Homeschooling June 2013 Part 1

Spanish: Los Números 1-5

Materials: toilet paper rolls, construction paper, double-sided tape,
black marker, pipe cleaners, cardboard, hot glue gun.

Use the cardboard as a base. 

Cover the rolls with construction paper. 

Write the digits and number words in Spanish.

Hot glue rolls together and then to the base.

Fold pipe cleaner 2/3s of the way.

Make flowers with the numbers.

Use leaves that are color-coded to show where they belong.

Number one vase has one flower, the number two vase has two flowers, etc.

End product. The child can play the game of taking the flowers out and matching them up again and again.

Homeschooling Baby Girl (She is 16 months old now)

I do a little bit of everything with her, from Mathematics to the Alphabet to Animal Names.

Basic Shapes

Basic Shapes and Real-life Objects

Sight words.

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee

She a quick study. Points at the correct letters sometimes.

Numbers 1-10. Today, we practiced 6-10

Four colors and matching words

Montessori Sensorial: Brown Stair

The Brown Stair has 10 prisms. 

Length and Width of the biggest prism are 10x10cm. 

The length and width of the smallest prism is 1x1cm.

Presentation: Show child the 10 prisms in the right order.

Show child how to hold/carry them (with both hands and slowly, carefully).

Extension 1: Put Brown Stair together, ask child to close his/her eyes and remove one of the prisms. Push all prisms together to not show the gap that the prism was taken out of.  Show it to the child and have him/her say where it belongs.

Extension 2: Same as Extension 1, but this time, put the prism behind you so the child will rely solely on the rest of the stair, not on the prism removed.

Extension 3: Place prisms out of order and place them back in order.

Extension 4: Place prisms far apart in a big area on the floor and then put the Brown Stair back in the right order.

Extension 5: Place the Brown Stair in the right order horizontally and then match it up with the Pink Tower next to it.

Extension 6: Place Brown Stair and Pink Tower side by side (like Extension 3), but vertically.

Extension 7 (Part 1): Alternate the Brown Stair prisms and the Pink Tower blocks on each level.

Extension 7 (Part 1)

Extension 7 (Part 2): Slowly remove all of the Pink Tower blocks, starting at the top.

Extension 7 (Part 2)

Extension 8: It's called the "Shadow." Build the Pink Tower vertically and then the Brown Stair  flat on the floor, tip to tip, making a long shadow effect.

Montessori Practical Life: How to Pack a Lunch

We talked about what is easy to eat at a picnic and we gathered all food items together.
Sandwich, chocolate almond milk, cheddar cheese, gouda cheese, yellow bell pappers, strawberries, placemat, lunchbox.

Then we had a lovely picnic at the park.

Homeschooling Baby Girl

Basic Shapes with name cards

She now points correctly most of the time.

Number cards and matching digits 1-3

Body parts poster

We sing the Twinkle, Twinkle lyrics together.

We also went over other colors, not just the basic ones.

Alphabet cards

Sight words

Homeschooling May 2013 Part 8

Montessori Mathematics: Sandpaper Numbers

We traced all of the numbers.

We matched the numbers with the number cards.

We used the bead stair, too.

I added a yellow or green sticker to show K where to start tracing and a red or orange sticker to show where to stop.

This is what all the numbers look like with the start and end stickers on them.

Dry erase number practice.

Happy end of May! :)

Homeschooling May 2013 Part 7

Montessori Science (Botany): Parts of the Root and Parts of the Stem

Nomenclature Answer Key
We go over these a few times and talk in detail about all the parts.

Then I take out the Nomenclature Cards where he matches the pictures with the correct name.

Montessori Language Arts: Sandpaper Letters (lower case)

I took a few lower case letters that are easier to trace and placed a sticker with green or yellow where he is supposed to start tracing the letter and a sticker with red where he is supposed to stop. This helps him remember to trace the letters correctly.  We skipped the presentation this time because he already knows all of the letter names and letter sounds. He also knows the order of the letters in the alphabet. So we went straight to tracing, which he's already done before, but not with this many Extensions.

This is one of K's favorites: "Across and around the world"

Traced all the letters in his name.

After tracing a few letters, it was time for and Extension.
Trace the letter on the sandpaper letter a few times and
then trace it in the sand tray.

Another Extension was to make the letters out of playdough.  I made my own
playdough at home. To get a fun and simple recipe, click here. It is super easy to
make and it lasts forever (as long as you seal it in an airtight bag/container).

Another Extension was to trace the letter on the sandpaper board and then
write it with chalk on the chalkboard. He did really, really well with this activity.

Wiping the board clean in between letter tracing.

Not bad, huh? Not bad for a 3-year old! :)

A little Homeschooling Humor

Montessori Practical Life (Fine Motor Skills): Learn to Use Chopsticks

This little guy is incredible! He picked it up quickly.

Very impressive

Play Time

Hanging out on the driveway and cooling off.
A's new thing was climbing in and out of the pool.
Needless to say, the water ended up filthy.

Yummy snack

This is actually my green breakfast smoothie. K decided to try it and I had 

a hard time getting it back. I juice fruits and veggies every day, but I am 

not making smoothies 2-3 times a week and, since both kids loved the smoothie 

so much, I now make extra for them, too. Can't complain about that!

Recipe for this one: 

8oz homemade almond milk (look up my recipe on how to make almond milk here)

big handful fresh spinach (about a cup)

1/2 frozen banana

1/4 cup frozen mango

1/4 cup frozen plum

1/2 tsp spirulina

1/2 tsp ground chia seeds

1/2 tsp ground flaxseeds

Optional: 1/2 tsp coconut oil

What I did last night was grab about 10 sandwich-sized ziplock bags and put fruit in it. All kinds: 1/2 banana, mango, pitted cherries, kiwifruit, nectarine, plum, etc and made a good mix and match to get different recipes. Replace the highlighted parts in the recipe with the contents in the baggie. Use one bag per serving. So, if you are blending a smoothie for 2 people, use double the amount  of everything and 2 baggies. Put baggies in freezer. 

It is super easy to just grab a baggie in the morning instead of cutting all kinds of fruit. Plus, it makes the smoothie nice and cold. Yes, bananas are great to freeze. I actually have frozen whole bananas and break them in half to throw in the blender for a smoothie.