Montessori Enrichment Activities

My kids love choosing electives like the art puzzle above, after their core school learning is done for the day! It's important to give kids the opportunity to learn and explore on their own. It gives them the chance to try out many of the concepts they've learned in their school subjects. Some of our electives include: Exploring art through different mediums and techniques, typing, graphic design, building, researching topics of interest, playing the guitar or ukelele, and more. These are especially great for the older set of kids as too!

What elective options do your children enjoy?

Melted Crayon Art

Source: tekyteach.blogspot.com via Donna on Pinterest

I found this beautiful idea on Pinterest! I just joined and look forward to finding some wonderful ideas in my spare time. It looks like you can do this using a heat gun or blow dryer. You could also probably do this using crayon shavings. Perhaps the child could draw a picture on watercolor paper, carstock, vellum, or make a design on wax paper, and fill it with crayon shavings and then melt away! This looks so fun, I want to try it too!

What do you think?

Creating an Art Studio for Young Children

My daughter creating enjoying some art time.

Euphoria's old blog has a 5 part series of posts on Creating an Art Studio for a Young Child. She's since created a new blog that you can read at Euphoria for Green Mama's.

I love reading about how to set up creative and learning spaces. If you have a covered patio, you might even want to set up a little outdoor art studio with Euphoria's tips and things like colored water spray bottles!

Do you have an art area for your children at home? If you are a teacher, what is your art section like at school?

Kids, Creativity & Careers

Designed by Mr. D

This is a picture designed by my 8, soon to be 9 year old son in Photo Shop. Aside from designing webpages literally on pages of paper, he is facsinated with cooking, building, as well as being positively obssesed with reading anything and everything. I kid you not. He inspects things like cereal to let us know how many grams of sugar, etc.. are in them, and loves reading manuals for putting things together and to see how they work. He's a great kid with a busy mind and definitely keeps me on my toes.

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste"

So true! Yet it seems the norm in today's society is to let our children watch hours of television daily, not to mention playing video games instead of playing outside or exploring their creativity. I'm not saying that I don't let my children have any screen time, I do, but the hours exploring art mediums, reading and playing outside heavily outweigh time in front of the "b-oob tube". Call it a hunch, but I definitely think that allowing children to explore their inner creativity leaves them feeling more fulfilled and helps to prepare them for their future career. What do you think?

If your child is into design, there is a great new website by the creators of the Design Dossiers series called Kids Think Design, which helps children explore various careers in the field of design. From architect to fashion design, you'll find a lot of fun and information at that site. Check it out!

National Gallery of Art for Kids!

My 7 year olds art work

The National Gallery of Art has some absolutely wonderful resources for kids online! The picture above was created on their website by my 7 year old. The NGA has an interactive art zone that children can use like the one used to create the picture above, and it also has some WONDERFUL video tours for kids! We really enjoyed watching The Voyage of Life (1842) by Thomas Cole. They also have a resource section for students and teachers, as well as a material lending program!

Let me know what you think of these resources! We've also got the Child Size Masterpieces collection and the children have really enjoyed those as well. Montessori Print Shop also has an amazing collection of famous artist 3-part cards and more. The NGA website could be a great extension to those. Enjoy!

June Inspiration

Here's a little June/Summer inspiration from around the web to get you and your  child's creative juices flowing. Have fun exploring these links, but more importantly, get up and try some of the ideas once you've been inspired!



Have you read Counting Coconuts? It is one of my very favorite blogs for Montessori inspired children's activities. Mari-Ann does a great job of sharing what is on her Montessori shelves for the month, as well as giving great ideas for making I spy bottles, sensory tubs and more! Check out what she's got on the shelf for the month of June.

The Crafty Crow was created by Cassie as a place to keep track of all the great arts and crafts ideas for kids around the web. Check out her growing list of links for Summer and Outside activities.

Rhythm of the Home is a seasonal online, family magazine. With categories such as Warmth, Play, Celebration, and Connection, you're bound to be inspired!

How Do I Do It All?

Montessori Art Shelves

Photo used with permission from Montessori for Everyone

With summer approaching, I've been thinking of ideas for setting up some fun Montessori inspired shelves to keep the kids learning while having fun. Lori at Montessori for Everyone has a great blog post about bringing art into the Elementary classroom, as a well as a whole bunch of other great blog posts. These include topics such as, Montessori basics, home schooling, organization, child development and more! Go check it out. It is one of my favorite and most informative blogs!

For some inspirational pictures of children at art check out Brooklyn's very own, Painted Cloud children's art studio blog: The Cloud Kids

Have fun!

Fun with Color Mixing:

Photo courtesy of "Here We are Together"

"Here We are Together" has a fun idea for the kids to experiment with mixing colors while making fun shapes into works of art. Check it out!

A fun variation to this for the summer can be to put the color mixture into spray bottles and have the kids give it a go outside!

Wonderful Lesson from Susan at The Moveable Alphabet

photo courtesy of Susan Y. Dyer of the Moveable Alphabet

Check out this WONDERFUL lesson that Susan Y. Dyer over at The Moveable Alphabet came up with to show children how to make thick and thin lines with a paintbrush. This is a great art lesson in which she very creatively and naturally incorporated the Brown Stair Montessori material. What a great way for the children to use what they've learned with the Brown Stair and put it to use in a real life art exercise! Great Job Susan!

Light and Color

Oooh, pretty! I want a light table! I've been looking at some Reggio Emilia classroom pictures for inspiration for art and discovery projects in our home classroom and found the picture above. This summer, I'm hoping to turn the classroom into a fun open discovery center for the children, and then go back to mostly Montessori in the Fall. Check out these awesome translucent blocks I found online! They would be great for exploring color and shape on a light table:

Moolka sells them here in the U.S.A., but they're not cheap:

Oh good St. Nick, won't you please bring us a Light Table? Even a Tabletop Light Box would do!:

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Spring is in the Air!

Happy Easter to you all! I've been busy with the family doing lots of great little Lent, Holy Week, and Easter activities. Speaking of Easter, How many of you have more than enough Jelly Beans to get you through the year? Now that Easter is here, I've gotten spring fever and am looking forward to rejoice in Christ's resurrection and enjoy the beauty of His creation with my children. Whilst searching for some fun and colorful activities to present to the children, I stumbled across this great jelly beans bracelet idea, by Sarah over at Mrs. D Lightful. We have a ton of yummy jelly beans, so I thought this would be fun to try! Stringing the jelly beans could make a great practical life activity and snack too!

I also found this cute little poem called, "God's Jelly Bean Rainbow" from the book, Celebrate Jesus! at Easter by Kimberly Ingalls Reese:

Orange is the twilight night He prayed.
Black is our sin stain for which He paid.
Red is His own shed blood so bright.
Yellow is the Son's warm, healing light.
Purple is His head crowned with thorns
Pink is hope risen on Easter morn.
Brown is the ground where He was laid.
Gray is the stone that was rolled away.
White is God's grace we freely receive.
Green our eternal life when we believe.
All of these colors represent something true:
Jesus Christ, God's own Son, died for me and died for you.

READING RAINBOW!

Butterfly in the sky, I can fly twice as high....

Who else loves Reading Rainbow? Although we don't really watch tv, my kids love the Reading Rainbow episodes our local library has on DVD. Last year our 6 year old won 1st place in the local portion of the Reading Rainbow," Young Authors and Illustrators Contest". This year both our 6 and 5 year old are entering, so our house has been a mess of paints, glue, colored papers and more for the past few days! It's a bit chaotic, but it is so cool to see their books coming along! They are really excited to make their submissions and have learned a lot about the writing and illustrating process along the way.

Here are a few books that the children have used as inspiration and for researching various illustrating techniques:



















I just love picture books, don't you? Someday I would absolutely love to hit the road and take the kids to the Eric Carl Museum of Picture Book Art. It looks so awesome! For now we'll just have take a virtual tour. Check out their website for some great resources!

Entering the State Fair

Here is my 2nd oldest little one working on his submission for the state fair. On the entry form it asked if you would like to sell your work of art, so when I asked him if he would like to...

He says, "Yes, for six dollars."
Me: "Six dollars? Your big brother wants twelve for his."
Him: "Six dollars. That's it."
Me: "Why?"
Him: "Because 5 and 1 make six Mami!"

So there you have it! Six dollars it is!

My two oldest boys wanted to submit to the State Fair coming up, so I took it as an opportunity for them to learn about the process of entering a submission. I had the oldest help read the rules of entering, and provided them with books containing a wide range of art ideas. They enjoyed flipping through them and were inspired to use various art mediums. One thing that was really cool was that my 6 year old decided to submit a picture done in wet chalk pastels and compared his "technique" and color scheme to Van Gogh! I thought it was so cute to hear him saying, "I'm using some of the colors Van Gogh used in his Cafe' painting and making texture with the wet chalk!" (Cafe Terrace at Night, also known as The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum). I really do enjoy the moments when I observe one of my children making a discovery for the first time or applying something they've learned. Those moments make me feel so privileged to be both their mami and educator. They remind me of the importance of observation and the importance of what Maria Montessori called, "the preparation of the teacher". In order to better observe your child and provide what they need, it is important that we take the time for the spiritual, physical, and mental preparation of ourselves. This way, we can be in tip top shape to create an environment that nurtures their eternal soul, growing bodies and absorbent minds.

Saturday Night Eye Candy...

The Montessori Prepared Environment 036, by sew liberated.

Meg over at Sew Liberated has so many great pictures of her Montessori journey in Mexico to share. I particularly like this little art setup here because it has a great view to the outside and it looks very inviting. She also provides us with the great idea of putting paint inside old elmers glue containers so that the children can squeeze out their own portions! Great idea Meg! You can follow her adventures in crafting and Montessori Here.

This is what she has to say about the above photo, posted on Flickr:
"Our painting station works quite well. To the left, you will see rolled-up, pre-cut-to-fit paper for the easel. Each roll is secured with one paper clip, which the child removes and places on a little plate on the small, pink "painting provisions table." The child then hangs up his paper. Then he can serve himself paint. Generally, we provide red, yellow, and blue paint, although right now we only have one color available because it's the beginning of the year. We use old Elmer's glue bottles, with the label rubbed off, so the child can serve himself paint. The child squeezes a bit of paint (we have a TINY little bowl for each color.) Now we have to options - you can use a paint brush, or a sponge with which to paint. I suggest changing the painting tools to keep the level of interest high. When the child is done, he hangs up his painting to dry, rinses off the paint brush and little bowl in the the pink bucket, dries them with the towel hanging on the right of the easel, and replaces the material so another child may paint. At the end of the day, one of the older children empties out the dirty water in the bucket and cleans the easel to prepare for the next school day. "

Eye Candy Alert: Childrens Art Portfolio!

The other day I was browsing Flickr for some Montessori eye candy to inspire me while setting up our home classroom. I love looking at picture's of classroom's and how things are set up and arranged. I find pictures of classroom's that incorporate art or nature especially inviting. So there I am browsing my little heart out (probably the only advantage to nursing a "nip & napper"!), when I come across the picture above! I thought it looked so cool, but what was it? It turns out to be an art portfolio put together by Jojoebi over at A Bit of This and That . She went ahead and gathered all of her son's artwork from 0-3 years and had it printed in a photo book by Blurb. How cool is that? I don't know how many times I've had to struggle with deciding what to keep and what to toss when it comes to my children's art work. This is totally the hot fudge sauce on my sundae! I am loving it! Go check out some more pictures of little Ebi-kun's art portfolio Here.

If you want to start collecting your little Picasso's art projects for inclusion in his or her very own art portfolio, here is one of my suggestions on how to start organizing this:

1. Start with an accordion file and label the tabs with your preferred method. of classification. For example, by month, by media, season, etc..

2. When your child creates a new work of art, display it in a rotating gallery. Be it on your fridge, their bedroom or playroom wall, your child will feel a great boost of confidence seeing their creations displayed nicely and it will give them a sense of dignity in the work that they do.

3. Make sure to talk to your child about the work of art that they've just created. Ask questions, and remember to let them do most of the talking. Art can be such an intimate expression, and we can really get a peek into the child's heart, mind, and soul when we leave the explaining up to them. Also remember to not just say "Good boy" or "Good girl", but actually comment on what you notice and like about the picture. Saying things such as, "I really like the color combination you chose", or "your ability to blend the colors is beautiful", not only provide both positive and productive feedback, but they will also be more meaningful to your child as well.

4. After a week has gone by, (you decide the time frame), place the artwork in your accordion file and attach any notes you may have taken when discussing the work. The notes can be included alongside the picture of the artwork in the portfolio to capture the overall essence of your child at the time the artwork was done.

5. When you've gotten a good amount of pictures for each category, you can review them with your child and ask which one's they would like to use for inclusion in their art portfolio. The pictures not chosen for inclusion in the art portfolio can be given away to loved ones as gifts, or can be made into birthday cards for friends.

When it comes to art projects that are mixed media, sculpture, etc.. you can use a camera to take a picture of their project and store it in the same fashion as above.