Montessori tools: alphabet cards and the senses

Montessori classrooms have sandpaper letters which help children learn the alphabet. The individual letters are made from sandpaper and each pasted onto a square board. Not only can children see and arrange the letters freely, but they can learn the alphabet through touch.The added sensation  further enhances the learning experience, according to Maria Montessori.

Today I made not sandpaper letters but tinfoil ones stuck onto pink cardboard squares (recycled from packaging) I made my daughter's name in English and Japanese. She was quite enamored with them and lined them up on the dining table, then the coffee table. She is quite into seeing her name now. Friends have given her pictures for her birthday with her name written on it, and I've also been sewing her name into her clothes for starting at nursery.

Now could be the start of her sensitive period for letters...I'll keep an eye on how things go.

本棚を赤ちゃんの手届く場所に・ A bookcase for your little one

モンッテソーリのアイデアの一つ。自分の家をちょっとだけでもモンッテソーリ環境を作ってみませんか？ 子供の絵本を大人と同じ本棚に入れる事。子供の手が届く位置に置いて、そしていつでも、自分のしたい時に、本を出したり、読んだり出来ます。
同じように、冷蔵庫に磁石アルファベットを置いたら、子供の気が向いた時にすぐ使えます。最初は顔を作ったり遊んだり、そして文字の音を教えたり、子供と家族の名前を書いたり出来ます。

A bookcase for the little ones: One of Montessori's ideas. This is an easy way to make a part of your house a prepared environment in the Montessori Way. Designate a space on your bookshelf for your baby's books, and make it within his or her reach. Then your baby can take a book and read whenever he or she fancies.

In the same way, you can put magnetic letters on your fridge for your older child to play with whenever she or he desires. You can start out making faces and playing with them. Then you can progress to talking about the letter sounds and perhaps spelling out your child's name or those of family members.

Learning the alphabet 楽しいアルファベット

My daughter is only two and a half so I certainly don't want to force her to memorize letters at the moment.

Maria Montessori noted that children learn from a well prepared environment, so here's what I'm doing at home. My daughter loves to open the fridge. So on the fridge I've stuck an A4 sheet with the alphabet on and a corresponding picture for each letter. I also have a set of alphabet flash cards, and I select a couple of those to stick on the fridge and change them occasionally.

So everytime she goes to the fridge she sees the alphabet. We have a chat about what's up there, but I just keep it light.
We also have magnetic letters up there too. She makes great faces with them, and then a great mess with them on the floor.

Teaching the days, months and weather

We have a wonderful fabric calendar on our wall which we change every day. It has all the days, months, years and weather on little fabric squares stuck on with velcro. It's so colourful, it really cheers up the wall in our kitchen. And it's so much fun to set all the information for the day!! It's really easy for my daughter to use and many a morning she opens the curtains and announces, "It's a sunny day!!"