Essentials of a Montessori Toddler Classroom

Unless you are a certified Montessori teacher taking a few sabbatical years, your first year of home schooling your child using the Montessori method can be a bit overwhelming. Despite all the research, planning, and reading, it's always a bit difficult to target what's really essential in a home school setting. You actually don't NEED that much, but some people choose to have it all. It's a bit like Montessori materials purchases; You CAN buy Nienhuis quality OR you can buy any other quality: You don't NEED Nienhuis quality in a home setting as only 1-2 children will handle the materials for a only a few years but you CAN choose to buy it if you want it...Below, I've listed my personal Top 10 Essentials for home schooling my toddler the Montessori way...

1. Montessori Albums

If you plan on starting to homeschool your children, you will need direction; some kind of a curriculum.  If you chose to homeschool with the Montessori method, your curriculum will be found in "albums" in which the scope (objective to be achieved) and sequence (order of presentation) will be presented for several, but not all, "activities". Several albums are available for purchase and each is different. I have bought some from both Montessori Print Shop and  KHT Montessori and would recommend both types. I've also gathered a lot from Montessori at Home, although it is not technically an album but more of an e-book with a lot of information on various aspects of the curriculum.

2. An assortment of trays

Be they made of wood, acrylic or plastic, these will be needed in various sizes. It's always fun to have an assortment of colors as well to match the theme/materials being presented (see how I matched my Mardi Gras threading task with my tray above?). The trays should be light/small enough for your child to carry them around but they should also be sturdy enough not to break under the weight of the materials placed upon them. So far, I've had very good luck with Montessori Services's medium plastic trays (medium-size plastic tray shown above in picture in purple) and I just placed a new order for more colors and sizes for this year. Overall, you'll need a few trays as several will be on the shelves at the same time.

3. A Work Rug or a Low Table

Ah the work rug...It is awfully cute to see children working on their own personal rug in Montessori schools. I've been debating for years within myself whether I should have used one with Adrian or not. Truth is : in New York, we did not really have room for a work rug on the floor. All truth really be told: Adrian never had to fear anyone would walk on/over his work space either as we always did school when his sister was napping (still do actually). You see, I've never been convinced a work mat was needed in a home school setting so I never used one (couldn't anyway). It never caused any harm either as we had a small low table to define Adrian's work space. As such, school materials were "contained". For this upcoming school year though, I'll be dealing with a new little person: Zahavah. The small low table is gone and so is the small family room. Suddenly, the work mat does not seem like a bad idea...Or does it? The debate continues...

4. Low Shelving

Prior to starting your day, your trays should be set our and ready for presentation on shelves. Ideally, an entire room in your home will have been set aside for homeschooling and several shelves will have been put up (one for practical life activities, one for math, one for language, etc.) but life is, let's face it, not always ideal. Most of us simply cannot set aside an entire room for a school room in which case your shelves can be put up in the corner of your "school room". Some people even have "roll away shelves". When I first started with Adrian (barely 3 year old at the time), I used our cramped family room as our school room and had no shelves at all. I used the fireplace's low step as a shelf and only set out enough trays for that day on that step. Once school was over, they were taken away. Of course, it was more work for me and it didn't allow him as much freedom in his choice of work but he always ended up choosing everything set out anyway...Oh, one last thing, if you are planning on investing in shelves, choose low ones (easy access for children) that are not too deep and preferably ones with an option to lower/raise the shelves as needed. I like IKEA's Billy Shelf. We bought four and I find them to be the perfect height, width and like that the inner shelves can be raised and lowered easily. Extra shelves can also be bought. The very top is of course out of reach for the children but that is not a bad thing; materials like huge puzzle maps and cabinets can be put up there. Please note that the picture above shows our shelves in action in the "Play Room" a year ago. As such, they are not displaying school trays but rather...toys! :)

5. A Color Printer, lots of paper, card stock and an optional laminator

The Montessori approach is very hands-on but there are many times when three part cards and other printed materials will still be used (shown above : Earth's Most Beautiful Places  in a 2 Part Card format). As such, a good printer with lots of card stock will be needed for those moments. I don't have a top of the line inkjet printer but it does a pretty good job overall. I've also invested into a laminator over the Spring. I hesitated long and large before doing so because Adrian has always taken such good care of my materials and since I only have two kids, I feel like it's more or less needed. My daughter is a bit more rough with materials though (she is younger...) and I do think the presentation is neater with the laminator so from time to time, I'll use my laminator but I really do not think it's a necessity if you homeschool.

6. Small baskets, boxes, bowls, pitchers

With all the pouring and transferring done this year, pitchers, decanters, small glasses with handles, and no handles will be needed for sure. Small baskets and bowls and boxes will also be needed to hold the items put on the trays of course. All of these things can be found in craft stores and bargain stores, thrift stores, flea markets and the like but Montessori Services also has a nice variety if all you find in your locality is not suitable or expensive (above: Montessori Services' creamers on one of their medium size trays). I recently replenished my pitcher and basket assortment in order to have more variety and found the prices quite reasonable.

 7. Small themed objects

If you intend to use thematic studies during the year, (I use them year-long), small objects associated with that theme should be collected. For example, for our "fall" theme, I've already started collecting acorn caps and pinecones that fell recently. If you are heading to the seaside this summer and plan on studying "the beach" later this year, bring back some seashells, sea glass, and such. You'll quickly discover that the bargain stores such your local "Dollar store" / Euro shop, thrift store, yard sale, and flea markets are some of the best places to look for small, cheap themed items; especially seasonal ones. (Craft stores are also excellent resources). (Pictured above are some dinosaurs from Safari Ltd.'s Dinosaur Toob. These were part of of dinosaur week last year.)

8. Montessori Materials

Homemade or store-bought, a few Montessori materials will be needed during your toddler's first year of Montessori school. Which ones? It all depends on your toddler's rhythm. Some children are fast learners and some like to repeat activities for a longer time before moving on to the next. One thing is sure, the first year is a lot more about Sensorial and Practical Life work so set some money/time aside for a Pink Tower and a set of Brown Stairs at the very least. Number rods and Sandpaper numbers for math will probably also be presented. As for the rest, like I said, it will depend on your child but color tablets set 1 and probably 2 will probably be presented along with some fabrics...

 9. Child-Size Equipment / Child-Friendly Environment

Nothing will make life easier for your child than having child-size equipment. Children want to learn to become independent and can do quite a great deal if we show them how and give them child-size tools and access to what they need to do the work. A child-size table and chairs is a great start. A step-stool in the kitchen and bathrooms is another one. Take a look at the picture of our entryway for example; it's nothing fancy but it works great for fostering independence: the bench (it's actually an IKEA shelf we laid on its side...) allows the kids to sit and the cubicles allows free access to shoes which means the kids can pick up their shoes themselves, sit, put their shoes on and we're ready. When we come back, they sit, take their shoes off and slip them back into the cubicles. Magic! The coat rack is also child-friendly (another IKEA purchase!) as it features high AND low hooks. The kids put their jackets on the low hooks themselves and pick up their jackets themselves too! So basically, our kids have been getting  themselves ready for a while now (Zahavah is still working on putting her jacket on though). In the background...a "bit" of historical geography (an authentic map of Paris, France as of 1739) and a piece of culture (Cross carved in "Jerusalem Stone" - limestone carried in Israel and used in the building of religious temples).

10. Basic Art Supplies and Basic Musical Instruments 

During the "toddler years", basic art supplies and music instruments will be introduced. As such, you should have on hand a small supply of colored pencils, crayons, clay, tempera paint, watercolors, and scissors. An easel would also be a great addition. As far as musical instruments go, it can get expensive, no matter how "basic" they are so if you invest in them, make sure you use them! :) For this year, I intend to get/make (or already have/made) a triangle, rhythm sticks, drums, tambourine, cymbals, rainstick, kazoo, and sandpaper blocks. (Shown above are a triangle, rhythm sticks, a recorder and a ukulele.)


And this, ladies and gentlemen, is my personal Top 10 Essentials for my own personal Montessori Toddler Home School Classroom. These are the 10 things I could not do without (I think I did forget books though, didn't I? *sigh*) What are yours?

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Your comments make my day ! 

(Please note : comments won't be visible until after my approval!)

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Today, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase, Sun Scholars's For the Kids Friday, Stress-Free Sunday, Thursday Toddler & Preschool, Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, Serenity Saturday, Monday Kid Corner, We Made That.

If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!

Montessori Curriculum for "Toddlers"

Let's face it: I'm a planner. A big time planner who spends hours, if not weeks, sifting through "pages and pages" of books, blogs, websites, and albums each and every week to plan the "perfect" Montessori themed "lesson" for my kids. Over the years, I've naturally accumulated A LOT of "stuff" to plan out these days of discovery and learning: from the free Montessori albums (yes, some people have generously published their albums online!) to the much appraised, practically AMS endorsed KHT ones (my all-time favorites). I'm not sure why but I love collecting Montessori albums (a bad habit considering most of them don't come in cheap!). This year again, I'll be using a mix of it all (and probably venture off curriculum again and again...and again...). Curious about what I have planned for my 2.5 year old? Here is the "big picture" with a few hints of what we'll explore in the upcoming school year. If you want more details, you'll most definitively want to stay tuned! :) 

Montessori Albums: The Most Useful Way to Prepare Yet Another School Year
Pictured Here: Three Albums Made by Kht Montessori

Practical Life

Without a doubt the area we'll be focusing on the most this year. As a growing toddler, Zahavah would love to become more independent and this part of the curriculum will do just that. Practical Life activities will teach her to care for herself (dressing frames, hand washing, shoe polishing, etc.) and her environment (sweeping, weeding, washing dishes, etc.) but will also explore the facets of grace and courtesies (pretty please, anyone?, did I hear a "thank you?", etc.). This portion of the curriculum will also feature food preparation, cutting preparation, and writing preparation without forgetting exercises involving fine motor development (whole hand grasp, wrist turning, three finger grip, etc.).

Sensorial

Zahavah is still very much in the sensitive period for Sensorial Exploration and as such, a big chunk of her school time will be spent on such work. I am planning to introduce her to the following Montessori elements: Pink Tower, Brown Stairs, Tactile Fabric Box (different kinds of fabric), Primary Color Box (aka Color Tablets Box 1), Hue Matching Box (aka Color Tablets Box 2), Visual Fabric Box (different patterns on the fabric), Geometric Presentation Tray, Knobbed Cylinders, and Power of 2.

Mathematics 

This year, Zahavah will be focusing on getting familiar with the numbers 0 to 9. It will be mostly a year of preparation for her in this area. An introduction to the number rods and the Sandpaper Numbers shall also be done if and once she appears comfortable seeing, hearing and manipulating numerals.

Language

For a "toddler" like Zahavah, the language shelves will always be filled with diversity but mostly for a preparation to writing and reading. Little "Z" will of course not be doing too many "proper language activities" this year but one can keep in mind that many sensorial activities (such as sequencing), art (drawing, anyone?) and practical life (love pattern cards) activities help to the development of the skills involved in writing and reading. To help the small muscles involved in writing, we'll also be doing a lot of fine motor activities involving the much celebrated "pincher" technique (hello eyedropper!). Amongst the actual "language" activities, Zahavah will do a few activities based on oral expression such a reciting poetry and start tracing with the metal insets (eh...ours are made of plastic though...yep, I'm a bargain hunter sometimes...).

Art
Basic Art Skills such as tearing paper, learning to use scissors, and learning to properly handle different mediums (think crayons, paintbrushes, pencils, etc.) will be presented. We'll also go over Basic Art Activities (making a collage, clay sculpture, painting, etc.) of course. Zahavah being so young, I am still debating whether to introduce Art Appreciation. I really want to but in Montessori schools, this is Primary/Elementary stuff, not Toddler work.  I know next year will come soon enough and will truly open the doors to the Elements of Arts and techniques so I'm truly trying to hold myself back here; for everyone's sake... :)

Music & Movement
Singing, dancing, playing music instruments, and participating in musical games is currently on our curriculum. I'd love to introduce more but musicians and their work can wait another year for a formal introduction. Listening to them on the other hand...now that is something more doable but only outside of school hours.

Geography
I love studying geography but unfortunately, this year won't feature a lot of it for Zahavah. Sure I'll introduce the subject and we'll include a study of various landscapes/cityscapes/seascapes, but other than that, we'll keep our focus on other areas... :(

Physical Science
This is one of these albums where restraint is a must. If it were up to me, I'd present it all but I constantly have to remind myself that I have three years to introduce all these wonderful activities to my child and that her comprehension will only grow with time. As such, so far, I've hand-picked only a few presentations for this year, including the beloved sink or float activity. I think I'll also be including some work on light refraction, some water, air and sound "fun" and possibly some inclined planes tasks. It's a year of discovery after all...

Botany
Mentioning my toddler will study botany next year always sounds a bit strange I must admit, but botany truly is everywhere and Zahavah's first school year would not be complete without a light touch of it. I expect we'll talk about leaves, grasses, plants and flowers without getting in too deep.

Zoology
Children love animals and Zahavah is no exception. As my themes include several "types" of "animals" (pets, zoo, bugs, forest "friends", etc), we'll get to go through several picture sets of animals and 3 part cards I'm sure. I am also thinking I'll make a few booklets and maybe a wall chart or two to go with it all. We will most most definitely try to head to the zoo, the pond and farm as well for some zoology field trips.

History
Being that I have a history minor, I think it's safe to say that I love history. Of course, nothing will please me more than pass this love on to my daughter. This year, I intend to cover as much history as possible. :) Of course, being that she is only 2.5 years old, history will be mostly taught in its concrete aspect this year and a big part of it will be done daily thanks to our classroom calendar which will feature of course the usual month/week/day/season and all. Other than studying the calendar, we might go into Zahavah's timeline a wee bit and introduce the clock as well. The passing of time (the making of history) will also be examined. I'm excited already! :)

Astronomy
After much thinking, I decided not to include "any" astronomy into Zahavah's first year of school. I simply couldn't make it fit under any of my chosen thematics and although a lot of the presentations are  suitable for children Zahavah's age, I also felt like waiting until next year might be beneficial in terms of understanding at which point I would also have a unit on Earth Day and "Space Exploration". "Z" already knows a lot about the solar system thanks to her big brother though so as part of our daily circle time, I'll probably include the phases of the moon. I think she'd like that as she's always on the lookout for some lunar action.

Geology
It's never too early to introduce geology to children. Kids love nature...to include rocks so I'll most certainly include some rock hunting activities. Once the introduction to the subject has been done,  geology can often be made part of Practical Life, Sensorial and even Math trays (tonging, matching, counting, etc.). The more proper geology tasks such as the hardness scale tests and properties of the rocks won't probably be studied until next year...:)

Ecology
Zahavah being a little young, our  focus will truly be on Sensorial and Practical Life activities this year. Ecology will still be introduced but very little and only when truly relevant to our theme. For example, with our Up in the Sky theme, I may chose to do a presentation on Air/Smoke/Fog/Smog. When studying forest animals, making a simple bird feeder or "playing" with a small "Keep our Green Spaces Green Sensory Bin" (aka don't litter Sensory Bin) would also make sense.


As it is only July, I am still working on what will be included each week. I tend to include only what can relate to my chosen theme of the week so it can prove tough at times to include a lot of Montessori elements to my weeks. This year, I may try to do things differently and add some activities that don't fit perfectly simply because Zahavah is ready and looks like she may be interested in that kind of work. One thing is sure, I'll dig deep to find a connection! :)

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Your comments make my day ! 
(Please note : comments won't be visible until after my approval!)

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Today, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase, Sun Scholars's For the Kids Friday, Stress-Free Sunday, Thursday Toddler & Preschool, Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, Serenity Saturday, Virtual Montessori Sharing Fair, Monday Kid Corner, We Made That.

If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!

2013-2014 Toddler Themes for Zahavah

"So whatever happened to Zahavah?", you may wonder. No, wait. Did that introduction trigger the even more troubling question of "Who is Zahavah?" because then, I really owe you a deep explanation. :) You see, when I first started blogging, I thought I'd devote Sorting Sprinkles to both my preschooler and toddler. And I did. For a while anyway. Like until Halloween or something. And then I simply couldn't keep up  brainstorming two great curriculum at the same time. I had to let one go and in my head, it had to be Zahavah's. I felt like Adrian's was "more important" because he was a preschooler and since he was not attending school per say (he attends 4 mornings a week in German so in my head...it didn't count), he should be "attending" with me whereas Zahavah "could wait".  I still did and do activities and games with her of course but they're not planned like Adrian's. As such, I haven't blogged about these at all but no worries...she's having a good time, hosting play dates, "working out at the gym" and learning here and there with what I have time to put together for her.

Zahavah Thinking of the Upcoming School Year

Of course that's about to change. Little Miss Z will be turning two and a half this summer and will be ready to enter the proper world of Montessori Learning and as such you'll see a lot more of her comes fall and the beginning of the new school year. I've been debating for quite a while now as to how to proceed with her. I do so love working with "mini-unit" aka themes (I bet you couldn't tell!:) ) but when I investigated what other folks did with their toddlers, I found out a lot went with "letter of the week" and "book of the week" units instead.

Hmm. "Letter of the week" actually seemed like more work than a mini-unit to me. Just the letter "D" makes me think of "dog"and "dinosaur", and those are two HUGE topics. No, couldn't possibly do that. The "sorter" in me just couldn't combine it all. Then, "book of the week" triggered some excitement in me...but then I remembered all my visitors who wouldn't be able to follow along anymore and also,... would a book be enough to prepare an entire week of trays? Not so sure. In the end, it looks like I'll be doing mini-units for Zahavah as well.  I am now looking at possible themes for the upcoming school year. I think I may include a few book-based units but I'll try my best to choose books that were published in several languages...

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Ok. Done thinking. Here's what I've come up with so far. Of course, these themes are all subject to change. I took in consideration Zahavah's current interests and these can always change (although, she is a pretty constant girl I must say). I also tried to pick themes that are universal; themes that she would encounter if she were, for example, to go to a nursery school that used thematics. I also tried to choose subjects that will make it easy to incorporate Montessori elements of course. Now, enough said, here is what you've all been waiting for...my mini-unit themes for 2013-2014! :)

2013-2014 "Tot School" Mini-Unit Themes

September

It's All About Me ! (body parts & emotions)
On the Farm
Falling for Fall (Autumn)
Fashion Week (Clothing)

October

To Market, To Market (At Grocery Store)
Princess Zahavah of New York (princesses & royalty)
Favorite Pets
Halloween
Halloween

November

Going Places (Transportation)
Forest Friends (In the Woods)
Zahavah, Little Mama
Thanksgiving

December

My friend Maisy Mouse (Lucy Cousin character)

It's a Birthday Party !

Christmas

Christmas

January

A cold winter
Pretty Ballerinas
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Hear? (Eric Carle book)
Cuddly Teddy (teddy bears)
Teatime and Sweets and My Favorite

February

The circus is in Town
Valentine's Day
Teletubbies
Mardi Gras

March

Lollies, Gummies and other Candies
St. Patrick's Day
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle Book)
Sports Camp

April

Up in the Sky
Spring is in the Air
Easter
Easter
In the Garden

May

By the Pond
Life's a Zoo 
At the Fair 
Don't Bug Me ! (insects)

June

Summer Fun

At the Beach

No plans announced yet in terms of summer enrichment! :) So what do you think? Any input? I know you may be surprised by some themes (Teletubbies? Really?) but my choices were made with MY toddler in mind. Besides, themes can always change as mentioned before. Some may also be completely "deleted" as penciled in guests confirm their visit and require the postponement/elimination of some topics. Sick days may (or rather will probably) be necessary as well but for now, I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with...

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Your comments make my day ! 

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Today, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase, Sun Scholars's For the Kids Friday, Stress-Free Sunday, Tender Moments with Toddlers & Preschoolers, Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, Look What We Did, Money Saving Monday, Monday Kid Corner, Kids in the Kitchen, and We Made That.

If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!

The 12 Days of Christmas in Books

The 12 Days of Christmas in Books

At first, I had intended on presenting my children with a selection of 24 Christmas-related books leading all the way to Christmas but since we have only one local English library and currently still haven't won the lottery (how can you win without buying a ticket?), it makes it a bit difficult to find these materials. As such, I decided to do the 12 days of Christmas in books starting on Christmas day and ending on Epiphany (aka January 6). It will give us access to "more" Christmas books from our library and Santa has also given me a hint that the kids may be receiving some new Christmas books this year again (hush, hush on my private connection with the big man). In the meantime, here is our suggested reading list for the holidays:

The 12 Days of Christmas in Books (pre-approved by Adrian) 4.5 years old

- Merry Christmas, Splat by Rob Scotton

- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

- The Twelve Days of Christmas by Jan Brett

- Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson

-If you Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff

- Fletcher andthe Snowflake Christmas by Julia Rawlinson

- Harold at the North Pole by Crockett Johnson

-Merry Christmas Big Hungry Bear by Don Wood

-How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

-The Night Before Christmas (Pop Up) by Clement Clark Moore

-Babushka and the Three Kings by Ruth Robbins

-Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by James Dean

The 12 Days of Christmas in Books (pre-approved by Zahavah) 2 years old

-Carl's Christmas by Alexandra Day

-Merry Christmas Ollie! by Oliver Dunrea

-Mouse's First Christmas by Lauren Thompson

-The Cheerios Christmas Play Book by Lee Wade

-Where is Baby's Christmas Present? (A Lift-the-Flap Book) by Karen Katz

-Maisy's Christmas Day by Lucy Cousins

-Tell me the Christmas Story by Joni Walker

-Christmas Peekaboo by Dawn Sirett

-Bunny's Fuzzy Christmas by Golden Books

-The Sweet Smell of Christmas (Scented Book) by Patricia Scarry

-The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

-Charlie and the Christmas Kitty by Ree Drummond

What's on your Tot and Preschooler's Reading list this season?

Countdown to Christmas - How to Spread the Cheer

Christmas is once again on its way (yay) and I cannot help but smile. I've always loved Christmas. I've always looked forward to Christmas and always felt melancholic when it was over. A big part of me thinks that my Christmas appreciation is anchored somewhere in my childhood. I remember some specific smells that would come around the holidays, some special movies, jingly songs, sparkly decorations, cheerful family gatherings, and so on. My parents -whether they knew it or not- were spreading through the holiday season, some Christmas cheer that made me fall in love with Christmas and everything surrounding it. I want my children to feel this same excitement when it comes to the holidays so this year, I've compiled a list of activities that should build the anticipation and the Christmas spirit.

Adrian's way of spreading Christmas cheer back in 2008

Countdown to Christmas - How to Spread the Cheer

1. Open the first door of your advent calendar

2. Start the Elf on the Shelf tradition

3. Visit a Christmas tree farm and "adopt" a tree

4. Deck the Halls with all the family members

5. Send a letter to Santa; an old fashioned one that requires a stamp!

6. Make your own Christmas ornament

7. Play some Christmas music

8. Watch Christmas movies (The Polar Express anyone?)

9. Watch Santa's parade / Visit a Christmas market

10. Go see Santa...just in case he didn't get the memo! ;)

11. Drop some coins into a Salvation Army bucket and the spread the cheer even further

12. Go caroling...even if it's door to door in your own house

13. Read some Christmas books (more on that later)

14.Kiss under the Mistletoe (the perfect excuse to steal a kiss from your little one!)

15. Go ice skating (outdoors or indoors!)

16. Take a walk at night to see the Christmas lights of the neighborhood

17. Make a gingerbread house and gingerbread people

18. Make a dish/drink infused with cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg to perfume the house

19. Go sledding (weee!)

20. Bake some Christmas cookies only children are allowed to decorate

21. Drink eggnog (bonus point if you make your own with the kids)

22. Encourage the kids to Wish "Merry Christmas" to a neighbor they know

23. See snippets of the "Nutcracker" ballet / play (Thank you YouTube and school plays!)

24. Track Santa thanks to NORAD; leave cookies and milk for him

25. Open a present...or two and say "thank you"!

How do you spread the cheer? 

Halloween for Toddlers - Part 2

I always feel like Z and I don't do a  lot of activities. I guess we're too busy in the morning. There's playdates, gymnastics, sometimes a photo shoot...Oh well. When we have a "Slow" morning, we do activities. For Halloween, here's what we did...

Halloween Sensory Tub

Z had fun with the tub. She preferred using her hands to feel the black beans and yellow split peas than using the two small measuring spoons provided. She quite enjoyed filling and dumping beans into the Halloween pail. Also used in the tub were some plastic orange spiders, white plastic skulls, a cat figure and some purple twisted pipe cleaners representing worms. Idea for the tub borrowed from Counting Coconuts'.

Coloring a pumpkin

I printed ours from the free printables available on Kidssoup. I provided only an orange triangular crayon from Crayola. She loves coloring and arts in general.

Bowling mummies

I kept three empty "European" (shape is different) soda bottles just for this. We don't drink soda much so I didn't have any more than that on hand but that's ok. I didn't want to waste too much toilet paper on them anyway. After wrapping the bottles with toilet paper, I stuck on some goggly eyes. When the time came, I provided an orange basketball and showed Zahavah how to bowl. She had a blast and laughed a lot every time the mummies dropped to the floor. I saw this idea on MomTimesTwo.

Ghost footprint

Hmmm. Well that didn't go as planned. I never convinced baby to let me paint her foot. :(  I even painted mine and showed her what we'd do but she still decided not to do it. A sad moment indeed. Anyhow, this is a bigger version than what I had planned but it still shows what it'd look like if she'd done the activity. There's always next year! :)

Happy Halloween from Mizzzz Zzzzz the Black Cat

Halloween for Toddlers

Halloween has now come and gone but I still decided to post my toddler's activities. I wish I had posted them sooner so you could do them along but overall, it was a busy week...

Sifting orange spiders from blue craft sand

Just like her big brother, Zahavah also sifted some orange spiders from the sand. She felt most proud when handed "mama's spoon" for the activity. I chose to use blue craft sand to offer a nice contrast to the orange spiders (found at Dollar Store). She did very well with the activity and like it much. I adapted this activity from Counting Coconuts'. 

Making a spider web

Z loves art...especially paint. So one night, I painted a dessert paper plate black (took two coats as it was a glossy one) in prevision for the next day. On activity day, I dropped two small dots of white paint on the plate, and asked Z to add a marble. I then showed Z how to move the plate gently around to get the marble to roll around. She loved it. She quickly learned how to control the marble on the plate so it would roll and not fall off. In the end, we had made a nice white spiderweb and we added one of our orange spiders on top to complete her art.

Stacking bugs

These are perfect for Halloween and made by Lamaze. They rarely get played with but they are really cool. They are magnetic and make it much easier for younger children to stack them (not that Z has any trouble stacking un-magnetized blocks). Z stacked all 6 of them and moved on... :)

Fill and dump

Using small ghost erasers (Dollar Store) and a pumpkin pail (also from the same store), Z filled and dumped the erasers. She loved it and it kept her very busy. She also made a request of repeating the activity everyday...

Halloween stampers

What child doesn't love stamps? Purchased through the Oriental Trading Company, they come in pre-inked purple, orange, green and black stampers. Part of the challenge was for Z to open and close the top. The stamping...well that was just fun. She enjoyed varying the pressure to see the result and as you can see, enjoyed dragging them too to see what would happen. 

Shapes Week for Toddlers - Part 3

I apologize in advance if some of the pictures do not look too good today. My hubby had to borrow the camera I normally use and as such, I had to use my iPad during some of our activities! 

Sorting shaped buttons

Purchased these colorful shaped buttons at Jo Ann's. There were several shapes in the bag but I stuck to squares and triangles only for this sorting activities. With all the colors involved, I figured it was confusing enough.

"Mystery bag" Textured squares

Hidden in this homemade silk bag were several squares made of different materials. I did not let her look at anything. She just put her hand in the bag and picked one and explored it. When she'd pull one out, I'd tell her it was a square and eventually, she'd say it herself. This bag contained the following squares: wood, plastic, foil, felt, foam, "sponge" and sticky double sided-tape. It really seem to sink in the square shape to have touched all these.

Outdoors sorting of shapes

Z loves being outside and I am making the most of it as the nice weather slowly draws to an end. For this activity, I drew shapes on the pavement using some chalk and then gave Z a bag containing foam shapes (purchased at Target in the dollar bins last year). I modeled how to sort. I took a shape, said its name and put it in the appropriate bigger shape on the ground. She was very successful and loved it. 

Activity extension also liked by Zahavah: giving commands with the giant shapes on the ground. For example; jump on the circle, sit in the heart, touch the star, run to the square and meow, etc. It got her moving and so excited.

Stelline (aka pasta stars) collage

If you can find this small star shaped pasta (Stelline), your kids will not only love eating it, but also craft with it. Z was so happy to see these. They are truly tiny so be sure to supervise. I took out a piece of black construction paper and traced a star made of liquid glue on the paper. Then Z would grab some dried pasta with her hands from a small bowl and sprinkle it into the glue. Don't worry about your child putting too much. Once dried, the extra will fall off. We can't see it much (bad ipad!) but there is also a hint of glitter on each star which she also sprinkled after there was enough pasta. This original was first seen on Family Education.

Shape sorter by Fisher-Price

Mystery bag "Matching textured circles"

Similar to the activity listed above but this time, I provided two textures of each. Z tried to make a match getting them out of the bag. That was difficult the first time as she preferred to just discover the textures. :) Anyhow, I used: 2 wooden circles, two pompoms, two cottonballs, two felt cookies, two plastic balls, two glitter pompoms and two pistachios (careful allergic little ones).

Sponge shaped printing

After cutting some sponges into shapes, I gave them to Z. We did one shape&color at a time. At this age, too many colors/shapes can be overwhelming.  At first, Zahavah stamped the shapes onto the paper and soon discovered that the sponges could also be dragged to paint. As an adult, you may feel like your child is not doing the activity "right" but the process of discovering art is much more important than doing it "right. Z had fun, learned along and that is all that mattered.

Shape hunting in the yard

Cut from foam sheets in different sizes and colors. I spread them around our yard and asked Z to bring me a circle, then a square and so on until all shapes were picked up. We repeated a few times. If your child is older, asking him/her to bring you 2 triangles or the the biggest star is something that could extend the activity.

Shapes Week for Toddlers

Zahavah makes me laugh. She is, what I call, "a girly girl". When trying to teach her shapes this week, I was not surprised to see she already knew "heart" and "star" but not "square" and "circle"! We worked hard though and she started adding more shapes to her vocabulary. Here are a few things that happened last week in Tot School.

Making circles in play doh

By far the favorite activity this week. I helped Z flatten out some play doh and brought a cup stacking toy for her to make imprints with. She quickly got to work and started saying " Circle" every time she made one. She requested this activity again later that week.

Beautiful circles in the play doh

Making a "circle" bracelet

Oh the things you can do with Cheerios! We had some fruity ones on hand (first time I buy the fruity kind and it was well loved...so much sugar though!) so I put some in a small bowl and showed Zahavah how to put the "circles" on a pipe cleaner. When she got tired of threading them, I closed the pipe cleaner and put in on her arm. She quite liked it but eventually took it off and proceeded to eat it! :)

Eating the product of her hard work

Pink Tower

Well...I'm sure you're not used to seeing it built like that but she still was very proud of her job! :) She self-corrected a few times to make it work and that is as good ad it got. I'll bring it out again later and see how she does. We purchased ours from the Montessori Outlet.

Shape pegboard

It's a hit. Z loved placing the shapes in the holes and didn't even get frustrated when some would shift while she was putting another one down. I called the shapes as she put them in the pegboard. Toy is from Learning Resources.

Ah...couldn't resist stacking the shapes!

Placing "circles" on the pegboard

From Alex, a nice button toy. For the sake of this week, the buttons were called "buttons" but referred to as "buttons shaped like a circle". 

I'll be posting more activities in regard to shapes and toddlers very soon so stand by...

By the Seashore for Toddlers - Part 2

By the Seashore has been a tremendous success with "baby" Zahavah. She goes in short spurts though and is VERY picky when it comes to choosing an activity. Some don't get her attention as much and that's ok. She may be almost 2 but I'm still getting to know her likings! :) We usually do only 3-4 different "school activities" each day and leave the rest to self-interest play and outdoor fun.

Stacking sand "biscuits"

Mmm. While I loved this idea, she didn't so much. :( She did stack the sand dollars though.

Fishing magnetic fish...or taking a break from it

This little fishing game took a while to make and I thought it would be a big hit but it wasn't so much. I showed her how to use it and she was actually pretty good at it but didn't really like the activity overall. Oh well!  Maybe another day it will be the favorite! :) In the meantime, if you wish to make your own felt fishes, here is what I used: brightly colored felt, sequins for the scales, thread, goggly eyes, a metal washer and polyester stuffing. To complete the game, use a magnetic wand from a magnetic puzzle if you have one. I cannot remember where I found the pattern but drawing a fish is pretty basic anyway. The idea for the game came from Counting Coconuts by the way.

Caught a fish!

It's biting!

Sifting sea glass from sand

Zahavah loves playing the sand so it was no surprise to see her enjoying this activity, done at home in our small sandbox. I must admit the sea glass pieces we have are so small that they took a while to find (even in this small box) but Z's face when she'd find a "gem" was of such pride that  it was still worth hunting them down (although I did give up on finding the last piece for now...). ;)

Collecting seashells "on the beach"

Until we head to the beach for real, the gigantic sandbox located in our local playground served as a pretend one. I scattered 10 big seashells on the surface, gave baby a pail and let her do the picking. We repeated over and over again. Her big brother even joined in.

Sorting seashell pasta by color

Another " bah" activity. She sorted all three colors into the little ramekins but didn't seem to particularly enjoy it. It gave her fingers a good fine motor workout though; not just her math skills were involved.

Sand Combs

An artistic take on playground time. I made these four differently "Teethed" cardboard combs and showed her how they made different "tracks" in the sand. After that, she just had to try it by herself. I stumbled upon this idea on storiesandchildren. Hers were made of plastic lids though but as I did not have any of these lids, I went with box cardboard. It just made the teeth a bit more flimsy at the end (the sand was slightly wet) but once dried, they were as good as new.

Coloring a Crab

As silly as it may be, it was Zahavah's first time coloring with crayons. I always used an aqua doodle before so I wasn't sure how it would go. She did great and loved it. I bought the Crayola Triangular Crayons which are supposed to her develop the right grip (although it never helped Adrian, one can always hope for this little one). I taped the sheet to the floor to avoid frustrating paper movements and tears as well. You can print your own Kawaii crab at HelloKids. 

Last but not pictured was a fun game of beach ball. We threw the ball, practiced catching the ball, kicked it and even rolled on it. It was a blast.