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Montessori Baby-Ed Vlog: The Many Benefits of Bringing Music and The Arts to Your Baby!

ARE YOU WONDERING JUST WHAT YOUR BABY GAINS DEVELOPMENTALLY FROM EXPLORING MUSIC AND THE ARTS AT AN EARLY AGE? Read on! 


I have been so enjoying working with Amanda's family who has been exploring my monthly "Nido" Baskets, since her Baby was one month old.  You can see Amanda's 6 month old in action in the video just below.

Montessori wrote:
“The child's development follows a path of successive stages of independence, and our knowledge of this must guide us in our behavior towards him. We have to help the child to act, will and think for himself. This is the art of serving the spirit, an art which can be practiced to perfection only when working among children.” (The Absorbent Mind, p. 257)


Giving your baby Montessori-style experiences with Music and The Arts offers so much more than some really fun activities together! 
Through Music and The Arts babies gain cognitive skills in:
  • Large motor development
  • Small motor development
  • Auditory discrimination
  • Bonding within the family
  • Exercising the muscles of the mouth for singing
  • Discovering the voice
  • Eye-hand coordination
  • Spontaneously moving to a steady beat
  • And, lots of family fun!



In the video, Amanda's little one is exploring the activities from Montessori Baby-Ed "Nido" Basket # 4. 

You can read more about these activities at the links below:
Montessori Baby-Ed "Nido" Basket #4 Part 1: The Vlog

Montessori Baby-Ed "Nido" Basket #4 Part 2: The Lessons

I am delighted to have you visiting my blog today and I hope you have gotten some new ideas and inspiration!

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My Montessori Baby-Ed eCourses are opening soon. You can get on the wait list at this link: Magical Movement Company Montessori Baby-Ed eCourses.

This post is part of the "Montessori Monday Link-up" at Living Montessori Now. If you are looking for lots of free resources for your Montessori group, please check it out here: Montessori Monday Link-up


I am no longer an Amazon Affiliate and I DO NOT receive compensations from Amazon or any other product vendors. The links to various products in this Blog are ones that I use myself and are for your own reference and convenience. 





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Artfully Montessori: Young Children Unravel the Secret of the Classic Roman Arch!

THE GENIUS OF MONTESSORI IS SEEN IN YET ANOTHER AMAZING ACTIVITY FOR THE YOUNG CHILD: THE HANDS-ON DISCOVERY OF THE SECRET OF THE CLASSIC ROMAN ARCH. Was I ever surprised to find a giant Roman Arch at the Children's Museum that reminds me of the Montessori Roman Arch activity!
During my recent visit to the Discovery Museum with some preschool aged friends of mine, we stumbled upon a giant "Montessori-style  Roman Arch Activity". Our youngest one dived right in and discovered the secret pretty quickly, since she is a real whiz at puzzles of any kind! 

I love the size of blocks for this Roman Arch Exploration. And, the big wooden pieces are outlined with a rubbery textured material that makes them adhere to each other. There are even the control parts (support blocks) that hold up the pieces until they are all assembled so that they then hold each other up. That's when you can take the control parts (support blocks) away! 

Hooray! The Classic structure of the Roman Arch!
What's the secret that causes the blocks to stay in the shape of the arch even when the control parts/support blocks are removed? 
According to Wikipedia:

"An arch is a pure compression form. It can span a large area by resolving forces into compressive stresses and, in turn eliminating tensile stresses. This is sometimes referred to as arch action. As the forces in the arch are carried to the ground, the arch will push outward at the base, called thrust. As the rise, or height of the arch decreases, the outward thrust increases."
When a young child works with blocks that are designed to create a free standing arch, the parts must first fit together according to the angles of the wedge-shaped blocks and then the center block of the arch (called the "keystone") is the very last one placed so that the tension created makes the blocks keep the arch shape!  

However, you will delight in watching this Montessori child putting together the Montessori Roman Arch Activity with amazing finesse and he uses his own technique that works perfectly...without even using the support blocks and without placing the keystone last! How did he do that?




Yet another reason I really love the wonderful way that Montessori children learn through the art of play!

I'm so happy to have you visit my Blog today, and I hope you got some ideas for your own group! 

Don't miss out on any new articles or special deals from Magical Movement Company...join our email list and you'll receive a complimentary copy of my eBook, "Musically Montessori, The First Lessons."  (retail value: $12.99 at my TpT store)

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I always love posting my blog article each week at the Montessori Monday Linkup at Deb Chitwood's site, Living Montessori Now. Today there are posts from Montessori educators on a wonderful array of topics. Living Montessori Now not only has daily free activities at their Facebook page, but I very much appreciate that Deb invites so many of us to share our ideas on her platform that reaches hundreds of thousands of folks around the world. 


Also, I hope you didn't miss Deb's workshop presentation at the Trillium Montessori Homeschool Summit. YOU CAN CHECK IT OUT AT THIS LINK!


Advertising Disclosure: Magical Movement Company may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. Thanks for your support!




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Outdoorsy Montessori: Baby's Outdoor Classroom!

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR BABY BENEFITS FROM THE OUTDOORS FOR BOTH ENJOYMENT OF NATURE AS WELL AS OPTIMUM COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT?
This is what Maria Montessori had to say:
"….the tiny child’s absorbent mind finds all its nutriment in its surroundings.  Here it has to locate itself, and build itself up from what it takes in.  Especially at the beginning of life must we, therefore, make the environment as interesting and attractive as we can.  The child, as we have seen, passes through successive phases of development and in each of these his surroundings have an important – though different – part to play.  In none have they more importance than immediately after birth." (The Absorbent Mind, p. 88)
Here are some ideas I came up with for your Outdoorsy Montessori Baby! 
First, another informative quote from Dr. Montessori:
"There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. For that is the time when man's intelligence itself, his greatest implement, is being formed. But not only his intelligence; the full totality of his psychic powers." (The Absorbent Mind, p. 21)
Ever since my little grandchild was an infant, he has loved being taken outdoors and his favorite pastime has been to  reach out to touch the leaves of the trees.

So, I really enjoyed my recent Thanksgiving visit with my youngest grandchild, who has now entered toddlerhood. He cannot stop walking...and outdoors is his favorite place to do it!

My little one still loves the trees around his home, and he now has a favorite tree, the magnolia, with its seed pods which he enjoys gathering from the ground. Two important words in his developing vocabulary are "tree" and "seeds".  I am sure that his early experiences in infancy of touching the trees,  have contributed to these first favorite words of his! 


Montessori wrote about the activity of the very young child:
"It follows that the child can only develop fully by means of experience on his environment. We call such experience “work”." (The Absorbent Mind, p.80)

The Importance of Movement and
Practical Life (work) Activities in 
the Montessori Baby's Outdoor Environment

On one of our many walks in his wonderful yard, my grandchild and I  spent lots of time in the garage. Why? The garage has a collection of his little push toys, but his favorite area in the garage is the broom section!

He pulled me by the hand over to the clean up tools hanging along one wall and pointed to the broom with the red handle and said, "Een-op"...which is toddler-talk for "clean up." I figured this out when I got the broom for him and he started singing his sweet little version of the Clean Up Song.

He has a short handled "Swiffer" that he uses in the kitchen, and so when he got hold of the outdoor broom he began pushing it around the driveway area, like he pushes his Swiffer.  Even though the  handle of the broom was way too long for him, he continued to push the broom along the cobblestones in an effort to clean up. He spent twenty minutes or more pushing the broom!



I realized that he wasn't quite ready for a regular broom, but he might like a push broom that was his size with a smaller broom head and short handle. So, that's what he got for Christmas from his grandma!
CHILD-SIZE PUSH BROOM

My daughter told me he was very happy sweeping away with his little push broom on his morning walk each day...singing the "Clean Up Song!"

Next, I think I will send him a little dustpan and whisk broom.
My little one is 15 months old, and cleaning up is one of his favorite activities. According to Montessori, this is the time in his life when he is in the SENSITIVE PERIOD for ORDER, and tidying up is an important part of keeping order in the environment. So, offering him a child-size push broom satisfies his desire for walking, cleaning up, and being outdoors.

In the Montessori method, care of the environment is one of the basic activities for any age child; and I observed that, even as a toddler, my grand child was really enthralled with "cleaning up"!

My daughter got inspired to set up a little Montessori-style Outdoor Classroom for him just outside her home office/studio. There is a lovely flat area surrounded by trees that is perfect for an outdoor learning area for a toddler. 

We started looking in catalogues and found some things to set up her little one's "Outdoor Classroom."

The first thing on my daughter's list was a toddler size paint easel. We also made sure there was a little clean up bucket next to the easel so that our "little cleaner-upper" would have a sponge and a little water for wiping the easel when he was done!

OUTDOOR EASEL 

The very young child develops both the large muscles of the arms as well as the small muscles of the hand when painting at a toddler size easel. And, the outdoors is a wonderful place to paint. (ask any Artist!)

The next thing on the list was a child-size wheelbarrow, since there is a child-friendly vegetable garden near our little one's "Outdoor Classroom."

CHILD-SIZE WHEELBARROW
A small wheelbarrow offers the child lots of practice with walking, pushing,  balancing, and doing constructive work! And, of course the garden is an environment chock full of learning opportunities. This is when the toddler has the first concrete experiences with Botany, Ecology, and the Cycles of the Natural World. 

CHILD-FRIENDLY VEGETABLE GARDEN

"Water play" is always a big attraction for the Toddler Aged Child and one of the favorites is watering the garden. Here is Practical Life along with the Sensory Exploration of water, and add a little Eye-hand Coordination, Vocabulary Enhancement, along with Large and Small Muscle Development!

WATERING THE GARDEN

Just take a look at how much fun goes along with the Scientific Learning about volume, exact pouring, carrying and calculating how much, when a child explores pouring and carrying water in a purposeful manner. This is done best in the outdoors, of course!

OUTDOOR WATER PLAY
The toddler aged child is always in motion, and needs to climb and push, pull, balance, pour, carry, and grow... and the outdoors is the place to do it all!

HOMEMADE CLIMBING STRUCTURE

PUSHING A RIDING TOY

RIDING A RIDING TOY!
Above photos are from Adobe Stock

I almost left out my all-time favorite Outdoor Classroom Activity!

FEEDING THE WILD BIRDS

Children of all ages love caring for the plants and animals that live in the environment, but I think the youngest children enjoy these activities most of all.  Just look at all the benefits of having a bird feeder available for your little one: 
  • Developing an appreciation and understanding of the natural world
  • Observing the activities of the birds who come to visit the feeder (even squirrels sometimes!) 
  • As the child grows older, there is learning to identify the different species of birds...in the beginning the child will perhaps notice the colors of the birds and whether they are big or small, but eventually they can be given the names of the different birds (I love this little identification book: Stokes Field Guides to Birds
  • Using the small muscles of the hand to fill the bird feeder
  • Using the large muscles of the legs when climbing a small stepladder to reach the bird feeder
  • Acquiring the vocabulary: bird, wings, flying, feathers, beak, claws, seeds, etc.
  • Developing listening skills when hearing the songs of the various birds 
  • You might even find a nest nearby and then there's a whole new and wonderful adventure into learning!


One of my favorite sites for inspiration about children's Montessori style environments is at this link: Community Playthings. This company makes beautiful indoor and outdoor equipment, and their Blog is a wonderful resource for creating environments and activities that support the development of the whole child. 


Another gem from Dr. Montessori:

"During this early period, education must be understood as a help to the unfolding of the child's inborn psychic powers." (The Absorbent Mind, p. 4)
This article is part of the Montessori Monday Link-up at Living Montessori Now where you'll find lots more resources for your Montessori learning environments, including lots of free downloads. Click on the link to check it out! 

So happy to have you here visiting my Blog and I hope you got some ideas for your little one and the great outdoors, Montessori-style!

If you would like to read more on the topic of the Outdoor Classroom CLICK HERE.

And, if  you'd like to learn more about the Montessori Baby, I invite you to visit my Montessori Baby-Ed Blog Articles HERE.

Advertising Disclosure: Magical Movement Company may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. Thanks for your support!



















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