Montessori Unplugged
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Paige has been sick and not acting like herself since Sunday afternoon. Every time she would fall asleep, she'd wake up screaming and we figured out that her throat was bothering her. Last night we talked to the covering doctor and he said to take her in to see her regular doctor today, so I took her in. The doctor looked at her throat and said it was "impressively red." She said that most of the time, children Paige's are too young to have strep, and that it is most likely something viral, but they'd test just in case. Guess who ended up positive?? I looked at Paige and told her that she was too young to have it. Guess she's an overachiever.
In any event, seeing as I was dealing with my little sicky yesterday, I wasn't able to post about the weekly Unplugged project. This week's theme was wood. I have been reading about Montessori methods lately, and have been enjoying the blog Chasing Cheerios. I thought this week would be a good time to try out this activity involving clothespins.
The gist of the activity is to put the clothespins around the border of a bowl, and have the little one take them off and put them in the bowl. This works on fine motor skills, and hand/eye coordination. I tried to help Paige squeeze them open and put them around the outside of a container, but that was very difficult for her. So I put some on there to see if she could pull them off. She had a hard time with that too. She did try really hard - although she kept pinching herself with them. She kept muttering, "ouch" while she was playing with them, and I started to wonder what kind of mother gives her child things that can hurt her to play with? Next thing you know I'll be teaching her to run with scissors. Sigh.
So the next thing I did was I brought some rhythm sticks home from school. 
She seemed to like those and played with them for awhile.
This afternoon I got out her wooden blocks and we built a tower for a few minutes. I also found it oddly amusing that most of the toys in the doctor's office were made of wood. It is interesting how when you start thinking about something, you start seeing it everywhere. :)
March 18, 2008 at 9:45 PM
Maybe we should have an Unplugged Project themed "scissors," then you can teach Paige to run with them! Just kidding! Sorry the clothespins didn't work out. It sounds like the sticks and blocks were fun though. Great ideas, and thanks for joining in (and finding wood everywhere!) despite have a sick little one. I hope she's feeling better soon!
March 18, 2008 at 9:48 PM
I'm so sorry she has strep! Caitlin got sent home from kindergarten early Friday and slept all day. I took her Saturday at 9 to the pediatrician and she tested positive. The good news is by yesterday (Monday) she was fine and we actually did some fun things for her Spring Break!
Do you have any Melissa & Doug toys? My girls love the magnetic wooden doll set. They also have a cool picture/shapes puzzle set and one with wooden letters and wood pictures with spaces for them to spell out the word. They also have a Woodkins dress up set.
Of course they also play with their My Little Pony plastic stuff all the time. ;)
Hope your little one feels better soon!
March 18, 2008 at 11:28 PM
Sorry the clothes pin activity didn't work for her! Its a favorite around here!
March 18, 2008 at 11:39 PM
Too bad they didn't work out, maybe when she gets a bit more strength in her fingers. My oldest (6) loves playing with them, the youngest (2) has no real interest in them.
Hope she feels better soon.
March 19, 2008 at 2:11 AM
hopefully Paige feels better soon!
March 19, 2008 at 9:23 AM
I like this idea. I think it would help my son. I hope your daughter is better soon. Strep throat is horrible!
March 19, 2008 at 4:43 PM
Thank you everyone for the nice comments!
Melissa - I thought Paige would like it too, but I just don't think her fingers are strong enough yet. I'll have to try some of the activities you have with the other type of clothespin. I really am enjoying your activities though! Thank you for sharing.
Jamie - Most of the toys at the doctor's office were Melissa and Doug toys. They have lots of nice wooden ones. I was thinking today about how most of her puzzles are wooden too - we could have just done puzzles!
Shan - that's interesting that your older one likes them and the younger doesn't have any interest in them. Maybe I'll try them with Paige again when she is older.
Thank you everyone for your well wishes for Paige! :)