This week, Vito and I are exploring beginning letter sounds through objects we can find at home. This is very similar to the Alphabet Sort Montessori Inspired activity, but in our case we are not sorting the objects yet. What Vito and I are doing is to just name or identify the objects and match them to our control sheet.
Teaching Kids About their Lungs
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Puzzles for Learning!
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Because Toddlers Can Make Butter Too!
Friends, I’d like to share this simple butter recipe that Mavi suggested (his school project). A few weeks ago, they were learning about the lives of the Irish people during 1916 and one of which is learning how to make this “the old school way”. This butter recipe is so easy to make, and surprisingly it ended up so delicious! Plus Vito even participated!
Milking a Cow for Toddlers
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
I never knew that this could be fun! My Vito enjoyed this activity so much that we did this a couple of times during the day. Even big brother Mavi joined in the fun as well, trying to outshine each other on whoever gets to finish milking first.
Farm Animals Sort & Play
Monday, May 16, 2016
When I was planning for a Farm Unit, I wanted it to be simple because it’ll be the week of our arrival from our trip. This means, we are all tired (especially me!), and I need time to do all the unpacking. So my aim is still to provide activities to Vito with less preparation.
Now, I made these playdough last month and yes, they’re still good! The main objective of this play is to sort out the animal figures from Safari Toob and Shleich according to their “habitat”.
Teeth Activity for Toddlers! (29 Months Old)
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Homemade Face Puzzle for Toddlers
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Vito is 29 months old.
So I was brainstorming the other way of what else could we do for our Body Unit and Mavi suggested that I should give Vito do a puzzle work. But he worked with our favourite body puzzle already and Mavi said, what about creating Vito’s face? And it hit me! Why not print a picture of Vito and turn it into a puzzle! This way he’ll be familiar of the order of his face from top to bottom, right?
Internal Organs Sensorial Tub and Matching Activity
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Vito is 29 months old.
This is one of the highlights of our Body Unit! I was more than excited to give this to Vito! Just look at his face on how much he’s enjoying this activity!
Human Body Letter Match Activity
Monday, May 2, 2016
Beleduc Boy Body Puzzle
Saturday, April 30, 2016
One of my best finds this year is this absolutely amazing learning material from Beleduc. Just like Grimm and Shleich, Beleduc is a German company that produces high quality wooden learning materials that are designed for kids of all ages. I absolutely love this puzzle because for Vito, he is just playing a game but little did he know that he is actually learning!
Our Homemade Shapes Materials
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Sometimes, the tools that Im looking for are not available on line or in stores so I made them myself. I used to have a lot of time for making our own materials but with Vito and the increase of responsibilities at home, I can barely print my activities. So my aim these days is to make materials that are simple and easy to assemble. Here are the materials that are easy to make even without the use of a printer!
Creating Shapes with Geomag
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Shapes Resist Painting
Monday, April 25, 2016
Learning about Geometric Shapes
Sunday, April 24, 2016
To start our Shape Unit this week, I want to share with you Vito’s current favourite learning material! This amazing product is from Learning Resources and both of my boys has been using the activity sheets for days!
Earth and Land Unit for Toddlers
Friday, April 22, 2016
Learning through Arts & Crafts
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Fun Sifting Activity for Kids
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
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.
Earth and Land Unit: Magnetic Earth Worms!
Monday, April 18, 2016
Vito is 29 months old. This activity was inspired by Simply Learning.
You can find lots of Earth worms under the ground! The main idea here is to search and collect all the Earth worms under the ground (oatmeal) using a magnetic wand. Fun activity for kids that both siblings can enjoy!
Earth and Land Theme: Earth Prints
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Vito is 29 months old.
Earth Day is coming! We’re having a week of Earth/Land Themed activities and I just have a lot of inspirations from here and can’t wait to try them! Yesterday we made Earth prints. I decided to this one first as its very easy to recreate and manageable when you’re doing it with two kids!
Bird Themed Activities for Toddlers
Friday, April 15, 2016
Here’s a recap of our week! You may copy any of these for your own home school journey!
Bird Theme: Owl Babies Craft
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
For the Bird Theme, we are reading Owl Babies and The Story About Ping books. Vito enjoys reading them with me but he loves Owl Babies more. So in line with it, we made some cotton owls at home to extend our learning about owls and the textures of birds.
How to Introduce Space and Planets to Toddlers
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
FREE Safari Toob Backyard Birds Matching Cards
Monday, April 11, 2016
These cards were used in our bird themed toddler learning matching activity using Safari TOOB backyard birds as shown in the picture. Enjoy!
Bird Theme: Spaghetti Bird’s Nest
Sunday, April 10, 2016
We're seeing A LOT of nests in the neighborhood because the trees are still bare, so this has got me thinking of making a bird's nest at home. I told the boys all about it, and they were so excited! There are so many versions of this if you searched in the web: the yarn, shredded newspaper… but I wanted to try the spaghetti as I have some that are about to expire. (this idea was inspired by Let’s Tot School)
Earth & Land Theme List of Materials
Friday, April 8, 2016
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.
Fish Themed Activities for Toddlers
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Fish Theme: Hooray for Fish Craft
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Our first activity for this week for the Fish Theme! We love this Hooray for Fish book so much! I say this is one of the best books I’ve read for toddlers. The images are so colorful, bold and it contains some silly stuff like numbered fish, big and small fish, fish with different patterns etc. This is the reason why it is perfect for our unit this week!
The Perfect Moon Sand (Cloud Dough) Recipe
Thursday, March 31, 2016
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!
Spring Themed Activities for Toddlers and {Learn & Play Link Up}
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
FREE Alphabet Cards
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Fish Theme List of Materials
Monday, March 28, 2016
Here are all the materials and resources that we will be using in our Fish Theme 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.
Painting the Moon
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Vito is 28 months old.
We have an amazing full moon during Holy Week so I encouraged the boys to the paint the moon. I can’t believe that it turned out so beautiful and realistic! The craters are naturally formed and the color combination of paints were fantastic. The best part about this is that it’s so simple to make!
April Tot School Curriculum
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Hello everyone! We’re changing how we do learning activities at home and I am happy to announce that I finally created a curriculum for Vito. This is perfect to those who wants to follow along with us, or to those who are looking for a reference. With Mavi, I can whip any activities and he would just go along with it, especially activities that includes letters and reading. But Vito is different, he’s loving movements, exploring objects, games and anything that he sees in the books! While we work on our main themes, our Tot School letters will be in the background.
So this is how it will work. Every 20th of each month, I will publish the curriculum for the coming month so you have enough time to prepare. I will try my best to come up with activities that are easy to assemble as I want working Moms to be able to do this as well.
I will share the activities and our progress each day through my blog and Instagram. Please do follow me on Instagram, I posts interesting stuff there in real time! At the end of the week, I will recap all the activities and share it to everyone. I will try my best to archive these themes so you can easily access all this data in my blog as your reference. It’s up to you want to follow the curriculum weekly with us or decided to it at your own pace.
Without further ado, here’s my April Tot School Curriculum
This will serve as our guidelines for the month of April. In case we may miss a theme due to sickness, holidays or vacations we will reschedule it. I will have a separate post for all the materials and supplies that you will need for each theme. Stay tuned!
Favourite Phonic Games
Monday, March 21, 2016
I always find it hard to get Vito to do alphabet activities with me. Mavi was already learning how to spell 2.5 years old and although Vito knows the letters and sounds they make, he’s still not at it when it comes to doing the activities.
So I started reading my favourite blogs (since 2010) and came across these activities from NurturingLearning.com. These activities requires movements which Vito loves to do to keep him engaged in alphabet activities.
Beginning a Plant Study with a Toddler
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Now that Vito appreciates trees and flowers, the next step is to inspire him with a desire to care for and preserve plants and flowers. Here’s Vito’s early learning of plants!
Noah’s Ark
Saturday, March 19, 2016
The boys and I are reading our favorite Bible (Story of the Bible) stories and we started with Noah’s Ark since we own the Playmobil Noah’s Ark. I got this last year from a major toy sale in one of the shops here. The boys love this piece of material so much! It’s a beautiful and sturdy toy with so much educational value for big and small kids.
Tot School: Letter ‘Rr’
Friday, March 18, 2016
Vito is 28 months old.
Vito is currently in his sensitive years and I am taking advantage of this period as he’s really into ALL our activities, positioning himself in his table asking for something to “play”. So this week, we started with letter R. Why letter R and not A? Well, I decided to follow the RAMFBITG method of introducing letter sounds to Vito. To know why, read about it here.
Mouth Watering Irish Foods for St. Patrick’s Day and {Learn & Play Link Up}
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Vito’s Favourite Counting Material
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Vito is 28 months old.
Odd as it may be, but Vito loves numbers and counting more than letters. Yes, I find it odd because Mavi was into letters at his age and started to learn spelling by the time he’s 2.5 years old. It amazes me on how they can be different!
Anyway, I wanted to share with you this beautiful wooden number peg board I recently bought from a local store (materials are from Europe) and Vito loves this! A precious piece of math material that teaches little children to count and practice hand-eye coordination at the same time! I wanted to buy the Montessori Math Spindle, but when I saw this, I knew this is way more better (and a lot cheaper)!
Faith Formation Books
Monday, March 14, 2016
Aside from The Bible, do you have favourite books to read with kids that tells about Jesus (if you are a Christian) and Godly stories?
Lent In Our Home
Sunday, March 13, 2016
My son attends a Catholic school so he knows all our religion’s celebrations and traditions. I was raised in a Catholic family and during Lent we do a lot of religious activities at home like processions, daily prayers, participating in the Stations of the Cross, novenas, watching religious films in the church and attending mass and more. I wanted my kids to experience this to understand the meaning of Lent and why we celebrate Easter. So I decided to start a simple Lenten tradition in our home, to focus on Jesus, prayer, meditation and sacrifice.