Montessori Inspired Dinosaur Clean-Up Activity

Vito is 30 months old.

It was so warm last Tuesday that I asked the boys to play outside and then wash their dinosaur toys. Oh boy, they were so happy to do so!

Inspiring Kids To Do Research

As you all know, we’re having Dinosaur-themed activities this week. This curriculum is basically for Vito but most of the time, Mavi wants to take part in it as well, especially when the topic is interesting to him.  And since Mavi loves dinosaurs, I gave him some tasks last Monday (holiday in Ireland).

Creativity with Shape Mags (Stick N Stack)

Vito is 30 months old.

I bought this amazing product when we went to the US last month.  We have Magnatiles and we love it, but the problem is we can’t really make something more out of those squares and triangles. When I came across Stick N Stack in Amazon and read good reviews, I just needed to buy those beautiful window tiles and carts!   And if you ask me, yes they work really well with Magnatiles!

And since we’re having Transportation Unit, I made Vito create his own cart.  Oh boy, he played with it for hours!!  I asked Mavi to assist his little brother for awhile but later on left when he realized that Vito doesn’t want him for a playmate.

Learning the Different Types of Clouds

I recently purchased a few science books for the boys which I bought from Book Depository.  Mavi loves science and I am so happy that the books are child-friendly and can be read independently by older kids.  I love investing in books because my boys love to read and it can be used over and over all through the years. Great heirlooms for family too!

Anyway, the first book he read was the Clouds Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1 (AmazonUS) (Book Depository). This is by far the best book I’ve encountered that illustrated the different types of clouds in a simple way, and the explanations are so basic and easy to grasp for kids. So after reading the book, we sat down the next day and worked on some hands-on activities for retention.

Exploring the Landmarks of the World

Our recent trip to the United States has reignited Mavi’s interest in geography and he asked me if he can review our landmarks of the world figures so he can check the places that he has already visited.

The Perfect Moon Sand (Cloud Dough) Recipe

Dear friends, I’m very busy and I don’t have an easy access to products that are sometimes required to create a dough or a slime.  So when I discovered this 2-ingredient cloud dough from Happy Hooligans, I was ecstatic!  To make a moon sand or cloud dough, you just need a lot of plain flour and baby oil. That’s just it!  Check the site for the measurements, the outcome was fantastic!

Lent In Our Home

My son attends a Catholic school so he knows all our religion’s celebrations and traditions.  I was  raised in a Catholic family and during Lent we do a lot of religious activities at home like processions, daily prayers, participating in the Stations of the Cross, novenas, watching religious films in the church and attending mass and more.  I wanted my kids to experience this to understand the meaning of Lent and why we celebrate Easter. So I decided to start a simple Lenten tradition in our home, to focus on Jesus, prayer, meditation and sacrifice.

 

The Rainbow Clouds Craft

I saw this beautiful rainbow craft a few weeks ago in Pinterest and I totally forgot the main site, so please if you own this craft leave a message and I’ll include the credits. 

I’ve been introducing Vito to the spring season using our Spring Season Picture Cards, books and outdoor activities.  Today, I’m sharing the rainbow clouds the boys made last week.  The weather was terrible at that time  and we couldn’t explore our yard so I made use of their free time doing crafts at home.  So I tried to scan through Pinterest in search of simple crafts that BOTH of my kids could work on, and this is one of them!

Crafts projects allow children to exercise their fine motor skills, improve manual dexterity and understanding of visual-spatial relationships.  They provide opportunities to use their imagination as well.  Just be vigilant when using small items and sharp objects like scissors.

How to Study The Story of the Universe and The Origin of Life

It’s time for another 12 Months of Montessori Series and today I am sharing Mavi’s favourite book series.  We have been using these books for years now.  The books are all about the cosmic history to the evolution of man.  The stories are accompanied by stunning images and time-line to follow.  Everything in these books are just too magical and enlightening for him!  In this post you will also see the activities that the kids did in order to make the Study of the Universe and the Origin of Life a lot more interesting.

The Animal Kingdom Revisited

No school for Mavi means brainstorming for future activities. He opened up lately that he wanted to study about animals again, so I took out our cards on The Animal Kingdom and checked what else we missed and haven’t explored yet.  He reviewed the cards and sorted out the things that he wanted to learn this year.  He picked arthropods, starfish and jellyfish! Yay, something new!

Learning about Faces!

The boys (and I) had so much fun making faces!  This is a simple activity that you can do with your kids with minimal preparation.  It’s the perfect opportunity to learn about emotions and the facial expressions they can make! 

Learning the Parts of the Human Eye

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It’s Mavi’s midterm break and we decided to look into the parts of the human eye!  We examined our model unit this morning which we bought last year from the local store.  It’s so perfect and goes along so well with our Human Eye Nomenclature Cards and Booklet. 

Small World Play: Giant Pandas

Early this year, when everything in Amazon was on sale, I got this one of a kind Panda and the Bamboo Forest Playset from Playmobil.  I’ve been eyeing this for months since last year and I was lucky enough to chance this set on sale! Giant Pandas are one of those animals that are in the endangered list and I think somehow, by having this playset at home I can introduce this beautiful animal to the kids, talk about their characteristics and habitat.h

PS. We’ve visited a lot of zoo, but we haven’t encountered a Giant Panda.  We didn’t chance upon them in Singapore Zoo either.

Study of Ancient China

Few weeks ago, Mavi and I were learning about Ancient China.  I decided that this year, we’ll be focusing in country-based studies rather than continents.  Last month we worked on Australia, and because of Chinese New Year being celebrated during February, I guess this month is the best time to conduct Chinese-themed activities.

Flower Matching Cards

This Valentines Day, we are having flower activities!

Small World Play: Ancient China

Gong Hi Fa Cai!  It’s the Chinese New Year tomorrow and Mavi and I are currently learning about Ancient China  (using STOW Vol 1 as read along book). With these, we set up another small world play which is inspired by the history of China.  Here’s what Mavi and I assembled.  Last month, we assembled an Australian Outback-inspired small world play and it was a total hit!  This month, the boys are enjoying their free play with our new small world tray!

Chinese Lantern Project for Kids

We had a lot of fun today making our Chinese lantern in celebrating Chinese New Year.  Mavi and I did this years ago, and I think he would love to do this again, and of course for Vito to experience.

Hands-on Learning: Biomes of Australia

A few weeks ago, while were doing an Australia Unit, Mavi and I talked about the animals in Australia and in which habitat they belong. We’ve done this years ago but it’s always nice to revisit and add a little depth in the topic. 

Europe Continent Study for Grade Schoolers

We are revisiting our Europe study, this time I’ve decided to take it by regions.  But before we dive into that, we reviewed some of the things we’ve learned in the past years.

Europe Continent Study: European Regions

Here’s a new study for this year, learning Europe through its regions.  Here I was showing Mavi the divisions and the boundaries in the map.  I bought this map years ago at Montessori Print Shop.  So we’re doing a color code here based on our map in Europe in a Nutshell.  Blue for northern Europe, red for western Europe, green for eastern Europe and orange for southern Europe.

Learning History of Ancient Europe for Kids

If you’ve been following us in Instagram, you should know by now that Mavi is obsessed with world history.  It all started with his fascination with Horrible Histories and then he started to borrow books from the library.  That’s why I purchased the Story of the World books to feed his interest.  We’ve been reading it for awhile and almost done with Story of the World Book 1: Ancient History.

I wanted to share with you how we study world history at home.  Aside from our previous lessons of Ancient Egypt, Mavi wanted to learn about the history of Europe.  So this is where we are focusing as of the moment.  These cards are included in my Europe in a Nutshell learning material.