Hi there,
We are about two weeks from school breaking for the year. I have, as usual been helping out at my children’s school each week with art/craft activities and reading. Yesterday I was in my daughter’s lower primary Montessori classroom for most of the morning and today, I spent the morning in my son’s Children’s House Montessori classroom doing some Christmas craft. I only managed to work with half of the children, so will need to come back another morning to work with the other ten children.
Last weekend Miss 6 went to a free kids art workshop, which was to make a DIY game board- this time a noughts and crosses board, which has been played with a lot! Rather cute I think. 
I tweaked a couple of our children’s spaces over the last couple of days. For this little music space I just added a wooden box to hold some headphones in. The headphones are only for use if really needed as I would rather them not having music playing directly into their ears. They know/understand to keep the volume down when using headphones. 
We did some Christmas present prep- painting pots for the Grandparents. We just need to find a suitable plant to put in them now.
My children’s school has an annual Christmas food and toy collection drive. This is such a wonderful way to talk to children about the true meaning of Christmas and one of many ways we can give back as Christmas can be a difficult time for so many. We have not written a Christmas ‘what presents I would like to receive’ wishlist, but a list of ways we can give/help others at Christmas time. I saw this idea on an Instagram post and thought it was just wonderful.
Something else we are doing for the first time this year, is the Kmart wishing tree. Both of my children have a tag and have chosen to purchase a Christmas present for a child around their age. That present is then placed (not wrapped) under a tree in one of the Kmart Australia shops with the tag on and at a later point delivered to someone in need. Both of my children are very excited to be able to do this for another child.
Regarding us possibly moving- we have over the past few weeks looked at so many houses and at this point are in negotiation to purchase a smallish, oldish (fixer upper) style house. If all goes well, we will moving most likely end of Dec/beginning of Jan. I will keep you posted though, on what happens. We are still having people come through our house each week (open house/house viewing) and that will only stop temporarily over the Christmas period.
Quick note- I came across Montessori Parenting.Org recently, which you can view here. They do some interesting work including parenting courses. I have read through all of their Blog posts.
