Please let me brag a little...

I am very excited. As some of you know, I've become very interested in Montessori in the last year. A lot of her educational philosophies make total sense to me, and are far from what we see in most schools today. So, we've tried to incorporate what we can from her philosophy into our own home. Unfortunately a lot of Montessori materials are quite pricey (even though they are all very simple). So, James and I do our best to make our own. I'm encouraged when I remember that Maria Montessori had to make many of her own materials too. Anyway, I have just finished making a mobile for Charlie, and I'm very proud of myself. Mobiles help aid the development of concentration. This is called the "munari mobile" and is the first in the visual series. The cheapest one I could find online was $35 with $20 shipping. I made this one for under $10 (and I have a lot of paint and invisible thread leftover).

I'm having a hard time getting a clear picture of mine, so here is what it is supposed to look like: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=munari+mobile&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&rlz=1C1SKPH_enUS394US394&biw=1024&bih=499&tbm=isch&tbnid=7QxhVCax0kR5rM:&imgrefurl=http://bellascasa.com/%253Fpage_id%253D21&docid=EmxXEFMfMool6M&w=545&h=600&ei=YtROTp7kEtTTgQfai8mMBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=495&vpy=151&dur=4887&hovh=236&hovw=214&tx=127&ty=160&page=1&tbnh=113&tbnw=109&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0

And here is mine:

Lucy wanted me to take a picture of her.

Thanks for letting me show off a little. I'm always happy to return the favor.

Here are a couple of other pictures while I'm at it.

Charlie is ready for church.

So is Lucy (so she thinks).

I heard a lot of commotion in the other room the other day. I walked in and found that Lucy had strapped her bear into Charlie's bouncy seat and was very animatedly reading him a George book. It was very cute.