I can’t quite believe it’s already June. The year is half over. Where has my life gone?

It’s summer and in some ways it feels a bit of an adjustment. We don’t have kids coming home from school, no new babies or big trips, but it feels like we’re in a season of adjusting and finding a new rhythm for what our family needs and how we’re growing.

Since June is the new January, why not a few goals to guide us along?

1. Our Family Rhythms. We generally have a certain pace to our days and week as a family, but the last two months we went on vacation and had a lot of family visiting and events that we lost some of our routine. I could feel we were all a little more unstrung. It always helps me and, consequently, the kids when we have a rhythm and routine to our days. We’ve had this same rhythm before, but in the hustle of life much of it got lost.

(Also, Canva is great for making pretty stuff.)

2. Finish the eBook. I’m at the point where I’m so close, but still so far away. What book? Over the years of blogging, I’ve gotten so many questions on Montessori for infants and toddlers and since that is what my training is in and I have the ground experience (my kiddos are 5, 3, and 1), writing a book on the subject seemed like the perfect idea! The book, Montessori for Infants & Toddlers, is divided into two parts. The first part details the Montessori philosophy and how it can be adapted in the home, while the second part is just over 100 Montessori activities for infants, toddlers, and twos. (Sign up for the Newsletter to get book updates!)

Part 1 is almost finished. It’s Part 2 that’s beginning to look daunting. The activities are already outlined, I just need to write them up and then…build and take pictures of all 100+ activities. During the school year, I was blessed with an awesome babysitter who my kids love. She’d watch the kids twice a week and I’d get 4-5 hours a week just to write. Since she’s home for the summer, I’ve been having a harder time to find time to write. There may be some late nights in my future.

3. Lower Expectations. I’m notorious for coming up with great plans to get all the things done. And then I get frustrated and disappointed when not even half of ‘all the things’ doesn’t get done. I’m realizing I need to lower my expectations in regard to what I get done around the house, my work, and even our family rhythm. (I feel this is a lesson I’m relearning every few months.) I’ve operated so long by to do lists and measuring sticks, I always feel someone’s looking over my shoulder to see if I’ve got the dishes done, the floor swept, read to the kids, and kept in line with my personal goals. I’m learning…slowly…I need to be okay with less. Getting less done and even setting out to accomplish less. The payoff is the less I’m mentally trying to shift things around, itemizing activities and task to get more done I can be more present in my life. Take the moments.

4. Summer Reading List. I love to read and I’m constantly adding books to my mental book pile. I want to pick 5-6 to set aside for the summer and just start. Any suggestions?

5. Sugar Detox. With company and lots of gatherings, some of those healthier habits went by the wayside. I’m starting 21-Day Sugar Detox in the next week. I’ve done a Whole 30 before and generally we eat real food style, but sugar is definitely a sweet spot.

6. Get Outside. Okay. Honestly? I love the idea of being a naturalist. But I’m also a homebody, so getting outside for me is watering the garden or checking the mail. My goal for June (and the summer really) is to try to get outside with the kids every day. No time limit, because we live in the South Carolina where 90 degrees feels like 100 and five minutes standing outside warrants a shower. But, sweat aside, I really do want us to get outside more and go exploring. I even made us a Summer Adventures sheet.

7. New Blog Design. I’ve been itching for a makeover for awhile now.  My goal for June is to get all the ducks in a row to make that happen. Soon. Because it looks like 2007 up in here.

How is your June shaping up? Any goals?

linking up with The Tiny Twig & other goal setters

How do you know if your child is ready for an activity? Observe their sensitive periods, try an activity and if they maintain interest then continue. If not, look for ways to adapt it to their level or interest.

Sensorial Activities for Toddlers

The soft and hard basket is a simple activity drawing the child’s attention to the difference in firmness between objects. For this activity, I gathered four hard items and four soft items from around the house. When presenting this activity, take the items out one at a time. Laying it on the mat state whether it is hard or soft, with soft objects on one side and hard objects on the other.

For example, if I took the sock out of the basket I would turn it over in my hands feeling it and then say, “This is soft.” I would invite the child to feel the sock, when they’re done I’d take the sock and say again, “This is soft,” laying it on the soft side of the mat.

Remember when presenting lessons it’s important to keep your words simple and not to embellish. There’s no need to say, “This is a sock. The sock is soft. Do you think the sock is hard or soft?” The fewer the words, the better.

Sound cylinders are one of the easiest and delightful Montessori sensorial materials to make at home. Children love to hear the different sounds each cylinder makes. Beginning discoverers will be content to shake the cylinders, while older tots will be interested in matching the sounds.

When presenting the lesson, have one color be the control (eg, blue). Shake the first blue cylinder, then shake the first red cylinder. If the sounds are the same set them aside on the top right of the mat. If they don’t match, then set the red cylinder down in its place. Shake the blue control cylinder again, then shake the second red cylinder. Continue until the first blue cylinder has found its match, then proceed to the next blue cylinder.

How to Make:  I made 3 sets of sound cylinders (2 sugar, 2 rice, 2 beans) with a red sticker on the first and a blue on the second.  I used old, plastic spice jars. After washing, I cut a piece of black construction paper to size and placed it in the jar, then put in the material. For these jars, I wanted the sounds to be very distinct so in order from softest to loudest I choose sugar, rice, then beans.

Extension 1: Increase  the amount of sound cylinders.

Extension 2: Vary the degree of sound by sorting similar sounds (sugar, qunioa, barley, rice, etc).

Extension 3: Sort the cylinders from loudest to softest.

Alternative: Sound Cylinders from Montessori Outlet.

To help a child begin to learn and differentiate their colors, a color sorting activity is helpful. I’d suggest starting with the primary colors (red, blue, yellow). In this activity, I gathered 3 items of two colors. It worked out that I had an old Melissa & Doug container with a divider. It would work just as well with two colored pieces of cardstock on a mat.

In presenting the lesson, name the color of the object and place it in the correct spot. Continue until all the items are sorted. Return the items to the basket and invite the child to do the activity.

Extension 1: Increase the number of colors sorted.

Extension 2: Play a game of color scavenger hunt. Ask the child to find and bring you “something that is red.”

Alternative: After the child is two and three colors well, you could introduce Color Box 1 (from Montessori Outlet).

Give the child a variety of textures to feel and explore with a texture box. Combine different grains, beans, sand, or river stones for a quick and easy texture box. If you’re looking for more variety consider pom poms, ribbon, fabric, seasonal erasers, or large beads. I prefer a grain-based box, because it mimics the sand tray children will work with in their pre-writing activities.

Please keep in mind the age of the child you’re preparing for and whether the objects are too small for eager mouths.

Spooning ice is a great activity for a hot summer day or even a rainy day. All you need is two bowls, ice, a slotted spoon, and a towel. Demonstrate to the child how to spoon the ice between bowls, then invite them to continue the activity. Depending on your mess comfortability, you can add water to the ice.

Extension 1: Use tongs instead of a spoon to transfer the ice.

Extension 2: Decrease the size of the bowl and the amount of ice and have the child transfer the melting ice with a sponge or syringe.

As with the color sorting activity, starting simpler is better. Pick two shapes in the same size (and, if possible, all shapes the same color), on a piece of cardstock draw a line down the middle of the paper, and then trace one of each shape at the top.

When introducing the activity, pick up the first shape and name it, “This is a circle.” Then give it to the child to feel. Once the child is done exploring the shape, say again, “This is a circle.” and place the circle on the outline. This will be your control. Do the same for the square. Continue sorting the shapes.

Extension 1: Vary the size of the shapes, still keeping between two shapes.

Extension 2: Increase the amount of shapes by 1 or 2.

Extension 3: Sort by shape and color.

Alternative: Imabcure Box (Homemade Tutorial) or Shape Sorter* – for younger tots, Shape Sorter– for older tots

A fabric board is another great way to introduce different textures to the child. This example is a toddler-friendly verison of the traditional Montessori fabric box, because there are less pieces for the child to move. In this activity, take a fabric square and feel it describing the texture in one or two words (soft, silky, bumpy, rough, etc) and then going one by one across the board take the square and ask, “Are they the same?” until you match the fabrics. Continue with the work or have the child continue the activity.

How to Make:  I cut a piece of styrofoam poster board to a size that would fit on our trays, then glued squares of varying fabric textures to the board with a spray adhesive. For the fabric tiles, I cut smaller squares from balsa wood (you can find at your local craft store) with a craft knife and glued fabric squares to fit. It’s not as pretty as I’d like, but it works.

Alternative: For older children, the fabric box might be a good, long-term option. The child matches different swatches of fabric.

Simple puzzles are a great activity for a child in deciphering size and shape. My ideal first puzzle for a would be a one shape (for younger tots) or three shape puzzle (see the example below from Montessori Outlet).

How to Make: Using a picture or a piece of scrapbook paper with a graphic, draw a simple shape (square, triangle, rectangle), then draw a 3 piece puzzle. Cut and laminate, if you wish. Make an outline of the puzzle on another piece of paper as the control. Another option would be to make your own 1-3-piece puzzle of varying shapes out of styrofoam board or balsa wood.

Extension: Constructive Triangle Box 1

Alternative: Simple Puzzle from Montessori Outlet

The Pink Tower is a standard in the Montessori environment. The full tower is ten cubes each increasing by 1cm, the smallest cube being only a centimeter. For toddlers, I only use the five largest cubes. For this work, have the child help you carry each cube, individually, to the mat. Once all the cubes are on the mat, begin building the tower with the largest cube. Invite the child to place the next cube to build the tower. If the child chooses the wrong cube, point out the error by saying “Is this cube (the error) bigger or smaller than this cube (pointing to the correct cube)?” If the child is able to respond

Alternative: Pink Tower from Montessori Outlet

I so enjoyed introducing Olivia to the knobbed cylinders. The first day she continued going back to the block. She’d carry each cylinder to me, then after I had all ten she’d come back for them one by one and return them to the block. She’d sit with it in her lap or carry it to different rooms. The knob cylinders teach the difference between height and diameter. Block A (shown) decreases in height and diameter.

Alternative: Alison’s Montessori carries a toddler set of all four knob cylinder blocks with the first five cylinders in each block. This gives the younger children a chance to work with each block without worrying about the size of some of the smaller cylinders.

Note on Ages: For the purposes of these activities, I’m defining toddlers anywhere between the ages of 15 months to 2.5 years. As with all activities, there is not a one age fits all. What one child is able to do at 18 months, another child may not be able to do at 22 months. Each child develops at his or her own pace.

What are your toddler’s favorite sensorial activities?

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Our house is a home of readers. One wall of our living room is covered nearly floor to ceiling in books. It’s a great joy to pass on a love of reading to our children. But what about the littlest ones who hardly sit long enough to flip the pages?

I’m sure you’ve had those days when you imagined quaint afternoons reading to your littles, but instead it turns into the toddler flipping through the pages faster than you can finish a sentence.  We can it the ‘Flip It’ stage  and each of my children have gone through it. They’re just interested in moving the pages of the book. It’s part of their sensitive period for movement. The pages just keep moving until there are no more, then the child is done. It’s fine. Frustrating at times, but where the child’s at.

It’s sweet when the young child begins to slow the turning of pages to notice the pictures and begin to point to details in the illustrations. Olivia has, for the most part, finished her flip it stage and I love how she curls up on my lap waiting for me to finish reading before turning the page.

Because I love books, I generally like to have them everywhere, even in the kids rooms. I’ve scaled back recently with books in Olivia’s room, noticing she consistently picks out the same 4 to 5 books. Occasionally, I’ll switch up a few of the books, but I’ll find her favorites back in her room a few hours later.

Her absolute favorite, the book she brings to nap and bedtime, is Eric Carle’s classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? It’s easy to see why it’s a favorite. Bright, simple pictures of animals. It’s a plus that our board book has a slide and find window on each page to see what the animal sees. Olivia’s sense of order is beginning to show, because she’ll now go through the book to close all the windows.

Red Wagon by Renata Liwska tells the story of a little fox with a new red wagon who wants to play, but is sent on an errand for her mother. Along the way she goes on many adventures with her little red wagon. While not able to grasp the imagination aspect of the book, Olivia loves to follow the red wagon across the pages.

Olivia Counts is an obvious choice for our own little Olivia. It’s short enough to keep her attention as we count the items on each page. We’re still in the “flip it” stage for the first Olivia book.

I Am a Bunny is a classic book with quaint illustrations mid-century Golden books are famous for. The colors and creatures on each page keep her interested and we’ve even begun to call one of the bunnies who visits our yard Nicholas Bunny. Another favorite is One Bear Lost which follows a group of bears out of hibernation losing one bear with each silly escapades until they all find each other once again.

With how often we’re reading these books, Olivia’s vocabulary is increasing (brown bear, wagon, bear, bunny) and when asked questions about the pictures she’s able to point to the answer. It’s fun to see and experience with her the joy of favorite books!

A few other notable favorites are Giggle, Giggle, Quack (Doreen Cronin), Piggies and The Napping House (Don & Audrey Wood), Moo Baa La La La (Sandra Boynton), and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Helen Oxenbury).

What are some of your favorite board books for toddlers?

*This post contains affiliate links.

I hear it all the time from mom’s, “The internet makes me feel like a failure.”

I get it. I really do. It’s easy to see the million and one activities landscaped across beautifully decorated rooms on Pinterest and think ‘Am I the only mom not making homemade…everything?’ It’s easy to see the piles of unfolded laundry beginning to mix with the dirty laundry, the crumbs on the floor, and that curtain rod you meant to hang two months ago still waiting in the corner. It’s easy to think everyone else has it all together and their kids magically obey their every word and think each activity and idea is the best thing ever.

But that’s just not true.

There was a day a few weeks ago where our school time was just not working. Like, not at all. I was growing more and more frustrated insisting Joey do his math correctly, while he was pretending he didn’t know how to count above 30. *insert dead stare* Yeah. It was one of those times you’re irrationally frustrated and you know things are only going to escalate.

I wanted to make the day work so bad. I had plans for our theme unit. (By the way, we started our human body unit in February and we’re still working on. You’re not the only way “behind.”) Plans to happily read books curled up on the couch together, to encourage the kids to do practical life and work on extensions with the pink tower and brown stair.

But I also knew that if I kept pushing (hello, so not Montessori), the day and our attitudes would only get worse. Still frustrated and disappointed, I stopped my pushing and we put away the materials and went our separate ways.

It’s days like that, which happen more often than I’d like them to, where I feel like a failure as a home educator, Montessorian, and parent. I’ve lost my temper. I’ve done the opposite of my educational beliefs and I feel like I need to give up my Montessori card.

At the end of the day I was sharing with a friend how the whole day was derailed. But as I was going over the things that happened instead, I realized by letting go of my plan we shared real life within the Montessori schism. The boys made their own sandwiches for lunch (practical life), they played board games (community, taking turns, following rules), Joey worked with Otto on his numbers (older child helping/teaching the younger). This was a special moment I got to listen as the boys were playing a card game and Joey began to hold up two cards and ask Otto which number was bigger. It was amazing to see how Joey naturally knew how to teach him and Otto followed. Even when Otto answered incorrectly, Joey would simply ask him again which number was bigger.

It was everything I could have asked for in a school day. It just didn’t happen the way I planned.

But here’s what I think. We can come up with these great big ideals, but when they don’t work the way we expected them too, when life’s regular interruptions occur, we can hold on so tightly to our ideals we begin to lose sight of what’s important. If I’m trying so hard to fit our lives into this square image of how I think Montessori homeschooling should work for us it’s going to be a battle. I’m going to miss things and become the drill instructor instead of the guide.

Sometimes we need to loosen our ideals to let in the real living, and with that the true learning, while leaving our misplaced guilt at the door. Follow the child. Watch and observe. What do they need? It’s not always what’s written in our planner.

What’s a lesson you’ve learned recently?