lacing shapes

i'm a homeschooling mom. my daughter is 8 and doing 2nd and 3rd grade work and my son is 6 and doing 1st grade work. my youngest son is 3. he wants to be doing school like his big brother and sister so bad. he asks me all the time, 'mom, when is my sitting school?' he's definitely ready to be doing some preschool work. i got him a kumon cutting workbook that he loves. i had to limit him to 2 pages a day or we would have gone through the book in less than a week.

when my older 2 were younger, a friend of mine and i did a montessori-based preschool at her house 3 days a week. my kids loved it. i loved it, too. i decided to make some activities, or "works" in montessori language, for jake to use. my first project was lacing shapes.  lacing shapes are great for hand eye coordination, hand dexterity, and are also a great pre-writing activity.

i bought some wooden shapes at joanns. i marked where i wanted the holes to be and my wonderful husband drilled them for me. i sanded them down and then painted them. when the paint was dry, i did one coat of modge podge matte to protect the paint from chipping. i bought the shoe laces at a local craft store. there were 8 (2 each of red, blue, orange, and green) in a bag for about $1. woot!

his favorite is the train. 

i love the look on his little face when he's concentrating.

my daughter wanted to do one. she's pretty particular and wanted it to be laced the 'right' way. she says she can use them to practice her sewing. the little girl from next was over playing and she wanted to get in on the lacing fun, too. 

all laced!! 

i've got some more project for him in the works. i'm excited to get them finished so he can use them. he's pretty happy to have his very own school.