Montessori By Mom subscription box review #MontessoriByMom

Oh, do I have a treat for preschool moms today!  We got to try out a box from Montessori By Mom.  Now, those of you who know me are thinking, "Montessori?  I didn't know you were into that."  Well, here's the thing.  Montessori can be a way of life.  Or it can just be a label.  In this case, it's a label that means, "Really fun and interesting," and that, I'm into.

We received the Mad Scientist box, and it's been a huge hit!  It came with a lovely wooden beaker stand, 6 beakers with stoppers, a bag of color tablets, a deck of color cards, graduated cylinders, a pitcher, 3 dropper bottles, and best of all, a deep tray to use the materials in to contain spills.  The entire box sells for $55.95, or you can save money by getting a monthly subscription.  You can also purchase the deep tray separately, which is helpful if you have 2 preschoolers!

This box was fun and interesting from the moment we opened it.  The act of getting the test tubes into the rack is good fine motor skills practice.

Then we put color tabs in the bottom, and began adding water.  (There's a funnel, but Katie did okay without it.)

We started by making the primary colors.

Then I showed Katie what happened when I mixed some yellow and some blue!

I set her to work mixing blue and red to make purple.  (Notice Josiah reading aloud to us in the background?)

By this point, the boys were dying to get involved.

They helped Katie get the finished colors in rainbow order.

Another day, we decided to do a craft with the colored water.  (You can get extra refill color tabs from Montessori By Mom!)  Even though these boxes are designed with the 3-5 year old child in mind, my 10 and 13 year olds wanted to get in on the fun, too.

I showed Katie how to use the dropper to color a coffee filter.  We made quite a few of these.  They turned out pretty!

Once they dried, they pop right off the backing paper.  I'm thinking they'd make good "snowflakes" come winter time.  Or maybe we'll do something vaguely stained glass window like with them.

In addition to color matching, we also used the cards to find various colors around the house.

The pitcher and beakers were a huge hit!  Not only did Katie learn to pour carefully back and forth, the girls took them in the bathtub to play with, and had a wonderful time!  They used them for imaginative play, making "drinks" for each other to pretend to drink, all the while, learning more about the properties of water, and the hand/eye coordination of pouring.

Montessori By Mom was created by a husband and wife team, both with a background in education.  Included in the box is a Resource Guide, which includes a link to helpful videos on the website, so you can see how to use the materials in your box, and of course, you can come up with your own ideas, as well, like our coffee filter art.

Subscription plans start at just $49.95/month, or you can buy single boxes for 55.95.  There are also various individual items in the store that look interesting, such as the Alphabet Cards on a ring, which would be easy to keep in a diaper bag or purse for learning in a waiting room, or at the grocery store.

You can connect with Montessori By Mom on Facebook or Twitter.  If you're curious about the Montessori method, I noticed that Practical Homeschooling has an article about it.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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