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 was reading my old blog the other day (private) and I am amazed on how I recorded Mavi’s learning curve week by week. Mavi enjoys reading that blog now! I just have to say that it is quite different when you have one child, you have focus, you have MORE time and well, I was organized. Now, I’m managing and engineering a bigger household, with a school boy and a hyperactive toddler, I barely have time to blog.
So now, I will start writing about Vito’s activities in a week. I have to put a little effort on this, for keeping memories and for Vito to read someday. Currently, we’re not following schedule of doing totschool weekly. There are days when we do a lot of activities, and there are times when I just whip anything that goes into my mind.
Vito is 26 months old.
Math is one of my favourite subjects, and it always excites me to see math activities in homeschool blogs. Mavi and I are always having a great time working on this subject especially when he was in preschool. I collected all our favourite math preschool activities and you can check them out on the link or image below.
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This object basket series has been a popular post and I’m glad that it gave so much inspiration to all Moms and homeschoolers. Before the year ends, I’m sharing with you our second set of the object baskets and this includes letters I to P. But before you dig into this post, I suggest that you read the first part of this series to understand what it is for and how we use them at home for learning.
Object Baskets I to L
I Basket: foam letter , upper and lowercase letter, iguana, insects, ice, island
J Basket: foam letter, upper and lowercase letter, jeans, jigsaw puzzle, jug
K Basket: foam letter, upper and lowercase letter, kangaroo, knife, keys
L Basket: foam letter, upper and lowercase letter, leaves, lion, lemon, DIY sandpaper letter
Object Baskets I to L
M Basket: foam letter, upper and lowercase letter, medicine, monster, monkey, DIY moon
N Basket: foam letter, upper and lowercase letter, nuts, nine, DIY sandpaper letter, necktie
O Basket: foam letter, upper and lowercase letter, owl, orange, oval, DIY sandpaper letter
P Basket: foam letter, upper and lowercase letter, pig, pens, paint, DIY sandpaper letter
This is my guide for next year’s activities on learning letters. This will be fun!
For letters A to H, click the images below:
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During the midterm break I’ve been taking the boys out because of the glorious weather. And since whenever we’re out, Mavi would climb the trees (and Vito would do the same), I took the chance to formally introduce Vito to trees. Since he’s able to say words straight and could grasp simple concept, it’s about time I show him the wonders of trees!
The BEST way to learn about trees is to have a personal encounter with it. And since we’re surround by them, we explored trees’ by climbing, touching and feeling their barks, observing the leaves colors, compare sizes and more.
For Vito though, trees are something that he can climb on. Whenever he sees a tree, he would just insist to climb onto it, like the picture below. He was just in that position for about 30 minutes, not complaining and enjoying every single moment of it.
With these, I can conclude that Vito can somehow understand now that trees :
Now, for extensions, I also prepared simple tree-themed activities for Vito at home for indoor play and learning. Here are the trays I prepared for him:
Counting Trees. Vito loves this! I stamped four dots in the paper with a number symbol and we count as we place a tree on each dot. I used a do-a-dot marker for this.
Matching Trees (Abstract-Abstract). Remember when we worked on leaves and he’s not interested in matching cards at all? Well, that changed now as he was able to work on our matching tree cards without hesitation! And yes he completed the four pairs with much concentration. I love it! You can get these beautiful cards from here or click the image below.
Tree Puzzle. He loves working on tree puzzle but somehow, our tree puzzle is still too complicated for his age. He knows where to place the roots and trunk as of the moment, but finds it hard to fit them in the puzzle board. So what I do is just ask him where the piece is supposed to go, he points and I do the fitting.
Tree Matching. Similar matching activity as above, but in this case we are using a tree figure and matching it to cards. We are doing lots of matching activities as this introduces early math concepts and object discrimination. Tree figures are from Safari Toobs.
Books. These are the books that we focused on during the week of our tree themed activities: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and The Acorn’s Story, both of which are so enjoyable to read!
And how long do we have this for a theme? Mostly for 7-10 days! Of course, these are just some of the thing he does, he also plays with his toy and read book, learn letters and numbers. It’s just that I love introducing new concept/s each week and in a way its easier for me to focus on just one or two things.
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Download a FREE copy of our Animal Tracks Cards via this link or by clicking the image above.
On how we used this learning material, click here or the image below. Enjoy!
I love nuts! We’ve got plenty around the house, thus I decided to come up with activities for Vito since he’s been seeing them around the house and loves to play with my walnuts.
Letter N Object Basket. Reinforce literacy, letter ‘n’ symbol and phonics, vocabulary, and verbal skills. In the basket we have: nine, upper and lowercase N/n, necktie, DIY sandpaper ‘n’, nuts.
Hammering Peanuts. This is a practical life activity that develops hand and eye coordination, and develop those hand and arm muscles. I first set it up in a tray, but the peanuts were slipping so I had to put cling film to hold them. Vito loves physical activities so he enjoyed this. The only drawback is that the hammer that we used were so tiny 
Letter N Craft. I always make sure to include crafts in our weekly activities. My main goal here is for Vito to practice his manual dexterity like squeezing the glue, picking up small objects or pencils. Now that he’s familiar with glue, I gave him a glue with small opening for him to squeeze it.
Here he is applying peanut shells on the letter N. Improves pincer grasp through picking up small objects. Note to parents: always supervise your children when dealing with small objects.
Color Green. I’m introducing letter green this week. I gathered a few objects from his toys and place them all in a basket.
And we painted green in an A3 paper. Working with one color a week works for him.
When they dried up, we place them on the wall for everyday viewing.
Nut Matching. For visual discrimination (difference in objects), widen vocabulary and concentration.
Counting Walnuts. Builds early number and counting skills.
Forming Shapes using Nuts. Teaches shapes, fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination. This is Vito’s idea! I made a circle using the walnuts then he took the circle puzzle and place it in the middle, matching them together. Brilliant! We practice some more by drawing shapes on a piece of paper and he would trace the line using the peanut shells to form the shape. He enjoyed it!
And that’s about it! And what I happened to the nuts? I’m still consuming them LOL.
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Vito is 23 months old.
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After, the zoo, farm animals and parts of the body, I decided to do a fruit unit for this little boy as he loves to name fruits whenever we are in the supermarket. I like to come up with themed activities as it helps the child to expand their knowledge of certain objects and occasions, practice communication skills and improve their vocabulary.
Beginning Sounds. We’re using Hape Lowercase Puzzle.
Apple Prints. Color recognition and sensorial activity.
Bagging Fruits. A practical life activity that develops hand/eye coordination, concentration plus helping Mommy tidy up! We’re using Learning Resources Fruit Counters.
Matching Real Objects with Pictures. Developing early discrimination skills (difference between objects), hand/eye coordination and concentration. I made the fruit cards and you can get a copy from here or here.
Fruit Color Sorting using a Tong. Improving fine motor skills, pincer grasp, concentration and color recognition.
I love this tong from Ikea.
As of the moment, our color sorting activity involves two colors, but I introduce one (new) color at a time.
He’s seriously concentrating. Goodness!
Slicing a Banana. I was with him the whole time he’s doing this, reason why I don’t have an actual photo of the activity. Another great practical life activity to introduce to kids. This is an introductory activity of actual “slicing”, though we’ve done a lot of this using playdough. He still has difficulty coordinating his hands. We’ll get there though… need to practice more 
And that’s about it! Thanks once again for taking time to read through the post. Don’t forget to PIN this for your reference.
Check me out on Pinterest for more toddler and themed activities.
