January 31st is Backward Day ~ a day to do everything backwards! You can try reading backwards, eating your meal starting with a dessert, walking backwards, talking backward, or playing a game backwards: from the finish line to the start. Your imagination is the limit! To commemorate the day, Adrian,... Read more →
To conclude our Chinese New Year celebration, Julia and Adrian decided to have a tea party. China is notable for its 🍵 green tea, and Julia remembered from the presentation at her school (read a post here), that China (along with Hong Kong, Korea and Macau) get three days of... Read more →
January 29th is National Puzzle Day! Whether it is a jigsaw, crossword, word searches, brain teasers or Soduku (a number puzzle which is the most recent puzzle rage), puzzles put our minds to work! They range from easy to hard, satisfying the need of every person and every skill level.... Read more →
Happy🎊 Lunar New Year of a Rooster! Rooster 🐓 is smart, independent and full of energy! Wishing everyone fortune and good luck! Every 12 years (i.e. 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, and 2029) there is a Rooster year, beginning at Chinese New Year. In Chinese astrology, each... Read more →
Today, January 27th, is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthday! Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. He wrote over 600 pieces of classical music from the classical period. He started composing music very young: at the age of five! By the time he was six,... Read more →
The Year 2017 is the Year of a Rooster, according to Chinese zodiac cycle. The new year begins on January 28, 2017 and will last until February 15, 2018. (Guided by the lunisolar Chinese calendar, the date changes from year to year.) Today, Julia had a beautiful celebration at her... Read more →
The predominant difference between the two polar regions (North and South) is that Antartica, or the South Pole region, is a continent covered with an immense ice shelf, where is the massive ice cap of the Arctic at the North Pole lies on the Arctic Ocean. Julia confuses the two... Read more →
In continuing our unit study on polar ❄️️ regions of the 🌏 Earth, Adrian is matching Polar Animals cards. In the process, he is learning the names of the 🐋🐇🐧 animals, while practicing recognizing written words, and matching labels and a picture to an object. Below is a 📽️video of... Read more →
In continuing our ❄️Polar 🌎Regions Unit Study, Adrian put together the Parts of a Penguin Puzzle (buy here), which is a true Montessori puzzle: simplewith an aesthetically pleasing wooden design, while teaching a child parts of the animal. Puzzles are good not only for your child’s mind and cognitive development,... Read more →
Julia is obsessed with these Optical Illusions activity cards (buy here). She uses them during car rides, and she even takes them to school to show her friends. These cards feature mind-bending illusions to surely surprise your child. They are taken from a personal collection of Al Seckel, who is... Read more →
Adrian has been writing in his workbook almost daily (buy here), and he has completed all the straight-line letters, so we will be moving onto the curved ones, like C, G, S, which are much harder. Adrian loves the Humpback Whale (buy here). He is also using the Blue Whale... Read more →
I wrote about BRIO Toys in details here, and how it has been one of Adrian's favorite toys ever since he was two years old. BRIO has never stopped captivating him; always calling to explore, build, create, and bring new BRIO Cities to life! Today, we have another creation! At... Read more →
What is inside of our Winter Poetry Basket? I like the idea of having a little basket (well, a box in our case) with a themed activity. Today, it is a box with poetry readings, where I would also add anything that might go along with a poem, and some... Read more →
We celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by remembering that we shall never stop dreaming! Especially dreaming about world peace, about all people being respected and treated equally, about a day when we will all tolerate each other's differences, knowing that it is our differences that make us unique individuals:... Read more →
Research suggests that music 🎶 has direct impact on helping young children develop literacy skills. And what about learning 📜 poetry? Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that: “If children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best... Read more →
Today, we are exploring letter "L". Although Adrian (3 years old), knows all his letters, I am a big believer in practice and repetition. Even if a child knows all his ABCs, s/he will inevitably forget them in the absence of implementation and application of what the child has learned.... Read more →
Today, we are continuing our work with Montessori metal insets (buy here ). For this presentation, I use a regular wooden tray with handles (buy here). (Alternatively, you can purchase a tray specifically designed for Montessori metal insets here.) You will also need paper sized about 5.5” x 5.5" and... Read more →
My children are captivated by🌨snow! So, to explore our natural affection, we are learning about mysteries of fascinating snowflakes by reading about them and by exploring the subject hands-on through snowflake crafts. First, we observe and admire. Then we read ... The Secret Life of a Snowflake book (buy here)... Read more →
Today, we are learning about 🌋volcanoes and the science behind its eruption, by conduction a volcano eruption experiment: both 🏡indoors or ☃️outdoors! First, we learned about volcanoes by reading Flip The Flaps: Planet Earth book (buy here). Children loved how the flaps open while revealing interesting facts such as "Are... Read more →
One of the central tenants of Montessori philosophy is the connection of children with nature. Maria Montessori placed a great emphasis on nature and nature education. "Children are inherently connected to nature and fascinated by living things; there is a significant body of research discussing the benefits of children interacting... Read more →