Strewsday Tuesday

I begin with a grave promise that "Food on Your Face" will return... soon. Hopefully by Friday.

Today, I'm beginning a new tradition at BreadwithHoney called "Strewsday Tuesday." 'Strewing' is a homeschooling term that refers to filling the environment of the child with materials to pique his or her curiosity, inspire his or her interest, and giving them the freedom to pursue these things.

"The thing that works... is to follow delight - and scatter it like a flower girl in front of the bride - not every petal will be crushed to release fragrance - but enough will. ...of course to follow delight, you have to admit to yourself that you feel delight .."
-Nora Cannon...from Sandra Dodd's Strewing their Paths

Strewsday Tuesday is a fun way to take stock of what's been going on in our homeschool during the previous week.

"A few months into our homeschooling adventure my 8 year old daughter spontaneously said "Our house is like a museum with really cool stuff in it!" This was the moment I decided it was going to be alright....."
-Your House as a Museum

Today snow is falling fast and the temperature is dropping every minute. The wind is springing up, expected to gust to 60 miles an hour today. This effectively foils our outdoors plans. (We attempted a walk the last time the wind was doing this and I was rewarded with a face-ful of extreme, itchy, bright red windburn the rest of the day.

Yesterday we watched this

collection of classic Dr. Suess cartoons, given to us some time ago by my grandma. I like these old cartoons as they follow the books very closely. Also, the DVD has a biography of Dr. Suess at the end which is excellent. It was interesting to my 5 and 8 year olds and to me, too. (There's a lot of interesting 20th century history woven in- I think even older kids would like it.)

I was hoping for a pajama day today, but the kids are desperate to get to the library to check out all the Dr. Suess books we haven't read.

"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child."
-George Santayana

We continue to learn about bees,inspired by our 2 year old- John Paul- and his recently developed obsession with bumble bees. He has made a stack of every book in our home involving bees, which he insists on hearing every day, while clutching the stuffed bee his grandma recently gave him. These are his two favorites:

which I find endlessly annoying, but he adores, and

which we all enjoy.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."
-Albert Einstein

Isaiah has been reading Choose Your Own Adventure books this week. His first was given to him a couple weeks ago by his grandma (Grandma has done a lot of our strewing this week!), and he picked his 2nd out last week during a rare trip to Barnes & Noble in Albuquerque. They are actually somewhat above his reading level, but he is so excited and determined, that I'm sure his reading level will soon match and exceed them.

Rosie has developed her own little obsession with math workbooks... snort... who knows where that came from! She picked one out at Dollar Tree and completed it in 24 hours and is pestering me to take her back. In the meantime, I'm making up some worksheets for her to appease the math monster inside her.

Well, that's about it for our week in review. Over the next week, my aim is to focus on the season of Lent with the kids. We had a bad experience starting our Good Deed Jar on Ash Wednesday... it was put away in the closet by noon. We may go back to our tried and true salt-dough crown of thorns. We'll see!


"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught."
-Oscar Wilde, "The Critic as Artist," 1890

Montessori-style Activities

Today I'm going to show you some of our Montessori-style activities. I keep a big tub in a closet and when I come across interesting boottles, boxes, jars, corks, boucy balls, beads, spools... you get the idea- I toss them in there. Then, when I have a chance, maybe once or twice a year, I go through and put together a few new activities.

Most of my ideas are pirated directly from Montessori catalogs/ websites. My favorites are Montessori Services, For Small Hands, and Montessori-n-Such. A good book of super-easy, super-fun ideas is Do Touch: Instant, Easy, Hands-On Learning Experiences for Young Children, and another is Preschooler's Busy Book (See all Crafts for Children Books).

There are many books about Montessori and the Montessori method. Many are stuffy and want to make sure that you walk away feeling that only a professionally trained individual can successfully teach Montessori-style. But many are good. I can't really begin to make recommendations here, though, or this post would never end.

Here's what's important with these activities:
-the child can do them on her own after being shown how;
-the activity has natural control-of-error (i.e. yellow botton in red basket: child sees mistake, or, circle lid doesn't fit on heart box, etc.)
-easily set up and put away by child.

Here's what's important with mom:
-DO NOT interrupt child to point out her mistakes, let her find them herself;
-be willing to help clean up.

These first are from "Do Touch," referred to earlier:

Jumbo craft sticks. Pics 1 & 2 are just matching 2 sticks with same patterns. Pic 3 is a simple puzzle.

Also from "Do Touch," sponge sey cut up. One left whole as a control. These are actually quite difficult to put back together!

Button sorting. 3 peanut butter lids with colored paper glued in, heart container with lid to store buttons in the activity's bag.

Flower beads to sort. Three sizes of flower beads (found these on ebay for $1 and knew Rose would love them), 3 peanut lids, tweezers to pick up the beads for fun, pouch to store beads, all in a baby shoe box.

John Paul at work!

These little number puzzles are part of a huge, overwhelming set and were a gift. I rotate a few at a time into a bag with "jewels" to place on the completed puzzles. The jewels make the puzzles much more fun to do.

Letter puzzles. Were also a gift. 26 puzzles are too much for most preschoolers all at once. So a few with objects to match get rotated for this bag. I love that tiny ball of yarn!

Fruit bead sorting, tweezers missing. Sigh. This idea was stolen from the Montessori-n-Such catalog. Fabric covered cardboard, Cezanne picture glued on, jar lids glued on. I like these beads but this tray isn't used very often. I'd really like to replace it with the M-n-S set, but it's definitely a want and not a need!

Lauri crepe rubber toys. Top pic is puzzles that go in a bag together. Bottom is a sorting toy I found for $1 at a thrift store. Lauri toys are great! They are safe, non-toxic, and your toddler can hurl one across the room and it sticks together! They make some cool, inexpensive puzzles for older kids, too. Most of their toys are available on Amazon.

Feel 'n find. A traditional Montssori game. There are 10 objects in bag 1 and their matches in bag 2. Birthday candles, big screws, marbles, thimbles, small spoons, plastic flowers, you get the idea. Make sure the blindfold is easy to get on and off. I actually did buy this one from Montessori services beacause it was cheap and I was feeling lazy, and it is a really nice blindfold!

More bead sorting. We're kinda heavy on bead sorting these days!

Butterfly toss. Just a target and some plastic butterflies. Less dangerous to your breakables than a bean-bag toss.

Bendaroos shape making. I need a laminator, see my bent control card? This is much tougher than it looks.

Boxes and lids. Really fun for 2 year olds. These boxes are usually $1 each, but stock up when Hobby Lobby puts them 50% off.

Hands down favorite! Opening and closing activity. Random assortment of containers, each requiring a different skill to open. Usually each one has a frog or lizard who lives inside, but I'm down to 2 frogs at the moment. JP gets this out at least 3 times a week, and so did my older kids from about ages 14 months to 3 years. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT put child=proof pill bottles in here. They will figure them out quickly and then you'll have a serious problem on your hands.

Transferring activity. Jars of different objects (with tight screw-on lid!), variety of tongs and spoons to use, 2 pails to transfer to and fro. John Paul likes to pour, which is ok, too.

Some of Rosie's activities in a deep basket which sits on a shelf in the dining room.

OK, friends, I am too tired to photograph my science kits. But you can see them at either catalog website mentioned above. We have a sink or float set and a magnetic/ non-magnetic set, plus a rice play box.

I hope this peek into a selection of our Montessori-style activities inspires you!


"It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself."
~Joyce Maynard


"Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you."
~Robert Fulghum

A First for John Paul

Major storm today.

Then:

His first

rainbow.

And a double at that!


"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes."
~e.e. cummings


"The sky is the daily bread of the eyes."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Montessori Moment

John Paul had the scissors. He was cutting here, there, everywhere.

Wanted to yell. Instead, I stopped what I was doing and made some paper strips for him.

And sat while he cut.

For half an hour.


"Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life." ~William Faulkner

A Montessori Rosary and an Easy, Peasy Pita Lunch

I try very hard to help my children pray. Not just endure our Holy Hours in our Adoration Chapel. Pray. Communicate with God. And, well, it’s tough. After all, it is difficult, no, CONTRARY to a child’s nature, to sit quietly in a silent chapel. For an hour.

For several months we have been using the fantastic suggestions from http://mostholyrosary.org/childjesus/childrens_holy_hour.htm
Thanks to Brenda, who sent me that link! But for May, the Rosary! I was inspired as I dilly-dallied in bed, tangled up in several children.


Here are the materials- prayer rug (we take these every week and they are simply table runners cut in half and hemmed), Rosary picture book, basket, rock, 10 flowers (I am a pathetic gardener and the only flowers in our yard are dandelions and clover):

I will tell you how we used these in a moment. Three bags packed and ready to go:

Tromping to the chapel:

Each child set up, turning to the first Luminous mystery picture, and this is how we prayed the Montessori Rosary:
During the Our Father, the children picked up the rock and held it or looked at it, or pretty much whatever they wanted to d with it short of throwing it. After the prayer, they set the rock in the basket and picked up a flower. “Hail Mary” while holding, sniffing, or thinking about the flower.

(Since ever I can remember, I have told my children that every Hail Mary in every Rosary they pray blossoms eternally in Heaven; when they get their they will see a field all their own of these glorious flowers.) Repeated for 10 Hail Mary’s. On the Glory Be, they removed the rock and dumped the flowers back in their place.

A decade of the Rosary:

Rosie liked this best. She actually concentrated for 3 mysteries.

Isaiah went back to his Rosary ring after the first mystery, but he said he enjoyed it. Maybe next time I will let him use pebbles instead of flowers and we’ll talk about spiritual ammunition.
John Paul participated. Actively. Very actively, the whole way through.

Prostrating to concentrate:

I closed our formal prayer time after the first 3 mysteries. About 20 minutes. The rest of the Hour was filled with writing petitions for the petition box, checking the holy water fonts, and looking through holy cards.


"Never give to the mind more than you give to the hand."
-Maria Montessori


Afterwards, we were famished. And lunch was long past by the time we made it home.

Thursday is usually pita day. Anything works in a pita. PB&J, hummus, veggies with leftover meat, mashed up beans with sprouts. So here are the plates we sat down to after a super-quick (8 minutes?), super-easy lunch prep with the help of Eden organic, BPA-lining-free black beans. (Yes, it's cheaper and better to cook your own. But we're talking 2pm and no one's eaten lunch and you didn't think about that this morning.) Simply pitas stuffed with black beans and a bit of mayo. The silver cup holds homemade salad dressing/ dipping sauce.

And a toddler plate with leftover pancakes:

Super-healthy. Awfully delicious. Easy, peasy.


The spirit cannot endure the body when overfed, but, if underfed, the body cannot endure the spirit.
-St Frances de Sales

Baby's First Nature Lesson

Spring in Kansas means unpredictable weather and storms... lots of storms. And storms mean wind. It also means noisy evenings of wind whistling in the rafters of our creaky old home.

I was working in the kitchen and the big kids were playing in the playroom, doors closed to prevent baby brother from knocking over the blocks and Playmobil. Suddenly John Paul burst into the kitchen babbling and pointing. I asked what I could do for him, and he pointed, began to walk out of the room, and then looked back and gestured- come on, mother!

Worried his siblings were being unkind to him, I wiped my hands and followed him. Instead of leading me to the playroom, though, he ran to the sliding glass door leading to our back patio. He pointed and exclaimed over and over, looking up at me quizzically, intense and slightly disturbed. “What is it, baby?” I asked. There was nothing out there.

Suddenly a gust of wind sprang up and he got quiet, smashing his nose on the glass and watching the rope swing blow, the leaves swirl, and a tennis ball roll by. He pointed and whispered, “Uh?” I squatted down and said, “Wind, John Paul; that’s called wind.” “Ooooh.” His eyes shone and he turned his rapt attention back to the glass. In awe of the moment, I backed slowly out of the room, leaving him to his observations. He stayed there, musing, till dinner.

Many nature lessons will follow in his life, hopefully they will all be as awe-inspiring as the discovery of the wind.

"Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by."
-Christina Rossetti