Educational Puzzles for Preschoolers

Because I’m often asked of the puzzles we use at home, I’m sharing what we have here to give you an idea on what my preschooler loves.   Some of these puzzles are way too advanced for Vito, so we usually start working the puzzles together.  But as he gets used to the material, he would at times insist on working it on his own and occasionally would ask for assistance. 

*We own all of the puzzles in the pictures below. 

Montessori Inspired ASIA Continent for Preschoolers

Vito is 39 months old.

This month, I’m helping Vito explore the Asia continent .  We’ve started continent study last year, which was followed by an exploration of the penguins in Antarctica.  We occasionally look at Maps and work on the continent puzzle, and based on my observation, Vito is ready to learn about Asia.

Animal Skin Covers Sensorial Matching Activity for Preschoolers

Spontaneous activity that Vito decided to work on this morning.  You’re seeing my Animals Skin Covers Matching Cards being used with Schleich and Safari Toob animal figures.  Vito enjoyed this activity so much that he kept on doing this over and over again!  And you know what else happened?

Play-based Dinosaur Activities for Preschoolers

Vito is 39 months old.

We are exploring dinosaurs till mid of the month and we get to use our Playmobil dinosaur sets!

Montessori Sensorial Activity The Pink Tower

Vito is 39 months old.

We fell in love with the Montessori Sensorial Pink Tower right after we unboxed it!  I observed that Vito has a liking in blocks and patterns, so we’ve been using the Pink Tower almost everyday recently. And just when I thought that this is just an ordinary material of stacking and building a tower, I was totally wrong. This is one of the Montessori materials I should have bought early on when Mavi was just a toddler/preschooler.  I thought of exhausting the use of the Pink Tower with Vito so he will fully obtain the benefits out of this amazing material.

Sorting Game Using Alphabet Sound Cards

Vito is 38 months old.

I am so excited that I finally found a way to keep Vito engaged in the alphabet sorting activity.  You see we always sort out objects according to their letter sound (see it here), but my problem is that Vito is more interested with the objects rather than participating in the activity.  The moment I opened the box for us to sort, he would take away one object at a time and he refuses to do the activity and would play instead.  Now this is fine, I have no problems with it.  In fact, this happened to Mavi too.  I let them play with the objects first but then would ask them to participate in the activity right after.  It was temporary for Mavi, he loved sorting objects according to beginning letters rather than playing with them.  As for Vito, it’s different.  He is still in a stage of being “playful” so our sorting activities are sometimes a struggle.  He knows how to do it, but refuses because of the object.

My solution:  I tried using a printed image instead of the objects and tada, he finished everything in a matter of seconds!  With this, we are going to work on printed materials for now, and maybe mix them with objects occasionally just to test whether he has overcome his obsession with tiny figures.

Montessori Knobless Cylinders Sequencing

Vito is 39 months old.

Vito and I have been working on Knobless Cylinders a lot lately and many have asked what this  Montessori sensorial materials can basically do and how can they use it at home.  Though I’ve talked about this before, I realized that I didn’t really explained the method that I’m using, how to use it in the beginning and how to extend the use of the materials once the child has mastered the basics.  So I’m starting a series of post on Montessori Knobless Cylinders ,  from the basics to the extension activities. 

Montessori Inspired February Activities for Preschoolers

Vito is 39 months old.

Thank goodness January is almost over!  I really don’t like January, it’s that time of the year where we get to experience the worst weather condition.  Fortunately, we have fair weather this year, it’s actually warm!  But, I am so looking forward to spring now, and I can’t wait for all these gloomy days to be over.  And speaking of spring, this month, I’ll start adding “spring” activities into our homeschool activities.  We will be using traditional Montessori materials for most part and in some, we’ll have themed activities.  Hope you like what I prepared for Vito for this month.

Montessori-Inspired Antarctica Shelf for Preschoolers

For me January is the best time to introduce kids to the animals of the arctic or of Antarctica.  They can pretty much relate to these animals due to the extreme weather we are experiencing during the months of winter, which makes its peak in January.  And since our 12 Months MORE of Montessori Series for January is to feature Winter Themed activities, I’m featuring simple ways you can do to introduce the continent of Antarctica to your preschoolers.   Now, I’ve done this almost every year with Mavi since he was 4 years old, and I’ve realized that somehow I might have gone overboard with the topic (used a lot of unnecessary materials).  So for Vito’s first exposure to Antarctica, I wanted it to be simple, quality over quantity. 

 

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. 

The Montessori Short Bead Stairs: Learning About Quantity

Vito is 38 months old.
This is a Montessori math activity on teaching the child about quantities from 1 through 9. We’ve worked on this since last year (starting from 1 to 5) and has been doing a lot of extensions.  This is a simple presentation of the work and I’m sharing some of the extensions we’re working on as well.

Montessori Inspired Penguin Unit for Preschoolers

We are exploring the world of penguins this month and Antarctica! Materials here are a mixture of old and new (some were Mavi’s).  There’s no timeline for this unit, we’ll do this spontaneously all throughout the month of January, in between Vito’s Montessori works and other activities.

Montessori January Activities for Preschoolers

Happy New Year to all!

Vito is 38 months.

Starting 2017 by sharing what’s on our shelves for the month of January!  For this month, we will be working on penguins (preschool style), along with other Montessori traditional work.  I’ve been wanting to introduce penguins since December but we were so busy with all the holiday preparations that I decided to postpone it a little bit and introduce it at the time when “all is calm and all is bright” (more sun in January!).  Feel free to skim through Vito’s activities and you can leave comments if you have queries.


I post photos in my Instagram everyday for the activities. You can check them or follow me to see how these materials are put into action!

Learn to Write Letters for Preschoolers Using Sandpaper Letters

Vito is 36 months old.

Our sandpaper letter set has finally arrived (yehey before Christmas!) and it’s been a favorite ever since!  If you follow me on Instagram, I recently showed a picture of Vito working with Schleich animals and sandpaper letters.  But that’s just one activity we can do with the letters.  The main use of this material is for Vito to use it as a tool in learning how to write alphabet letters.

Advent Books for Christmas Countdown

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)

 

8 Christmas Tray Activities for Kids

We are currently sick (Vito and I), but the good news is Vito is on his way to recovery (antibiotics) while I’m still suffering from cough and flu.  Though I don’t have any fever but I don’t feel like doing anything at all, just wanted to lie down, sleep or just relaxing my mind from anything. For me to be able to rest and recover, I decided to come up with Christmas tray activities for Vito to work independently with minimal supervision. 

Montessori Inspired Vegetable Activities for Kids (Part 1)

We are all currently sick (since the weekend), we are battling cough and flu.  We spend our days resting, basically just sitting around doing random things like reading books, playing with toys or watch the kids’ favourite TV shows.  Because I was able to do some groceries last weekend, I decided to whip a vegetable activities for the boys yesterday using the ones I bought from the store.  My aim for these activities is to introduce healthy foods to the kids for fast recovery (from our sickness) and healthy diet.   The cards are from my shop and both of my kids love it!

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!

Learning About Fruits and Vegetables for Preschoolers

Vito is 36 months old.

These fruits and vegetables cards were taken out of the storage box and has been used ever since.  It’s been used for naming and identifying fruits and vegetables and also served as matching cards.

FREE Fruits and Vegetables Ten Frames

We’re going to have Fruits and Vegetables Unit in the coming days and I made these beautiful ten frame cards/sheets that I’d like to share to all my beloved readers!  I used images of fruits and vegetables that Vito can identify so he’ll be more inspired to count.