Seven Quick Takes #4

See Jen for more Quick Takes!

One

I recently signed up for Twitter, but I can't decide how I want to use it.  Do I want to use it to jot down what we're doing throughout the day?  Or do I want to record the interesting things?  Or both? (There's a link to my Twitter page in my sidebar, if you're curious.)  I think I am expending an inordinate amount of time trying to squish my thought processes into 140 characters, but now I can say things like, "Retweet!  Retweet!  We'll fight again tomorrow!"  Because I am that kind of a geek.

Two

I recently picked up the book Montessori on a Shoestring because it looked like it might have some good ideas for activities for the twins.  When I received it, the first thing I thought was, "I wish I'd had this book when I was first starting out." That was back when Montessori materials were prohibitively expensive, and I was so intimidated by David Gettman's book Basic Montessori: Learning Activities For Under-Fives that I pretty much gave up on even investigating Montessori for a few years.  Jody's book is full of easy, cheap ideas using stuff you're almost sure to have around.  If you are just starting out with a child 5 or under and you're overwhelmed by all the Montessori mom blogs out there, this would be a good book for you, I think. 

Three

I actually bought Jody's book from Catholic Heritage Curricula, but in writing this post I got to poking around her site. The Cut and Color Mass Kit and the All Things Catholic Cards look really nifty.  I think a few of my kids (including the three year olds) would enjoy these.

Four

Another find... Advent Storybook: 24 Stories to Share Before Christmas.  Sweet stories from a mama bear to her baby bear to help him prepare for Christmas.

Five

I just opened the box of cheddar bunnies to find two duplos and a couple of snap-together baby links.  Doesn't everybody store their baby toys and snacks in the same box?

Six

My kids have decided - TODAY - that we should celebrate St. Nicholas Day.  We haven't in the past, and it kind of felt a little contrived to just add it in now, considering that even as a cradle Catholic AND a person of German descent I'd never heard of the whole shoe-thing until I was an adult and had lived in St. Louis for a few years.  So I was a bit taken by surprise when my kids agreed among themselves that they were going to put sugar cubes in their shoes tonight for St. Nicholas' donkey. 

But I am SURE that St. Nicholas is on it, because he's that kind of dependable guy.  Wink, wink. ;-)

Seven

The book that convinced my kids to celebrate St. Nicholas' Day was The Legend of Saint Nicholas, which I read to them while they worked on something they are calling "Clay World".  Clay World consists of various snails, mushrooms, and vines on the side of a cliff... all made out of clay, of course.  I ordered a 25 lb. block of clay from Dick Blick, some new (and better quality) clay tools, and I believe that it's paid off:

   

We put it in an air-tight container when they're done, and whenever they want to work on it again, they just smoosh everything back into the clay and start over.  In this case, it's the story that's important -- not a finished product.

Comments

[Kathy]

"Clay World" looks fun. Just the sort of ongoing project my children love to do. Must order that clay...

[Amy]

"Retweet! Retweet!" Love it. :)

I've basically given up on Twitter now that I've found Facebook. It gives me that same "mini-moment-blog" feel.

[Kerry Keating]

I love clay world! We had a similar clay thing going on, but we were using the little boxes of crayola clay. I think I'm still scraping it off of surfaces, but they were really involved with it for quite a while.

[Kerry Keating]

Also, thanks for recommending the Montessori book - I really need it, especially the "on a shoestring" aspect of it!

[Lori]

fantastic re: the clay!! :^D)

it wasn't as much as it sounds like, was it? :^)

and YES - such a great material to work with and use for expressing / constructing / exploring - whether you fire it or not!

yay!

[Marjorie]

I love the mushrooms and they clay idea! I may never get Caddie away from the table with that out. hey, my littlest sis just got me on Facebook, I thought I saw you there. True?