The Kavanaugh Report

Please note that this post was written toward the beginning of our Montessori journey. I no longer recommend this way of letter learning, nor do I find trays like this necessary from a Montessori perspective. This isn't to say that none of these could be used in a Montessori environment, but these are Montessori inspired and not often found in traditional toddler environments. - Nicole, 2018 And our weekly trays are back! We stopped co-op in the spring with the letter M, so after a welcome back week, we started up with the letter N.  Henry has fun with these trays but didn't choose to work with them as much. There is so much work in the classroom now that he has a lot of other choices.  The first tray for letter N week was a net activity. One large bowl was filled with water and some foam blocks . The children would use a small fishing net to transfer the blocks from one bowl to the next.  This was by far the most popular work this week. ...

I fully admit it this -- Morgan and I aren't the easiest to please when it comes to crowds. Most of the time we're low on patience and high on the hangries. We still go plenty of places where we have to fight crowds, we do live in the city after all, but it's nice on those rare occasions when we find perfect places for us.  It's officially fall in Minnesota, hot afternoons follow chilly mornings. The leaves are changing and the days are rapidly getting shorter. To celebrate Morgan and I recently went to pick apples.  Perfection . We found a lovely little farm -- Whistling Well Farm -- and had a blast. As we wandered around we actually got to pick {and eat} apples! We didn't have to fight for parking or feel guilty about sitting in the car as our two children both napped {a miracle!}  They had chickens, turkeys, dogs and donkeys to see and pet! All for free! Then,  I got to eat the best apple I've ever had in my life ...

I can't believe that summer is over! It was a quick one! Today, I wanted to share the printables I made for tot school fall theme last fall. We will be using some of these again soon! I hope you enjoy them as much as we have. Find the printable here!

"The days are long, but the weeks are short." This pretty much sums up how I feel about life lately. A constant mix of my work is never done, and everything is moving to fast. Nora is growing and changing right before our eyes. It's amazing the difference a month can make. At 3-months-old, Nora is so happy and easy-going. I don't have any growth stats, but she is mostly in 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. Her eyes are still very light blue and she has very light spikey hair. She's getting bigger and has completely lost the newborn baby look. She's more alert and responsive. Nora coos, tries to copy sounds and faces, laughs and squeals. She's hardly ever super crabby and rarely really screams. Nora is still nursing a ton! Usually 12-17 times a day. I feel lucky if we make it an hour or more without nursing during the day. I'm trying to accept that she's just a snacker. This month Nora has slept m...

{A note from 2022 Nicole: This post is a great look at where a Montessori journey can begin. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. You don't need to be a Montessori purist or have all the right things to incorporate Montessori from birth. So, I'm leaving this post mostly as it was written so help you understand our Montessori journey and where we started. With that said, a lot of what I say here is not what I think now, or how we approach babies in our home. Check out some newer posts for a more complete look at how to use Montessori at home with your newborn.} With Henry, I had absolutely no idea what Montessori was before he was around 13-14 months old. He was around 18 months when we really started to shift our home in a Montessori direction. With Nora, we have had the opportunity to do things differently from the start.  As I mentioned when I was pregnant we purged all the baby toys -- getting rid of anything with batteries. It's been nice not having a con...