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

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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

Grab This Button:

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An InLinkz Link-up

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: