We've been working, working, working! Or as Cameron would say, "we've been playing, playing, playing". It makes me laugh when I think of montessori and explaining it to people. When people come in to visit at school and we explain that we have work time, it sometimes freaks people out. We could call it play because for the kids that is what it is but with montessori they call it work time.
Here is some of the new things that we've made to work with. We made a snowflake numbers mat. The kids can use these with a friend or alone. I couldn't find any white glittery puffs so we had to use colored. The kids roll the dice and whatever number they land on they put that many snowballs on. I put stickers 1, 2, 3 on the dice. Cameron is almost 3 so we are only able to recognize those numbers.
We brought this to school and the kids really seem to enjoy this. They really enjoy finding a friend to play "work" with this. A little girl in class wanted Cameron to play with her so she took him by the hand and lead him over to it. He just adores this little girl and will do anything she asks of him but when they got there he didn't want to so he started acting like a putz. Sometimes I feel bad for him because the work at school isn't anything new for him. Since I've made or done a lot of the stuff at home, he's already seen it and worked on it at home.
We also made these really cool matching mittens. We used felt and cut out two of each color. We used them during group time. We give each child a mitten, turned on some soft music and the kids had to find their match. We've done this with other items also and they seem to understand what they are suppose to do now. In the beginning, they would hold their item so no one could see it and they could never find a match. They are really starting to have fun finding their partner and talking about their items that are the same and what is the same about them. We made 1-10 but when we put them out on the shelf we put 1-5 and 6-10 together. This way we don't overwhelm the younger ones.
We had fun making the labels for each of the snacks. Cameron was a great helper with this!
We also made Isabella some diapers for the doll we got her for Christmas! These were really easy and fun to make! Thanks to all the great tutorials that are on the internet! We made burp cloths to go with the diapers! This isn't the greatest picture but you get the point! 
We also made my mom some granola! We told her that whenever it was empty just give it back and we'll fill it up! She's already brought it back a couple times! 
Lastly, we made Isabella homemade playdough for the whole year! At the beginning of each month, we bring her a new playdough and theme shaped playdough (cookie) cutter that has to do with month. For January, we brought her white playdough with iridescent glitter and a snowflake playdough cutter! We had a great time with this!! We also make a batch for preschool each month too! 
We also made some out of fabric! I really like the fabric ones better and they are quieter if you are going to take it with you to church or somewhere you'd like the kids to be quiet at. I'd like to make some theme ones with the fabric too. (Someday when there is time!)
We also made apple cinnamon muffins. They turned out great and Cam loved them.
The last thing we made today was banana pudding. I let Cameron cut up bananas to put in it. He did a great job with the knife (it was a plastic one we got from IKEA; I love that store). 
Well that's been out day so far and it's only 10:30. I think we'll try to go outside and play for a while. We haven't been outside to play in about a week and a half and its finally warm enough (20 degrees is warm enough, right????)
I went to a bookmaking class for kids (I will post more about this later) and one of the books we made were accordian books. Cameron and I decided to make a numbers book with stickers. We used animal stickers (of course) and he would put the stickers on and I would write the name of the animal on the page. This was great to make and also great to look at. We "read" it everyday. I let Cam decorate the cover. He's not really into coloring (no matter how much I wish he would) but he did a little bit. 
We had to paint on paper after we were done. Cameron LOVES painting!
It was my cousin's 4th birthday party on Saturday. I had so much fun making her some birthday gifts. She always wears handband so we made her some reverable handbands. I had to use Cam's head to measure; I should have taken a picture of him wearing them. That would have been another great picture to show his wife. We made 4 but I hadn't finished it when I took this picture.
We also made her a "pocketbook", a purse; my grandma always called it a pocketbook and so does my cousin, Amy. It makes me smile everytime I hear it. I had so much fun making her this. We filled it with tissues and lipgloss.
