Gonge River Stones And Why We Love Them

Oh I can’t tell you how much we love these Gonge Riverstones!  I was really skeptic of these at first.  I mean, why purchase a plastic makeshift rocks when you have the entire backyard as a playground.  We don’t really need it.  Then as the boys were spending a lot of time in the yard these days, I realized that we don’t really have those flat rocks the boys can hop around with or use for play pretend.  I was thinking that if we can have those, the boys and I can play games involving gross motor and some relays.  So I decided to try the Gonge Riverstones.  They were on sale, and I picked them over the Gonge Hilltops because we already have three large rocks at the backyard which are way better than the plastic ones.  Anyway, I tell you, the moment these Gonge Riverstones arrived, it’s been non-stop play for the boys!  We liked them right away, and so does my husband!  This is my honest review of the river stones, and I bought this for our personal use and was not paid to do a review. 

Here are some reasons why we love it and totally recommend!

Hands-On Learning on Common Flowers

Valentine's Day season is always the time wherein the boys and I would talk about flowers.  Not just because it is Valentine's Day, but because this is basically the time wherein we get to see spring flowers starting to bloom out from their buds.  We see them everywhere, in the backyard and front lawn, parks and of course in our neighbours’ houses.  My knowledge of flowers is very limited; I only knew of some tropical flowers from my country and Asian countries.  Of course, there’s always the rose, tulip and orchids… but no, I haven’t heard of daffodils, crocus and poppies not until I stepped foot in Europe.

Learning About the Beach

Vito is 31 months old.

Because of our Bodies of Water Unit, we took the boys to the beach a few weeks ago. It was Vito’s first time to be in a beach and actually enjoyed the sand and waddled in the water!

 

Indoor and Outdoor Light Activities for Kids

Vito is 31 months old.
I decided that for our Light and Shadow Unit, we’ll explore indoor and outdoor lights. 

Montessori Inspired Dinosaur Clean-Up Activity

Vito is 30 months old.

It was so warm last Tuesday that I asked the boys to play outside and then wash their dinosaur toys. Oh boy, they were so happy to do so!

How to Teach a Toddler About Trees

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 :

• have leaves
• have rough barks
• comes in big and small sizes
• are something we can play with

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.

Follow us on Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus, Instagram or Twitter for updates!

Don’t forget to PIN this for later!

Insect Study for Toddlers with Free Printable {Learn & Play Link Up}

We are learning about insects this month! And because I'm exhausted most of the time doing separate activities for the boys, this time, I tried having a themed unit which both boys can enjoy.  So while Mavi is learning about insects, Vito is learning as well, but in a different level.  I will showcase Mavi's activities later on. In this post, allow me to present to you simple activities that will expose or introduce your little toddlers to insects.

So for Vito, I prepared 3 simple activities for him to enjoy. These are easy to prepare and I provided a printable file for the matching activity for your convenience.

Insect Sensory Bin
This is a no-brainer.  I think all kids love sensory tubs!  The contents of my bin are:

• Safari Toob Insects
• Black Beans 
• Butterfly figures from Wild Republic

In less than a minute, I have a learning toy for Vito already!  Oh my, he was sooooo giddy when he saw this!

Allow your little ones to explore all that there is in the bin. Make sure to prepare your vacuum cleaner for the mess!  But please, SUPERVISE YOUR CHILD ALL THE TIME.  Vito mouths objects so I watch him like a hawk to make sure he won't swallow any of the beans.

Insect Matching Cards

 

This is matching the insect figures to that of an abstract material, like the cards.  I wanted to use picture books, to avoid printing. But I realized that Vito can match objects better if the pictures look exactly the same as those figures.  So I took photos of our insect figures and created matching cards from them.

Yes, Vito can identify animals now, especially in books! So I experimented if he can do it with in matching cards.  Like the cards? You can download it from here.

I added spider even if it's NOT an insect because this is what Vito sees everyday outside our house.  He can identify spider and calls them "der".  So with an animal figure and a matching card, I tried if he can match them.... and he did!!

So my conclusion here is that, for his age, he can only match cards of those he is familiar with in real life.  Like the butterfly, the ladybird and the spider.  The rest, he ignored them.   That's a good start though.  We'll work on this step by step.  Three matching cards for a little toddler and I'll add one card as he progresses.

Bug Hunting
Of course, the best way to learn is to have a real life encounter with these creepy crawlers.  I took out the boys in the yard and we searched for bugs.  Unfortunately, the bugs decided to hibernate, so we only collected ants!

Even so, Vito was still happy observing the tiny creatures!

You might also want to check The Complete Guide to Insect Study for Grade-Schoolers from here.

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!
My favourites for this week's linky are:

Montessori Fine Motor Activities from Montessori Nature
Learning Begins at Home from Just Another Mom
Best DIY Light Table Tutorials and Ideas from Wonder Baby
Summer Sidewalk Chalk Kids from Child Led Life
 

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 LINKINGPlease 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:

<div align="center"><a href="http://christianmontessorinetwork.com/category/learn-and-play" title="Christian Montessori Network"><img src="http://www.christianmontessorinetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/learn-and-play-link-up-150-150.png" alt="Christian Montessori Network" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Please Follow
Follow Pinay Homeschooler's board Pinay Homeschooler on Pinterest.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sensory Play and Activities

Welcome to another post on 12 Months of Montessori Series!  For May, we’re exploring Montessori sensorial activities and I am sharing with you fun activities that led to discoveries using their senses.

My initial plan for this was for a nature exploration outdoors since we all know that nature provides the BEST sensory experience.  But because mother nature wasn’t in the mood (rained throughout the week!), I decided to do most of our sensory activities at the backyard and indoors.

Montessori emphasized that children learns with their senses.  It is important that they use their senses to explore the world they live in.  Stimulating these senses will send signals to the child’s brain that will help to strengthen the neural pathways which are important for all types of learning. 

In a Montessori classroom, there are a lot of sensorial materials that are used to help the child develop discrimination, order and broaden and refine their senses.  But just because we don’t own any of these materials, that doesn’t mean we can’t do sensorial at home. In fact, I prefer giving my kids the REAL experience when it comes to sensory.

Without much further ado, here are Mavi and Vito…

Sense of touch.  We started off with ice and water play. This was the time when we got Mr Sun.   I immediately took out the materials and let the boys play together.  This activity introduced the concept of warm and cold to Vito.

 

Sense of hearing.  We explored the rhythm bells I got earlier this year. Oh boy, it was really something new to him and he loves shaking it to produce sound.  Here, I introduced Vito the loudness and softness sound.

Sense of touch and smell.  We went crazy over Crazy Soap!! Thanks to Stimulating with Rachel who suggested this brand to us. I wanted to use kid-friendly soap as I used shaving cream before which gives a strong scent.  The Crazy Soap has gentle smell that the kids love, and the foam is just amazing! You can shape it and it bounces!  This activity introduces Vito to vocabularies like “good smell”, “soft”, “bouncy” and “squishy”.

 

Sense of sight.  Activity we did in the backyard where we enjoyed the abundance of dandelions and blowing the seeds!  We also planted garden pinwheels around the yard so Vito and Mavi can enjoy watching it turn (it can be relaxing!).  My Vito was so amazed by the wheels!

Sense of touch, smell and taste. Save the best for last. We made pizza !!!

 

This post is part of the 12 Months of Montessori Learning which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.

Amazing blogs involved in the 12 Months of Montessori Learning

Natural Beach Living ~ The Natural Homeschool ~ Living Montessori Now ~ Planting Peas

The Kavanaugh Report ~ Mama’s Happy Hive ~ Study at Home Mama ~ Child Led Life

Every Star Is Different ~ Grace and Green Pastures ~ The Pinay Homeschooler

Toddler Beginnings 06

*** This post contains affiliated links  ***

 

Aside from endlessly reading books, I added farm animal basket for him to explore as he is showing interest on them now (he just used to mouth them!).  You can get these animals from Amazon, Schleich, Symths Toys or Safari Toob.  Mine was from Amazon UK .  The picture book (Baby’s First) on the other hand was from Book Depository, and again you can get them from Amazon.  I love that these animals are big!  They are easily to grasp and play with.

I’ve seen these animals at Marks and Spencers as well, and you can get them from Hamley’s too.

                    

  I am making use of our Learning Resources Critters Counters from Amazon.  Since Vito loves putting small objects into small spaces, this is what I put up.  Oh don’t worry, that empty tub of Pringles is mine!

See how I placed the tub in the floor and the counters on the table? That’s for Vito to bend, good practice for gross motor skills ey?

                       

Oh those tiny fingers!  He would complain whenever the counter will not fit.  Oh, they do fit sweetheart, you just have to push it a little bit harder LOL.  I’m showing him how to push it more… though at times he still couldn’t get the idea.

Scribbling, we do this mostly in the afternoon when I’m sitting down resting.  I got him this My First Crayola Jumbo Pens from Amazon. 

And this, Melissa and Doug jumbo puzzle from Amazon again (don’t well love Amazon).  He loves taking away all the animal pieces, and putting them in the basket LOL.

Oh yes, don’t forget to check our St. Patricks’ Day activities! 

No formal musical instruments here.  Just more on singing songs, dancing and making music with our body!

We were blessed with a beautiful weather last Sunday.  And you know me, I don’t love staying at home when Mr. Sun is out. So here we are… even if it is still a little bit cold. 

More tot series here!