise for the kids when they finishing unhooking.

My mom contributed quite a bit since she had brought some frames, paid at Goodwill, and sewed the hooks and eyes for me. I would not have tackled so many without her help. I think we would have been fine with one set of buttons and one set of snaps, but I'm happy to have all the variety. First Daughter loves them, or at least the big button one she can do easily.


Not counting the stuff we already had at home, I think we spent around $7 for all the materials. Once I decided to use the glue, each one took only minutes to put together and a bit of time for the glue to dry. Now, if only I could get First Son to take a crack at those buttons and zipper!