Homemade Montessori - "Felt" Sandpaper Numbers

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My daughter has this new-found interest in writing letters and numbers.  Months ago, she would resist writing exercises and would only practice when she is in a good mood.

Lately, she has been writing during her spare time.  She would ask for a pencil and paper and keep at writing for a considerable amount of time.  More often than writing letters, she would choose to write numbers.

She writes with such concentration and enthusiasm, only pausing to ask "Mommy, what's next?" from time to time.  Otherwise, she tries to figure out what number comes next in the sequence by counting again from one.

I am so impressed by this development and I just watch her write and acknowledge her hard work and effort when she is done. 

I noticed though that she has been writing some numbers backwards so I thought it might be helpful to go back to the basics to practice her strokes.

She was so proud of this work!  She encircled each number and said, "Look, mommy!" with a huge smile on her face!

Sample work of exercises from summer class at her new school.

She worked with the Montessori sandpaper numbers in her previous school.  I love that it is a tactile learning tool to help children recognize and write numbers.  I have been wanting to  make a homemade version of the sandpaper numbers (and letters) but have been putting it off since I could not find the finer-grained sandpaper in hardware stores.  I figured maybe felt would be a good alternative so I tried it out.

To make the numbers, I cut them out of green felt and glue-gunned them unto old desk calendars.  I folded the desk calendars and glued the folded sides together to make the backing board of the numbers sturdy (a friend of mine used old DVD cases.  I love that she reused and re-purposed old DVD cases and that it makes for very durable backing board for sandpaper numbers).

This is what it looks like from the side.  They sort of open up near the folds but they are not bothersome to work with.

I recommend this Montessori material especially for children who are ready to learn their numbers.  The site Infomontessori or Montessori Primary Guide and this video will show you how to use this as an effective teaching tool.

These are all the numbers, top view!  May this project inspire you to make your own!

Homemade Montessori - Felt Moveable Alphabet

I made my own version of the Montessori moveable alphabet about a month or two ago to supplement my daughter's lessons in school.  I love that this moveable alphabet prepares children for reading, writing and spelling, and that they can touch and feel the letters with their fingers as they sound out the letters.

The letters of the Montessori moveable alphabet that they use at school are wooden and come in two colors - red for consonants and blue for vowels.  At first, I was thinking of using board paper but changed my mind as I imagined creases or tears on the paper letters after each use. Foam boards would have been another option but I did not have enough in two colors so I used felt fabric instead.  I did not have blue or red felt on-hand so I decided to use the purple and pink felt I had in storage. 

I just guesstimated the sizes of the letters, trying my best to make them identical to the actual moveable alphabet she works with at school.  The short lowercase letters (a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x, z) came out to be 1.5" tall.  Widths varied as there are wider letters ( like m and w) but the others are mostly 1.5" wide.  The tall/long lowercase letters (b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, p, q, t, y) turned out to be 2.5" tall with varying widths as well. 

I made five (5) of each vowel and four (4) of each consonant.

I tried looking for plastic containers with 26 compartments but only found the one in photo below. This was actually my second purchase.  The first one was even smaller.  This worked better than the first since the compartments were 2.5" in height so the tall letters fit snugly into each compartment.  I just improvised on the lack of width space, squeezing in more than two letters in snug spaces (like i, j and k or the letters in the last two compartments) - this is not very ideal though as the letters get mixed up when the container is not upright (still best to find a container with 26 or more compartments).

For the CVCs, I drew some simple, cartoony things and animals on 4"x6" blank index cards which look like these:

Watch this video from a month ago of our little one working on the moveable alphabet ( I love the part where she giggles, realizing she mixed up the letters).

Some pointers if you do decide to make your own moveable alphabet out of felt:

- You may print out enlarged letters in a font similar to those of the moveable alphabet (Montessori D'Nelian-type font) to serve as your guide in cutting the lowercase letters.  Berlin sans is one font option.

- You may also print pictures of CVCs from the web instead of drawing your own.

- Lowercase letters b, d and p are identical so you can use one stencil or guide for cutting out these three letters.

- Lowercase letters u and n are identical in shape as well but note that letter u is a vowel and n, a consonant, so use the same stencil or guide but use different colored felt.

- Use a container with compartments that have ample space for all the letters.  

- Glue gun one of each letter into its compartment to encourage packing away after each spelling activitiy.

- Sneak in the uppercase letter of the first letter of your child's name for spelling practice (I snuck in a big letter T for our little girl)!  

- MontessoriMom has a very helpful step-by-step guide on how to best use the moveable alphabet!  Do check it out!

- Have fun!

An Upcycled T-shirt

My daughter got a nice pair of floral jeans from grandma lately and I wanted her to wear them right away. 

But when I was trying to find a shirt that matched these cute floral pants, only an old fuchsia shirt with this tiny discoloration was the best choice...and the tiny discoloration, though tiny, was right smack in the middle of it. 

Tiny but annoying discoloration.

What to do?!  Upcycle!

I had some felt fabric on-hand so I decided to make a flower cut-out out of the felt to sew it on, right where the discoloration was.

First, I had my daughter put on the shirt, got my sewing chalk and marked the center of the shirt  (that's when I realized the discoloration was slightly off-center. It pays to check and re-check!).

Then I snipped a 2”x 2” square out of purple felt fabric.  From the square, I drew a flower with a pen and cut it up.  I drew a circle onto the fuchsia felt fabric and stuck it onto the center of the purple flower cut-out. 

With my beginner skillz, I stitched up the circumference of the fuchsia circle to sew the whole flower onto the shirt.  Then I secured the tips of each purple petal with a knot. 

Here's a close-up of the stitching and knot on each petal:

 And this is what it looks like on the underside:

A bit sloppy but I'm glad it can't be seen when she's wearing it.

So tada, old fuchsia shirt looks brand new again! 

What about you - what would you do to upcycle a shirt? = )