Montessori activities at home for 4yr old?

[sora]

I have a 6 mo old who is a terrible sleeper. So I don't go out during his nap time. Then my 4yr old daughter is so bored at home and she watches TV a lot. I feel so bad but I don't want her to bother me when I'm putting the baby to sleep so I turn on TV and once she starts watching, she does not want to stop watching for a while. I allow maximum 2 hours a day but it seems a lot and I don't really like it. She goes to preschool half day two days a week only. I even thought about sending her to a all day Montessori day care, but it will be too expensive as I'm not working - something like 1000/mo. Or I could send her at least to half day motnessori schools every day, but still she needs to be home while the baby naps again the afternoons. I am really hoping to buy some Montessori materials to do with her while the baby naps. I don't have time to make materials myself and I don't have much time to sit down with her the whole time to do an activity. It would be great if there are activities I can just help a little bit and she does most of it by herself for a long time.Becuase I'm trying to get some work done while the baby sleeps. Can you recommend any materials or activities I can buy? Either montessori or something else that can engage a 4yr old?

Can those M materials be handled by parents, not M teachers?

Thanks so much. 

[sapphire_chan]

Yes, you can handle the materials yourself.

http://www.infomontessori.com/ walks through most of the materials with when/how/why to introduce them.

http://whatdidwedoallday.blogspot.com/ has lists of blogs sorted by age and homeschooling or schooling

However, do keep in mind that a 4 year old with a new sibling is likely to need more attention. I've seen a lot of people with kids the same age as yours talking about how all of a sudden their 4 year old needs to be watched doing everything, needs to be dressed (after getting dressed alone for a year), so even the best activities ever might not be enough if she happens to be in that phase.

If a half day is a possibility, a few schools in my area offer afternoon options, any chance that's true for you?

Some things to tide you over while you wait on other materials:

A good quick activity to put together would be spooning small things, e.g. rice, dried beans, cereal from one bowl to another. (Or even have her tear up bits of foil into ~2" square pieces and curl it up into small balls for the game.)

If you have tongs or tweezers, then you can also introduce those for your dd to use to move things back and forth.

Peeling and cutting up bananas would be easy to do right away.

If you get a bag of something assorted, e.g. pom poms, 7 bean soup mix, or the like, they could be sorted out

Does she have her own table and chair that are her height? And dishes where she can reach them? If not, put those in place, and then introduce wiping and setting the table. Also put her snacks where she can reach them and get them out (I need to work on this, myself).