I've been super busy studying, and studying at home with a four-year-old has been much harder than I anticipated. Otto asked me for some new activities, which he has never done before. It was a reminder to update his shelves. I don't have a lot of time, I just finished one assignment and have another due on Monday, so I made some simple printouts that I hope would appeal to him. I can download and print the Etsy activities straight away, so I don't have to look for workbooks or wait for something to be delivered, within half an hour I can have this all set up.  If I had more time I might have done it differently, but right now it's a balance. Let's see which activities I made (quickly!) that worked for him. These are not specific Montessori activities but I hope they still give you some ideas to use with your children.  

Frog and Fly Mazes  - these are simple 'first' mazes. I wish there were more in this pack, I might look for more complex mazes soon. This is a good option for a child who is new to mazes. 

Mazes are good for pencil control and developing coordination.

These were not too easy, not too hard. 

CVC Word Hunts - this is a lovely idea for children learning CVC words. Otto hasn't done any word searches before and this is a good introduction. 

I had to demonstrate these as, at first, he just circled the individual letters, not the whole words. 

This was interesting as the words can also go down. There are lots of word searches in the pack, and Otto has now done the same ones over and over without getting bored.

1 to 10 Dot to dot - these are good for developing pencil control and for number recognition. The dot to dot 1-10 were a little too easy, but this pack also contains sheets for dot to dot numbers 1-20, which we will try next.

I presented these with markers, which make it colourful and gives the child more choice. 

These are cute and really interested Otto! 

Spot the differences - we've been doing spot the differences all week; Otto loves them so much. These ones have twelve differences and take him a while to finish, they are just at the right level. 

I've presented three spot the difference sheets on the tray, to give the child a choice and also because he will often do two in one sitting. I can get a good 15-20 minutes of study in while he does these. Also, I've altered the printables, these come with the answers on the same page; I've removed the answers before printing. The answers are good for control of error, so do what you think would suit your child best. 

Counting Cube sheets - using MathLink Cubes. You can see how we've previously used MathLinke Cubes here. 

Following these cards was fairly easy, but it gave Otto more ideas; afterwards, he engaged in more open-ended play, making his own creations with the MathLink cubes. 

Shadow Puppet Hand Guides  - just add a torch, and you have everything you need for some fun play time. 

After a while, I put a piece of blu-tack on the wall and the basket of cards on the floor so Otto could put the card on the wall and then make the shadow. This is fun for two or more children to do together, and they will also learn about how light and shadows work, all through play! You don't have to wait for night, we just used the corner of a room and closed a curtain, it was dark enough to create a shadow. 

Otto (4yrs) uses the blue BIC beginner pencil and the Ferby Short Tri Grip graphite pencils. 

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