L has mastered the traditional presentation of the Montessori Red Rods, so I knew it was time to kick it up a notch.  I found some pictures of Red Rod extensions from Montessori Works Blog, so I printed them, laminated them, and made a small book for L to refer to when she is interested in working with the red rods.

After L finished doing the red rods, we laid them out at random and followed one of the designs in her extension book to build this, always beginning with the longest rod.

When we had finished, it looked like this [our work rugs are a bit too small]:

This is my favorite of the red rods extensions, because next the child can walk the “maze”  — she must do it very carefully to make sure she doesn’t touch any of the rods.

Once she gets to the center, L turns around and carefully walks back out.  This helps her learn greater control over her movements and balancing skills, plus it’s fun!

This is the only one of the extensions we have tried so far, but we are excited to try the others once L gets her cast off!