A Montessori Journey is written by a talented educator using Montessori to homeschool children.

Montessori Practical Life for the Holidays!
Gift Bags- you can make prints on plain paper bags with your child for gift giving. This link has some print ideas. Use different sizes and shapes of plain bags. Dry and punch holes at the open top of the bag. Let your child lace through ribbon or twine to tie up the gift bag.

Make a potpourri orange ball.
You’ll need an orange and lots of whole cloves.
Show your child how to push cloves into the orange skin.
If the skin is very thick, pierce the skin with a darning needle first.
This is a fun family activity that almost everyone can do.

Try this: Observe how the orange changes every day.
Does it get smaller or larger?
If you have a food scale, weigh the orange every other day.
Make a chart showing numerically and with colored bars the different weights.
What makes the orange loose weight? (The water evaporates from the orange making it lighter.)

Hint: Younger children can do this activity by using an apple instead of an orange.

abc teach has lots of fun activities for different age groups. Arts and Crafts for Kids and much more… It’s a great site!

This review for the newest Harry Potter movie ends with this-
‘ “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release, is rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images…’

Also, the article states there is a difference between reading the book and watching the movie,
“But reading it on the page and seeing it on the screen can be two entirely different experiences, and several scenes will be disturbing to viewers regardless of age.’

Violent images imprint on your mind, and it is difficult for young children to over come this trama.

The Reel has links for patterns for kids to sew. Fleece is a wonderful fabric. You just sew and go. Sewing hats and gloves for others is a great way to give to your community.

Frugal Underground has some great free links. I love the free printouts for boxes and bags. This would be a fun family activity. The boxes and bags would make great containers for gifts or treasures. Folding is great for fine motor skills, math, and science. There is acutally a branch of mathematics based on folding planes.

The Montessori stamp printout is usually presented when your child knows how to tell time. You can start with the whole hours first.
On the printout we usually write out times such as six o’clock, four o’clock, etc. Your child draws the long hand on 12 and small hand on 6, and so on. . Lastly, we introduced 12 o’clock, since both hands are drawn to 12.
Next, introduce half hours, quarter hours, and minutes.
Also, you can reverse the exercise and have your child write out the time from the filled in printout.
Four and five year olds love this activity.

Discovery School has great free clip art-I found the number and alphabet clip art for signing would make excellent Montessori Nomenclature cards for math, language and reading.
I just clicked on the picture, highlighted the art work, went to file and clicked on print, clicked on the select circle and printed. They are just the right size and can be used after you make the labels.