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Crazy Over Do-a-Dot Markers and {Learn & Play Link Up}

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

I know you’ve heard about these already and have seen these markers in other homeschooler Moms. My little Vito had a renewal of interest and can’t stop using them! These dot markers are great tools in practicing hand/eye coordination and concentration. Aside from that, we also use it to learn shapes, colours and letters! Next year, we’ll start using them for counting.

Though there are plenty of FREE dot worksheets online, I prefer handwriting our own sheets to save ink. Here are some random photos of Vito using the dot markers.

For learning letters.

Marking shapes.

He keeps asking for more!

Working on letter ‘t’ again.

To save time, energy and INK, I cut out sheets of paper from the IKEA paper roll and just hand drawn everything. Then I place the sheets on one of the work trays so Vito can easily access them. He would usually work on them in the morning. Note that the markers can stain, but they can be wash off with soap AND water (with a little scrubbing). I have these markers since 2011 and they’re still good as new. Here’s the link if you are interested.

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

Here are the featured activities for this week!

13 Clocks Preschool Trays from from SmarE PartE

Montessori Sensorial Extensions from Spielgaben from Living Montessori Now

Watercolor Christmas Trees from 3 Dinosaurs

Salt Dough Holiday Ornaments from Tiny Tots Adventure

10 Christmas Montessori Inspired Tot Trays from Mama’s Happy Hive

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Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

Montessori Education
Homeschool
Sensory Play
Tot and Preschool Trays
Fine and Gross Motor Activities
Kids in the Kitchen
Healthy Recipes for Kids
Arts and Crafts
Natural Living
Free Educational Printables
Family-Oriented Activities
Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jennifer from Study at Home Mama~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKING

Please link up 1-3 posts
Follow each of the hosts on social media
When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
Please visit a couple of shared posts and leave a comment for them
Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

Grab This Button:

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How I Organize and Store Materials

I’ve been receiving requests from readers asking me to share some tips or at least share how I organize our materials at home. To be honest, I haven’t found the perfect formula for organizing materials. I find myself experimenting on what works for me and for the kids. So instead of giving advice on what to do, allow me to share with you how I organize our things at home.

We live in a small apartment… as most European homes are! So our sitting room is our playroom which is also our “home” school room. Except for painting and messy play, this is where all the actions are taking place. So to make it “conducive” for the boys, husband and I purchased Ikea shelves and inserts so I can organize learning materials, mostly of Vito. Mavi’s stuff are in his room including the Montessori materials that we own.

This is the main shelf, the upper layer is for the working trays and the bottom layer contains the inserts. We bought a sturdy insert from Ikea as well, they are really really good, quite heavy so Vito can’t just push and pull them.

Daily Activity Shelf

The inserts contain all the learning materials (non Montessori) of Vito, including the puzzle boards. Surprisingly, they fit! So convenient because whenever I needed to change my materials, I just remove them from the insert and place them on the tray. Same thing when Vito is done working with them, I just put them back on the insert.

Note: What I do is remove the materials from their respective boxes (except for that puzzle box which is new) and place them in ziploc or sealable plastic.

The other two inserts contain Vito’s book and printed cards and the other one contains all the Schleich animals. We have a different box for our Safari Toobs.

We have this book holder on top of the shelf, these are the books that we are using as of the moment. I replace them each week. The chair beside it is our reading chair, though most of the time we read books anywhere in the house LOL.

Unit Themed Shelf

I have another shelf, just beside my working table. I place our object basket on top together with Vito’s current favourite puzzle and some unit-themed work trays on the upper shelf. The bottom inserts are for my books, papers and other Mommy’s stuff. I change the contents of this shelf twice a month, depending on how frequent we have unit or seasonal-themed activities.

Art Materials

One cupboard is dedicated to our art materials. Papers, paints, sticky tape, crayons all in here! I tidy this area once in a while, if I HAVE THE TIME.

Printables

Our local store has this super cool bags with colored zippers and has different sizes. I use these bags to store all my printed materials. For all types of cards, I use the medium size (half of A4 paper). I label the bags of course, whether its for Mavi or Vito, for history, Europe, Asia, Africa etc. I place these bags in a wooden chest in our hallway.

And that’s about it! My super secret though is that I AVOID BUYING A LOT OF STUFF Open-mouthed smile Even if I feel that I need them, I always convince myself that I have no more room for them at home and that the kids will survive without them. This pretty much helps me in avoiding too much clutter thus saving me a lot of time in organizing materials. Less is more!

Pop me a question anytime if you want to know more!

Todder Activities (Christmas Themed) at 25 Months

Sunday, 6 December 2015

This month, we’re going slow (just like everyone else) so I integrated his 25 months activities with Christmas.

1. Transferring trees (soft candies) using a tong.

2. Practicing the use of pegs. I got him these small pegs to work on as he’s finding it difficult to use the bigger ones yet. You can get these nowadays in any store, they’re soft and easy to manipulate by little hands. A good practice in preparation for the bigger pegs.

3. Sorting coloured ribbons. He sort different colours now, but still confused with naming the colours.

4. Counting ornaments with tree foam crafts. He loves this!

5. Rubber stamping in cards. Mavi is writing cards for his friends, and Vito is joining as well. I bought him a box of cards to practice on, like opening the cards and stamping letters on it. He enjoys doing it with his brother! The rubber stamps are from Melissa and Doug.

6. Playdough and Christmas shapes cookie cutter plus ornaments! Lots of hand muscle practice Open-mouthed smile

7. Christmas tree puzzles. Vito has been working with 2-pieces puzzles lately so I created these Christmas tree puzzles to go along with the season.

8. Painting Christmas tree ornaments. Again, I got these from a local store.

9. Tweezing pompoms and putting in a ring; a twist from the typical tweezing activity and perfect for hand-eye coordination! Another version of this is to match the pompoms to the colour of the ring. The rings are from ring counter toy.

We will be doing these activities for the entire month, usually after we read books which we do on a daily basis. May you find this post helpful!

Practical Life Activities @ 24 Months and {Learn & Play Link Up}

Wednesday, 2 December 2015

Vito turned 2 years old last month. Aside from the letter t sound and tree themed activities, here are the practical life activities Vito worked on:

Do-a-dot marking. I prefer drawing the circles instead of printing those which are available in the web to save ink. Vito loves this activity. He enjoys stamping the circles with the markers. This is also a good shape activity because it allows the child to identify the shape in the paper before stamping it. Which reminds me that that next time we’ll do this, I’ll use squares or triangle instead of circles.
Pouring rice. I’m using two small jugs and a colored rice. We’ve done this before using water, this time I changed the medium.
Stringing. This is just a portion of Melissa & Dough beads which I got earlier this year. I attached a wooden skillet in the string so he can easily insert the beads.
2 Piece Farm Puzzle. At first I gave him 3 sets to work on, and then added as he progresses. He also loves this activity and would work on it in the afternoon. This is a good introduction to part-and whole concept.
Stickers in a line. This is a directed sticking activity wherein Vito has to place the stickers in the lines. He’s good at it!
Scissor and playdough. I made Vito use this plastic scissor whenever he plays the playdough so he’ll get used to it. Playdoughs are soft and can easily be cut, unlike paper which needs a sharper scissor so I think that this is a perfect material to cut for little ones.
Tweezers. We have a lot of tongs and tweezers but I have to purchase this plastic tweezer because Vito was having a hard time using the ones that we have. This new tweezer is just perfect! It is soft, and can be easily manipulated by Vito. It has teeth on its end so it can easily grip the object. Vito loves using this. But note, the end is pointy so adult supervision is a must even if this is made of plastic.
Water transfer using sponge. “squeeze squeeze squeeze”, that’s Vito’s new favourite word! he just learned that few weeks ago as he was doing this tray. Water activity is always a favourite and Vito works on this for about 30 to 45 minutes. Once bored with squeezing, he would automatically switch to pouring water between bowls.
Glue with brush. There’s just so many way to glue and one of my favourite is the glue with brush. I made Vito use this and he works like an expert! Those are paper cut-outs with letters on it (handwritten) so that we can name the letters as we glue them!

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

Here are the featured Christmas-themed activities for this week!

Fine Motor Skills Christmas Tree from Living Montessori Now

Paper Plate Christmas Tree from Creative Family Fun

Nutcracker Unit 2 w/ FREE Printable from Every Star is Different

Printable Advent Calendar from Sights and Sounds Readings

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

Montessori Education
Homeschool
Sensory Play
Tot and Preschool Trays
Fine and Gross Motor Activities
Kids in the Kitchen
Healthy Recipes for Kids
Arts and Crafts
Natural Living
Free Educational Printables
Family-Oriented Activities
Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jennifer from Study at Home Mama~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKING

Please link up 1-3 posts
Follow each of the hosts on social media
When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
Please visit a couple of shared posts and leave a comment for them
Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

Grab This Button:

<div align="center"><a href="http://christianmontessorinetwork.com/category/learn-and-play" title="Christian Montessori Network"><img src="http://www.christianmontessorinetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/learn-and-play-link-up-150-150.png" alt="Christian Montessori Network" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Please Follow
Follow Pinay Homeschooler's board Pinay Homeschooler on Pinterest.

An InLinkz Link-up

History Timeline Cards: Ancient Times

Sunday, 29 November 2015

Buy now

Up in the Sellfy Shop is our history timeline cards Ancient Times. The file includes the following:

40 timeline cards of the ancient times (occurred between the period of 5000BC to 500BC). The timeline cards has
40 definition cards for each timeline card
3 pages of timeline sheets that can be connected to form as a guide. The pages are in A4 paper size.

Learn how we used it here and in how we study the European History.

Hope you like it, enjoy!

Object Baskets for A to H

** contains affiliate links **

I’ve been working hard for the past days organizing our object baskets for Vito’s phonics practice. Vito knows his alphabet and numbers, he names half of the alphabet with their phonics sound. Like he calls letter B as “bah”, and H as “huh”. I guess this is the result of me teaching Vito the sound first, before the name of the letter itself. Something like “this is mmmmmmm, M” or “this is ssssssss, S”.

What is an Object Basket

These are baskets that contain a letter along with 3 dimensional objects to match to the letter by beginning sound. The concept behind this is similar to the object boxes of Montessori (for reading) , but we are not going there yet. The object baskets are simply for exploration, vocabulary and learning phonic sounds.

Assembling the Object Basket

Each of my basket has an uppercase and lowercase letter. We are using the letters from Hape Uppercase and Lowercase puzzles and the Munchkin foam bath letters. I wanted to add the magnetic letters from Melissa & Doug but I was thinking that there’s too much letters in basket already, so I’ll just reserve those for my future object boxes (reading).

I wanted to add sandpaper letters but mine is a DIY years ago and its incomplete. I plant to get a set this Christmas as gift to self LOL but still waiting for the discounted price (hoping!).

Gathering objects is the most exciting part. I would search in the kitchen, bedroom and my kids’ toys for appropriate objects to add in the basket. Since Vito is only 2 years old, I limit the number of objects in the basket, maybe 3 – 5 only. They don’t have that stamina and attention span for 10 objects so better keep it simple and avoid overwhelming the little ones.

Object Baskets from A to H

So I just completed these baskets, took photos and print the set so that it’s easier for me to assemble once we start with the activity (we’ll do this after the holidays). Will display this on top of our shelf and worked on it after we do our daily routine of reading books.

A Basket: alligator, ambulance, A foam letter, apple, A picture booklet

B Basket: book, banana, block, B foam letter and B picture booklet

C Basket: cow, carrots, C foam letter, car and C picture booklet

D Basket: dinosaur, diaper, Duplo, DIY sandpaper letter, letter D

E Basket: eye (McDonalds), elephant, egg (McDonalds), DIY sandpaper letter

F Basket: feather, four, letter F, upper and lowercase F, fork, flower, fish, fence, DIY sandpaper letter

G Basket: grapes, giraffe, goggle, upper and lowercase F, F foam letter, DIY sandpaper letter

H Basket: upper and lowercase F, DIY sandpaper letter, horse, heart, hanger, hippo, hammer, H foam letter

Ideally, we will work for on one letter a week, but this doesn’t always happen. So I usually schedule the next change of basket after 2 weeks. I am still gathering up objects for my second batch. Hopefully I can finish it soon so I can share it with you. And that’s it for the first set of my object baskets! Stay tuned for second set from I to P Smile

Hope you find this inspirational!

FREE Life Cycle Matching Cards

Friday, 27 November 2015

I have a bunch of life cycle figures which my Aunt brought from the US few months ago. I did not really intend to introduce it yet to Vito as he is too young. But I observed that he’s into matching activities these days, so I managed to create matching cards for all of my life cycles. Wow, he definitely surprised me! He worked on all of these in one day and always picked this for his activity everyday!

What we have so far:

Ant

Frog

Chicken

Now I’m the type of not giving everything all the same time, so I kept everything except for the turtle life cycle because we’re currently having a turtle unit. There is no way I can explain the science of life cycles to him, so I only used terminologies like “eggs, baby, and turtle”. Then I would describe each figure/photo to him, like “there are many eggs”, “the egg is hatching and the head of the turtle is coming out, can you point to its head?”. So many things that you can do at this time even if you are not totally discussing life cycles!

We mostly work in the morning, that’s when the big brother is in school. Because when Mavi’s around, there’s no way you can let him work on this without being distracted. When he’s brother is around, he just wanted to play with him and I don’t want to take that away from him.

So I hope you enjoy the cards as much as we do.

Benefits of Matching Activities

visual discrimination skills

familiarity with one dimensional print and connecting it to three dimensional objects or real ones

one to one correspondence which is an early math skills

concentration

If you want a copy, please click the links below. Enjoy!