Potty Training, Party Planning, Muffins & Montessori

Since the transition from sippy cups to drinking glasses went so smoothly for Froggy Boots, I decided we might as well get started on potty training.  So, beginning Monday morning, she has been wearing cloth training underwear.  I had already decided years before I even gave birth to Froggy Boots that I would not use pull-ups, which seem to be the most popular route for potting training these days. 

I have seen very few children actually do well with pull-ups.  They are essentially a diaper that can be pulled up and down easily -- which means that they give the child the same sensation when wet as a diaper would (basically they keep the wetness away from the child).  In order for potty training to work, most children must experience that uncomfortable wet feeling you can only get from wearing underwear.

Something I learned over the last couple weeks while doing research into the Montessori method is that the sensitive period for potty training a child is from around 18 months to around 24 months.  So, we definitely missed that mark with Froggy Boots.  A few months ago (around 19 months) she was very interested in using the potty.  She was using it about once or twice a day consistently until she got sick for the first time in her short little life.  At this point she lost interest.  If I had known then what I know now, I would have put her in underwear then.  And, my guess is, she would be potty trained completely by now.  Oh well!

So, Froggy Boots has been wearing underwear now for about 3 1/2 days (except during nap and at night).  She has only successfully used the potty once -- which means the rest of the time she is wetting her underwear.  Her interest in using the potty has definitely diminished (we are at the 24 month mark this weekend) since she was 19 months old.  But, we shall continue!  At some point she will get tired of having to change out of wet underwear over and over again and she will begin to use the potty.  Right now my number one job is to keep an even keel and let the process unfold as it may.

Here is an interesting article I found regarding toileting the Montessori way:
http://montessoritraining.blogspot.com/2007/02/toileting-montessori-way.html

As I mentioned previously, Froggy Boots is nearing the 24 month (2 year) mark.  Her birthday is June 19th (this weekend).  Although her party is not planned until the following weekend, we do have plans to celebrate this weekend.  In honor of father's day (which is also June 19th) and Froggy Boots' birthday, we are going to attend a library sponsored children's rock concert!  I am not yet sure how we will handle the potty training while we are at this event, but a lot can change for a toddler in 3 days time, so we will just play it by ear at this point.

The following weekend we will be celebrating Forggy Boots' birthday with family and friends at a local park.  Since she loves Thomas the Tank Engine, the theme for the party will be Thomas.  I spent a couple hours yesterday during Froggy Boots' nap shopping for Thomas party supplies.  Some supplies I purchased at Target (because the Thomas party stuff they did carry was priced the lowest) and the rest I purchased at Party City, which is in the same shopping complex as Target. 

It was really nice to get out of the house for a while.  Since we started this whole potty training thing, Froggy Boots and I have literally not left the house at all, except to go in the backyard and play.  This was a huge change after the last couple weeks of having something planned away from home every day of the week.

Since we have been stuck in the house for a few days, I decided making muffins would at least give us something different to do.  So, with the help of Froggy Boots, I made some cinnamon applesauce muffins from some of the homemade applesauce I had in the basement freezer.  Froggy Boots really liked helping to add and stir the ingredients -- she would have been just as happy to try and do the whole thing herself!

During her nap, I also made some banana oatmeal muffins.  I had a whole slew of bad bananas in the freezer waiting to be used!

In my previous post, I included a link to some pink scheme Montessori materials that I made.  After printing the word labels out for the picture/word matching activity, I decided the words were to small.  So, I made them bigger.  Here are the updated pink scheme picture/word matching materials as well as the blue scheme picture cards and the blue scheme picture/word matching materials.  These are materials that I was unable to find for free online, so I decided to make them myself.  Hopefully they will be of use to others!

Graduation, Gardening, drinking Glasses, and some Great Montessori resources

I can't believe how busy I have been since preschool ended for the school year!  It seems like I've been gone for at least a portion of every day. 

This past Sunday we all headed to Dewitt, Michigan to see my step-daughter graduate from high school!  I can't believe that just under 8 years ago she was only 10 years old.  Time sure does go by fast. 

We got on the road as early as possible in order to get seats that would accommodate an almost 2-year-old toddler (Froggy Boots) who was quite possibly going to need to leave the ceremony at some point.  Fortunately for us, she sat through the whole ceremony without incident with the help of 3 new Thomas and Friends books and some snacks!  We were all truly amazed!

My step-daughter sang one final song with the choir before the ceremony began.  It was the same song that ended the final choir concert of the year as well -- "For Good" -- which is a tear jerker, for sure.  The choir did an amazing job as usual! 

The rest of the ceremony moved along pretty quickly -- it was probably the shortest graduation ceremony I've been to, which was a nice change of pace.  It seems like there is usually a speaker at these events that is determined to become the world record holder for the longest speech at a graduation ceremony.  Not the case with this commencement.  Everything was just about the right length of time.  There were a total of 3 speakers, including the principal and the valedictorian, and each spoke for a very reasonable amount of time.  All the way around, it was a nice graduation ceremony!

Here is a picture of my step-daughter as she is leaving the ceremony as an official high school graduate!

Here we all are after the ceremony.  Froggy Boots was a little camera shy with all the different people taking pictures of us.

Meanwhile, back at home, my vegetable garden has really made some major growth progress with all of the rain we were having up until recently.  Pay particular attention to the tomato plants to the left of the picture -- they have more than quadrupled in size since I planted them!

And, here is a picture of Froggy Boots helping to water the plants using the water from her kiddie pool.  She loves to help water the plants!

Also on the home front, our switch to child-size drinking glasses for Froggy Boots has been a great success!  She is using her new drinking glasses very well and does not ask for her sippy cups.  When we are in the car or out somewhere that it does not make sense to use a cup or a glass, she uses her water bottle.

Since we switched her to drinking glasses, Froggy Boots has refused to drink her soy milk from a drinking glass, so she just has not had any soy milk at all.  But, last night we finally had the breakthrough I knew would come eventually -- she asked for milk!  And, she drank almost a whole glass of her soy milk right before bed -- which is when she used to drink her milk from a sippy cup.

Here is a picture of Froggy Boots eating breakfast this morning -- with the glass of milk she asked for AGAIN!

Over the last week and a half since preschool ended for the summer, I have been searching all over online trying to find free printable Montessori pink and blue scheme picture cards to use in my classroom next school year.  For those who do not know, pink scheme picture cards are pictures of 3 letter phonetic nouns used with the moveable alphabet for word building.  And, the blue scheme picture cards are picture of 4 to 6 letter phonetic nouns used with the moveable alphabet for word building. 

After spending multiple hours looking, I finally came to the conclusion that I was either going to have to buy them or make them myself.  So, of course, I decided to make my own since that is much more cost effective and I already have plenty of materials that will need to be purchased, not made.  Here are the pink scheme picture cards for free download and here is some other pink scheme material I also made.  I am not finished with the blue scheme material yet, so I will post that when I have it complete.