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.
Learning Activities for 28 Months Toddler
Saturday, March 12, 2016
Sensorial Play with Kinetic Sand & Geometric Shapes
Friday, March 11, 2016
Collection of Easter Activities and {Learn & Play Link Up}
Thursday, March 10, 2016
The Rainbow Clouds Craft
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
I saw this beautiful rainbow craft a few weeks ago in Pinterest and I totally forgot the main site, so please if you own this craft leave a message and I’ll include the credits.
I’ve been introducing Vito to the spring season using our Spring Season Picture Cards, books and outdoor activities. Today, I’m sharing the rainbow clouds the boys made last week. The weather was terrible at that time and we couldn’t explore our yard so I made use of their free time doing crafts at home. So I tried to scan through Pinterest in search of simple crafts that BOTH of my kids could work on, and this is one of them!
Crafts projects allow children to exercise their fine motor skills, improve manual dexterity and understanding of visual-spatial relationships. They provide opportunities to use their imagination as well. Just be vigilant when using small items and sharp objects like scissors.
How to Study The Story of the Universe and The Origin of Life
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Our Spring Season Picture Cards
Monday, March 7, 2016
Spring is just around the corner and I’ve been thinking about the activities that the boys and I can do. I was very much inspired by Deb’s post on Spring Season Cards, so I borrowed the idea of printing pictures that relates to spring and we will be using them for the follwing:
- introducing the season of spring to Vito
- creating stories using the picture cards
- inspiration for crafts
- inspiration for outdoor activities
- St. Patrick and Easter activities
- farm animals and their babies
- animal life cycles
Exploring the Bucket Balance
Saturday, March 5, 2016
I have this bucket balance years ago and was mostly used by Mavi (Measuring Mass of an Object). He’s been using it to learn concepts like mass units and the concept of gravity. I’m so hesitant to let Vito use it for the obvious reason that at his age, he might break it or doesn’t know how to use it. But I was wrong! One day, I ran out of ideas for him so I bravely took our bucket balance and a bunch of Duplos for him to explore. Well, lo and behold! It was a total hit and I didn’t expect that he’ll enjoy using it!
So what did Vito exactly do with the balance and what are the things he discovered?
Goodnight Moon Storytelling Basket
Thursday, March 3, 2016
I read this book every night. It’s calming, relaxing… makes them ponder what’s out there in the night, letting them observe their room and the silence of the night. And may I just say, there is so much love in the story. The old lady as I would always say to the boys, is lovingly watching her little kid go to sleep, just like most Mommies do!
Dr. Seuss Books and Activities and {Learn & Play Link Up}
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
The Use of Funnel for Toddlers
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
I recently introduced the use of funnel to Vito and boy oh boy, it’s non stop play!
St. Patrick’s Day Activities for 28 Months Toddler
Monday, February 29, 2016
Vito is 28 months old.
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and we are excited to watch the parade in the city this year! To introduce Ireland’s big celebration to Vito, I prepared a bunch of work trays for him this month as he turns 28 months old. I featured 9 activities here but in reality we’re doing so much more, so I’ll just update the blog of our other activities that are not included here.
The Animal Kingdom Revisited
Saturday, February 27, 2016
No school for Mavi means brainstorming for future activities. He opened up lately that he wanted to study about animals again, so I took out our cards on The Animal Kingdom and checked what else we missed and haven’t explored yet. He reviewed the cards and sorted out the things that he wanted to learn this year. He picked arthropods, starfish and jellyfish! Yay, something new!
Having Fun with London Playsets & Cards
Friday, February 26, 2016
*** contains affiliate links ***
We are all in love with our wooden London Playset/s which we acquired recently. It’s so precious and beautiful that I can’t seem to take it out the bag!
Now how do we use these figures?
Spring Arts & Crafts and {Learn & Play Link Up}
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
There’s so many wonderful posts I’d like to feature this week in our Link & Play Link Up! I love seeing all these beautiful artworks and crafts which are so colorful and spirited! Here are my picks!
Learning about Faces!
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
The boys (and I) had so much fun making faces! This is a simple activity that you can do with your kids with minimal preparation. It’s the perfect opportunity to learn about emotions and the facial expressions they can make!
Learning the Parts of the Human Eye
Saturday, February 20, 2016
It’s Mavi’s midterm break and we decided to look into the parts of the human eye! We examined our model unit this morning which we bought last year from the local store. It’s so perfect and goes along so well with our Human Eye Nomenclature Cards and Booklet.
Small World Play: Giant Pandas
Friday, February 19, 2016
Early this year, when everything in Amazon was on sale, I got this one of a kind Panda and the Bamboo Forest Playset from Playmobil. I’ve been eyeing this for months since last year and I was lucky enough to chance this set on sale! Giant Pandas are one of those animals that are in the endangered list and I think somehow, by having this playset at home I can introduce this beautiful animal to the kids, talk about their characteristics and habitat.h
PS. We’ve visited a lot of zoo, but we haven’t encountered a Giant Panda. We didn’t chance upon them in Singapore Zoo either.
March Activities and {Learn & Play Link Up}
Thursday, February 18, 2016
March is fast approaching and I’ve been doing some planning for the boy’s activities for next month. I am also looking forward for a warm weather so we can do outdoor play and exploration. For this week’s featured activities, let me share Vito’s first “themed” unit:
We had a lot of fun with these, especially the scooping of pompoms and the paint works!
Now, for this week’s featured posts, I am sharing the activities that you can do for the month of March!
Study of Ancient China
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Few weeks ago, Mavi and I were learning about Ancient China. I decided that this year, we’ll be focusing in country-based studies rather than continents. Last month we worked on Australia, and because of Chinese New Year being celebrated during February, I guess this month is the best time to conduct Chinese-themed activities.
Papa Get The Moon For Me Storytelling Basket
Monday, February 15, 2016
I am very much inspired by The Imagination Tree of putting up objects as an additional tool for reading. So I assembled a few objects for Vito’s current favourite book Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle. My little guy is so fascinated with the moon and this is the best way we can explore, imagine and learn more about it through interactive reading and storytelling.
Learning Activities for 27 Months Toddler
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Vito is 27 months old.
These are the activities I prepared for Vito this month. Sort of a Valentines Day Unit as well, I combined the hearts and flower activities in this month’s activities. Vito is doing well so far in all of these activities, especially in counting and all those related to fine motor skills.
Practising One to One Correspondence
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
And because of Vito’s interest, I am always giving him different counting activities to feed this interest. One of his favourite is using our counting cards for one to one correspondence. These were Mavi’s and I barely used them with him.
How We Learn Colours These Days
Sunday, February 7, 2016
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?
Small World Play: Ancient China
Friday, February 5, 2016
Chinese Lantern Project for Kids
Thursday, February 4, 2016
We had a lot of fun today making our Chinese lantern in celebrating Chinese New Year. Mavi and I did this years ago, and I think he would love to do this again, and of course for Vito to experience.