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!