Dice games are for both young and old. Counting the dots on the dice is a wonderful way to teach counting. Teaching odds with the roll of the dice is as easy as a 1 in 6 chance. Large dice are best for young children, they are easier to handle and to count.

I love spiders. They are such helpful little creatures. Here is a great site with lots of lesson ideas about spiders. October is a fun time to study spiders.

Down-load-a-Dinosaur has lots of cool dinosaur downloads. Your kids will love this!

This article has some interesting insight to Montessori’s education influence in India. She spent a great deal of time in India during World War II, and was temporarily imprisoned there as an Italian citizen by English officials. A large part of my studies were about Montessori’s fascination with infants and young children and their interplay within a loving family environment. She was one of the first people who noticed that babies and young children in institutions often exhibited a failure to thrive. Her stay in India during the war made it possible for her to study of young children.

She had always wanted to focus on this younger age group but never had the opportunity before. She found it highly exciting and advantageous to study infants in Indian families since they were at the center of attention.

Montessori was favorably impressed by the love and attention babies in third world countries received. I think much of the modern Montessori infant movement has lost this important point. Instead of worrying about not using strollers, baby packs, slings, cribs, and toys, I think we need to focus on enjoying and loving our babies and children.

This has some good Montessori science lessons for elementary science.

How may different shapes and colors are there of tomatoes? It seems infinite! I have yellow pear shaped tomatoes, small, medium and large red ones, the list and quantity seem to go on and on this year.
Flicker has some nice photos to share. They would make nice Montessori reading cards or 3 part cards.

Maren Schmidt’s article dealing with bullying was timely. I just received a letter from a mom whose son is being bullied in his Montessori classroom. It has become such a problem that her child doesn’t want to go to school. I know it breaks his heart to be picked on. I think that bullying is something that many people think as a normal part of childhood, but I couldn’t disagree more.

Teaching our children to stop bullying may take some special skills.
My son was always smaller than his peers so he was often bullied. We talked to the school, and did all we could. When I told the principal about the bullying going on in the school yard and she told me it wasn’t her problem. Also, the teachers were non- responsive. So we had to figure out how to take care of the problem ourselves. Eventually, my son took karate classes. As soon as some his classmates found out he was taking karate, they stopped the hitting and pushing. Karate taught my son to avoid fights. even if you have to run away from conflict, but if you had to defend yourself, do it as gently as possible.

Boys tend to be more aggressive and physical, they would rather hit and push. Girls , on the other hand, hurt others with their words in the form of gossip, rejection and exclusion. It’s more difficult to deal with words because you need to find out who is telling the truth. If you hear your daughter and friends gossiping, excluding certain friends and even make fun of people put a stop to it. It’s important to help them understand how they would feel if someone did this to them.

Teachers can help by not permitting gossiping, teasing and bullying in their classroom. It’s time to take Montessori’s grace and courtesy back to society.

This is a great timeline for the history of computers. It’s a great addition for a Montessori elementary classroom activity. This one ties together math and computers.

80 percent of all American toys are made in China. With another recall of Chinese lead painted toys from Mattel, it’s time to make sure your children’s toys are safe from lead paint.
You can buy a lead paint test kit at your local big box hardware store.