The church we've been attending hosts a Montessori preschool upstairs. Last night, when I had a cranky baby to take out of the service, I sneaked upstairs for a few minutes to poke around. Most of the various activities I had read about many times, but still it was satisfying to see them in real life.

One idea I'd like to try this week with D1 was two small bowls full of small objects (I'm think button jar) and a spoon to transfer them with. She could do that; we've tried tweezers and it's just too hard. I could also look for some easier-to-manipulate tongs for her to try.

What I'd really like to see, though, is the place in action and the children actually getting out and Putting Things Away themselves. I imagine this, and then I look at my own floor which is generally strewn with refrigerator magnets, and I shudder. Of course, the preschool has no children under three, I assume. I could easily manage to teach D1 the taking it out and putting it back business; it's D2 of whom I still despair, since he considers "playing" to be by definition "spreading it out all over the floor," and if you show him a half-filled container of toys, immediately believes you're requesting that he finish the job.

There is also the little concept of having a place for everything and everything in its place, another idea which makes me look around my living-room, as yet unadorned with books or pictures, and sigh in anguish. I am making progress in that direction at the speed of a gnat wading the Mississippi. Unlike the preschool, I don't have those planning days before the kids arrive every single year. They arrived some time ago, and here they stay. And I don't have all those lovely shelves and baskets and things, though I'm trying to collect them.

But, I do have a rather nifty set of shelves that look like they were discarded from a discount store--they were in the basement when we bought the house. Once we finally get the basement floor sealed and the miscellaneous junk out of the driest corner, I'm going to try to set up a neat little corner with Things To Do down there. It doesn't have much space, but then I only have two children to keep busy. Someone gave me some old carpet samples to put on the cold floor.  When the weather turns consistently chilly, I'll bring the Little Tykes picnic table in and put it down there. Maybe I can even step over and keep up on the laundry while they take lovely little activities from the shelves and  back.

Maybe . . .