Preschool Letter R

We started our preschool unit with letter R and I divided the activities into two:  (1) phonological awareness and (2) pre-writing.  The pre-reading activities is scheduled on Mondays and pre-writing on Tuesdays.  Vito does no more than 20 minutes of “school” per day.  The rest of the activities, Vito considers it as “game” or “play”.  During “school” time, I would quit the activities once I see that he’s bored or not interested.  My experience has taught me that it’s not about the quantity of activities that I give to my kids that matter.  In fact, they get tired so easily and bored when I do that.  Especially with Vito, I learned that I should do things slowly with him, and that I should respect and follow his own timeline of learning.  Mavi was different, he absorbs anything… he’s always interested, Vito is very choosy.

Going back, this week we’re starting with the letter R. Vito can name the letters of the alphabet if he’s in the mood so I decided that I should be giving him pre-reading activities so he won’t get bored.  Below are some of the activities this week for pre-reading and pre-writing.

 

A Math Racing Game for Preschoolers

Vito always wanted to join us whenever we play board games but we don’t allow him because it’s too much for him.  Too many cards (and paper money) to scatter, dice which he couldn’t figure out how to use and what to do with it and so much more.  So when I was making Autumn-Themed Math Activities, I made sure that I include a game that’s suitable for his age. 

Autumn Themed Preschool Math Activities

Vito is starting “preschool” math this school year and we are not using any curriculum.  I guess it’s not necessary in our case.  I will be using my experience with Mavi and with the thousand ideas online on setting up “play-based” and Montessori-inspired activities for Vito this school year.  So in order for me to be able to organize and prepare materials ahead of time, I decided to come up with seasonal-themes for the upcoming months.

Beginning Letter Sort (R and A)

It’s been awhile since my last post!  Sorry for not updating. Vito is starting “preschool” at home and I’ve been busy planning for his curriculum and preparing materials.  Actually the curriculum is just a guide, everything will still depend on how he progress and what’s his current interest. 

Anyway, I gathered some of Mavi’s old language materials and assembled a letter sorting activity for Vito next week. You’ve seen this a lot, like the booklet, the matching of pictures. But this time we’ll be working two letters a time and sort out objects that matches the beginning letter sound.

Rocks and Minerals Learning Activities for Kids (with Free Cards)

The summer break gave us an opportunity to explore sciences that Mavi loved to learn but couldn’t because of school.  After our trip to the Wicklow Mountains last month, he’s been asking  if we could learn about rocks and minerals.  He plays Minecraft so he wanted to understand the building blocks he’s using.  I started making the materials last month and it was just a few weeks ago that I finished the entire set and we were able to use it together with our rock collections!

Activity Trays for 33 Month Old Toddlers

Hello everyone! We only have two more weeks before school opens so I decided to postpone Vito’s Fruits and Art Unit for the rest of the month so I can spend quality time with the boys and not think about activity preparations.  With this I’m sharing Vito’s activity trays which he started working on early this month. Vito only spends about 20 minutes for our “themed units” and the rest, he would either do free play or work on these trays.  These would entertain him while I do house chores, sometimes I supervise especially if we use glass bottles.

FREE Printables for Alphabet Learning Sheets

Hi everyone! I’m often asked in my Instagram account on where I get our printed learning materials for learning letters (letter recognition and pre-writing) so I’m going to share with you the links of my sources here as it’s difficult to do that in IG.

Teaching Toddlers How Plants Grow

After our watercress activity, I introduced Vito to the life cycle of a green bean plant using Safari Ltd Life Cycle of a Green Bean Plant and the cards from The Wise Owl Shop.  Check out some of the activities that we worked on during the past few days that demonstrate how plants grow to toddlers.

Introducing Toddlers to Animals in Land, Water and Air

I had two presentations for the land, water, and air animals.  I first showed Vito what’s land, water, and air animals.  We worked with action songs to demonstrate how animals move in land, water, and air.  After I presented the pictures and the trays, Vito sorted out the animal figures I prepared for him.

Introducing Wild Animals to Toddlers

VIto is 32 months old.

As we continue our wild animals exploration, the boys and I watched documentary shows in Netflix about animals in Africa.  Vito enjoyed watching the shows and kept on naming the animals that he can identify.  With this, we worked on vocabulary words by identifying other wild animals that he’s not familiar with like gorilla, panther and rhinoceros.  We used our Safari Toob Wild animals for this activity together with the matching cards we got from The Wise Owl.

Animals and their Covers

My boys love animal covers!  We used this whenever we want to play around with or beautiful animals from Schleich or whenever Mavi wants to replicate them through drawing.

Understanding the Water Cycle

Last week I decided that Mavi and I should do a water cycle activity with Vito.  I prepared some materials and simple experiments to demonstrate this amazing science!

Montessori Inspired Activity: Musical Instruments

As we continue our Sound and Music Unit, I also introduced the different musical instruments.  Of course, it would be best if we have all of these (LOL) or least own one, but since we don’t these beautiful musical figures from Safari Toob will do.

Montessori-Inspired Sounds and Music: The Musical Hand Bells

Vito is 32 months old.

I prepared a few simple activities for our Sound and Music Unit.  It was the week of heatwave so I grabbed the opportunity to bring the boys outside more often to practise their biking and scooting skills, and as for me, able to run and lose a few pounds LOL.

Joking aside, this musical hand bells was a favourite of Vito. He loves using just to listen to the sound it makes and at times ringing the bells together to make “music”.

Homeschool Activities for Toddlers 32 Months Old

I’d like to share a summary of Vito’s work tray activities at 32 months.  These are the trays that are either part of our themed activities or just some random ones that I prepared for him in line with his current interests.  I hope that this will give you an idea on what to give your children in case he/she’s of the same age.  Keeping records of Vito’s work trays are also a means for me to track his development and progress per month.

LETTER PATTERNS

One of the challenging task that he’s working on this month.  We’re working with letters CUSN-POLH and here he’s doing the letter C.  This printed material was from The Confessions of a Homeschooler and the magnetic board plus the patterns were from Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Magnetic Pattern Blocks Set.

SANDPAPER NUMBERS AND COUNTING WITH DO DOTS

He loves the sandpaper numbers!  So we worked on tracing the numbers first and I demonstrated by counting it using the do a dot marker.  So aside from pre-writing, it’s also a great practise for 1:1 correspondence.  The sandpaper numbers can be purchased here and you can get the markers here, Do a Dot Markers.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

We love Safari Toobs and its his first time to use the Musical Instruments Toob.  As of the moment, we do the typical match to figure and picture using the 3-Part Cards from The Wise Owl (Philippine based).  You can check about this activity here, Montessori Inspired Activity: Musical Instruments.

ANIMALS IN THE WILD

Learning about the animals in the wild, using this set from The Wise Owl again (the 3-Part cards for the Safari Toobs Wild Animals is also in my 200+ Toobs Matching Cards Bundle Pack).  He can name a few but find it difficult to say the names of other animals like the rhino, hippo, and panther. You can check the details of this activity here, Introducing Wild Animals to Toddlers.

ANIMAL COVERS PATTERN MATCHING

One of our favorite printable from our shop (Animal Skin Cover Matching Cards)!  Matching animals with their covers.  We are using animals from Schleich and Safari Toobs Wild Animals.  You can check the activity here, Animal Skin Covers Sensorial Matching Activity for Preschoolers.

MUSICAL HAND BELLS

We’re having the Sound and Music Unit and one activity is using these musical handbells.  You can check how we conducted our activity here, Montessori-Inspired Sounds and Music: The Musical Hand Bells.

ANIMALS AND THEIR LETTER SOUNDS

A little bit of phonics activity by matching animal names to their beginning sounds.  We just worked from letters A to E.  Animals are from Schleich and foam letters from Munchkin Letters and Numbers Bath Toys.

MONTESSORI KNOBLESS CYLINDERS

This is one of his favorites for this month.  You can get the Knobless Cylinders at any Montessori shop or here.  Read about this amazing sensorial material and activity here, Montessori Sensorial Activities using the Knobless Cylinders.

LETTER TRACING

Vito is currently obsessed with tracing so I got him a dry wipe/wet wipe chalk markers which has no strong scent.  I used to purchase those dry erase pens that are using ink but they really smell, and I just discovered these chalk markers which are perfect for Vito. It’s non toxic, has bright colors and can be removed easily!  You can get these from AmazonUK and AmazonUS.  The wipe and erase cards were Mavi’s and I purchased them from Singapore (Kumon), you can also get them here.  And if you have more time and want to create your own cards you can also get this printable instead, Alphabet Tracing Mats.

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More learning materials at

Pinay Homeschooler Shop.

The Butterfly Garden Sensory Tub

This is one of the fastest and easiest sensory tub I’ve ever assembled. The tub is filled with 3 packs of lentils and butterflies from Safari Toob. Simple as it is, but oh boy, my little Vito played with this for a long time!

Montessori Inspired Insects Activity

I am reintroducing some Montessori-inspired activities once again to Vito.  We’ve been doing lots of free play for the past few days that I miss giving him “prepared” activities.  As he will turn three in the next few months, I’m planning to have a more “structured” schedule and curriculum for him this school year. I’ll share that later on once I figure out how to do that. 

Anyway, so in our Insects Unit, I borrowed these cards from my friends at The Wise Owl.  They’re Philippine based online shop that provides Montessori cards and Safari Toob figures locally.  Their cards are lovely and the images are so beautiful!

Fun Rain Cloud Experiment for Kids

Vito is 31 months old.

Still part of our study of the bodies of water, we tried the rain cloud experiment at home and it was a total hit!

Ocean Animals, Learning and Sensory Tub

Vito is 31 months old.
My boys and I love sensory tub! I often assemble something that would go along with our theme of the week. And for our Bodies of Water week, I’m sharing our Ocean Tub!

Learning About Waterfalls and Rivers

Vito is 31 months old.

Another fantastic activity that we did this week was the making of waterfalls and river.