montessori monday gone wild

One day a few weeks ago I was feeling kind of blue and sulking through my dinner. I was overworked, stressed out and feeling like the weight of the world was on my shoulders. In an attempt to cheer me up, Kris commented that he'd read one of my Montessori Monday posts and it looked really good. Then he said, "if I didn't know you, I'd totally think you have it together." 

I paused. Our eyes met. The corners of his mouth started to twitch. And we both burst out laughing. 


Because, wow, I so do NOT  have it together.


But if you've looked at some of my Montessori Monday posts, I can see how it's possible to think that. Not only might you think I have it together, but you might also think that my kid is incredibly focused, calm and patient. I mean, that's how it looks in the pictures, right? 


And so I bring you...Montessori Monday Gone Wild. 

Kale had been working with these bees and pods all week. He was so pleased with himself as he worked hard to pick up each wooden bee with the tongs and carefully place it in a pod. Sometimes he focused extra hard and matched the colours, which got me really excited because I was beginning to wonder if he was colour blind. 


I was really looking forward to sharing this activity for the link-up and had this whole post in mind about how you can find Montessori materials around the house, in a craft store, at a toy store (like the bees from Plan Toys) or from a specialty store. 


I prepared everything, took the first shot and then brought Kale in to get to work. At first, he was soooo excited to see the bees, pods and tongs: 

But then he lost his little toddler mind and with one sweep of his arm, every bee and pod was flying across the room. This was accompanied by stomping feet and screaming. A true toddler freak out. 

For whatever reason, I'm always still a little shocked when Kale flips out and before I could recover, he was doing this: 

And so I took his picture (wonderful disciplinary, I know). 

But like any good Montessori kid, he realized things were in disarray and dutifully started to clean up. He lined up all the pods, but despite all encouragement, he decided to move on to something else. In the meantime, someone else decided to give it a try: 

This, of course, caused Kale to lose his mind again. How dare Bubbie work with his materials??? 

After snapping this one last shot, I quickly had to break up a fight between a toddler on the tear and a cat that thinks he's Maria's next protege. 


And that my friends, is how Montessori Monday went this week at our house. 

 

We're almost in the top 50! More votes = less toddler tantrums...I swear! Help us out!