Vito is 28 months old.
We were reading the Under the Ground book and chancing upon the page of mining, I decided that we should play pretend to look for jewels in a tub of sand! As you can see, this activity was intended for sifting the gravels and later on discover the jewels but I realized that sand is quite big so our sifter wouldn’t work. Thus, I added the scooper from Learning Resources, it has bigger holes in it so it can sift the sand effectively.
Here are all the materials and resources that we will be using in our Earth/Land Unit for the month of April. I prepared this list for those who wanted to follow our activities and those who are inquiring about the materials we are using.
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!
We finally started our colour toddler basket last week wherein we put red objects in the basket for learning colours. We started with the colour Red, the colour of Valentines Day and Chinese New Year
There are so many versions of this basket, sometimes they are called discovery baskets or treasure baskets wherein Mommies gather specific or themed objects and place them in a basket for the baby and toddler to explore. Now what makes our version different?
I am often asked by friends, after all the hassle of setting up a sensory bin, with all the mess here and there, what would the child learn from it?
Well basically, this kind of activity is for the child to explore his senses. It includes the sense of touch, smell (scented objects), eyes and hands and etc. But I don’t limit myself in these. We use sensorial play for literacy and math as well. When we do sensorial bin, I make sure that I play with my kids, that I interact with them (especially with Vito) so he’ll learn how to communicate.
Here’s a video of how we play with the ice and used it as a tool in learning vocabulary words, counting and more! No need for fancy toys 
We love books and most of the time its easier to have your activities revolve around that book. Kids will have a better understanding of the story, and at the same time explore related subjects like what we did with my Grand Father’s Journey, The Glorious Flight and other Five in a Row Activities. I shared here how we explore and dig dipper into the stories and create engaging activities to go along with it.
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“As parents and grandparents, we think that we are showing children we love them by giving them things. In fact such practice, in and out of itself, may send them the wrong message. Children may conclude that if people give you things, they love you. If receiving things tells you that you are loved, the next logical step is to measure self-worth by what you have, not by what you are. The reality is that very young children can only truly love one doll, one stuffed animal, and a few toys at a time. This experience provides a basis for adult life where one must learn to cherish one spouse, one family, one life, instead of fantasizing that it is possible to ‘have it all’.” - MONTESSORI FROM THE START
We don’t have a lot of toys at home. Mavi just like two kinds of toys: LEGO and dinosaur/animal figures, that’s just it. All through the years, I don’t splurge nor buy toys as we don’t have the budget for it. I consider them as luxury so I just gave toys to Mavi as presents on his birthday and Christmas. But because we “home” school, I purchase learning materials that my kids see as “toys” but in reality they are NOT really toys. And because I am frugal, I buy toys that they can grow with, MULTIPURPOSE and something that they can play together. So let me share with you the kids’ favourite things in the house. These are the toys that we have in the house, except for the ones in my “wishlist and basket”. These toys are being played day in and day out by the boys.
NOTE: ALWAYS SUPERVISE YOUNGER CHILDREN WHEN USING ANY OF THESE TOYS. Do not leave them unattended.
FAVOURITE TOYS
LEGO, DUPLO and PLAYMOBIL. Need I say more? These are the favourite in the house. We have plenty of LEGOs as this is Santa’s favourite present EVERY Christmas for 4 years! And Vito’s Duplo and Playmobil were brought from the local store when they were on 50% off. I would never get them for a whole price! Vito is now snapping bricks together and loves the Playmobil people. Both of my boys spend hours and hours playing with these toys. They never get tired of them. Perfect toy for creativity, concentration and developing fine motor skills!
For Playmobils, we have castles and pirates. They’re Mavi’s favourite toy and can play with them for hours!
My son loves the LEGO CLASSIC Bricks. He doesn’t really like those with premade designs as he always wanted to design his own thing. So I highly recommend that you buy the basic LEGO BRICKS especially if you are getting your first Lego. Having a plate is also good.
miniLUK and BambiniLUK. Mavi and I looooves this! We can’t get enough of answering all the booklets, especially those tricky ones! I bought the Starter Pack and bought the advanced booklets separately. There’s a version for younger kids, the BambiniLUK and some friend in Instagram said that they like it. Mavi is like “Mom, its making my brain tired LOL”
Montessori Botany and Zoology/Insect Puzzles, Montessori Puzzle Maps. I invested on these this year and it was worth it! I have puzzle loving kids, and Vito is currently addicted to them. Aside from educational, these puzzles are also perfect for pincer grasp practice. Mavi on the other hand is obsessed with my Asia and Europe puzzles. He loves geography, loves to learn about countries and their locations. Tower High Learning is my favourite Montessori shop as of the moment and this is where I purchase my materials.
Schliech Animal Figures and Safari Toobs are also an all time favourite in the house. The uses of these figures include imaginative play, learning about animals, habitat play, exploring landmarks and just about anything! You see these mostly in my post! When Vito was younger, I made him use Schleich animal figures because they are bigger but now that he has overcome his mouthing, he uses both Schleich and Safari Toob. Mavi is obsessed with dinosaurs, and he uses them now as characters for his homemade videos LOL. Now he uses both types for play and learning.
Hape Uppercase, Lowercase and Number Puzzles. With Mavi, I used the Melissa and Doug Magnetic letters (I still have them) and they were really really loved. Now the problem is Vito mouths things and I made Vito use it, the sticker of the letters were removed. So I looked for an alternative alphabet toys for us to use and I discovered these amazing puzzles from Hape. They are WORTH-IT! We love using them in anything, from learning letters, puzzles to stacking! Yes, Vito loves to stack these together! We also use it to sort out colors! Multi-purpose indeed! But if you have older kids, Melissa and Doug Magnetic Letters are as good as well.
Because I love to cook (Asian and Italian), the boys also love to pretend cooking with me using these Melissa and Doug cooking toys. They can play for hours with these!
M-cro Maxi Scooter. And I just have to include this!! Because they play with this scooter in and out of the house! Mavi uses this to school and Vito uses this indoor for scooting practice. I love that it is sturdy and kids can easily balance!
And of course, nothing beats classic toys like balls, cars and PlayDoh! My boys wouldn’t complain if they receive any of these this Christmas.
WISHLIST
Magnatiles. Rave reviews everywhere but I just couldn’t bring myself to purchase these tiles or can’t even justify it 
Unit Block. I know that the boys will love this as well. They can build and create so many things with this but the price is just too much for me. I still have to think about this a million times.
Beleduc Puzzles. My puzzle loving kids will love these puzzle series, especially the Your Body Layer puzzles!
My greatest challenge as of the moment is how to make Vito interested in letters. Of course he loves them, but not in the way that Mavi does. I know, I shouldn’t compare… reason why I try to give him stimulating and fun activities to get him interested in letters. It was different during Mavi’s time. Mavi had my undivided attention while with Vito, I feel that he always get the short end of the stick. Good thing Mavi is now back in school so I have time to focus on Vito in the mornings (in the midst of chores!).
Benefits:
How it works:
Hide the letters (foam, magnetic or wooden letters) in a bowl of rice (or beans) and let your little ones find them.
Dig dig dig! While they can use scoops or other materials, I prefer using their bare hands for the ultimate sensory experience! As they discover the letter, let them feel it and I would sound it for him to follow. As an extension, I made him match the letters to the one written on the paper as he loves matching.
He was so fascinated with the rice sticking on his hand!
Oh boy he was hooked! He had so much fun digging through the rice and and discovering the letters! Simple and easy to prepare isn’t it?
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Vito’s sensitive years has begun and he’s been learning a lot since I last posted his 21 months learning materials! With his current interest in letters and shapes, Vito and I has been doing lots of play-based learning in the morning before his nap time. Now this doesn’t take hours. It’s a maximum of 10 minutes per learning material that he picks.
So far he can recognize the following shapes:
He can’t pronounce their names properly though (except for star and circle), but yes he can say their names in a toddlerish cute way.
So here’s a summary of what we’ve been using to name and recognize shapes.
Melissa & Dough Jumbo Shape Puzzle
This is his favourite! He works on this everyday. Working on this board, you need to say the name of the shape of the puzzle holder, and point to its match (say also its name) and then place the puzzle in the board.
Playskool Shape Sorter
This toy has been on the shelf for ages! I first made him use square, star and circle. Then added oval and diamond and now, he has mastered half of the shapes!
This shape form fitter is available here.
Cookie Cutters and Playdough
The cookie cutters were bought from the local store. I love the colors and the differential sizes! This is similar to the cookie cutters that I have.
And this is how he forms a star and a square all at the same time!
And yes, we do get to use them as stencils too!
Miniland Shape Sorting
This is one of my favourite purchases this year. I love that we can do lots of things with this, from color and shape sorting, lacing and counting! This is not his favourite pick though, so we might NOT be working on this for the meantime. This Miniland Abacus Shapes can be bought from here.
We stopped using glue because Vito didn’t like it. Now that he’s a lot bigger, I re-introduced it once again and he’s not afraid of it anymore! This is just a simple activity of sticking shapes into an art paper using buds.
As you can see, I’m teaching him how to apply glue on a piece of paper
And he placed them on the paper of course, but on the wrong side and added some more glue on it!
Melissa and Doug Pattern Blocks
And the newest addition is this learning material from Melissa and Doug. This is quite popular and the boys love it! Yes, not only Vito but Mavi is using it too! Worth-it if you have multiple kids 
And that’s about it! Hope this will give you an idea of materials and activities when learning shapes with your kids! Don’t forget to pin this for later!
