We have been playing the Money Exchange Game at home lately.  Bean is extremely interested in money lately, so I made this little activity.  We play this at school, and she has a computer game by Everyday Math just like this.  If you have used the Golden Bead Exchange Game before, it's very similar.  The object of the game is to get to $1.  Each player rolls the dice and gets that amount in cents.  The exchange comes into play when there is more than 5 pennies, it gets exchanged for a nickle.  2 nickels, 1 dime.  2 dimes and a nickle, 1 quarter.  4 quarters = $1.  We play until all players have gotten to $1 to tone down any competitiveness.  We also talk about how this is a game of chance, not skill.  Getting to the dollar first is just that, not winning.  If you can carry a pair of dice in your bag, you can play this game anywhere.  Imagine that! She rolls a 7, takes a nickle and two pennies. She roll...

This is very exciting!  Deb Chitwood and John Bowman have collected a bunch of ideas from Mom Bloggers for Montessori, and they included this blog!  Click the button for a free ebook!! What a wonderful collection of Moms who love Montessori :)

Monday's Montessori Moment at Mommy Moment is all about the Cards and Counters work shown in use below.  Go see it, here. Hug a pumpkin! Collecting and counting pumpkin seeds for roasting Peanut enjoys the mini knobbed cylinders Showing off her clean pumpkin collection, from Pumpkin Washing Letter review for Bean, who is practicing writing these letters.  We worked on them with the sandpaper first, then on chalkboards, and then paper.  She keeps everything in a folder, she's quite the collector! Concentration:  Look at the tongue! Card and Counters by my 3 year olds :)   5 is odd, no pair Proudly Linked to:

Addition Strip Board Set Up.    This time, she let her little sisters set it up for her.  "Once you know all your numerals, you can do this work!  Okay?"  They were happy to be involved.  I showed her an example of Commutative Property, 1+3=4 AND 3+1=4   Look at that! What a discovery ;) She tries another.....4+2 AND 2+4= 6  "Wait until my teacher finds out this secret, she's going to be surprised."  She's so entertaining! Now she explores the idea.  She made all of the Commutative Property equations.  When I presented it, I showed it to her as a 'trick"....now she has this knowledge for future math work.   7+1=8 AND 1+7=8 One happy girl!  

Click here to see the full post over at Mommy Moment:  The Mystery Number The girls are all officially back to school!  Bean is in Kindergarten, full day at our town's wonderful public school.  Pumpkin and Peanut are at Playschool, just four mornings a week.  Our afternoons are still FULL of Montessori fun!  I guess it's what happens when your Mom is a Montessori Teacher, and your are a little girl full of wonder....man, I have it good :) Proudly Linked to:

Well, this was our first official day working with Montessori Materials- just the twins and I.  It went very well, but I was so busy I didn't take many photos.  I put out some new Practical Life Trays, which were a huge hit.  We also revealed our mystery number (3), and worked a LOT with the fall basket of sets.  They used the sandpaper letters, and sensorial materials together throughout the day.  A wonderful little afternoon with just the littles.  Big sister should be home soon!!

The girls were jumping up and down!  Happy to have a pretty way to show off our Montessori work in our playroom.  The shelves are Ribba from IKEA.  They are also perfect for the Sandpaper Letters, you would need 4 of them for all the letters.

Click Here: Volume Experiment for Kids Testing out the volume of rocks.

This giveaway is closed. Thank you for your participation! This summer will be full of celebrations for us, including the one year anniversary of this blog!  I am happy to provide one lucky reader with the Montessori Print Shop Math CD ROM !   The Montessori Print Shop giveaway will run from June 13th- June 20th, 2011.  Winner will be notified by email on 6/20/11.  Open Worldwide! Thank you all for following us on our learning journey.   Be sure to visit  Montessori Print Shop on Facebook  and  Twitter  to stay updated. How to enter?  It's very simple:   Just comment below!  Please leave me your email address so I can notify the winner.  Feel free to link to your blog.   Good luck!!!   Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9

Bean attends a play-based public preschool, and they are given 'optional homework' assigned by each child's abilities. She has been coming home with a lot of addition sums up to 10. If she asks for help, we get the addition strip board. She loves it, and she's working to memorize the addition facts. I'm so happy she has the chance to see this math so concretely. "This my favorite thing, Mom!"

Nature Arranging.  We have collected a lot this week, this tray is for arranging them how the children see fit.  Very Pretty! Peanut love to help me refill my coffee.  My Keurig has this neat spice-tray spinner she adores.  I'm always thankful for her help!   Today she packed my lunch for me, and sent me with a ladle for my yogurt instead of a spoon.  She said she knew I'd be hungry!!! Bean reviewing the cards and counters, working to memorize odd/even.  Notice her concentration even as her two year old sister throws a fit on the floor next to her ;) Mom, take a picture to show Daddy.   Bean and I played with pattern blocks a bit while Peanut and Pumpkin worked on the alphabet train all night.  She took this picture with my Droid.  Repetition, repetition, repetition......  Pumpkin did this puzzle with no help three times in a row tonight.  And again. One last time before bed, Mom?  Okay. ...