On Writing Letters

My son loves to write letters. He’s been doing it since last year. Though I am not sure how did it all started, but he has a thing of putting his thoughts and ideas in a piece of paper.  He might got this from me as I usually love to write and take down notes on pads and stationeries. Here are some of his written notes that I’d like to share:

A letter to Santa last Christmas.  I was surprise to see this in our tree a few weeks before Christmas. 

  This letter is for Maria, a Spanish girl from his class.   It reads “Dear Maria,  I’m your bestfriend forever. Come to my house.”

 

And this one, he made this for me last Friday.  He did this all by himself, I never asked him to make me a Valentines Day greeting but he did it on his own.  What touched me the most is when he wrote “For My Momy”.  I love it :)

 

Now that he is into writing letters, his interest in spelling has greatly increased. That’s why we’ve been having spelling for the past few days.  I’ll talk about it soon on a separate post.

Have a wonderful Valentines Day everyone!

 

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Introducing the Layers of the Earth to Preschoolers (with Free Printable)

This topic is somewhat advanced for my 4 year old.  But you see last week, he watched an episode of  The Backyardigans about the “Old Gushie” a volcano which is about to erupt.  The Backyardigan friends traveled down into the Earth to stop a boulder from plugging Old Gushie before it can break the Earth into half.

That’s how we ended up learning about the Earth’s layers as he was so curious of where the hot liquid lava from the volcano came from.  Materials I used were the Layers of the Earth Nomenclature Cards which I downloaded from The Helpful Garden, Layers of the Earth fact book which I made and can be downloaded for FREE (see link below) and an illustration of the Earth’s layers (colored papers).

The Solar System

We made use of our old learning materials in our Solar System activities.  These planets were printed 2011 and I totally forgot where I got it from.  In case you own the file or knows the link just leave me a comment so I can add it up. 

Here, Mavi is putting the planets in order while singing his Solar System song learned in his Montessori school.

We started using the fact book which I made.  My son loves learning the difference between the planets and always compare Jupiter (windy and stormy planet) to our place LOL.

Here’s where you can get the Space and Solar System pack which I made.  Aside from the Solar System it also includes Astronomy Cards and Fact Books.  

        

            

This coloring sheet of the Solar System was taken from The Helpful Garden (I love this blog!). Books we used:

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Planets on Strings

I love how this little project turned out, though initially I wanted to paint the planets like what we last year but my son insisted that we should use his oil pastels.  This simple planet mobile is so easy to do and would make a lovely decor in your kids room if done correctly.

First, I made circles using my compass and cut them to be used as our planets in the mobile. I made different sizes to make it more believable.

Afterwards, we color our circles on both sides.  Mavi used his oil pastels as he is fond of them.  I am not really a fan of pastels as they can get really messy with the hands, but my son loves them, probably because it produces more vivid color than crayons.

Now each of the planet will hang from the paper plate using a string.  We attached each string using a sticky tape and position them accordingly on the plate.  To add more effect, the strings should have different lengths.

Here’s our finished product :)  It turned out to be a plain simple mobile, it would have been better if we really painted the circles to make them more eye catching.  However, the little one was so happy with his work.  He was really proud of what he had accomplished.  We placed this in our hallway and he would sing his Solar System song whenever he passed by under it :)  So cute.

Don’t miss out my Space and Solar System Cards! We used them as well during our Solar System lesson, will talk about it on my next post :)

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Africa

We’re starting Africa next week. I hope I can find time to create and prepare my materials.  I decided to try a different approach in teaching the continents/countries  as my current technique no longer works for my son. These days, he wants more action, I can’t seem to describe it but he wants “play” related.  So I hope this new plan of mine will make bring back his interest in geography.

Any tips?

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One Snowy Day

All activities were put to a halt when it started snowing a few weeks ago.  Our after school activities would be mainly playing with the snow in the yard or in the open spaces at our estate. 

The little boy was ecstatic when he woke up one morning with our yard covered with snow.  He couldn’t wait to to go out and play, so we took him out for a little fun before heading to school.

He couldn’t stop playing!   We’re happy we have plenty of open spaces for him to run around to enjoy the ice. Unfortunately, it started to rain and he doesn’t want to go back home after a few hours in the cold. I have to remind him that it’s not safe to stay too long in the freezing temperature.

   

We started walking back home but by the time we reached our yard, it stopped raining and he wanted to play a little bit more and asked me if we could make a snow man.  

 

And so we did! I formed the snowman and he’s the one who added the details.  He was so happy and proud. That night he can’t stop telling his Dad all about his snowy day adventure and his snowman :)

The Poinsettia

Another activity that deserves a post :)  I love Poinsettia and we got lots of them during the holidays.  I remember growing up in the Philippines, my Mom would buy plastic Poinsettia as decorations at home.  I have never seen a real  one not until last year when we moved here.  Then I discovered that I owned a 3-part card of Poinsettia so I purchased the plant so we can have a real subject.

All the while I thought that the red leaves were flowers!   

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Revisiting The Seven Continents

I love the fact that my son’s school is sending newsletter each month to parents regarding the things that the children will be exploring and the activities that comes with it.  For this month, they’re learning about the solar system and the continents, must be the reason why my son was so eager to do some geo-related works a few days ago.  Though we’ve done this a few times its always nice to revisit and review what he has learned so far.  

As usual, he always forgets to name “North America”. He knows the location but finds it difficult to name it.

         

It helps a lot of your kids learn how to read early on. Here he pins the labels of each continent to the map.  I used to read the labels to him before, but now he’s doing it by himself.

           

Then he wanted to place the animals to their “homes” based on the map.  So I reused a paper bag, sketched the continents and he started sorting his animal figures according to the continents in which they inhabit.  So timely since we will be exploring Africa soon.

           

In addition we started identifying the oceans for familiarization.  This is what we end up later on.  I wanted to make something like this but I realized that it would eat up all my time and energy so I might probably look for a more easy way to make a world map inspired by Montessori.  But Leptir’s work is such an inspiration!

More Geography units to come!

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Asia ~ Philippines

During the holiday break, my son had been learning all about our home country.  He had this sudden interest of learning the language and eager to learn our local songs.  So I had been playing Christmas songs in Filipino and been exposing him to our local shows as well.  As of now he has learned 5 Filipino songs, and can speak a few Tagalog words.

Learning about a country starts with the familiarity of its location on the map and how it looks like.

Hands on learning of the Philippine flag together with some play money (Peso).  Had to show him a miniature of our local fishing boat as most of our people are fishermen and a jeepney which is our country’s mode of public transportation.

Hello 2013!

Happy happy new year dear readers! 

How’s everyone’s vacation?  Hope you and your family had a lovely time during the holiday break :)  I know most of you are anticipating a new post, but unfortunately, the Mommy (that’s me!) is still on vacation mode (LOL) and we only had a few random activities that aren’t post worthy.  And there’s still some work to be at home, like putting down our tree (not my favorite thing to do!), and some workers are coming here tomorrow to fix our water heater and tank (argh). 

But despite the fact that there’s a lot of things to be done in the next few weeks, I still long to start home “schooling” again.  It’s what I love to do and there’s never a day that I don’t think  about it.

For a head start, here’s what we’re having this JANUARY

• Science: Space and the Solar System
• Geography:  Africa
• Artist Study:  Michaelangelo
• Math:  Clock and Fractions
• Language:  Finish Green Series of Montessori Language, Spelling

There are just the MAJOR topics I want to accomplish this month.  In conjunction, we’re also doing worksheets (Singapore Math and the ones I bought locally), get lots of outdoor activities/ free play when the weather permits, and do random arts and crafts.

We’re gradually settling back to our old routine, and will definitely share some stuff the soonest :)

Thank you dear readers for a good 2012 and cheers to a much fruitful and enjoyable 2013! 

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