Today was Pinky’s soccer and T-ball summer last class.

She (and her cousin while was visiting) had such a great summer time. Every Wednesday Pinky was eager to start her lessons and run wild, at least for an hour. Therefore, I took this occasion to keep reinforcing some really important tasks: Courtesy and grace.

Teach my daughter to be grateful for her coaches or teachers for taking their time and patience to share their knowledge is one of the priceless gift I could ever give her.

It doesn’t have to be anything expensive or elaborated, just a thought of appreciation.  Believe me, her coaches where really surprised and glad about the unexpected detail, as well as her teammates.

About Pinky, I could not describe how Proud and Happy she was about herself.

Priceless!!!

Coaches gifts: Water bottle, Kashi cherry dark chocolate chewy granola bar, Planters nuts mixed bag.

Team gifts (24 in total): Mott’s medleys fruit snacks (24 box), sticker box (Dollar tree store: 7/$1), pencils (Dollar tree store: 12/$1)

The end of her summer classes only means: Is time to get ready for Back-to-school!!!!

 

Here is more information about Grace and courtesy:

1- From info Montessori. Introduction to Grace and Courtesy.

2- From MariaMontessori.com. The magic of Grace and Courtesy.

3- From Living Montessori Now. Montessori Monday – Grace and Courtesy for a New School Year.

 

About other gift ideas for your favorite Coache:

1- Over the big moon. Baseball Coach Appreciation (Thanks for covering all the bases)~attached to a bag of peanuts. Free printable.

2- Just be happy. I skor-ed big.

3- Simply This and that.

4- Just Between Friends: Teacher Appreciation Gift Idea---Coach (Thanks for helping me “stick” to my goals this year)

5- Our Gift ideas Pinterest board full of more unique ideas!

Just an easy and fun idea to learn sight words for those mommies that need to spare their time. We are trying to simplified our learning around here.

You will need some garden signs, paper and markers or crayons. I got mine from Target at the dollar spot.

 

And we ended with these:

These are a great addition to our learning room. As soon as Pinky knows these, I just change the piece of paper with another one and add new sight words. You can play with them outside at the yard, hide them, play memory, a kind of Olympic running game, or my daughter’s favorite one: mommy monkeying around/marching/dancing and shouting 123 and holding the sign around the house while Pinky follows shouting the word and moving,too. You know what I mean: Have fun, move your body, learn and make it easy (that one is mostly for mommy!)

Here is my Pinterest PRE-READING ideas board!!! There are lots of great ideas to try!

123 123 ……Happy reading!!!!! and dancing!

Just a quick post about some of the activities we have been doing this summer. It is all about: MATH!

I found this poker rack and chips at Goodwill and decided to introduce some addition concepts with it. The girls loved it!!! I am thinking about using it with other activities like patterning, graphing, counting, and subtraction concepts.

Here is Pinky having a great summer vacation with her big cousin (5.8 years old). Her big cousin is starting First grade on a traditional school system in Puerto Rico this fall. She was so happy learning math while discovering some Montessori world. The result was two little girls happily working side-by-side, helping each other. 

 

We’ve been doing other math-related activities which I don’t have any pictures to share because my little camera past away

Next, I am sharing great links if you feel like trying the amazing Math world with your cuties. As of July 2012, Pinky is 4 years old.

Printables:

1. Here’s the domino printable.
2. Here’s the beads and pine cleaners activity idea.
3. Here are the fractions worksheets printable (free).
4. Trace the number printable from here.
5. Here’s the 1-100 numbers maze worksheet.
6. If you want to make your own Number cards, here’s a FREE printable available plus lots of links about where to buy them and activities to try.

Here is an AMAZING post from Mom’s Heart about how to bring Hands-On Math activities for Preschoolers. Check it out, I know you will get inspired!

For more inspiration go here at Homeschool-activities.com.

 

Take care and enjoy your week!

Things have been really hard for me lately! I decided to keep persuading my profession here in the states, so I am trying to study at least 6 hours daily while I keep doing chores, take care of Pinky who got really sick, ear infection, for almost a week and is still recovering, driving hubby to different places, and making time to go to the gym. Believe me that I am trying to prioritize around here, like the house is a MESS, the gym had to stop for about a week and my study schedule has been changing a LOT!!! All this, makes this mommy not the best one to be around.

Lets be sincere moms, I was so tired that I couldn’t stand anymore complains, cries, talks, or calls (mommy, mom, maaa, mommy!!!) I was feeling so bad that I had to Google: Why I can’t stand being a mom anymore. Yeap! I did it! I never thought I would be able to do that. What I was thinking? Well, let me tell you that I am NOT the only mom that have thought about this, although I believed I was. There are many more moms that had or are having a motherhood carrier crisis, too! (yes, this is our job and not an easy one). Don’t get me wrong! I LOVE my daughter more than anything, she is the best blessing, silly, smart, cute, lovely and beautiful little girl ever. But I was feeling that I couldn’t handle the whole situation anymore. I was mentally and physically tired.   

I am not here to point who is a great mom or who doesn’t, because ALL OF US mom have different lives situations and experiences. I am are here just to share the motherhood situations, challenges, feelings, experiences and FRUSTRATIONS we all go thru. I am are here to speak up, and let you know: We are NOT superheroes, superwomen, magicians, genies, or statues. We don’t have supernatural powers! We are beautiful HUMANS! It is ok to feel, it is ok to cry, to scream, to feel down, to feel restless, frustrated, to feel like giving it up. And it is ok, at some point, to question yourself and your role as a mom. Believe me, that doesn’t makes you a bad mom!!!  

Does the next questions sounds familiar??? (summary from some Mommies comments I read on a blog post I found while searching the question above). Do you love your kids but you are in that point where you can’t stand them anymore? Are you wondering if you are depress? crazy? getting insane? a bad mom? needing parenting therapies? that your parenting skills really suck? That you can’t handle anymore tantrums, cries, fights, complains, noises, back talks, messes or whinnings.  Are you tired of giving he/she all your time, love, comprehension just to receive the same results? Are you worry about what others would think or say about you? Are you worried that nobody would understand you?

Can you hear others saying: What, you can’t stand your own children? What kind of mother are you? He/she is your own! But, he/she is such a cutie pie, an angel, so well-behave. Why did you have kids on the first hand? You are not the first or last mom, so maybe you need to stop complaining! Are you loosing it with just one kid? two? You need to have more patience. You need to control yourself.  

Yes, mommies! I think those sounds familiar to some of you (as I said, every mom have a different life situation).

The problem here is NOT us, it’s our society. People expect too much from us which makes us to build up an unconscious stress pushing our own selves. This takes me to the point were we moms keep hiding or suppressing our feelings and thoughts. We hide them from our family, neighbors, friends, and, mostly, from other fellows moms because of guilt, shame, pride, judgment, or lack of intimacy and honesty.

Hey! WE Moms Need Other MOMS!!! There’s not other person that can understand our motherhood frustrations than another mom. Each stage of our precious babies life brings more challenges and, with that, more experiences and knowledge. And those are the best gifts we are able to share with other mommies that are behind us. Maybe, that’s the motherhood therapy we all are needing! MOMS HELPING MOMS!

S.p.e.a.k - u.p!!! 

“When God thought of mother, He must have laughed with satisfaction, and framed it quickly—

so rich, so deep, so divine, so full of soul, power, and beauty, was the conception.”

~ Henry Ward Beecher

 

Note1: Photo- My great-grandmother on the right with her 3 sisters, RIP

Note2: Pinky is doing better and so is her mommy. We are enjoying some laying-back moments together.

Ok….I am debating if I publish this post or not….however, I think it will help another mommy looking for some encouraging words and the confirmation that she is NOT ALONE on this adventure!

A few months ago, I saw a “different” toy in the dollar section at Target and couldn’t resist to buy it. I didn’t know its name, tried to Google it but I failed. Later on, while visiting an Historical attraction, I found the toy again as one of the colonial toys here in New England, and there was its name: Jacob’s ladder. Here’s a link to Wikipedia about it.

Then, I found some videos on YouTube with great things you could do with it like, the letters of the ABCs, a dancer, dog, horse, some magic tricks, etc. I loved it! And started to teach Pinky some tricks to do with it. She was interested for a while but not as much as I would love (Oh well!). In order to help her to make the ABCs letters, I did some cards just like the ones I did for the Legos in here. 

If you would like to give them a try with your kids, here they are (there are 2 letters missing because I really couldn’t made them .)

Have fun and remember to…….

Want to get inspired, just go and check these links:

I know is great to play and, while we are having fun, we don’t realize the mess we are creating. But, how do you feel when this happen every single day of your life??? I was done!!! It is kind of frustrate to tide a place one day just to have to do it the next day again and again and again. Furthermore, the amount of toys available don’t help too much.

I have been looking at all those beautiful Montessori bedroom around Pinterest and was kind of envy by not having that at home. Ok, I know it’s my daughter’s bedroom but our “organization” was NOT functioning at all. It is one of those moments when you feel that something is not ok. If you can’t visualized, here is what I’m talking about:

What’s wrong with this place: Too many colors, not peaceful, not enough space available for organization, TOO MANY TOYS!!!

After many weeks thinking about it and searching for ideas, I just wanted to answer this question: How would I be able to have a “Montessori bedroom” following my daughter’s needs (her age, “independence” and her likes) and mine (organization, peaceful and cute place, budget). My answer: Montessori has to meet a Fairy, Princess, “Mommy”, chef, shoes lover, books lover, costumes lover, small animals, cars, dolls and objects lover.

Therefore, here is when Montessori met Pinky!!! 

 

Pinky’s Montessori-inspired room.

 

Entrance. She loves princesses, so I bought this cute fairies decal, and the tree made it with a decorative Dollar tree contact paper ($1) Thanks to my friend Monica for such an awesome idea!. A shoe holder for a shoe lover, all available on a first sight, not as before that we where using that green basket that just ended with a mess whenever she was looking for a pair of shoes. Now the basket holds balls, helmet and other outside toys (we live in an apartment so we don’t have the advantages of a house). He iron board has a place available now. Added a plant, Mr. green is its name!.

View from her bed (peaceful???). On the wall: her own art framed, a mirror on her level, and with the extra contact paper, I made music notes for her music basket (toy guitar, xylophone, tambourine, flutes, etc.). Two new small bookshelves holding some toys, books, favorite stuffed animals (gave away all the rest), a radio and a green basket FULL of customs.

Pinky’s drawing: Ariel with flounder and Sebastian the crab playing on the water with a rainbow on the sky. Ahhh my little artist!!!! I have Lots of her amazing art pieces. There’s talent for sure!!. Next, there’s a shoe holder functioning as a princesses, barbies bed. Yeah!!! no more princesses around on the floor because they have they’re place to sleep, plus they are available at first sight so no more mess while looking for the desired one!

Her closet that has its function plus acts as a hiding/reading place (see at the end). Thinkerbell bows holder (made it recycling a box, glued a Thinkerbell picture and ribbon- glue a penny at the end of the ribbon to give it some weight). A mommy’s corner with her babies, stoller, swing. On the wall a frame of a picture of her actual preschool classroom and a drawing her best friend Sara made for her (Awwwww!)  with a picture of the two of them. A bind case holding all the miniature toys, Legos, animals, etc.

A doll house, doll cars, a bookshelf holding more books especially Dr. Zeus, Spanish and French ones and Princesses, lamp, a wipe case used as a hair bands holder. Next, there’s Pinky’s bed (it a transitional crib which I will like to change but it is not on the budget now. Montessori use a floor bed but since Pinky is finally used to her bed and she can get up and down whenever she likes (because her age), I’ll stick with it. I decided to change her crib into a toddler bed around her 17 months old but using the 2 little frames and a pillow on the floor just in case but this bed is not that high. On the wall a few more Thinkerbell pictures. I can’t help myself because being Puertorrican, I love to have things hang out on the walls. lol

A tiny chair, her Kitchen and a table where we practice the Piano lessons (she is getting good at it!). This table function also as a small toys place to play and art table (found it for Free!).

 

Reading-hiding place closet

Pinky loves books and to hide in the closets. Since she used to hide on mine and it wasn’t safe for her, I decided to make her closet available for her personal delight. Let me tell you, she enjoy it and her friends, too! I love it because it keeps its principal function holding her clothes (which she makes sure to have available because she uses her tiny chair to reach them. A little bit of challenge is good too. You will be amaze of what the can do by themselves!). I bought her a huge giraffe pillow when she was 11 months old and finally was getting on the way around the apartment but no more because now she keep it here. (Happy mommy dance!) 

Yes, that’s her cribs frame repurposed into a books holder.

For this year on Valentine’s day, dada wanted to buy her a HUGE HUGE teddy bear (uffff!!!), and he did. The teddy bear was in the middle of the bedroom creating more mess, but now he is acting as a cute and wonderful pillow and friend on reading-relaxing time. (yeah!!!). Behind the closet door, I added two closet lights, so when she closes the doors to hide inside she still can see (mysterious????) Also there’s a princess chalk decal my friend Monica gave us adding fun to the place (Thanks!!)

Isn’t that a comfy place!!!

That’s how Montessori came, met Pinky and helped mommy! Our room is still on more changes like giving away more unused toys but I believe the change has to be little by little for Pinky to be adapt. So far, she knows were everything goes and cleaning time is getting better.

 

Want more ideas?? Here’s a post from Deb at Living Montessori Now with lots of ideas for a Montessori rooms.

Linking to:

I saw this one on Pinterest (here’s the link to the post) and was on my to-do-list for a while until I got the best opportunity to give it a try: a sitting day! Oh boy, it was LOTS of fun. It was tried by TWO almost 4 years old girls and got 4 thumbs up (lol….two thumbs up for each girl). They had a great time; they laugh, cleaned their cars, dance, laugh a bit more and I even got the windows cleaned up, sort of!  The best thing about this is you won’t need too much time to prepare it when you are needing something ASAP.

Just a note: do not blow it in because your will get the opposite reaction: all the foam get inside the bottle and maybe into your mouth, lol.

Try it.

You’ll love it!!!