Book Review: Danny Dingle’s Fantastic Finds

I was quite surprised when Mavi finished this book in one day!  It arrived on the mail last week, and when I opened it in front of him, he excitedly asked if he could bring it to school so he can read it during the break. 

Fun with Bruder Cattle Truck

The boys received Bruder trucks last Christmas and they’ve been playing with them constantly!   There are so many reasons why I love these trucks, but for Mavi, the size and the sturdiness of the trucks make it a big winner. Anyway, let me share with you one of Vito’s favourites, the cattle truck.  The boys love playing farm and farm animals at home so the truck is a perfect addition to their “small world play” of farm animals.

A Penguin Project for Mom and Kids

Oh I am so happy how these turned out!! The boys and I enjoyed making these penguins using simple art materials.  It took us around an hour to finish everything (with a stubborn preschooler) and we were totally blown by the result!  This art project was from Deep Space Sparkle, one of my favourite artsy website and my go to for painting projects. 

We Love BrainBox World!

We are loving this educational board game!  I chanced upon this in a local bookstore, and hesitated to get one though I know Mavi will love it as he enjoys geography activities.  Then one day, while I was looking for Christmas presents in Amazon, some BrainBox sets were on 50% off including this World edition.  I purchased it right away and anticipated for days so Mavi and I can play the game as I was sick and couldn’t do any physical activities.

Montessori Botany Learning Materials

Last month, the boys were ill and they stayed in bed almost every day for a week.  I was practically free the entire day but busy at night (mostly for Vito).  During the time that they were sick, I decided to “upgrade” my Montessori botany cards and booklets for Vito to use in Spring 2017.  Some of these were hand drawn, and I’m proud of what I have achieved.  Come take a look!

Introducing the North American History

Based on my experience, the best way to teach kids about history is through famous landmarks.  I remember growing up with my father’s stories of Greece, Spain, Egypt and South America.  He has photos taken at the Great Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, in Acropolis, Christ the Redeemer in Rio and more.  He’s telling me a bit about history through the landmarks in his photos, which fascinated me.  Since then, I’ve been very interested in travelling and learning about world history. I wanted to inspire Mavi in the same way.  I always start my history lessons with the famous landmarks using our travel photos and the Safari Toobs (Around the World, World Landmarks).  Recently, I purchased the Safari Supertoob USA (on sale) because Mavi wanted to know more about the US (inspired by our trip there last May).

So in this post, I’m sharing how we worked on understanding the history of North America through famous landmarks, figures and playsets that depict the life of the early people of North America.

Teaching the Phases of the Moon to Gradeschoolers

Probably by now, you must have read my post on the Phases of the Moon for preschoolers.  If not, I highly recommend that you do for it will give you ideas on how to introduce the moon’s phases to kids from ages 2.5 years and older.

We’ve been discussing this topic almost every year, and for this year, I wanted to give Mavi something different. So here are the materials I prepared for him:  wall chart of the moon’s phases, a booklet for definition and nomenclature cards. 

Our Leaf Shapes Study

It’s Mavi’s midterm break this week and I decided to have activities that both of the boys can do together.  First in mind is a leaf study, since we are currently surrounded by beautiful and colourful leaves.  They are just too gorgeous when they change colors and I don’t want to miss that opportunity!  For this activity we also made use of our Montessori Inspired Leaf Shapes printable which you can buy from my shop.

Montessori Coloured Beads: How We Use It At Home

It’s starting to get chilly in our side of the world and though we prefer walking in the fields and in the forest during this beautiful season, the weather doesn’t seem to be in line with my plans.  So last week, I introduced Vito to the Montessori colored beads which I have for 3 years now.  But the thing about siblings, they just wanted to do what the other is doing.  Mavi insisted that I should give him some work with the beads as well, not just Vito.  In this post, I’m sharing how I made the boys work independently, but still supervising them as they work.

Playdough Monster Faces

I managed to create a pitch black playdough and the boys had so much fun making “scary” monster faces with it!