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.
A Penguin Project for Mom and Kids
Friday, January 13, 2017
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.
Telling Time Activities
Monday, December 19, 2016
Mavi wanted to practice more of reading the time, especially when it comes to reading and writing “quarter to” and “half past”. He seems to be confused with the positioning of the small hand. So with this, I made a few activities for him to work afterschool. I am sharing these activities as well as the printables were are using (yes it’s free!).
Advent Books for Christmas Countdown
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Now that the boys are older, I’m starting a new Christmas tradition (other than having a Christmas tree) that will have a meaningful effect in our little family. Aside from the festivity and receiving presents, I want the boys to feel the love of the family, drawing us closer to each other, to other people and to God. I want them to remember that Christmas is all about giving, not receiving things for themselves.
We’ll open and read one advent book each day (but for sure we’ll be reading them all throughout the month!). It’s similar to the Advent calendar but instead of having toys, we’ll read a really good book about Christmas. I wrapped the books already, and randomly select a few to display under the tree for Vito open. (Mavi said Vito can open all of these everyday)
Montessori Botany Learning Materials
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Introducing the North American History
Thursday, November 10, 2016
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
Friday, November 4, 2016
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
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Introducing Simple Machines to Kids (with Free Printable)
Monday, July 18, 2016
Montessori-Inspired Activity: The Life of a Honey Bee
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Vito is 32 months old.
The appearance of the honey bees in our front and backyard has led us to look into the lives of these beautiful creatures who are the main source of honey. Vito is terrified of them but not Mavi. We were out the other day catching a few of them, observing how they produce the buzzing sound and freed them up again.
Kingdoms of Life: Animal Kingdom
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Mavi borrowed this book from the library so we can revisit the Animal Kingdom and he wanted to explore more of the other kingdoms of life. We’ve done a couple of times before (here and here) and he loves revisiting this over and over.
Hands-On Learning: Land and Water Forms
Monday, June 27, 2016
Investigating the Past Life with Safari Toob Fossils
Friday, June 17, 2016
Anyway, Mavi is officially joining Vito’s weekly themed activities as he’s almost done with school. He misses “Mom” school and urged me to let him join with the activities. So while Vito is all about play and learn, I’m giving Mavi some serious investigative work like research, more readings, and selective hands-on activities.
Learning the Different Types of Clouds
Sunday, May 29, 2016
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
Thursday, May 26, 2016
The Rainbow Clouds Craft
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
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.
The Animal Kingdom Revisited
Saturday, February 27, 2016
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!
Study of Ancient China
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
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.
Hands-on Learning: Biomes of Australia
Thursday, January 28, 2016
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.
The Polar Regions (Arctic and Antarctic Unit) for Gradeschoolers
Saturday, January 9, 2016
January is usually the best time to have winter themed activities or do either Antarctica or Arctic activities. It is the time when kids can envision these frozen part of the planet due to the cold/extreme weather. To start with, I've setup an invitation to play tray in our shelf and displayed books to go along with it. These can be accessed by the boys whenever they want to and they are not age specific, big boys and little brothers can share and play with the tray!