It's All About Me - For Toddlers

Zahavah, just like her brother, started "school" this week. It isn't really school at her age (she is turning three in December) but she likes to call it so to be like her big brother! :) Unlike her big brother though, her attention span is not fully developed yet and she is not always excited about what she finds on her shelves. :) 

Our first theme called for "personal exploration", mostly body parts but also feelings and emotions. Overall, little "Z" is pretty good at letting us know how she feels and knows her body parts very well so this theme allowed me to ease in some Montessori presentations a bit better (tray carrying, rug unrolling, etc.).

In terms of theme-related activities, here's what we did this week:

Mustache Matching

Considering the amount of time "invested" in making this "puzzle" (and unlike the Iowa's Farmer's Wife whose idea it originally was to make a mustache puzzle with magnetic strips and hardened felt, I simply cut mine out of felt after drawing them!), Zahavah was quite fast with this tray and more or less interested. She is actually quite good at puzzles (already working with jigsaw) and so this was, to her, no challenge at all...although she did giggle at the sight of the mustaches! :)

Boy or girl?

Zahavah has long know that she is a girl and that Adrian is a boy. She can also tell about mommy and daddy but what about strangers? Her curiosity being there (she does ask when we have guests!), I cut out some pictures of children from a catalogue for her to sort into two trays. I made sure to include people of different backgrounds too.

Language: What is Zahavah doing?

A very popular activity this week consisted in a basket of pictures showing Zahavah doing something.  Doing what? That depended on the picture. On one, she is eating, on another, she is sleeping. Zahavah had to use her words and describe the action photos to me. 

Where's that Body Part?

Ah ha! Now that game was enjoyable. Anything with stickers is always a winner in this house.  After reading a book about body parts, we revised them this way: I called a body part and Zahavah had to put a sticker on that body part. Of course, my little girl thought it was hilarious but at times, she was also unsure whether she was right or not...

Emotional Matching Game

Matching games can be easy and difficult. For Zahavah's "first" matching game, I chose a somewhat difficult one. It was composed of boys and girls showing a different range of emotions. Zahavah had thus the opportunity to narrow down her choices in many ways when it came to matching cards: boy versus girl, hair color, emotion expressed, or simple frame color. At first, it was a bit difficult because there were a lot of cards to match and some kids expressed more than one emotion, but in no time, she understood the concept and matched all the cards perfectly. I made my matching cards using I Love ABA!'s Emotions Poster.

Pairing Eyes

Human eyes come in different colors so I picked out a few famous faces with beautiful eyes and printed them, then split them up. After they were all matched, we discussed the less obvious colors such as grey and hazel. We also looked at our family members to see what color of eyes they have. 

Art: Handprints & Footprints

What a difference a year makes! Last year, I remember trying to convince Zahavah to paint her foot for a ghost footprint art piece. Needless to say...that didn't go too well. Fast forward to this September and getting dirty isn't an issue anymore...at least when it comes to pink paint! For her first handprints and footprints, we did nothing fancy; we simply used a foam brush and pink paint; applied it and pressed it on the paper. Knowing that she loves "painting" and "printing", we'll be able to do more elaborate activities involving both from now on...

Math: Sorting Goggly Eyes by Color

Sorting by color is a math readiness activity I love. Zahavah isn't much into sorting yet but after presenting this bowl filled with colorful eyes and showing her how I sorted them by color, she ventured to sort them. Once. It didn't seem like she enjoyed it much and I guess that is why she never sorted them again! :)

Language: Zahavah's Picks

Books about body parts and emotions abound. Zahavah checked out a few this week and although she did not manage to borrow all of the books she originally intended to, she did find some worth recommending to other toddlers, namely:

Baby Mood Swings by Jocelyn Jamison

("ask your mama to make the faces like the baby, or make comments to go along with the faces and it will make the book EVEN better," says Zahavah, who owns the book and reads it daily)

Feeling Happy/ Feeling Angry/ Feeling Sad by Helen Frost 

("do not get "Feeling Scared", it looks scary with the picture of a thunderstorm", says "Z"")

My First Body Board Book by DK Publishing

("It has lots of "real" babies in it, body parts, emotional faces, actions, etc.")

Toes, Ears and Nose / Where is Baby's Belly Button? by Karen Katz

("Who doesn't like flaps? I read it so much I now know the answers before lifting the flaps!")

How do You Feel? by Anthony Browne
("Big book but not long. The monkey feels hungry and full too sometimes!" )

Honorable Mention: Duck and Goose: How are you Feeling? by Tad Hills

("Loved this book but then got scared of thunder one night and...there's a page where Duck and Goose are scared of it too... *sigh* Now I find it a bit scary but I used to love it")

As for me, I was surprised she did not like "How are you Peeling?" by Saxton Freymann more. Pff. Oh well... Maybe as she gets older. :) It does have a lot of pages for a toddler but the text isn't long and the produce cut to show emotions is simply stunning. I bet my Kindergartner would love it (oh wait...he DOES!).

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All About Me for Kindergarteners

Last week was all about Adrian! Well, in a way! :) That was his theme for the week and granted his weeks with me are not very long (he attends a German Kindergarten full-time this year), we try to make the most of them! When I first developed the thematic, my goal was to get him to discover more about himself. We had the same theme last year and the focus was mostly on body parts and the physical aspect. This year, although we still talked about the body, we focused more on likes and dislikes, emotions and Mr. Adrian's place in the world. Below is a sample of what Adrian did.

Geography: Me on the Map Booklet

View of the inside

Well this idea has been around quite a bit (I personally saw it first on Counting Coconuts) and I was very excited to finally put it together for Adrian. He loves geography and at five years old, he is grasping quite well that his house is on a certain street and that this street is in a town which is in a certain state and so on. Overall, we looked through the layers of this "booklet" and discussed how Adrian's house was on that street and so on. After all seemed clear, Adrian proceeded to color Planet Earth and Europe. And now, Adrian knows his place in the World! :) P.S. If Adrian were at home more, I would have had HIM help choosing elements for the layers instead of simply coloring two of them by the way but he truly is home schooled very little this year. :( He seemed pretty happy with my choices in images though (for our street for example, I picked a picture of him bicycling on the street with his daddy, added small pictures of his favorite neighbors as well as a picture of a cat who visits us often and lives a few doors down).

Fine Motor / Art : Likes & Dislikes : Cut & Paste

Getting to know yourself is important. At five years old, I sometimes feel Adrian should know himself better. This exercise was designed to get him to decide whether he liked or disliked something. I simply gathered pictures of items I knew he'd like and dislike, and printed them. The two sheets were then presented with a pair of scissors, a glue stick and two extra sheets stating "I like" and "I don't like". First step: cutting the images. Second step, sorting the images. Third step: placement of the images on the sheet and finally: gluing of these images. Adrian really liked my picks for his "likes" (dominos, trains, dinosaur documentary DVD, flag book, and the solar system) by the way. Possibly because they are borderline "obsessions" in certain cases! :) P.S. Adrian does like cats...but not when they mistake the sandbox for a litter box! :)

Language: A Rhyming Poem About Me!

Apparently, we need to read more poetry. Adrian could not find the rhymes in the poem and couldn't give me examples of rhymes he knew either. Pfff. On another note...he really enjoyed the poem I wrote about him...I erased the titled of the poem (his real name) and his entire name on line two but I'm sure you get an idea that it rhymed with line number one... :)

Language: Word Building with the Moveable Alphabet

Surprise! Apparently during his "time off" this summer (aka one month), Adrian forgot almost all the letter sounds...or maybe he was just very tired when he came home from regular German school this week. Either way, this moveable alphabet activity did not go well and it was meant to be revision before moving forward! Ha! The irony of it all. The idea was for me to call a few 3 letter (C-V-C) words for him to spell with the moveable alphabet. We've done this before and he was always very excited and did well but somehow this time, it was very difficult. Needless to say I was speechless and intend to revise the letter sounds before trying again and may be asking for a school derogation soon! :) Here's the words we worked on this week:

leg

hip

bum

lip

gum

Fine Motor  / Language: Tracing my Silhouette

Tracing is one of these activities done in preparation for writing. At 5 years old, Adrian should already be writing of course but he isn't due to his very poor pencil grip. As such, we are still in-pre-writing mode, with tracing instead. For this activity, Adrian laid down on a piece of large paper and I traced his silhouette with a pencil. I then invited him to trace over with a marker and to trace over his name and age at the bottom (I had already written those down). Adrian also measured his height using his silhouette and a measuring tape.

Notice a lot of language activities this week? You always will. Adrian is not exactly where I expected him to be in terms of writing and reading so I'll be presenting him with a lot more language activities this year. We'll also be doing quite a bit of math and geography but that is only because of his love of the subjects! :)

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On the Menu this October

So how did it all go last month? Who followed my menu? Who grabbed a few ideas? Anyone interested in what's for lunch/dinner THIS upcoming month? It's almost October so you'll finally find some "comfort food" on the menu. We're talking roasts, stews, and of course fall vegetables such as pumpkin, parsnips and sweet potatoes...

October Menu: inclusive of lots of comfort food! :)

If you need scanned copies of October's menu, I can be reached at sortingsprinkles at gmail dot com. Otherwise, clicking on the pictures below and you will get a bigger, clearer image of the menu. :)

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Stamp Sorting : Geography and History in a box!

School interruptions...Nobody likes them. For this reason, I decided to delay the beginning of our school year instead of starting and stopping, starting and stopping and so on. I know a lot of you have been patiently waiting for me to resume my regular-content posts (thank you for your patience by the way!:) ) but I felt we wouldn't be off to a great start if we had one school day only to stop and resume later in the month. As such, school will really only be starting after our visitors have left (September 23) and posts about that week should begin to be published the week after. Until then, I'm afraid my publications will probably be only occasional. Please bear with me and preview in the meantime another material I've prepared for Adrian's use during his school time: the continent sorting stamp box; a geography teaching tool. 

Stamp Sorting Box; a compartment for each continent except Antarctica
(can't find stamps yet!)

This activity idea came upon me after I realized I wanted to do more "continental" activity than just present a traditional Montessori continent box. As we will be spending one week per continent, simply having Adrian explore a box as he wished seemed a bit lacking. I felt there should be some activities and some trays presented instead of just one giant treasure box to rummage through. For now, I am not completely putting aside the idea of making continent boxes as objects coming from the continents themselves will always be interesting to explore but I also want Adrian to enjoy what would normally be found inside a continent box more thoroughly. For example, while it is very neat to find stamps from many countries in a Europe box, what's a child to do with them? I pictured Adrian possibly sifting through them, maybe stopping at one if featured a train on it or something of the sort. I can't picture him doing much more with the stamps at this point if they're simply in a box...yet if I take the time to find stamps/money to buy stamps, I want Adrian to see their potential. I definitely wouldn't want to chance him dismissing them completely. As such, I went ahead and created a continent stamp sorting box per an idea found on The Hands On Homeschooler. From there, the stamps will be sorted according to their continent for the rest of the school year. After their initial sorting (quite elementary for a Kindergartner of course) more activities will be created for the stamps pertaining to each continent! :) What kind? You must stay tuned to find out. (Adrian will be studying Europe in just a few weeks) but for now, let me show you the Continent Stamp Sorting Box:

I started by covering one of Adrian's old sturdy shoebox with a neutral paper. I won't lie: I'd rather have a wooden box but they seem to be hard to come by. If I find a suitable one with six compartments and a lid, I'll get it but for now, this shoe box will do. Once the box and its lid were lined, I glued a color coded Montessori continent map on the lid for reference (The Homeschool Den) and then I cut six squares of construction paper: a red, a yellow, a green, an orange, a brown and a pink. These are of course, the colors representing the continents according to the Montessori map I had just printed and glued to the lid of the shoebox. The bottom of the box could also simply have been painted but I thought I'd use the same paper as I was planning on using on our stamps. :) To finish up the box, I used thick cardboard from used packaging boxes and cut the lengths needed to separate the shoebox into six and simply slid them snuggly into the box. Of course it is not the prettiest Montessori material ever built. That's why I said if I find a wooden box I'll get it but for now, it should do the job. :)

Stamps mounted on their Montessori continent color: ready for sorting

Once the box is finished, you need to start gathering stamps from all around the world. That is when I truly felt very, VERY, sad indeed. You see, I used to collect stamps when I was a young girl. I bought bags of stamps and carefully peeled them off the envelopes by soaking them, and would sort them by countries or theme, to finally lovingly adhere them to philatelic albums. And now, well, I'm not sure where my collection is. I think I might simply have tossed it when I got a bit older. Pff. Oh well. Thankfully, a lot of people are still collecting...and selling theirs so I bought a lot of 100 stamps on Ebay. It guaranteed me stamps from 90 countries for quite cheap (we're talking less than USD$5 here). Overall, it was a good deal (a few damaged, a few from the same countries). I'll start with these stamps of course but will eventually get more because I know children like lively colors, bigger stamps, animals, flowers, and other things they can recognize (I know I did!). When the stamps arrived, I sorted them by continent myself and proceeded to look at what country issued them. I liked how The Hands On Homeschooler added an extra layer of color for countries that no longer existed so I decided to do the same. All stamps coming from a country that had changed name or boundaries, or something alike was first put on a black construction piece of paper and then on its continent color. For all others, I simply put the stamps of European countries on red construction paper, the stamps coming from South American countries on pink construction paper and so on. For now, I did not laminate any of  the stamps after mounting them on colored paper. Adrian is a very careful little man so I do not think they will need any covering at this point. (I am also hoping he may want to start his own stamp collection like I did after manipulating these stamps so laminating the stamps would horrify him in the future! :))

Stamps from former countries are easily identifiable with a black mat
and a history lesson on the back

When school starts, this box will be presented, along with a basket filled with the stamps for Adrian to sort by continent. Later in the year, we'll do activities with the stamps from the continent we are actually studying. As you've noticed, I have not made a compartment for Antarctica. At this point, I do not have any stamps from there and I am sure they are hard to come by (though they do exist apparently) but if I do get my hands on one, I'll add a white envelope on the inner lid of our box! :)

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Flag Peg People Around the World

School doesn't officially start until September 6 for us over here in Germany but that doesn't mean we are not anxious to! :) Until I get back to my regular posting about what we've been up to on that matter, I thought I'd let you know how we've been preparing for it. For example, this year, Adrian will be presented with a lot of geography activities. We've never really done much in that matter because until recently, his interests didn't push him in that direction that much and also, we didn't have access to as many materials as we do now. Overall, Adrian should "visit" every continent this school year, starting with Europe as we happen to live here. Most Montessori schools usually provide a "continent box"/'treasure box" for their students to sift through when it comes to "continental discovery" but as we'll be spending an entire week per continent, I couldn't possibly just put together a box filled with European objects and hope Adrian would have a nice learning week. As such, I'm preparing "trays" filled with actual learning activities that will fit the continent we are learning about. Most activities will include items that could have been found in the continent box (stamps, coins, postcards, etc.), only I will present them instead of simply leaving them in a box. 

Europe "Flag Peg People" on Labelled Map

Amongst the activities you would not have found in a continent box is one involving flags. Adrian has been "obsessed" with flags for the last two months or so. With this in mind, I set to prepare more flag activities than less to feed this curiosity. Yes we'll have the "regular" pin-the-flag-on-the-country map activities this year but I also wanted to add some fun. In comes the peg people covered with their national flag! I won't lie, these will only be used as a "revision" activity once Adrian is already familiar with the flags and countries... Also, there will be peg people for all the continent but at this point, I've only painted the European dolls you see...

Nine European dolls are currently part of our collection

I initially ordered a bag of 25 wooden and unpainted peg dolls (USD$8.25 not including shipping from a seller on Etsy). I won't lie. Painting all of these dolls is time consuming but it is relaxing as well as I like crafting. I will also say that the children were very excited to see these the next morning so it was rewarding in a way. I had to keep telling them it would be for school and that we wouldn't just play with them on a daily basis. Adrian loved that they had flags on them and already could tell a few by memory. I did not venture to tell him how they would be used but as you can see, they'll have to be matched with their countries! :)

Control of error: Bottom of peg doll has country symbol

As I plan on using these for a few years (get my money out of the investment), I took the time to write under each doll the abbreviation for each country with a pencil. Eventually, I think Adrian will learn these and that it will be a great way for control of error, especially when all continents are put together, but for now, all dolls will be kept in their separate "continent bag" and that we may have to rely on our book of flags for control of error. 

Close-up of the wooden dolls; happy European citizens!

All these peg people were initially unpainted. To give them their national colors, I used acrylic paints (one coat worked well) and lacquered all the dolls with two coats of clear shiny sealant once they were dry to prevent the paints from future damage.  So far, the only complaint I have received from the initial dolls being seen is that the "Danish" doll was "missing". I was expecting that actually and it is my mistake. I originally had intended on making one as my son was born in Denmark and identifies with the country but as I had already painted a Swiss doll, I felt the Danneborg might be too similar and decided to go with the Swedish flag instead. Hmm. We'll see if I'm forgiven in a few weeks when I present these during Europe Week! :)

P.S. Don't have time to make your own flag peg dolls? Check out LaLutine's store on Etsy! She sells very similar flag peg dolls that are also eco-friendly. I love crafting so I decided to make my own version of my dolls but that is where I found the original idea for them! :)

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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, Preschool Corner &5K, Serenity Saturday, We Made That, and Artsy Play Wednesday, Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop.

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!

On the Menu this September

I have a confession to make: I am absolutely terrible at menu planning lately. I used to love jotting down ideas of what we'd eat for the next few weeks and putting it into execution but ever since we moved to Germany, it's been kind of a chore. I think a big part of it emanates from the fact that even if I had a menu all etched out, I probably would not follow through. Truth is: although I love cooking, it's not been exactly enjoyable in my small uninviting and ill-equipped kitchen (I sometimes wish I had always had the same kitchen and didn't know any better!). Add to the equation little Zahavah and Adrian who seemingly purposely choose this very hour to bicker and instead of a recipe for dinner, we have a recipe for disaster. 

What's for Lunch? - September Menu is Out!

In the end, I decided to change the schedules from last year to allow me to be somewhat "free" an hour before dinner" (4:30-5:30) so I could feed my family more properly for the only meal of the day we all get to share together but also because I am starting to feel the need for some "relaxing" time. Yes, relaxing = cooking! :)

Excited about this new twist, I quickly prepared a menu for the entire month of September minus the week-ends because it's usually a last minute decision as we tend to be out and about. This menu is a lunch menu BUT, what you see listed there is what we ate for dinner the previous day. That's right! Making fresh lunches everyday is time consuming considering everyone in my household expects a "5 star warm meal" and as such, we usually have leftovers from the night before unless of course, there has been miscalculations on my part (read too many second helpings!!!) and we end up having to have the soup of the week or sandwiches. Has there been any complaint about my system? Nope unless the meal from the previous night was previously disliked of course! :)

As you've noticed, our meals always include a protein, and two sides of vegetables unless veggies are included in the dish. In the cases where a grain such as pasta or bread is not listed or part of the dish, slices of whole wheat bread are readily available. For drinks, fat-free milk is served. For dessert, as you can see, fresh fruit is what we prepare. Fruit is, by definition, sweet and my kids love their fruit dessert. They do occasionally have a treat of course but they still need to gobble up their fruit first! :)

I am more than happy to share my menu with all of you interested in having a copy of it. I actually tried to upload my file to a server where everyone could simply download it but without much success I'm afraid. I'm not sure my format will/would download right for non-Macintosh users either honestly. I'm working with a .rtf type of document but I've also scanned it to a friendly jpeg. Of course, my scan didn't grab the fine lines in my table (Technology just loves me, doesn't it?) So anyhow, send me an -mail (sortingsprinkles at gmail dot com) and I'll e-mail you an .rtf or jpeg of the menu if you're interested! By the way, if you are intrigued by some recipes, don't hesitate to ask: I do share! :)

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 Show-and-Share Saturday, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase, Stress-Free Sunday , Serenity Saturday, Kids in the Kitchen.

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!

Recycled Wax "Royal Gems" Crayons

Well it sure has been a while since I last published a post hasn't it? In between field trips, multiple playdates and the enjoyment of the last warm summer days, my time spent at the computer has been cut dramatically but it hasn't prevented me from going shopping for back-to-school basics on one of our rainy days last week. Among the items on my list was of course the classic wax crayon pack. Who can forgo this staple? Every year, it seems like I buy a new pack or two; not because ours have been worn to nothing, mind you, but mostly because a few have broken in our pack and the children now refuse to use those despite mine taping them back together with masking tape (works great by the way!). On top of that, one must admit that the price of crayons at the back-to-school sales is quite amazing (19 cents, really?). Even if you don't need them, your brain almost tricks you into buying them because if you end up needing them later, you very well know they will be at least five times that price down the road...So I left the store with two packs of 24 brand new crayons (one for Zahavah and one for Adrian). I then decided it was time to figure out what to do with the broken crayons. After all, the kids were not suddenly going to start using them, right? It was time to recycle the old broken crayons into new crayons. What a "wicked" plan I thought: the broken crayons the kids had refused to draw with would, in the end, be used? hehehe I almost felt like I was sneaking medicine in their ice cream! :)

Recycle your broken crayons into these little gems!

I first gathered all the broken crayons accumulated over the last two years (not including the washable kind as I was told they would leave a white waxy residue) and removed the paper surrounding the crayons. In many cases, I was lucky...the kids had already done that! :) I then sorted the crayons by color and broke them in more pieces so they'd melt faster. I kept all the divided colors in paper cups (I used small "bathroom cups"). Adrian helped too. He broke some crayons and helped sort the colors so kids can definitely help with this process. After that, it was time to melt the crayons. I turned my oven on to 160C (325F), put my paper cups on a baking sheet and put the baking sheet in. Please be aware that paper cups are not supposed to be used for hot liquids according to most manufacturers. Check the label on your box before proceeding (my cups were for cold liquids only and I still used them but I put only 2-3 crayons in each and made sure to stay above the countertop when pouring in case the bottom of a cup would fall out and had no issues but it doesn't mean nobody will...)

Sorted, broken, peeled crayons ready for melting

During this time, I sprayed a non-stick spray on my candy mold so the crayon wax would not stick to my plastic mold. My mold is heat resistant to 170C by the way so I knew my wax would not melt my mold during the pouring process. Be sure you check yours as well.

Oiled candy mold ready for pouring

After 10 minutes, all my crayons were melted (I had 2-3 crayons per small cup) so I took the baking sheet out of the oven using an oven mitt (I did check after five minutes using a toothpick), and quickly poured the melted wax into the molds. The paper cup themselves were warm to the touch but not hot (unless I would  have touched at the level of the wax of course, which would have been) so I used my bare hands right out of the oven to handle the cups but I had to be careful not to let the wax touch my fingers. Oven mitts are highly recommended for the pouring of the wax of course. We do not all have the same definition of what's warm and what's hot! :) 

I let the mold sit on the countertop for half an hour after the pouring was finished and then I put it in the refrigerator for another half an hour. After that, the crayons were hard and ready and came right out of the mold with a light touch of my finger (they just slipped out thanks to the oily spray). I simply took them out one by one so they wouldn't break but a faster way might be to put a towel on top of the mold and then turn the towel and mold over. I just didn't want to chance it. :)

New wax crayons in the making and resting

I chose this mold (purchased on Ebay by the way) with Zahavah's Princess themed week in mind. (coming up in October) I thought having "gem" crayons would be fun for her and yet, not too difficult for me to make since this is my first time making "recycled crayons". I quite enjoyed the experience. If it didn't take this many crayons (see how some of my molds are not filled? And yet I used about 30 crayons for that!) and if the paper wasn't always glued to the crayons (it can be difficult to remove at times), I would definitely consider making more fun shaped crayons and offer them as presents for the kids's friends...Until then, we'll have to wait until more crayons break! :)

Beautiful crayon "pendant" for my beautiful little girl!

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This post was shared with these wonderful blogs and websites this week:

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, Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, Serenity Saturday, Kids in the Kitchen, Discover & Explore, 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!