A Very Montessori-ish Friday

I decided to leave Friday up to the boys, and see what they created for activities.  Of course I had many things on my "lesson" plan, but I really wanted to see what they were interested in.  We also had a play date planned for later in the morning, so I figured they would not pick an activity that would take that long to do.

I got them started with a project that Pierce had mentioned he wanted to do again; melting beads into sun catchers.  Because the boys have been getting up between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning, I was able to start this before Dan even left for work.  This also allowed Daddy to hang out and make sun catchers with us.

 They are really easy to make.  We use the clear plastic pony beads, and put them in various shaped oven SAFE containers.  Dan and I thought our silicone ice molds were oven safe, but we found out they weren't; as a lot of smoke came out of the oven.  No harm done...nothing caught on fire.  :)

Depending on the thickness of the sun catchers, I bake them at 425 for about 15-20 minutes.  It usually does not smell too bad, but this time was a little different.

While the sun catchers were baking, and the boys were playing with daddy before he left for work, I went and started cleaning our cabinet drawers.  I detest not being able to find things in the kitchen; it is such an important center point to the home, that I am OCD about things being where they should be.  In any case, Carter stumbled upon the flour sifter, and told me he needed to do that.  I asked him if he knew what it was for, and he told me flour.  So, I guess he had a plan.

And since we were already melting plastic, Pierce wanted to peel and grate crayons so he could melt them into a big crayon that was lots of colors.  He even went downstairs, and grabbed the massive tub of broken crayons and brought them up on his own.  At this point, I was very glad that I was already in the self directed mode.  Here is what our kitchen looked like in a matter of 5 minutes;

Again, I thought this would last for maybe 30 minutes tops.  However, the boys had other plans, and they loved what they picked.  All in all, they played with their activities from about 8 am until 11 am.  They even played together nicely, sharing the activities, and taking turns.  It was certainly one of those proud mommy moments.

Pierce also had the idea that he needed to practice cutting (he is determined to start cutting his own food soon), so he grabbed a butter knife and started cutting his crayons.  Of course Carter had to try that when it was his turn with the crayons.  I love Carter's look of determination.  When he really focuses, the tongue always comes out.  :)

Towards the end of their play time, Pierce started pretending that the mounds of flour were hills covered in snow.  He then took his fingers and started making them snowboard (so my kid).  Neither of the boys knew it, but I had picked up another pack of penguins for them (the others molded over in the tub), and I offered to get them for the boys to play with.  They were so excited!  Carter put some flour on the counter and had hockey playing penguins, while Pierce had snowboarding penguins.  If they are this excited about snow already, I cannot wait until this winter!  

This whole experience ended up teaching me more, than I think the kids learned.  I need to trust the boys.  I need to let them do this way more often, and see what they come up with.  While it may not have been on my "plan" for the day, it was clearly something they needed if they lasted 3 hours.  We still managed to get math in with comparing crayon sizes, and I still was able to fit in a lesson on colors.  What was more surprising was that every time I asked them if they wanted to clean up to get ready for a play date, they both told me no!  The absolute final shock was when Pierce announced he was done, started picking up his own mess, and put himself to bed at 11 am. Then he even woke up from his nap (3 hours later) in an amazing mood!  I know the boys appreciated me letting them be themselves and not trying to have them color or do something else.  And while I would love for everyday to be completely self directed, it has become apparent to me that I am on the right track by giving them multiple choices everyday about what they would like to do.  Even while creating my lesson plans, I have started planning multiple activities for each "subject" and letting them decide.  Maybe one day a week that they can own will be the key to a happy household.  I am certainly going to try it again this Friday.  Pierce and Carter, thank you for always keeping me on my toes, and showing me that I will never be too old to learn.  Love you!