Learning sign language? We still are. We found this fantastic site with little videos of the signs and even descriptions for memory associations, to learn it faster! It allows up to 5 sings at a time, or if you register (we tried their free registration) – 10 signs at a time. Fully registered users get unlimited number of searches, but then it requires a fee. 10 signs per session (we do a few sessions a day) is more then enough for us. Really worth to check it out: Sign Savvy.

UPDATE: after the trial period, with free membership we actually getting 5 signs at a time and memory aids are available only for a fee.

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In response to some requests to provide more illustrations for the diy projects that we undertook to enhance our baby’s environment, I finally started posting pictures. See our Pull-up post and its description here: Illustration of the Pull Up Bar for the most adorable pulley in your house.

It was a long break. But no time went wasted: I was working on a really fascinating project, that I’ll be thrilled to share: Montessori Continent Box Swap! Seven moms got into a game, seven moms picked a continent, seven moms created their own collection of items for the continent they picked and sent their collection to everyone else. I picked Europe and spent the next three months “traveling” all over this amazing place in my daydreams… While I am still preparing more details and the materials for posting on the web, here is one of the games that I’ve included into my “Europe box”.
Art Bingo: covers Low and High Renaissance.
I am planning to add a few more art-styles over the time. So far – we’ve got some pocker chips and my own kids absolutely loved it, while I tremendously enjoyed learning so much about the artists, and the paintings of this period.

Another wonderful free resource for baby’s development in music: Montessori Bells online. This is a free internet based program for discrimination of musical sounds by pairing and ordering, developing pitch identification. Presented in a form of fun and interactive game, this program mimics extremely expensive, but absolutely ingenious Montessory bell material: children manipulate “virtual” bells, ordering them, matching, having fun while their ear gets finer attuned to various musical sequences and notes. Very beneficial regardless of weather your are upbringing a professional musician, or just would like to expand your child’s horizons and developmental possibilities.

My older one, Sunshine, is a true fan of the Magic School Bus series. He knows every cartoon by heart. He loves every single book I could find. So when I found their phonics series, I was very excited – and there was a good reason: he loved it!!! Every book is on a different subject. Every book has list of words in the beginning. Every book has facts listed at the back. And, the best one – it has clear simple text with excellent illustrations. Not too busy, not too difficult, neither too easy. It doesn’t teach phonics, it is merely a set of Level 1 books. An excellent collection. Highly, highly recommended.

We had a rear and wonderful opportunity to spend the weekend with friends. Aaaah, the awesome pre-children days (did they ever happen?), when we could spend so much time just chatting, admiring the nature, the music… Now most of our friends are getting kids of their own and we finally get to see them more often: our kids enjoy a playdate; parents, as my teenage nephew put it – enjoy hanging out together. Though, I’ve got to admit that this time we came back with really mixed feelings. I can’t stop thinking about it.

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My little one, Smiles, really doesn’t care about the animals. He happily moos and baas for them in the pictures… but honestly prefers the trucks and tractors to any adorable furry creature. Boys will be boys. So, I created a Russian Transport Alphabet for this car-loving gentleman:
Russian Trasport Azbuka

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I started showing word cards to my older son when he was about 6 months. He wasn’t really interested. So, I came up with a thousands of ways to get his attention: we were vacuum cleaning the words, wiping it, jumping over them, doing forward rolls, watching them in the car, hanging in the hallway (see more at Alternative Ways of Showing Cards to An Active Child)… With my first one I was freaking out all the time: “Is it working?”, “Is he learning?”, “Why he is just looking at the pictures in the books and not reading it?!”.

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Have you heard of Waldorf? I often stumble upon that name, when I search on Montessori schools/materials. Is it an alternative? Is it another educational philosopher, scientist in search of enlightenment in children’s education? Enlightenment – surely yes, though not in the same way I envisioned… as “light” is the not only philosophical concept, but also the reality: due to the particular attention of the school to the artistic expression, black, brown colors are mostly banned in the school. Biblical Eve has to be represented with a fair skin and blond hair. You would ask, what difference does it make? Apparently, “search for light” can have a greater influence on the rest of the children’s education, then just reflection of number of crayons in the box.

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