pink tower vs. rainbow stacking boxes

As soon as Elise started to show an interest in stacking blocks, I began to debate which of these two materials to buy for our home.  Some may say this is a bit like comparing apples to oranges, but here we go...  

the stats:

the verdict:

The pink tower is a beautiful Montessori material that isolates the quality of size, and prepares children for many mathematical concepts.  No Montessori preschool classroom would be complete without it, but I decided that it wasn't necessary for our home environment - yet!  I ended up purchasing the rainbow stacking boxes because they seemed to offer more opportunities for exploration and play.  While they aren't as precise as the cubes of the pink tower, they can offer a similar experience.  Both materials support the development of visual discrimination, and can be used for matching and language activities.  In addition, the rainbow stacking boxes can be nested together, and can hold or hide small objects.  As E begins to play more imaginatively, the boxes may become houses, nests, or caves. Call me crazy, but these boxes are lovely enough, I can even imagine them holding pencils in E's college dorm room one day!  ;)

Although we love our rainbow nesting boxes, I haven't completely ruled out the idea of buying a pink tower,  too. We'll just have to see where this Montessori homeschooling adventure takes us...

halloween recap

E's first Halloween experience

as a trick-or-treater

was a HUGE success!  ;)

We mostly people-watched and checked out decorations,

but Elise did some actual trick-or-treating, too.

She figured out the routine pretty quickly:

Find the person with candy.

Take a piece.  Drop it in the bucket.

Repeat.

As it turns out, 

Elise LOVES candy.

Ha!

Here are my tips for making a confusing holiday like Halloween fun for a young toddler:

• Try on costumes with friends and family before Halloween.  I set up a costume corner for Elise a couple weeks before Halloween.  She tried on costumes with friends and family, and had lots of fun. She also went to a Halloween party the day before Halloween, and played with other children wearing costumes.  On Halloween night, Elise didn't seem at all surprised or frightened to see people in costumes.  Occasionally, she squealed in delight when she saw someone whose look really struck her fancy!
• Choose a costume that your child can relate to.  Next year, Elise will choose her own costume, but at 15 months, it was up to me and Hubs.  One of Elise's first animal sounds was a monkey, and she always gets really excited when she sees monkeys in books, so "monkey" seemed like a fairly logical costume choice.  
• Include your child in the costume-making/ buying process.  Elise participated in putting together her costume from start to finish.  She went to the craft store to pick out the pattern and supplies, and she tried on the costume as my mom and I sewed.  If you're buying a costume, invite your child to go shopping with you, and if possible, let them try on costumes in the store to check fit and style. 
• Give your child time to get used to wearing the costume.  As soon as Elise's costume was finished, it was available for her to wear throughout the day for a week or so before Halloween.  By the time the big day rolled around, it was covered in food (!), but she was also really comfortable wearing it.
• Look at Halloween decorations in the daylight.  Not all Halloween decorations are as cute as my owls!  On Halloween morning, Elise and I walked our trick-or-treating route, and watched people putting up decorations.  Many of our neighbors explained to Elise what they were doing, and invited her to come by to trick-or-treat that night.  I was also able to see which houses would be too scary to walk by in the dark (i.e. the house with zombies crawling out of the yard).  
• Take your time packing up the decor.  This applies to all holidays!  As an adult, I'm usually ready to put away the holiday the day after it's done, but I learned as a teacher, it's better for kiddos to do it gradually.  There's so much build-up before a holiday; putting things away over the course of a week can prevent children from feeling totally letdown.  Elise is still playing in her costume corner, and our jack-o-lantern is smiling at us from the nature table in our living room.  

Do you have any Halloween tips?  I'm looking for some suggestions on what to do about all that candy - scary!  It was out-of-sight, out-of-mind this year for Elise, but I have no idea how we'll approach the sugar rush next year...

Happy Halloween!

Happy

Halloween!!!

Hope your day is sweet and spooky!  

paper bag owls

This Halloween decoration was inspired by my 15-month-old daughter's love of owls.  I made these owls during her afternoon nap, and surprised her when she woke up!  Elise helps me with most projects, but this one seemed more appropriate for a slightly older child. 

materials

• paper bags (large owl is a leaf bag, small owls are gift bags with the handles cut off)
• leaves
• masking tape
• paint/markers
• glue
• wall bumpers (large owl eyes)
• ping pong balls (small owl eyes)
• sharpie 
• x-acto knife/scissors
• orange card stock

1. Fill bags with leaves, pressing down every so often to make compact.  (We live in a windy place, so I put large rocks in the bottoms of my bags first to keep them from blowing over.)
2. Tape the top of the bag closed, shaping the sides into "ears."  I used painter's tape, but masking tape would be ideal.  (see above photo)
3. If your bag has writing on it, you'll probably want to paint over it.  I used spray paint to paint the large owl I made from the leaf bag.  I didn't paint my small owls because I made them with plain bags.
4. Use paint or markers to add details like feathers, wings, etc.   I used a black sharpie for the details on the white owl.  I used white paint on the other two owls.
5. Draw pupils on wall bumper and ping pong ball eyes with a sharpie.  I used double-sided tape to attach wall bumper eyes to the large owl.  The ping pong ball eyes were a little trickier to attach.  First, I cut ping pong ball sized X's with an x-acto knife where I wanted the eyes to be on the owls.  Then, I applied glue to the backs of the ping pong balls and pressed them into the X's.  
6. Cut triangles out of orange card stock for the beaks, folding down the center to add dimension.  Use glue to attach beaks to the owls. 
7. Done!  Give your finished owls a kiss - that's what Elise does.  ;)

Hoo Hoo's excited for Halloween?!?!!!!

"I spy" tub

"I spy with my little eye..."

Halloween treasures hidden in a tub of leaves!

Elise has enjoyed digging through this tub of leaves to discover

ornamental gourds, a rat, a bat, a carnival squash, and a snake.

A few reasons why I think this "I spy" activity is great...

• It offers lots of language opportunities.  Elise is just beginning to say words, so I mostly just name the objects.  As she becomes more confident with the items in the tub, I've been challenging her to "spy" certain items (I never ask her to find something if I'm not completely sure she knows what I'm talking about, though.).  An older child could look for items of a certain color, beginning sound, texture, etc.   
• It provides a sensory experience.  Just digging through the leaves alone activates the senses!  I also tried to select objects with a variety of textures, so they would feel different from the leaves and each other.  Elise has been using her sense of sight to find most of the objects, but an older child might enjoy closing his or her eyes or wearing a blindfold to "see with the hands" instead.
• It reinforces object permanence.  The first time Elise did this activity, she didn't know what she would find in the leaves.  All the times after (oh, there were many more times!), Elise knew that even though the rat was hidden in the leaves, it was still there.  An older child may be able to recall from memory some or all of the items that have yet to be found.   
• Last, but not least - you can count the objects!  Sometimes, after we've taken everything out of the tub, I count the objects aloud.  I also say things like, "I spy one more thing!" as we look through the leaves.  Once an older child knows how many items there are total, he or she will be able to use addition/subtraction to determine how many objects are still hidden.
• Oh, I thought of one more thing!  I'm not sure about this, but it there has to be something to seeing just part of an object and knowing what the whole is.  For instance, in the top photo, only a small part of the snake is showing, but since you know what the objects are now, you know it's the snake.

Happy Halloween week, friends!  ;)