12 Practical Life Christmas Activities: On the 5th day…

Monday 8 December 2014

Painting a Monet-inspired Christmas tree.

Remember how I raved about the books of James Mayhew (the Katie series)? We'll one of our favourite books is the Katie Meets the Impressionist [aff. link]. We talked about the style of Monet and why he is called an “impressionist” artist.

DSC_2545_thumb[4][5] 

And since its Christmas, we use the Christmas tree as an inspiration.

Below, we work together all the time. His and hers.

DSC_0255

We dabbed and smeared our drawing paper with green for the tree. He used a pencil to draw a triangle outline as guide which is not visible in the picture.  Then we added details for the balls, lights, stars and presents under the tree.

 DSC_0256

Here’s my tree.

 DSC_0288

Mavi’s tree.

DSC_0281

Now here’s a macro look of our tree…

                         DSC_0273 DSC_0276

Toddler Beginnings 02

Saturday 6 December 2014

toddlerbeginnings2 copy

e1

We’re reading Christmas stories with these books (Mavi and Vito).  I didn’t have time to visit the local library so these books from last year’s purchases were of great help!

DSC_0039

e2

For this week, we did the transferring activities.  Objects used were fruits and ribbons.  I like it when he listens and observe properly whenever I demonstrate what to do.  After which Vito would successfully emulate my actions.  It’s funny how he would drop the fruits whenever he transfers them from one bowl to another.  My guess is that he thinks these were balls.  We have this ball which is as small as these fruits and he loves making that bounce.  DSC_0162

Finally! He realized that these objects were different and started to put them nice instead of dropping.

DSC_0165 

And of course, we worked  with these ribbons as well. He can transfer them easily, though at times his fingers would get stuck in between the twirls.  DSC_0228

 DSC_0235

The week before, we had red… now we have yellow!  Objects in the basket are: book, Duplo giraffe, yellow colour card, Playskool barrel, ring stacker, squeezable cube, yellow shirt and rattle.

DSC_0038

I would just place this basket in the sitting room where he can see it all the time and explore it.  Oh by the way, I realised it would be BEST to put on a yellow shirt as well!! DSC_0041 And he picks the book first.  And later on spilled his brother’s LEGOs, so I asked him to pick some up and put it in the box.  He obliged!  Early training for cleaning up LOL!                  

                            DSC_0056 DSC_0096

E3

No cutting and gluing here, simply finger painting.  I used two colours this time (Red and Yellow) to show the difference.yellow painting  e4

This was supposedly a transfer activity of utensils but he ended up using them as drums and cymbals. So yes! Making music using plates and kitchen utensils, why not?

                        DSC_0187 DSC_0193

e5

Lots of out door activity this week because we were blessed with a good weather!  Time to practice those motor skills!

outdoor play

12 Practical Life Christmas Activities: On the 4th day…

Thursday 4 December 2014

P1090532

Allowing kids to help you set up your Nativity Set, and offer a little prayer afterwards :)

12 Practical Life Activities: On the 3rd day…

Wednesday 3 December 2014

P1090924

Create window decors just like these snowman window banners! They looked so cute hanging in the kitchen window :)

P1090915

P1090916

Homemade Colour Cards

Last month I made these colour cards for Vito.  My frustrations with coloured printed materials at times is that they don’t seem to produce the correct hue when it comes to colours so I decided to do it without printing (printing with best quality will cost me a lot of money).

DSC_0130 copy

I used paints for my cards, used Sharpies to write the words that matches the colour and laminated once the paints dried up.  It turned out really really good!  We used it mainly for introducing colours to Vito and matching objects according to their colours. 

 DSC_0131

Recently we used the red card for introducing the red colour. More of that in this post.

DSC_0922

My eldest Mavi loves it as well and would borrow it so he can match his LEGO bricks with the cards as well!

DSC_0156

You can make your own, so easy to prepare and simple! I suggest that if you don’t have paints, you can either use crayons and oil pastel.  Just make sure to laminate them or cover with contact paper for longevity :)

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
Home + School = Afterschool!
The Natural Homeschool

12 Practical Life Christmas Activities: On the 2nd day…

Tuesday 2 December 2014

Writing Christmas cards to family and friends!

2ndday1

Mavi has to prepare at least 10 cards, so we’re doing 2 cards a day and he loves it!  He uses different coloured pens, and would add glitters and stickers too!

2ndday2

Have fun!

12 Practical Life Christmas Activities: On the 1st day..

Monday 1 December 2014

Helping Mommy putting up the Christmas Tree. 

1st day 

                          1stday1 1stday2

Happy first day of December!

Tot School Beginnings 01

Friday 28 November 2014

toddlerbeginnings1 copy

Vito is 12.5months old.

This is Vito’s first adventure in Tot School.  This is my way of journalising his wonder years, capturing his “firsts” and discoveries in the same way that I have documented Mavi’s preschool  years.

1

These are the books we’re reading so far for the month of November. 

DSC_0847 

2 We started our pincer grasp activities a few weeks ago and you can read about it here or by clicking the picture below.

pincer copy

As you can see, we’re using as much ‘red’ in our activities.  This is because were are exploring the colour RED as of the moment. I gathered toys like Duplos, shakers, wooden rings, blocks, pompoms and counters and place them in a basket.  The card you are seeing is a homemade colour card. 

DSC_0919

DSC_0951

3

Best way to explore the RED colour is by finger painting.  In this case, we used the Giotto Bebe finger-paint, the line of paints for kids that I truly adore.  They are 100% odourless, nontoxic, washable and has this creamy texture (not watery!). 

Vito love holding paintbrushes, so instead of giving him crayons to scribble I gave him paints for him to try using his paintbrush.   Vito loves the creamy texture and the vivid colour is so good in the eye!

redpaintng

4

I previously made these homemade shakers.  They’re plastic cosmetic bottles, with beads and pastas on it. We shake it to produce sounds, and at times I would sing children’s songs with the shakers.

                         DSC_0002 DSC_0007

LABEL_5

The weather has been so glorious lately.  So I took a few leaves and brought them home so Vito can play with it.     He loves holding the petiole and wave the leaf  like a flag.

leafstudy

Here’s Vito exploring Mavi’s school grounds. He loves it there! 

outdoor

Well, that’s it for now! Hope you enjoy the post.  Till the next one!

Linking to:

Montessori Monday
TGIF Linky Party
Teach Beside Me
Preschool Corner
Teaching Mama
Home + School = Afterschool!
The Natural Homeschool
Tot School 1Plus1Plus1Equals1