Baby School: Lesson 2 @ 12 months

Baby School's tagline: Let's play

I prepared these trays.

 Left:
1. Small muffin tray with reusable ice (replaced them with porcupine balls later)
2. Ciggie holder/ashtray with unsharpened pencils
3. Faux grass with some miniature animals

Right:
1. Magnetic three piece animal puzzle
2. Magnetic ABC book (M&D)
3. Poker chips and raisin can

And the winner of the week is...........

 Every time I watch her little hands at work, I am giddy with joy :)

She was also into the 'letter box'

She will open one, take out some letters, examine, replace them and close.

 

 The tray for one-to-one correspondence.

She did well considering her attention span

It was great for sensory too.

Tiger saw a video of his ice cream shop in my phone and....

.........here we go again.

Can I be cheap and pretend this is Lil Dragon's first sensory box?

I was kacau-ing her with the pom-poms when the brother decided to copy cat.

We showed Lil Dragon

soft, big, small, red, blue, pink, many, few, in, out, scoop, etc

She was excellent at pour and throw

When she is doing it free style, it's messier :)

 

Maria Montessori would not be pleased with Tiger's extension of the broad stairs

She is also obsessed with my phone.

She swipes her fingers like an expert while looking for songs and videos.

 

During the weekend, she yelled and screamed to join us outdoors.

She is a very giving child but somehow they always end up slapping each other.

Occasionally, they play nice.

Cute, kan?

The teeny dimples and cheeky smile drives me nuts.

Oooh, the trays that I did not photograph, she ignored.

Tiger played with them instead.

So it was not a total waste of my time

Montessori: Tongs and Sweeping

I have yet to purchase any real Montessori materials.

At least not until Tiger is three years old.

I would like to use beautiful, natural materials for Tiger to appreciate the

beauty of his belongings but in life, you cannot have everything, right?

So, most of our materials are plastic and sourced from around the house.

As long as he gets the concept, it is fine with me.

For example, he would insist on having a mat to present his materials.

I usually do the rolling/unrolling.

On this particular day, he did not want the mat, which is fine with me.

I am not crazy/OCD (repeat 10x)

 So, I just presented some porcupine balls, a pair of tongs and a bowl to him.

After a short demonstration, he proceeded with the activity happily.

It is always surprising to me when he finds joy in the simplest activity.

Some simple sweeping activity with a small broom and dustpan.

He kept asking for more, so I made it more challenging with small pom poms.

Also, he had to use his left hand.

Combining my two fav learning methods :)

This simple activities keep him occupied and focused for the longest time.

 FYI, he does not find cartoon entertaining at all. I do *grin*

Educational songs on Youtube, yes.

Educational apps, yes.

Oppa Gangnam Style video, YES!

^.^

He definitely caught the Oppa Bug.

Fine Motor: Tweezing

Once a upon a time, we had a lot of sensory bins.

I was itching to make one for Tiger.

With money and time saving strategy in mind,

I recycled materials from his first sensory bin, The Dinosaur Bin.

Materials:

Miniature dinosaurs (he loves these)

Poms poms

pieces of green papers (of different materials)

Motive: Tweezing

Playing with the Ipad A LOT during the break kinda screwed up his pincer grip.

Yes, yes, guilty as charged....sigh...

So, I wasn't sure he could do this.

With a little hug and encouragement...lo and behold, my boy can tweeze!

I made it into a game by asking him to avoid touching any of the dinosaurs.

Left hand

Right hand

As part of his right/whole brain learning, I encourage him to use both hands all the time.

Kinda like Brain Gym concept at home.

During our last Ditoso class, his teacher asked if he was left handed ^.^

Tweezing pom-poms

Imaginary play with dinosaurs.

He was saying, "ROAR, bite mama!"

Yeah, well...

This was his reaction when I asked for a kiss.

I have to smother him with kisses more often!

Mini Bugs Bin

Since I am a Lazy Mama these days, most things come in mini versions. They are cuter too, like mini poodle, Mini Cooper, etc.

Also, most themes are extended two weeks cause umm....we want to have a better understanding of whatever we are doing. (Tiger would roll his eyes, if he could)

I was wasn't planning to do a bin of any sort (coz again, I am lazy) but the brat didn't want to do 'match-ze-inzect-to-ze-flashcards'. So, I had to get sleazy
I just grabbed whatever was within reach and threw it together. The kiddo was tricked and he loved it.

"Muaahahahaha..."


Here's the Bugs Bin (after Tiger attacked it, I swear it was prettier):

A just expired bag of spiral pasta & rubber bugs.

I used a small box as the usual container would require a few bags of pasta.

Besides, 1 bag is already more than enough for clean up time.

Believe me, there is a lot of cleaning up with just 1 bag.

The bin had his undivided attention for 30 minutes.

He did lots of scooping.

...and scooped till he was bored.

Then, he developed a love for pom-poms out of the blue.

When I say, "Bugs bin?"
He replied, "gibberish" and added his whining and leg stomping drama.

Of course he got what he wanted: not 1 but 2 boxes of pom-pom
He filled up the entire can, no joke...

Well, it was good practice for his pincer grip

Then he decided that Mommy needed to do some sorting and the bin was too bland.

So, graciously, he tipped the pom-poms into the bin.

Then, he looked at me with menace and did an evil laugh.

Or did I imagine it as my eyes tear up?

Then, he did some transferring before he quickly thought of more work for Mommy

 "I think I'll just scoop it across the room...Muahahahaha"

Then he stepped on them for that delicious cracking sound...

Lots of sensory fun for him and more work for lazy mommy..

Serves me right for being sluggish...

We love messy play, don't you?

When You Give The Tiger Some Pom-poms

“The child can develop fully by means of experience in his environment. We call such experiences ‘work’.”
 Maria Montessori
~~~~~~

"Allowing children as much freedom to learn in the world as their parents can comfortably bear"
John Holt (Teach Your Own) on definition of unschooling

~~~~~

'Working' It: Tiger Style


I didn't give him the pom poms, I merely consented.
It's either play along or scream fest.

I had some mild palpitations & my OCD went into overdrive with so many pom poms strewn everywhere.
Including the teeny tiny ones.

 Tried to trick gently coax the fellow into doing some spooning work but he'd rather transfer with hands.

He made some pom-pom soup and even fed Mommy some (pretend play)
Delicious :)

Ahhh....yummy. Then, he signed, "All done"

 

That's unschooling a fiesty 15 month old with a Montessorian twist


~~@@@~~

As much as I love Tiger's initiative, the fear of him choking scares me to death.
He is afterall 15 months old
So, the pom-poms have been given a new home :)

An old plastic door hanger (no nails required)

&

3 vinyl pocket holders from Daiso

These are clear at the back, so I can see what's in each pocket.

Now I can keep his knick knacks safely.

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