Our time has been very spontaneous around here!  They say, "I want to work."  And off we go!!  This may be my longest post this year! The tots are loving matching these days.  This work is really for big sis (thus the appeal) for initial sounds, but we find a good purpose for picture to picture matching.  I love watching them work together. I took this photo while playing I Spy with Bean.  She likes playing this in the car, too!  Makes the trip to ballet a little more purposeful!   Pictured here, we did this for the initial sounds /h/, /r/, and /m/.  Below is the lesson, from my album.  I Spy With My Little Eye Area General~  Language Specific~  Oral/Auditory Development Materials 3 little objects Container Aims Direct~  To enjoy the sounds of our language.  To become aware that words are composed of sounds.  To listen for the sounds in words. Indirect~  To hear the component sounds of words ...

Our 28 month olds love our Montessori room as much as our preschooler!!!  Some things they chose this weekend, pictured above: Autumn Themed Sets Basket Mini Knobbed Cylinders Squeezing work, transferring spiders with tweezers Our 1-10 box, complete with short bead stair and cards and counters

As well as our children work together, today Bean (age 4) stated that she needed some time to work alone. She is a great big sister, so when she asks for a break, it's granted. I whisked the twins away for crayon time in the kitchen, and she made some fun choices. We had a 3-period lesson with sandpaper letters, some work with letter formation with the wooden pieces from Handwriting Without Tears (I prefer the font and method in our albums, but this is what she does at her new school), and a challenge with all four mini-knobbed cylinders. Busy, with enough time for making soup on this wet fall day!

I'm very pleased with this item. It was reasonably priced and the kids love it! Mini Knobbed Cylinders