WIN A MONTESSORI WORLD MAP!!

 

As an early Christmas gift, we are giving away a gorgeous Montessori World Map. 

It is made from high quality wood with beautiful finishing.

 I actually wanted it for myself but Winnie said NO!

Could you be the lucky one? 

To win, enter with any of the following methods:

Facebook:
1. Share the picture on your Facebook page with 'Public' setting (first entry)
2. Leave a comment and tag 3 of your friends. (second entry)

Instagram:
Follow us on Instagram and leave a comment in the contest picture. (3rd entry)
Link here

Blog:
Just leave a comment at the end of this post. (4th entry)

*Saying you love me is considered bribery and strictly forbidden.
*Winner will be announced at 12 noon@12th December 2014.
*You MUST be residing in Malaysia or Singapore.

Montessori At Home by John Bowman

Once upon a time, a girl (old girl) asked Mr John Bowman for a copy of his ebook and she was to write a review of it on her blog. She didn't.

I have my reasons. Really. Tiger wasn't verrry into Montessori type of activities. He likes worksheets. Weird, I know. Therefore, I felt it would be a biased review if I had raved over something I didn't really use.  So, I left it in a corner of my mind until recently.

As you guys already know, I tried teaching Dragon girl the way I did Tot School with Tiger. It was an epic fail.
 For example, this tray was set up for one-to-one correspondence with magnets.She wanted to do this instead:

 

Stumped and bordering insanity, I went through Mr Bowman's book again on my PC and decided to just focus on practical life and fine motor movement. What a difference it made!

You know you've got a good thing when it inspires you to get moving.

The introduction rocks and Mr Bowman will probably be one of the few

highly qualified people who tells you it is okay to substitute with cheaper, DIY materials.

(psst..using plastic ain't gonna kill anyone)

The book is very easy to read.

If you need any inspiration, he has included links to many brilliant homeschoolers.

Mine not included :(

The book includes many aspects of Montessori like

using things from home, a parental guide, sensorial, practical life, science,

geography, Digital life (apps and stuff), maths, etc.

You can view a sample of the book from his site here

The ebook itself is only USD 10.95

If you opt for to bundle with 40 materials from Montessori Print Shop

they will be a bargain of USD24.95
(Correction from my original post)

(If purchased individually, the printables will cost USD 60)

You can view the materials included here

If you are a Malaysian Chinese like me, your first reaction will be:

WTF?!! So many freebies??! Must buy laaa

And please don't ask me for free copy okay?

The bundle plus book is still cheaper than mascara.

 After going through the book, I prepared these for my two year old.
The 4 year old enjoyed modeling for his sister.
Dragon loved the scooping ping pongs and funneling trays.
She just practiced her pincer grip with the tweezing tray and that's okay.

 

The frog life cycle tray will hang around until I find Ted.

By the way, Ted is the tadpole that I am going to catch, soon.

 For more info on the book and his new books, please visit here

He will basically teach you how to do it at home without

burning a hole in your pocket and so much more.

We love it so much.

And Mr Bowman, I am very sorry the review is a year late.

I am only able to give a review when I truly believe in the product.

Homeschool Setup: October 2013

Lil Dragon: 15 months

Lil Tiger:  3 year 4 months

Lil Dragon is still exploring with her mouth when it's something new

and exciting to her.

The itty bitty things in 'class' are pretty meh to her by now

 but I still watch her very, very carefully.

Verrrry sneaky, this one. Almost like Smeagol.

Tiger is currently,

• an emergent reader
• doing simple additions and subtractions
• very much into painting and coloring

His latest creation: The Solar System.

So abstract, kan?

I really love this painting of his but you can have it for RM 50.

Any takers?

Come on, may be worth millions one day. 

<<< >>>

I have no idea what to call this instead of circle time.

This is where we start our class and decides what Tiger would like to do.

We have his schedule, calender and some theme books.

This week, we are still reading Halloween books.

On the wall is his new Solar System poster.

(He can do Solar System for the whole year)

Math

Tiger is into counting now, so we will be focusing on that.

This is the math center as per his request

1. Balancing scale with counting bears {more or less}

2. Blue and red rods; 0-10 cards, number clips {zero to ten}

 3. Colored beads and blocks for free play/sums/patterning

Sorting 

Bought this box from Fun & Cheer for RM 6.80

Fine motor and Lil Dragon's corner

   Some stickers for Dragon's old can

 

Threading buttons for Tiger & an extra for Dragon (to minimize fighting)

 Reading station

Mother Goose and finger puppets for finger play

 Chinese (Shi Wu Kuai Du)

Reading pen

P&J

Kohwai and Young Word Family 

Brillkids

I wish I can say we do all the above but we don't.

Only when the kids feel like it.

Or we just read stories before bed.

Studies show that early reading don't make a difference in later academic achievement.

 

  

Music

Both the kids love playing with musical bells .

 I taped three A4 sheets together and drew a musical staff for him 

to place some felt notes on.

We use them for solfege.

 

Sensory bins

Dragon plays with the water beads EVERY night.

Sometimes, I am very lucky and I get this.

When I invite Tiger to join Lil Dragon, he replied.

No need. So smelly and wet. I crayon la..
=.="
Action betul

My Lil OCD requested for balloons and came up with this human burger.

He was carrying four but by the time I snap, he was left with these.
He is so nerdy, it hurts...hihi

My very cool lab creation?

Collecting dust...

Sigh..not easy to please these kids, you know.

Giveaway: KHT Montessori by Living Montessori Now

KHT is an online Montessori Course.

 

I am too peanut of a blog for KHT to sponsor a givaway but

Living Montessori Now is having one right now.

It is worth almost RM1000, so don't be shy....join la.

If you win but you think, "Aiks, I don't like"

Nevermind..... gimme.

If you win and then you think, "How laaa, must spend so much money to buy

Montessori stuff"

Nevermind, can replace the Montessori materials with DIY materials.

Or you can gimme, again.

This also reminds me about the Montessori at Home review

and the Montessori Print Shop one I have been meaning to do.

Almost one year ago

.

.

.

.

.

.

Yes, I am ashamed of myself

=.=

Anyways, don't miss this opportunity, guys.

Click here to join and good luck.

Preschool: Sept-Oct Setup

Keeping a blog is not easy, especially when you are not being paid :)

I guess this is what people call labour of love.

 By writing, I get motivated to keep up with homeschooling because

I know I am helping others to discover the joy of teaching.

So, a big thank you to you guys for reading my ramblings.

Besides, I need this for blackmail later on when my

kids decide on which old folks home to send me.

Better be a 5 star one, you munchkins!

Back to schooling business.

After reading this, my main concerns are:

1. Balancing learning with play

2. Should I challenge Tiger with more advanced materials as I have done previously?

3. How do I bring more communication & harmony into the room?

Taking baby steps...

Work Appreciation.

Everyone deserves some, no?

I have displayed Tiger's Apple week work for his other classmate to admire.

I used to chuck his work in the bin after he is done, secretly laaa

 

SAND ART

Picture No.1

He has no idea that this was Mr Bean. 

To him, it was just an uncle driving a car.

As you can see, I had a lot of say in the Mr Bean one ---> boring

Picture No.2

This other picture, he chose his own colours.

From the colors, I think he wants to be an American.

Writing station.

"Why you write on the cupboard? Dirty laaa"

I am labeling for you 

Ooooo. Thank you mama.

Can you read what I wrote?

Let /S/ roll

Face palm myself. Write, Let's write

Wahahahaha. Ooookay....write

Made a mess-free writing bag for him.

I saw some blogs using hair gel but I didn't have them on hand, so

I used some white glue mixed with water and some blue coloring to match the cards

Chinese Station

Still using Er San Kuai Du

This week, we are focusing on colours.

Starbucks Bear not related to the theme.
He just loiters around because he is homeless.

Creativity

Added a Craft Bin

This is where I stash materials that we can use to create whatever they can imagine.
Very convenient for pieces of scrap I do not feel like wasting.

 

Montessori

1. Magnetic playset to create pictures
2. Geometric solids with cards
3. Three pairs of sensory balloons. (I filled these with salt, Styrofoam balls and rice)

• Broad stairs (Mama, you cannot keep my brown steps)
• Blue and red rods
• Balancing scale with some blocks ( For More or Less Lesson)

Reading

P&J

We are also trying This Reading Mama's curriculum which is 

for more advanced preschooler's who can recognise letters and their sounds.

A god send.

Trying out our first set this week

Happy Preschooling!

Baby School: Shapes Week @ 13 months

Lil Dragon's getting used to our school routine.

Her top 2 activities are:

 Brillkids lessons & the learning trays.

Sometimes, she will opt for drawing.

That means making a mess :)

She loves this little chest of drawers.

I hid a silicone shape in each drawer for her to discover.

A labelled sheet for matching.

I did the matching & naming for her, just to introduce her to shapes

and creating print awareness while playing.

Sometimes, Tiger does the tutoring for me.

 

 
Spooning...

...which ended up with pom-poms everywhere.

Transferring ping-pong balls into cups

I love this face <3

Combining trays and learning that balls cannot go into a small hole.

M&D Shapes puzzle

With Tiger, we stressed on more complicated ones such as

octagon, parallelogram, trapezoid, etc

She has gotten the concept of
Here's the mat and this is what we are doing now.
Instead of going Rar rar rar....all over the place.

The mat is essential to any learning.
The genius that is Montessori :)

On Brillkids,
We are doing a lesson a day.
When she spots a bird outdoor, she points and says /b/.
Unlike Tiger, she is being exposed to 3 languages since we have a Indonesian
kakak now.
So, I expect her speech to develop a little slower.

This week, we will focus on colours.

Printable: Mini Montessori Pink Tower Cards Set 1 {free}

The problem with buying the mini sets is difficulty in getting 'mini' activity extensions and printable such as this one from Montessori Print Shop for USD 2.29

Since I could not find any for free online. I made some in like 5 minutes. Getting quite tech savvy here.

If I can get my puny brain around Google doc, there will be more soon!

To get your Mini Pink Tower Cards, click here.

Our Shelves @ August 2103

This would be Lil Dragon's Baby School setup combined

 with Tiger's Sensorial and Math materials

The past week, the study was chaotic to say the least.

 I blame Captain Jayden Koo {Triumph in The Sky II}...slurrppp :p

Got my act together to rearrange, tidy, refresh & re-energize the room.

As usual, I observe my children's interest to decide on the materials I display for them.

When I asked Tiger to check out his room this morning.

He barged in, turned around and said, "Wow....so nice"

Then, he gave me a thumbs-up.

This is the main area

Broad stairs and binominal cube

Red rods and sandpaper numbers

Geography: Continents and animals

These are on top of Lil Dragon's shelves, so that they are out of reach

The mini knobbed cylinder and insets.

For Lil Dragon, we are focusing on shapes and scooping

and some fine pincer movements.

She has taken an interest in feeding people with pretend food lately.

The pink tower. This mini sized one is created at a ratio of 0.7 to the original set

Then we have a box with the mats.

A little bag with wet tissues, a cloth and a dustpan for clean up.

Tiger is still into Geography at the moment.

I initially printed these to be super imposed onto our World Map but the northern parts were too small.

So, I used magnetic stickers from Daiso and placed them on the white board instead.

The labels are attached with velcro.

I was going through a Montessori manual for Practical life and as much as I would like to,

I will not be able to follow through with a full Montessori program.

I would like to think I am supermom, but I am not.

My solution?

We will be using John Bowman's Montessori At Home as a guide.

The Continent Map above came with the E-book. 

I blew it up by 120% before printing.

I will do a more complete review as we move along.

Brillkids

We will continue with this since Little Dragon is showing some progress.

She does 'Laugh' whenever she sees the animated character

She knows head, hair, eyes, nose, shoe, teeth, cat, dog....

We only do one session a day.

Chinese

Odonata flashcards was all we did last week.

He combined the yellow and green series cards and hugs them to sleep.

@.@

I am going to be more consistent with er san kuai du

I bought these too already :p

Math

I bought a giant Snake and Ladder game to introduce him to 100 Board

Right Brain

As usual, if Tiger is not keen...I will not force him.

Sometimes, he likes to perform for his Papa who is cheap with praises

Mandalas remain his favorite

Music

Still enjoying his YAMAHA classes :)

This is our current plan of action at the moment.

Thanks for reading!

Preschool: Countries & Flags

Admittedly, I buy a lot of things/teaching tools for my children

but

 they don't attend daycare which cost about RM1000 a month

or

 right brain classes, save another RM 400 a month 

So, 

I just have to remember everything I bought and put them to good use.

Which I do.

I have a mental inventory.

Right now, he is into flags.

 He went through all the flags with his talking pen.

It 'talks' in more than 10 languages.

Even Russian...hihi...we had a good laugh.

 

When I told him that Spain is in Europe.

He went back to the Montessori continent map and kept

 singing the Continent Song repeatedly.

 

I made this into a game by writing the name of each country on small white label sticker.

He thought that was cool and insisted on labeling all thirty flags

We also played a matching game with his flag stickers.

We used some when he was attending Tweeddlewink here

He found the matching Egypt sticker and put it on the map

 

 Then we did Brazil

Matching sticker to the flag

I love Geography...