July Trays

In Mommy, Teach Me! Barbara Curtis talks about many wonderful things. One of them is the Montessori Trays. Due to space, money, and lack of experience for us all in this we are starting w/six trays and changing out the activity monthly. ( FYI: Barbara Curtis recommends 3 weeks) All of these can be found in Chapter 4 Small Beginnings Exercises (execpt FileFolder):

Scissors:

Foundational Value - Practical Living Skills, Eye-hand Coordination,

Developemnt of Concentration

File Folder:

These will change out weekly as long as they have mastered it.

File Folder Fun <-- Check it out!

Rice Pouring:

Foundational Value - Practical Living Skills, Eye-hand Coordination, Developement of Concentration, Perparation for Reading (left to right)

Basting:

Foundational Value - Practical Living Skills, Eye-hand Coordination, Development of Concentration, Strengthening of Hand Muscles, Preparation for Reading

Spooning:

Foundational Value: Practical Living Skills, Eye-hand Coordination, Development of Concentration, Preparation for Reading, Pincer Grasp

Sorting:

Foundational Value - Eye-hand Coordination, Pincer Grasp, Development of Concentration, Development of Visual Discrimination

The boys are loving their trays! It is really nice and fun for them to do these as the start of the school day. Right now it takes us 1 hour to go through all six trays. The only "problem" I'm seeing is that with having only one table they tend to pay attention to each other. If the other is done with a tray the other wants to be done and go on to what the other is doing. I tried my best to encourage them to not pay attention to the other and concentrate on what they were doing and it went better this morning. I'm so glad I came across this book and look forward to reviewing it and applying more that's in it!