Simple Food Preparation and Recipe Ideas for Kids

It's the 12 Months of Montessori and today I'm excited to share simple recipes that your kids (with your assistance) can try at home.  These are so easy to prepare and will help our little ones develop and improve fine motor and practical life skills.

How the Stem Works by Dyeing Flowers

I am so happy to share that we finally get to dye our flowers successfully! Meaning, ALL of the colors were visible unlike before wherein only a few of the colors took effect (red and yellow).    I’ve been wondering on how we can successfully color our flowers, with 100% coverage and we finally did it this time!  By the way, we worked on this activity because I was demonstrating to Vito the function of the stem in a plant. 

Food Preparations That A 3 Year Old Can Do

I don’t often share the practical life activities (in the kitchen) of the kids because I seldom take photos of them while working.  Mostly, because they handle some delicate materials and I wanted to give my full attention whenever we work in the kitchen.  Now that Vito is quite adept in this area, I started taking pictures to demonstrate some of the things that he can work on independently.  These are mostly breakfast and snacks preparations.  And because our main meal involves boiling oil or water and meat, only the big brother can participate on this not Vito (3 years old).

Introducing Kids to Construction Tools

If you are like us, who has no means of doing some carpentry work, then this post is for you!  For one thing, my father and his entire family are carpenters.  They make furnitures, build houses and buildings in my home city and I remember spending most of my time during summer vacation in construction sites managed by my grandfather.  This is the reason why at a young age, I know how to use most carpentry materials despite my mom’s warnings.  Sadly those skills weren’t passed to the new generations.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t expose our kids to this simple carpentry work like hammering, using nuts and bolts, drilling and the like.  And of course, with the advent of IKEA, we need to somehow teach them all about DIYs and these basic tools. 

In this post, I’m sharing our learning toys and materials in exposing my 3 years old to some of these construction tools to acquire those basic skills .

November Activities for Preschoolers

Last week, Vito refused to do any of our language activities, so we worked mostly on practical life, counting, sorting and storytelling. He also started walking to Mavi’s school (no buggy!) despite that it’s a 30 to 45 minutes walk round trip.  This lessens our time for “preschool” in the morning since we have to leave early.

Introducing the Human Skeleton to Preschoolers

Vito is 34 months old.

It’s that time of the year when my kids get to see a lot of human skeletons hanging everywhere!  No wonder October is the best time to introduce the human skeleton to your kids.  Vito is in the “what’s that” stage and he’s been asking me a lot of questions lately about these “funny” costumes and the hanging bones.  So I gathered a few old and new learning materials for him so I can introduce these amazing body system.

Color Tints and Shades for Preschoolers

Last week, I introduced the concept of light and dark colors to Vito using water colored solution. It was so easy to prepare and Vito had so much fun mixing and pouring water!

Activity Trays for 33 Month Old Toddlers

Hello everyone! We only have two more weeks before school opens so I decided to postpone Vito’s Fruits and Art Unit for the rest of the month so I can spend quality time with the boys and not think about activity preparations.  With this I’m sharing Vito’s activity trays which he started working on early this month. Vito only spends about 20 minutes for our “themed units” and the rest, he would either do free play or work on these trays.  These would entertain him while I do house chores, sometimes I supervise especially if we use glass bottles.

Homeschool Activities for Toddlers 32 Months Old

I’d like to share a summary of Vito’s work tray activities at 32 months.  These are the trays that are either part of our themed activities or just some random ones that I prepared for him in line with his current interests.  I hope that this will give you an idea on what to give your children in case he/she’s of the same age.  Keeping records of Vito’s work trays are also a means for me to track his development and progress per month.

LETTER PATTERNS

One of the challenging task that he’s working on this month.  We’re working with letters CUSN-POLH and here he’s doing the letter C.  This printed material was from The Confessions of a Homeschooler and the magnetic board plus the patterns were from Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Magnetic Pattern Blocks Set.

SANDPAPER NUMBERS AND COUNTING WITH DO DOTS

He loves the sandpaper numbers!  So we worked on tracing the numbers first and I demonstrated by counting it using the do a dot marker.  So aside from pre-writing, it’s also a great practise for 1:1 correspondence.  The sandpaper numbers can be purchased here and you can get the markers here, Do a Dot Markers.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

We love Safari Toobs and its his first time to use the Musical Instruments Toob.  As of the moment, we do the typical match to figure and picture using the 3-Part Cards from The Wise Owl (Philippine based).  You can check about this activity here, Montessori Inspired Activity: Musical Instruments.

ANIMALS IN THE WILD

Learning about the animals in the wild, using this set from The Wise Owl again (the 3-Part cards for the Safari Toobs Wild Animals is also in my 200+ Toobs Matching Cards Bundle Pack).  He can name a few but find it difficult to say the names of other animals like the rhino, hippo, and panther. You can check the details of this activity here, Introducing Wild Animals to Toddlers.

ANIMAL COVERS PATTERN MATCHING

One of our favorite printable from our shop (Animal Skin Cover Matching Cards)!  Matching animals with their covers.  We are using animals from Schleich and Safari Toobs Wild Animals.  You can check the activity here, Animal Skin Covers Sensorial Matching Activity for Preschoolers.

MUSICAL HAND BELLS

We’re having the Sound and Music Unit and one activity is using these musical handbells.  You can check how we conducted our activity here, Montessori-Inspired Sounds and Music: The Musical Hand Bells.

ANIMALS AND THEIR LETTER SOUNDS

A little bit of phonics activity by matching animal names to their beginning sounds.  We just worked from letters A to E.  Animals are from Schleich and foam letters from Munchkin Letters and Numbers Bath Toys.

MONTESSORI KNOBLESS CYLINDERS

This is one of his favorites for this month.  You can get the Knobless Cylinders at any Montessori shop or here.  Read about this amazing sensorial material and activity here, Montessori Sensorial Activities using the Knobless Cylinders.

LETTER TRACING

Vito is currently obsessed with tracing so I got him a dry wipe/wet wipe chalk markers which has no strong scent.  I used to purchase those dry erase pens that are using ink but they really smell, and I just discovered these chalk markers which are perfect for Vito. It’s non toxic, has bright colors and can be removed easily!  You can get these from AmazonUK and AmazonUS.  The wipe and erase cards were Mavi’s and I purchased them from Singapore (Kumon), you can also get them here.  And if you have more time and want to create your own cards you can also get this printable instead, Alphabet Tracing Mats.

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More learning materials at

Pinay Homeschooler Shop.

The Butterfly Garden Sensory Tub

This is one of the fastest and easiest sensory tub I’ve ever assembled. The tub is filled with 3 packs of lentils and butterflies from Safari Toob. Simple as it is, but oh boy, my little Vito played with this for a long time!

Montessori Inspired Tweezing Insects Activity

We started off our Insect Unit this week by tweezing insects from the grass. 

 

Milking a Cow for Toddlers

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.

Shapes Unit for Toddlers

Earth & Land Theme List of Materials

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

Vito is 28 months old.
Here’s a recap of our week!  You may copy any of these for your own home school journey!

Beginning a Plant Study with a Toddler

The perfect way to introduce plants to a child/toddler is through awakening their interest and love of flowers.  Kids love flowers naturally.  We love to look at them, and occassionaly name the flowers as we see them in the road.


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!

Learning Activities for 28 Months Toddler

These are the activities designed for Vito for this month as we are celebrating springtime integrating St. Patrick’s Day and Easter.  Materials used are provided below for your reference.

The Use of Funnel for Toddlers

Vito is 28 months old.

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

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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.

Learning Activities for 27 Months Toddler

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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.