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Montessori Giveaway where EVERYONE WINS!!

Sunday, 17 January 2016

You’ve read that right!! The Pinay Homeschooler is happy to be part of this amazing giveaway!

Our good friend Seemi of Trillium Montessori blog is celebrating its blog’s 3rd anniversary. She came up with this wonderful idea of having a giveaway where everyone wins!

It’s worth over $60 and we’re selling it for…. $0.
That’s not a typo.
The bundle is free.
It’s our gift to you.
You don’t have to pay for it, no credit card required, no catch!

We’re calling it the Everyone Wins with Montessori Giveaway Bundle. We are passionate about what we do and we want to share that passion with you. We’re all in this together, and we all win! (Don’t you love how modern technology makes things like this possible?!)

Wait, I was wrong, here’s the catch:

The bundle is only available for a limited time. If you don’t sign up by the deadline, you will miss your chance to get it. No exceptions. The offer ends 11:59pm Jan 24th, 2016 EST.
The files are provided with a single user license. This means you may not share the files with your friends or colleagues. Know someone who would love this? Send them to this page so they can get their own copy!
The hard working contributors of the bundle will receive your email address and may follow up with you via email. (Don’t worry, we won’t be selling your email to spammers!)

Ready to get your bundle?

CLICK HERE to go to the info page

On the info page, click the red button to get started

Enter your information in the form that pops up

Check your inbox for a confirmation email (might take a few minutes to arrive)

Click YES! in the confirmation email

You will be redirected to a page with a link to download the bundle

The files must be downloaded by February 28th, 2016

After you’ve signed up, spread the word!

Share the image below on all your social media profiles and forums, email your teacher and mama friends, and invite them all to the celebration! We want everyone to win with Montessori!

Offer ends: 11:59PM Jan 24th, 2016 EST

Click the links below to see full descriptions of each of the products included in this bundle.

LANGUAGE

A Montessori Approach to Language (accessible until Feb 13, 2016 as part of this bundle) video course by Deb Chitwood and Jo Ebisujima
Montessori Pre-Reading Bundle by Marnie from Carrots Are Orange
Fruit Literacy Matching Cards by Susan from Explore Learn Go
Beginning Literacy Materials by Frida from Rainbow Learning Materials
Montessori Grammar Activities by Lisa from Montessori Kiwi
Conjunctions Exercise by Lolly from Elementary Observations

MATH
Golden Bead Addition Cards by Jessica Renee

ART & MUSIC
Artists and Paintings by Katherine from I Believe in Montessori
Musically Montessori- Steady Beat Lesson Plan by Carolyn from Magical Movement Company

SCIENCE, CULTURE, & GEOGRAPHY
Antarctica A-Z by Seemi from Trillium Montessori
All About Japan Culture Pack by Jo Ebisujima from Jojoebi
Flags of Africa by Jo Ebisujima from Jojoebi
US History Pack by Yuliya from Welcome to Mommyhood
Finland 3-Part Cards by Katherine from I Believe in Montessori
Major Rivers of the World by Jae from Pinay Homeschooler
Transportation Montessori Pack by Anastasia from Montessori Nature
Shark Nomenclature and Taxonomy by Lolly from Elementary Observations
Fruits and Vegetables Unit Pack by Jae from Pinay Homeschooler
Wildlife and Inanimate Nature Cards by Katherine from I Believe in Montessori

Hard Goods
20% discount on Montessori materials by Anita from Max & Naoli

Don’t forget to CLICK HERE for the info!

Meet the Contributors

Alphabetical by first name

Anastasia from Montessori Nature

Anastasia is an early childhood teacher, raising two trilingual, fun, mischievous and gorgeous kids. She is a strong believer in natural, purposeful and meaningful learning. She implements Montessori education in her teaching and writing. Anastasia aims to connect every part of her life with nature and faith. She is a writer and editor of Montessori Nature blog. Find out more about Anastasia on her Blog | Store | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Google+ |

Anita Kianek-Edwards from Max and Naoli

Anita is a happy mama of two gorgeous children, twins Max & Naoli who led her to Montessori. She found her passion in designing traditional and unique educational materials inspired by alternative forms of education. She enjoys spending time with her family, sunshine and fresh air, photography and online marketing. Find out more about Anita on her Website | Shop| Facebook |Pinterest |

Carolyn Lucento from Magical Movement Company

Carolyn is a grandmother, career Montessori Teacher, & currently an Orff-Schulwerk Music Specialist in Preschool Classrooms. She is also an A.M.S. Teacher- Trainer in the S.F. Bay Area. She firmly believes that we all learn just about everything through the art of play! Find out more about Carolyn on her Blog | Store | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Instagram

Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies from Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield, England. Deb taught in Montessori schools before starting her own Montessori school. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. She lives in San Diego where she takes care of her 2-year-old granddaughter a few afternoons each week. Find out more about Deb on her Blog | BitsofPositivity | Facebook |Pinterest | Twitter | Google+ | Instagram | Youtube

A Montessori Approach to Language (video workshop with PDF) will be available for $9.99 onFebruary 14. Before February 14, it’s only available (for free) to Montessori Giveaway 2016 entrants.

Frida Azari from Rainbow Learning Materials

Frida has been a Montessori teacher for the past 14 years in the Early Childhood and Lower Elementary levels. She holds her Early Childhood and Lower Elementary Credentials from the American Montessori Society. Frida is also an adult educator and has been teaching Montessori Philosophy and Mathematics for the Montessori Teacher Education Center San Francisco Bay Area for the past 4 years. Frida enjoys photography and has had 6 of her photos published on the cover of Montessori Life magazine. All the photographs for the books “A Parents’ Guide to the Montessori Classroom” by Aline D. Wolf and “Math Works” by Michael Duffy are Frida’s work. Frida enjoys designing teaching materials and is currently working on her new line of Phonic Readers materials for pre-school to 3rd grade students. Her Math teaching materials are being sold at “Teachers Pay Teachers” website nationwide. Find out more about Frida on her Website |Store |

Jae from the Pinay Homeschooler

Jae is an Electronic Engineer on paper, but turned Stay at Home Mom and Homeschooler. She has been been nurtring learning in her kids since birth through Montessori philosophies. They do a lot of Montessori and Montessori-inspired activities, make their own learning materials , do a lot of hands-on learning, nature studies and outdoor activities at home. Find out more about Jae on her Blog | Store | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter |

Jessica Renee

Jessica is a Montessori-trained teacher from Vancouver, British Columbia, where she currently teaches a combined Grade 1 and 2 class, in a public school. In Vancouver, public Montessori programs are becoming increasingly popular with parents who want something different from the traditional school model. She loves to develop interesting Montessori-inspired extension activities to use with her class and to share with others on Teachers Pay Teachers. Find out more about Jessica in her | Store |

Jo Ebisujima from Jojoebi

Jo is an expat Brit living in Japan with her family. She is a BIG believer that learning should be fun and that if kids fall in love with learning they will carry that with them throughout their lives. She loves the Montessori method and feels that the most important thing that parents can do is to “Follow The Child” She runs courses and writes books to help parents make learning fun, including the best selling book: Montessori Inspired Activities For preschoolers, which is available on Amazon and all good book stores.

Katherine Kabral from I Believe in Montessori

Katherine is from Ukraine. She is trained in Montessori from birth to six years. She consults for parents about the Montessori method. Montessori is her passion and she has been inspired to create Montessori printable educational materials. Find out more about Katherine on her Blog |Store | Facebook | Pinterest |

Lisa from MontessoriKiwi

Montessorikiwi is proudly run by Lisa, a trained Montessori and state teacher with 6 years experience in Public Montessori in New Zealand. Lisa has over 100 Montessori resources in her store suitable for ages 3-12. She loves making resources where students apply their knowledge and think outside the square! Find out more about Lisa in her Store | Facebook |Pinterest |

Lolly from Elementary Observations

Lolly is a Montessori trained teacher (6-12) and mother of two. She currently lives with her family in Western Australia where they enjoy the diverse landscapes that surround them. Find out more about Lolly on her Blog | Store | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter

Marnie Craycroft from Carrots are Orange

Marnie hails from Maine where she spent summers buried in sand and winters buried in snow. She is the daughter of a nearly four decade veteran of the public school systems. Teaching has always been a part of her life. She founded Carrots Are Orange, a Montessori inspired learning and living website for parents and teachers, in 2010. Besides writing, passions include running (usually after her three sons), photography, and outdoor adventures. Marnie currently lives east of Seattle with her husband and three young sons. Find out more about Marnie on her Blog |Store | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Instagram

Seemi from Trillium Montessori

Seemi is an AMS trained Montessori teacher. She has been in Montessori for almost two decades, as a teacher, administrator, and consultant. She founded her school, Trillium Montessori in 2009 and began blogging about her classroom activities in 2013.

Susan Gordon from Explore Learn Go

Teaching has provided the opportunity for Susan to work with many amazing students from preschool age through adults in a variety of learning environments including the Montessori classroom. She owned and operated a Montessori school for 20 years. Whatever the age of the student or learning environment, she tries to provide an interactive classroom with hands-on materials and lessons that promote student involvement, success, and a joy of learning. Find out more about Susan in her Store.

Yuliya Fruman from Welcome to Mommyhood

Yuliya is a stay at home mom to a preschooler. She blogs about hands on kids learning activities, shares printables, and healthy recipes. She documents her approaching to homeschooling her son, using a mostly Montessori inspired method. Her printables are available in English and Russian. Find out more about Yuliya on her Blog | Store | Facebook | Pinterest | Google+ |Instagram

Animals Skin Cover

Saturday, 16 January 2016

This learning material for Vito is currently a favorite in the house! You can match real figures on it or the images that is included in the file.

This is Vito working on the cards. He picks this every morning!

Included in the file:

20 high quality images of real animals skin cover. Yes they’re real! You can seet he fur and other textures in the images. I included four types of vertebrate animals to help the child identify the difference between mammals, reptiles, fish and birds
20 matching pictures of the animals isolated in white background. This will help the child focus more rather than using pictures with backgrounds.

Buy now

FREE Polar Animals Coloring Pages

Friday, 15 January 2016

artic animals page

Mavi is into coloring these days and I would like share the coloring pages (with trace and draw) I made for him so you too can enjoy it!

Download you copy by clicking here. Enjoy!

2015 Favourites and {Learn & Play Link Up}

Thursday, 14 January 2016

I enjoy reading top posts for 2015 in our link up last week and I wanted to feature my favourites!

Arctic and Antarctica Activities for 2 Years Old

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

Vito is 26 months old.

Few days ago I shared Mavi’s activities for this month. Now it’s time I share Vito’s.

1. Counting activity using Penguin cards and water bottle lids. When I introduced this, Vito was more interested in rolling the bottle lids than counting. He identifies the number in he lid then would roll it around the house. Yes, tiring for Mommy!

2. Matching activity for visual discrimination using our polar animal cards from here. Vito loves matching but I would only give him a maximum of 6 cards to match everytime we do this.

3. Counting penguins using the Hape Puzzle Numbers and Safari Toob Penguins. Vito enjoys counting the penguins!

4. Gluing black and white circles in a paper for fine motor skills. I made him use the gluing stick this time so he’ll know how to use it (I did the same thing with Mavi).

5. Montessori parts of a penguin puzzle. I got this from a local store, but you can also purchase this Montessori material from Tower High Learning (UK) or Leader Joy USA (US) or in Amazon. Vito loooves working with puzzles, this is one of his favourites! He knows where to place the pieces but finds it hard to fit them all together as of the moment.

6. Matching Safari Toob Arctic figures to matching cards. Will share the cards once I fix the file.

7. Filling the buckets with blue colored rice. I made him use a scoop instead of a spoon, but he prefers using his hands. But of course, it’s the perfect tool for sensorial activity!

8. Painting using black and white Giotto Bebe fingerpaints. I am introducing black and white this month, the predominant colors in the Polar Regions. I also used our Polar Regions Invitation to Play tray for introducing the said colors.

It was also a great way to practice color matching, by matching the lids to the paint bottles.

9. Scooping dark brown (almost black) and white pompoms. Another activity for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

These are Vito;s activities for the entire month of January PLUS the reading of books (daily), and letter activities for literacy (we’re working on P and W this month). Watch out for Vito’s activities for the month of February. Till next time, thank you!

Culture and Traditions of People Around the World

Sunday, 10 January 2016

** contains affiliate links **

Welcome to another year and another series of the 12 Months of Montessori. For this month, my friends and I are going to showcases Montessori Cultural activities. If you are a reader of my blog, you know so well that we travel a lot, thus Mavi has grown into a lover of geography and enjoys learning about different places and different culture. Also, we’ve been doing a number of continent studies for years. You can check these out here.

To start with, I have been collecting Playmobil playsets and figures, they’re one of the best toys my kids have and greatest investment for me so far as we get to use them in our homeschool as well. We use these figures to represent a certain country in each continent, to have a better idea of the traditions and practices of the people.

The Figures

This has been a long time dream of mine, to have a collection of dolls that represent countries in the world. Those kinds of dolls are hard to find though and more expensive. Then I discovered Playmobil and realized that they produce historal figures and playsets with important icons like Samurai, Mongols, Vikings, Princess, Flamenco dancers etc! So I started collecting them! See the Amazon affiliate at the end of the post for some links.

So each of these figures signifies the tradition, culture and the people of a certain country.

The Cards

I love the figures that I wanted to have cards that will go along with them, so I made these traditional clothing cards to match my Playmobils. Here’s what I came up with!

South America and North America

Here are the “models”! Brazil – Carnaval dancer, Argentina – Gaucho, USA – Native American, Canada – Mounty

Asia and Australia

China – Mongol/Chinese warrior, Japan – Samurai, Saudi Arabia – Genie magician, Australia – Aboriginal

Europe

United Kingdom – Victorian lady, Italy – Gladiator, Norway – Viking lord, Germany – Bavarian lady

Africa

South Africa – South African lady, Kenya – Maasai tribe leader, Egypt – Ancient Egyptian

The People of the World

Mavi placing the Playmobil characters on the map Smile ! I’m using the Montessori Continent Puzzle Map, from Tower High Learning (UK). If you are in the US, you can get yours from Leader Joy USA.

Since I can’t get enough of my my little people, here are some close-up shots of my figures. They are adorable!

Now to learn more about each of the figures and the countries they represent, I created picture booklets for Egypt, Japan and United Kingdom (these are the ones I made as of the moment). Mavi loves our booklets, he enjoys reading / coloring them, learning about each country and working on his own DIY booklets! Now I just have to stop here, and talk about these booklets soon!