5 Activities to Learn about Australia

In honor of Australia Day this January 26, we are having this week-long Australia Unit at home.  I am sharing our activities which I prepared for both of my boys:  Mavi 7yrs old and Vito 2yrs old.  They are simple and easy to replicate so I hope you take inspiration on any of these!

Montessori Giveaway where EVERYONE WINS!!

You’ve read that right!! The Pinay Homeschooler is happy to be part of this amazing giveaway!

Our good friend Seemi of Trillium Montessori blog is celebrating its blog’s 3rd anniversary.  She came up with this wonderful idea of having a giveaway where everyone wins!

FREE Polar Region Animals Coloring Pages

Mavi is into coloring these days and I would like to share the coloring pages (with trace and draw) that I made for him so you too can enjoy it!

2015 Favourites and {Learn & Play Link Up}

I enjoy reading top posts for 2015 in our link up last week and I wanted to feature my favourites!

Arctic and Antarctica Activities for Toddlers

Vito is 26 months old.

Culture and Traditions of People Around the World

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Welcome to another year and another series of the 12 Months of Montessori. For this month, my friends and I are going to showcase Montessori Cultural activities.  If you are a reader of my blog, you know so well that we travel a lot, thus Mavi has grown into a lover of geography and enjoys learning about different places and different culture.  Also, we’ve been doing a number of continent studies for years. You can check some of my popular posts on geography below:

• A Continent Study of AFRICA
• A Continent Study of South America
• History of Ancient Europe
• Animals Around the World Activity
• The Study of Ancient Egypt
• Study of Ancient China

The Polar Regions (Arctic and Antarctic Unit) for Gradeschoolers

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!

Landforms of the Arctic and Antarctic Regions

Both of the boys are learning about the Polar Regions this month.  I have shared our Polar Animals Sensory Bin last week, and today I’m sharing what Mavi has been working on.  While Vito is having tray works, Mavi on the other hand is learning about the difference between the landforms of the Arctic Circle and the Antarctica.  This activity is vital in understanding the environment in both regions.

January Themed Activities and {Learn & Play Link Up}

I love seasonal themed activities and for this week’s linky, here are my favourite activities that you can do this January in line with the cold season!

Australia/Oceania in a Nutshell

My Australia in a Nutshell learning pack is finally available in the SHOP!  It took me awhile to complete this set because of the holiday season.  I’ve been receiving a lot of requests from readers to publish this set but I’ve been too preoccupied for the past weeks.

Sensory Bin of Polar Animals and {Learn & Play Link Up}

Here’s a sensory small world invitation to play I setup for the kids with polar animals! We’re having “Polar Animals” for January and decided to start the tub early.  The boys were excited upon seeing this!  How can they not?  Even I enjoyed playing with these little figures!

Benefits:

• sensory activity
• learning to count
• learning the names of polar animals
• literarcy and vocabulary words
• camouflage, animal colors that blends with their environment (blue, black, white, brown)
• arctic animals are different from the animals in Antarctica
• penguins are birds and can swim

Object Baskets for I to P

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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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Science Experiments: What Makes Ice Melt Faster?

This experiment is perfect for the winter season! Make use of the snowy days by performing this simple experiment on why we put salt on icy roads during winter.

Objective:

To determine which substance or what condition will make the ice melt faster.

Tried and Tested: Playmobil Native American Superset

*** contains affiliate links *** 

I was able to get some really great deals during the Black Friday sale. One of which is the Playmobil Superset Native American Camp.  As I mentioned earlier this month, Playmobil is one of the open-ended toys that we love and consider “educational” due to its historical figures and sets.  This Playmobil set will be perfect for our American history study next year.

What’s inside?

Crazy Over Do-a-Dot Markers and {Learn & Play Link Up}

I know you’ve heard about these already and have seen these markers in other homeschooler Moms.  My little Vito had a renewal of interest and can’t stop using them! These dot markers are great tools in practicing hand/eye coordination and concentration.  Aside from that, we also use it to learn shapes, colours and letters! Next year, we’ll start using them for counting.

Though there are plenty of FREE dot worksheets online, I prefer handwriting our own sheets to save ink.  Here are some random photos of Vito using the dot markers.

For learning letters.

Marking shapes.

He keeps asking for more!

Working on letter ‘t’ again. 

To save time, energy and INK, I cut out sheets of paper from the IKEA paper roll and just hand drawn everything.  Then I place the sheets on one of the work trays so Vito can easily access them.  He would usually work on them in the morning. Note that the markers can stain, but they can be wash off with soap AND water (with a little scrubbing).   I have these markers since 2011 and they’re still good as new.  Here’s the link if you are interested.

 

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Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

Here are the featured  activities for this week!

 

 

13 Clocks Preschool Trays from from SmarE PartE

Montessori Sensorial Extensions from Spielgaben from Living Montessori Now

Watercolor Christmas Trees from 3 Dinosaurs

Salt Dough Holiday Ornaments from Tiny Tots Adventure

10 Christmas Montessori Inspired Tot Trays from Mama’s Happy Hive

 

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jennifer from Study at Home Mama~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

GUIDELINES FOR LINKING

• Please link up 1-3 posts
• Follow each of the hosts on social media
• When you link up, please add our button and place it at the bottom of your shared posts or link back with text link.
• By entering a link, you’re giving us permission to feature an image on our blogs. Proper credit & links will ALWAYS be given.
• Please visit a couple of shared posts and leave a comment for them
• Remember that you must link back in order to be featured

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How I Organize and Store Materials

I’ve been receiving requests from readers asking me to share some tips or at least share how I organize our materials at home.  To be honest, I haven’t found the perfect formula for organizing materials.  I find myself experimenting on what works for me and for the kids.  So instead of giving advice on what to do, allow me to share with you how I organize our things at home. 

We live in a small apartment… as most European homes are!  So our sitting room is our playroom which is also our “home” school room. Except for painting and messy play, this is where all the actions are taking place.  So to make it “conducive” for the boys, husband and I purchased Ikea shelves and inserts so I can organize learning materials, mostly of Vito.  Mavi’s stuff are in his room including the Montessori materials that we own.

This is the  main shelf, the upper layer is for the working trays and the bottom layer contains the inserts.  We bought a sturdy insert from Ikea as well, they are really really good, quite heavy so Vito can’t just push and pull them.

Daily Activity Shelf

The inserts contain all the learning materials (non Montessori) of Vito, including the puzzle boards. Surprisingly, they fit!  So convenient because whenever I needed to change my materials, I just remove them from the insert and place them on the tray. Same thing when Vito is done working with them, I just put them back on the insert.

Christmas Themed Learning Activities for Toddlers

This month, we’re going slow (just like everyone else) so I integrated his 25 months activities with Christmas. 
1.  Transferring trees (soft candies) using a tong.
2.  Practicing the use of pegs.  I got him these small pegs to work on as he’s finding it difficult to use the bigger ones yet.  You can get these nowadays in any store,  they’re soft and easy to manipulate by little hands.  A good practice in preparation for the bigger pegs.

3.  Sorting coloured ribbons.  He sort different colours now, but still confused with naming the colours.
4.  Counting ornaments with tree foam crafts.  He loves this!

5. Rubber stamping in cards.  Mavi is writing cards for his friends, and Vito is joining as well. I bought him a box of cards to practice on, like opening the cards and stamping letters on it.  He enjoys doing it with his brother! The rubber stamps are from Melissa and Doug.

6.  Playdough and Christmas shapes cookie cutter plus ornaments! Lots of hand muscle practice


7.  Christmas tree puzzles.  Vito has been working with 2-pieces puzzles lately so I created these Christmas tree puzzles to go along with the season.
8.  Painting Christmas tree ornaments.  Again, I got these from a local store.
9. Tweezing pompoms and putting in a ring; a twist from the typical tweezing activity and perfect for hand-eye coordination!  Another version of this is to match the pompoms to the colour of the ring.  The rings are from ring counter toy.

We will be doing these activities for the entire month, usually after we read books which we do on a daily basis.  May you find this post helpful! 
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Practical Life Activities for Toddlers (24 Months) and {Learn & Play Link Up}

Vito turned 2 years old last month.  Aside from the letter t sound and tree themed activities, here are the practical life activities Vito worked on:

History Timeline Cards: Ancient Times

Up in the Shop is our World History: Ancient Times Timeline Cards and Booklet.  The file includes the following:

• 40 timeline cards of the ancient times (occurred between the period of 5000BC to 500BC). The timeline cards has
• 40 definition cards for each timeline card
• 3 pages of timeline sheets can be connected to form as a guide. The pages are in A4 paper size.

Check out how we used it here (History of Ancient Europe Study) and here (Study of the Timeline of European History).

Hope you like it, enjoy!

Get this here:

Object Baskets for Letters A to H

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I’ve been working hard for the past days organizing our object baskets for Vito’s phonics practice.  Vito knows his alphabet and numbers, he names half of the alphabet with their phonics sound.  Like he calls letter B as “bah”, and H as “huh”.  I guess this is the result of me teaching Vito the sound first, before the name of the letter itself. Something like “this is mmmmmmm, M” or “this is ssssssss, S”. 

What is an Object Basket

These are baskets that contain a letter along with 3 dimensional objects to match to the letter by beginning sound.  The concept behind this is similar to the object boxes of Montessori (for reading)  , but we are not going there yet.  The object baskets are simply for exploration, vocabulary and learning phonic sounds.

Assembling the Object Basket

Each of my basket has an uppercase and lowercase letter.  We are using the letters from Hape Uppercase and Lowercase puzzles and the Munchkin foam bath letters.  I wanted to add the magnetic letters from Melissa & Doug but I was thinking that there’s too much letters in basket already, so I’ll just reserve those for my future object boxes (reading). 

I wanted to add sandpaper letters but mine is a DIY years ago and its incomplete. I plant to get a set this Christmas as gift to self LOL but still waiting for the discounted price (hoping!).

Gathering objects is the most exciting part.  I would search in the kitchen, bedroom and my kids’ toys for appropriate objects to add in the basket.  Since Vito is only 2 years old, I limit the number of objects in the basket, maybe 3 – 5 only.  They don’t have that stamina and attention span for 10 objects so better keep it simple and avoid overwhelming the little ones. 

Object Baskets from Letters A to H

So I just completed these baskets, took photos and print the set so that it’s easier for me to assemble once we start with the activity (we’ll do this after the holidays).  Will display this on top of our shelf and worked on it after we do our daily routine of reading books.

A Basket:  alligator, ambulance, A foam letter, apple, A picture booklet

B Basket:  book, banana, block, B foam letter  and B picture booklet

C Basket: cow, carrots, C foam letter,  car and C picture booklet

D Basket:  dinosaur, diaper, Duplo, DIY sandpaper letter, letter D

E Basket: eye (McDonalds), elephant, egg (McDonalds), DIY sandpaper letter

F Basket: feather, four, letter F, upper and lowercase F, fork, flower, fish, fence, DIY sandpaper letter

G Basket: grapes, giraffe, goggle, upper and lowercase F, F foam letter,  DIY sandpaper letter

H Basket:  upper and lowercase F, DIY sandpaper letter, horse, heart, hanger, hippo, hammer, H foam letter

Ideally, we will work for on one letter a week, but this doesn’t always happen.  So I usually schedule the next change of basket after 2 weeks.  I am still gathering up objects for my second batch.  Hopefully I can finish it soon so I can share it with you.  And that’s it for the first set of my object baskets! Stay tuned for second set from I to P

Hope you find this inspirational!

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FREE Life Cycle Matching Cards

I have a bunch of life cycle figures which my Aunt brought from the US a few months ago.  I did not really intend to introduce them yet to Vito as he is too young.  But I observed that he’s into matching activities these days, so I managed to create matching cards for all of my life cycles. Wow, he definitely surprised me! He worked on all of these in one day and always picked these for his activity everyday!

How I Make Our Learning Cards

I’ve been wanting to post about this for the longest time but I just couldn’t convince myself to make one.  Anyway, let me share with you the complicated ways I create our learning cards.

So in our homeschool,  there are 3 ways I make our printables:

• Cards (Montessori cards, matching cards for Vito and seasonal themed cards)
• Learning booklets
• Mats and poster diagrams

Basic materials I used:

• laminator
• 125micron (a total of 240micron) or 5 Mil  laminating pouch
• 80micron (a total of 160 micron) or 3 Mil laminating pouch
• HP Inkjet 100gsm paper
• White cardstock (at least 160gsm) or 110lb Cardstock
• Colored cardstock (at least 160gsm) for borders
• One hole puncher
• binder rings

MAKING THE CARDS

Includes: nomenclature or 3 part cards cards, picture cards, matching cards, history cards, science cards… all cards used in general.

By default I used the combo: 125micron and 160gsm cardstock paper.  This will make the card really sturdy and hard enough for the little one to fold.  I don’t like doing A LOT OF CUTTING so what I do is I laminate then cut.

If I decide to use borders, then I use the combination of HP 80 or 100gsm paper and think pouch. I cut the printed materials then stick it on the colored cardstock using a glue stick.  Then laminate and cut. 

Now, if the thick pouch is not available or too pricey, using a 160gsm cardstock with the thin pouch is more than enough.  The cards will still turn out sturdy.  The only reason why I’m using the 125micron pouch is that they are currently on SALE in AMAZON UK and are MORE CHEAPER than the thinner ones LOL.

MAKING THE BOOKLETS

I’ve started making booklets this year for the boys. I wanted them to last long so I am laminating each pages of the booklets. 

The pages of my booklets are laminated back to back. You can see how its done here on the video of Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I use the HP Inkjet Paper for this one and a 125micron  pouch ( or a 160gsm cardstock and 80micron pouch would do). 

Once they are laminated, I cut and punch holes to form the booklets!  For the cover pages of each booklets, I use the process in MAKING THE CARDS because I want the cover to be harder than the pages.

MAKING THE MATS AND POSTER DIAGRAMS

For the mats and and diagrams, I just laminate them back to back using the thicker pouch and the 160gsm cardstock.  But for best result, better laminate it individually with either a thick or thinner pouch. 

IF YOU HAVE NO LAMINATOR

When I didn’t have a laminator yet, I just printed my materials on a white cardstock paper and covered them with a contact paper or better yet a transparent tape! Yes, I basically did that when we were in Belgrade.  Worst, we didn’t have white cardstock so I printed my materials in a white paper and glue the paper on the colored cardstock then cover it with tape. 

And that’s just about it!  I hope you find this helpful and NOT CONFUSING LOL. If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment, I am more than willing to talk to you for more tips and insights.

Thank you!