Audio Books

Times have been a little tight the last few years and we try and save money any way we can. I can pass up the coffees, the fast food, the shoes, and new clothes. What I have a hard time passing by is books. I absolutely love books. I love bookstores. I love reading books. I love buying books. My husband shares my book passion so much that on our honeymoon, we stopped by every bookstore we passed that week.

I want to pass this passion for books and reading onto our children. When I was a child, I loved pulling out my little blue record player off the shelf of our spare bedroom and opening up my storybook record sets. I listened to them for hours. As I browsed our local bookstore, I fondly remembered those times and set out to find the audio book sets. The lowest audio book set price I found was $9.99. With three children, that is impossible. That's when I discovered it was more economical to purchase mp3 players on sale (they don't need high GB storage for their audio books and those run pretty cheap these dates--- especially on sale days) and record my own mp3 files and create my own audio books. I know mp3 players are old-school, but I love them because they don't have all the razzle-dazzle of tablets with screens, etc. so I don't have to limit the use the of mp3 players as much as their tablet time. 

I download some files from our library website. We have a link on ours called READS. You enter your library card number and can download the audio books for a "checkout" period. This is usually a couple of weeks. Check your local library and see if you have this option. It usually has you to download a software audio player to your mp3 and you can listen to the audio books for 2 weeks. Make sure your mp3 is compatible. Some mp3s only take certain formats.

I have also recorded some of my children's books onto their mp3 players. They love it when I do this. In fact, my daughter, who has a bit of separation anxiety, was pleasantly surprised when I read an entire Junie B. Jones book and recorded it on her mp3 for her sleepover at Grandma's. I read to them every night, so this gave her a bit of normalcy to take with her.

There are also many websites that offer audio books for free. Here is a short list of just a few: 

• StoryNory: Variety of story types for kids including classics such as Rumplestiltskin, Three Little Pigs, stories from around the world, and original stories.

• LibriVox : Searchable database of children's classic tales - contains mp3 files and ebook downloads.
  Titles include works such as Alice in Wonderland, My Life and Work by Henry Ford, Aesop's Fables,
  Little Women, Real Mother Goose,  Wizard of Oz, Frog Prince, and more
• Robert Munsch: Listen to Robert Munsch narrate book selections such as Love You Forever,Class Clown, and Up, Up, Down.

Finding these resources has really saved us a lot of money over the past few years, and will save us even more in the years to come!

Games that Reinforce Language Skills

I would love to have more traditional Montessori materials, but frankly, I just cannot afford it at this time. I would also love to be able to make even more of my own materials, but I cannot find the time. However, the learning "must go on" no matter how small our budget is or how little time I have. This is why I am also on the lookout for items that can be useful to our learning style, fun, and economical. Blogger Jr. fits all of the above.

                                                        

Blogger Jr. comes with picture cards with the words spelled on the bottom. You place the cards in the container and cover up the word with a drop-down "door." The dice is used to spell out the word.

                                                        

I really like this game because it has a control. Little Angel can check her answers after she is done spelling the word. It is fun, educational, and we found it on sale at Target for under $8. What a deal! Maybe if I could find a few extra minutes here and there I might can even create my own word cards to fit in the holder.

One Word Booklets

Little Angel is at the stage that she likes little things.... little toy figures, little pencils, little combs and brushes, and little books. She says she feels "like a giant" when she is playing with the little things or holding the small things. 

This inspired me to create little booklets for her to read. She kept picking up small books around the house and looking at them. The only problem is that she could not independently read them all by herself. The store bought books had words like "practice" or "wish" thrown in with what was supposed to be a beginning phonetic word book.

Little Angel really enjoys reading through the one-word booklets I created. I took the pink level reading list and just listed a single word on each individual page. I created 15 booklets using the 2 and 3-letter phonetic words from the pink level.I punched holes in the top left hand corner and secured the pages with a ring. I have also created booklets for the blue level words also. This gives her one more way to practice in reading the words individually in order to achieve the automaticity needed.

Outdoor Nonmenclature Cards

I love the traditional Montessori-style of teaching and I try to stick to at least the main philosophy of the method of following the child while setting up as many natural learning experiences and variety of interesting experiences as possible. 

This is very difficult to do with three children while making sure everyone has at least one pair of clean underwear (I will confess one day last summer, I found my daughter wearing her bathing suit bottoms as undies when I forgot to double check her underwear stash for the week).

All things considering, I try to use the materials I make or put together in as many varied "lessons" as possible --- not necessarily true montessori, but I feel that it is effective, fun, and better than sitting at desks all day long :)

One of the ways we use this set of outdoor nomenclature cards is in the more traditional manner of matching label cards with the respective picture card. I printed off two sets of labels and affixed the name of the thing shown in the picture to the back of the card for self checking.

On beautiful days, we use the cards in an outdoor activity. We lay the cards on the sidewalk, pictures down and words facing up. Little Angel takes the cards and finds an example outside of what the word states.

To self-check, Little Angel flips the card over and see if the picture matches the real-life example. I love finding ways to take our classroom outside... and the kids seem to become more peaceful after an activity like this also.

You can find a copy of these montessori materials: outdoor nomentclature cards at

  www.insighfulbrain.com