carpetlaurea

in the garden. B efore......last summer A ditch turned deeper and deeper a nd became a playground for grown up males   T he lawn had an extra layer of soil a serious amount of loads wheeled out.   A tidy pond needs daily cleaning....a butterfly net works excellent!   E ntwined in ivy and freshly cracked slate P erhaps a place for some mallards to grow a pair. I love these ones....take a look at Marieberg , a most charming place! Ia

A t last I had them exchanged for these A special order of 5 units   H andmade in the Netherlands   M ade out of copper and weathers beautifully in my garden   P retty in the dark, Ia P.s Scroll down if you'd like to see the old lighting.

1.     Your baby will enjoy nursery rhymes, finger plays and other shared games. If you can find a Suzuki ECE class nearby, try it out. The Suzuki and Montessori Philosophies are very compatible 2.     Anticipation and surprise are something new for your baby. Peek-a-Boo games, and toys that offer surprises will begin to provide amusement for your baby and some shared laughter 3.     Your baby’s interest in books is growing and they will want to start turning the pages and holding on to the book themselves. Make a homemade book with several blank pages, and then including one surprise page with a pattern on it, somewhere in the book. 4.     Family and friends you see regularly will soon become favourite people as your baby’s social awareness develops. Make a book of favourite people using a soft photo album, or a custom board book Your baby might begin teething at this age – offering toys that they can chew and bite will help ease uncomfortable sensations. The wooden ring from the

1.      Your baby is developing their hand skills from simple grasping to manipulating the objects that they hold. You can offer the Interlocking Discs to provide an opportunity to use two hands together – a new skill which needs practice 2.     Your baby has a natural attraction to faces and will love a simple doll figure at this age. Waldorf dolls make a lovely addition to your baby’s toys at this age, with their simple facial features and use of natural fibres in construction 3.     Sewing some interesting objects onto the toes of socks and popping them on your baby’s feet will provide an incentive to explore their feet, which they may have just begun to notice  4. Your baby is starting to develop the ability to choose. Offering a low shelf with three toys to choose from will help them to practice this skill. When rotating toys out, only change one of the toys at any time. Your baby has a strong sense of order and a need for sameness - change needs to happen slowly  5. Try offer

1.     By now you may have noticed your baby reaching out towards their mobiles and waving their arms about trying to bat at things. Offer your baby the Bell on a Ribbon for practising their batting skills 2.     Your baby’s sense of hearing is almost as acute as that of an adult. They will be highly motivated by sound and the opportunity to control the making of sounds. Offer your baby a variety of rattles and noise making toys to practice batting with. You might like to make a toy hanger to hang the batting toys from. 3.     Your baby’s reflexive grasping is being replaced by conscious control of their hand, even though their attempts at grasping are still crude. Provide lots of chances to grasp objects by choosing a selection of grasping toys that are light, small, interesting to look at and made of natural materials. Rotate the toys as your baby loses interest, keeping no more than 3 out at a time 4.     Up till now, your baby’s main form of communication has been through crying

1.     Your baby is developing their sense of vision and visual tracking abilities during this time. The Octahedron Mobile will provide something to focus on with its reflective, metallic finish and primary colours 2.     The Gobbi Mobile offers further visual information with its subtle gradations of colour, corresponding to your baby’s newly developed ability to see shades of colours 3.     Your baby has almost fully developed colour vision, but is now working on depth perception and dynamic visual focusing skills (focusing on moving objects). Offering a mobile that moves freely and gracefully (like the Dancers Mobile , or the alternative Harmony Wings Mobile) will meet this need 4.     Your baby might be interested in holding something. While their grasp is still reflexive (not consciously controlled), offering sensory stimulating in the form of the grasping beads will help this reflex to develop into a controlled movement Your baby’s pineal gland has started to produce higher le

Learn the art of infant massage – this will help you to calm an unsettled baby, and will provide valuable opportunities to connect on a physical level. It also answers your baby’s need for face to face time, which is essential for their beginning language development Your baby will be ready to transition into their floor bed sometime in these four weeks. A floor bed will allow your baby to see and move freely – both important conditions needed in the sensitive period for the development of internal order A mirror at floor level will give your little one a view of themselves and will help them to become more aware of themselves, and their body movements Place art work at eye level for your baby, and rather than having many pieces, avoid visual clutter by choosing and placing one piece and changing it out when your baby loses interest The Visual Mobile Series can be started during this month. Begin with the Munari Mobile which is designed to capture your child’s limited visual ca

Inspired by Kylie's 5 things series and a question from Sara in her online community forum , I am about to start a series of posts about 5 things you can create, do or provide for your baby in each month of their first year of life. To kick things off, here are 5 things your newborn may need... Your newborn’s consciousness revolves around their immediate physical experiences. Prepare a womb-like sleeping environment by making a Cestina (a traditional Montessori sleeping basket used during the symbiotic period) Your baby needs to get used to being carried and held. Help them to feel secure by making a Topponcino (a small, soft, flexible mattress useful for carrying baby, holding baby and transferring a sleeping baby from place to place). You can buy a Topponcino from Maria, in Greece. Your greatest opportunity to connect with your new baby is through your caregiving routines. Prepare the area for physical care (nappy changes, dressing) so that you can offer unhurried quality co

a family of penguins made for matching and puzzling...can be found here

one hour from Stockholm by car and a ferry, just in time for a late dinner and a nightcap on the jetty while the sun starts to set at 11pm . S hot with my iPhone and while my iBook is running free sharing the  same surf, blogging is a peace of cake. . I love hi tech on the island! Else I go for wild strawberries and some games of Scrabble, I think I will try the App for iPad. ☀ Ia ☀

O peration roofing exchange is finally completed. Almost all the mouldings have now been painted in white linseed oil. P innacles x 3 T his is the original from a french antique dealer, mounted onto the lower ridge. T he other two have been copied at the local foundry. P hoto shot late evening at 21 pm. T he décor by the ridges and the bargeboards we draw up by hand ourselves.   O utdoors lamps from Pradier in France.   Summer vacation starts now! Ia

M allows R oses H ydrangea ...... G eraniums V ine sneaking up on the hydrangea C lematis and ivy to the left,  hops to the right. I t's feels great to be back in charge of the garden again! All the plants are now in order and ready to meet with the summer season. The just need to spill themselves over to fill the espaliers to the top. ❤ Ia ❤

Spreading some love... Here is a free download to make a set of Inside Outside Fruit Cards . Simply print, laminate, cut and round the corners for a fun toddler activity. Toddlers do not learn from looking at pictures! They learn about their world by experiencing it through taste, touch, sight, hearing and smell. Please, please, please use these cards in the way they were designed to be presented... Choose one card, and then go out and buy that fruit from your grocer... Spend some time with your toddler looking at the fruit, touching it, smelling it...cut it open and taste it, tell her what it is called... When she has had enough, bring out the pictures and say "outside" and "inside". When you have presented more than one fruit in this way...you can play the card game... Try simple matching at first - print out two sets Then try matching the inside pictures to the outside pictures Then try playing a simple memory game with only two or three pairs... If you have enjo

one's eye! O r to be more correct......how to trick someone not to see what's  really ugly. An old staircase made out of concrete some 50 years ago, is bugging me (always has) and by adding a few distracting items to it, you may bring forward the focus on them instead.  M eanwhile I'll concentrate on the next project for the house. How to draw up a sketch for a new exterior facade panelling   in collaboration with the architect. We are basically  using the  original drawings from 1910'. T he petals of the rhododendrons are staring to come off! P ictures taken at 10 pm today,  the daylight is amazing right now. ❤ Ia ❤

As a mother to two boys, and a Montessori educator, I am often asked by parents whether the Montessori approach is compatible with other child rearing philosophies. The most common query is about Attachment Parenting. I must admit that when I was first asked this question almost 10 years ago, I didn’t really know what Attachment Parenting was! After a bit of research, it became clear to me that Attachment Parenting was very compatible with my idea of parenting (my children had not yet been born, but my own parents parented me in this way with great results!). However as I progressed further into my training as a Montessori teacher at the infant toddler level, I realised that not every Montessori theorist would promote the principles of Attachment Parenting for use in the Montessori Home. However, the foundations of Attachment Parenting seemed, to me, to be very much in lhne with Dr Montessori’s vision for a peaceful childhood. ·          The first principle: Preparation for Pregnanc

it was always meant to be! F rom the very first sight T he cut off top of this antique candlestick holder has no foot and has been integrated into the windowsill. E ven at late summer evening dinners, the dark finally falls for some short couple of hours. S tanding strong! ❤ Ia ❤

vad gör man inte för efterlängtade söner, som kommer hem på besök över sommaren och som ber om att få laga mat ordentligt. Städar hans rum??? J ag röjer kök och polerar pots and pans.... M ålarburken hänger med på ett hörn...alltid One D emanding Supervisor C hef de la cuisine Jr is returning home for the summer in a couple of days and I'm having a serious cleansing of the kitchen. P reparing for a welcome home dinner......means checking on the cutlery, pots and pans. Liquor inventory...perhaps not necessary but just in case anyone wants an avec to go with the coffee after dinner. M atte...Hur är det nu i den där kastrullen??? Aaahhh !!!! Boiled cod....got to be mine!!    Of course it is, darling... I guess the seats will be occupied with friends and family this summer.   A full house again......and long nights. T he top remaining from the antique candleholder has finally  been mounted into the windowsill! ❤ Ia ❤ Folding some napkins