Books - big ones, little ones, red ones, blue ones....you get the picture 📚. Picture books, tactile books, reality based, imaginative books, books on our planet and everything that goes on here, nature books, life event books (dentist, doctors) Any Books 😃 and of course read to your child as often as you can and repeat the favourites.
Language Games - Simon says, I Spy, Memory games, Follow instruction games, Things beginning with game........I’m sure you have more, great in the car, whilst out walking, the train etc etc.
Whilst continuing to use all the above resources you can also start Preparing your child for Writing, your child probably has anyway.
Pincer grip (picking up that last rice-crispy of the floor 😉)
Flexibility of wrist and hand (pushing the toy shopping trolley)
Hand eye coordination (fitting the last toy car into the garage)
Inserts for Design (tracing shape boards)
These are shapes that a child can hold and trace around, they help movement and flexibity, lightness of touch.
Sandpaper Letters - A multi sensory way for children to learn their letters and sounds, lower case letters made of sandpaper stuck onto a card or board. As the child traces the sandpaper letter, phonetically saying the sound out loud lets our brain record and remember “ahhh as I touch this funny little swirl it sounds like this”. We have a visual impression of the shape and sound.
Large Movable Alphabet (LMA) - Cut out small case letters that a child can use to make words without physically writing, no worry’s about crossing out or making mistakes. Plus again they have that sensory feeling of touching and tracing the sounds just like the sandpaper letters.
So whilst continually using all the above resources we can look at Montessoris Pink Series, all words used will be 2 and 3 letter phonic words.
Pink box 1 - 5 or 6 objects representing three letter phonic words eg dog, rug, pen. LMA
Pink box 2 - 5 or 6 picture cards with three phonic letter words eg cat, sun, van. LMA
Pink box 3 - 5 or 6 objects representing three letter phonic words with corresponding word cards.
Pink box 4 - 5 or 6 picture cards representing three letter phonic words with corresponding word cards.
Pink box 5 - 3 or 4 pieces of folded paper, each with a three letter phonic word written on it.
This is only an introduction and I will go through everything separately with photos and more instructions, there is also further work with the Blue and Green Series. This is only my interpretation of Montessori for the home not the classroom. Montessori is such an amazing way for children to “Love to Learn” and I hope you find something here that is helpful to you and your child.
