Pre-Writing skills are needed before any letter formation or other handwriting skills are mastered. The little muscles of toddlers & preschoolers are first prepared by involving them in lot of fine motor activities before any formal writing work. Tracing is one of the popular prewriting activity & I am sharing one of the many methods of tracing here - tracing on the blackboard using a wet paint brush. Read on & watch the video to know the why & how of this technique. This was completely child-led in my case.
This is my 33 month old son doing tracing work on the DIY chalkboard wall using a wet paint brush. Listen to the audio in this video below where I talk more about the how & why of this tracing technique. This was in response to his repeated comments - mumma I dont know how to read & write, please teach me! And this is because we read a LOT of bookseveryday. I never planned to introduce tracing activity to him this early but since this was completely lead by him, I went with the flow.
Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Kids learn the most by experiences & experiments. And it is best to answer their day to day questions by relevant activities whenever possible. Read to know how I answered my toddler's bunch of questions about rain during the rainy season. In this simple DIY science experiment (STEM), he understood why does it rain. Let us honor & fuel the curiosity of these little ones!
Watch the video below to see my 27 month old son doing a simple science experiment to understand why does it rain. This was in response to his tons of questions about rain during the rainy season! This is a super sensory fun exercise & a hands-on science experiment - STEM for kids.
You can find the entire playlist of our STEM activities HERE & I will keep populating the playlist when I add a new STEM video! And do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you never miss a new video.
Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is The Magic Umbrellas!Read on this full book review.
Book: The Magic Umbrellas Author: Theertha Raj Illustrations: Nancy Raj Publisher: MsMoochie books Recommendation: Strong Age: 3+ years Story
A little girl Leela's umbrellas keep getting lost. First day of school, she loses her first one, no one has a clue, on second day second one, but someone sees it, flying out of the window, third day third one goes 'whoosh' and everybody sees it flying out. Where are they going? Leela's mother decides to follow the forth one!
The suspense is built and unfolded in each passing day. We are kept glued till the end.
What I Liked
Suspense: I liked the 'Suspense' angle. I like children stories that try to incorporate suspense or investigation theories with very simple stories. And more so, I loved the ending, the suspense ends with a strong message.
Illustrations: detailing in illustrations like mess of classroom in the break time, vapor evaporating from hot cutting tea, umbrella designs is wonderful.
Green highlighted text: the story uses two fonts, one - normal and second - highlighted bold and bigger green fonts, these bigger fonts tell you all about the umbrellas.
Our Experience
Let me tell you about a couple of questions asked by my kid and answers given by me after 3rd reading of this book.
Q: mom how can Apoopa be young here (see the pic above) A: Oh! this coconut incident happened when he was young, so...
Q: what's pillion? A: back seat of a scooter
Q: How can author and illustrator both be 'Raj' A: just a coincidence Q: what's a coincidence? A: ...and i explained
I am sure each book and each story has a plethora of opportunities to talk, discuss and derive at learning and values we seek out in life.
Go ahead and enjoy this umbrella unfolding its magic!
Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories
This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.
Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is One Fish Two Fish by Dr Seuss!Read on this full book review.
Book: One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Author: Dr. Seuss Concept: Math and Phonics
About
It's no story book. It is just a book with funny phonetic sentences and funnier illustrations. It is more or less a funny 'Math' concept book. It touches upon all the basic Math concepts like colours, numbers, distance, speed, height, sizes and opposites in the simplest and funniest and rhyming way we can ever imagine.
You can read this book or you can sing. It will give your kid's imaginations little furry wings and keep your funny bones tickling!
For instance, Red fish, Blue fish, one fish, two fish, fat fish, thin fish, old fish, young fish. Some are fast and some are slow. Some are high and some are low.
Phonetic rhyming words like Run-fun-Sun. Bump-Wump-hump-gump. Here-there-everywhere. Dear-hear-near-ear-fear. Old-gold-hold-cold. so on and on the book goes on for 62 pages without beginning without end. Well, because fun is not supposed to end!
Our Experience
Needless to mention, we had tons of fun laughing out loud, singing and reading this book together. And I must caution you, you will not reach to the last page so easily while reading it to your little ones, as he/she will turn back pages and say Mumma! please read this again! uff! AGAIN!
Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories
This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.
Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is Tiddler - The Storytelling Fish!Read on this full book review.
Book: Tiddler - The Story-Telling Fish Author: Julia Donaldson Publisher: Scholastic Age: 2-4 years Recommendation: Strong
About
Tiddler is a fish. He likes to make up stories. He makes up stories of how he got late for school (which he does every day). So no one believes him when he says I got late because I met up with a mermaid or got caught in the net and so on.
But what will happen when he really gets lost and doesn't reach school on time? Will his stories help him? Is there anyone who believes in him?
Best part: of the story is this jingle that gets repeated 'Tiddler is telling a story, Tiddler is telling a story ..... ' kids would love to hear this little song and would literally sway with you if you do.
It's a very relate-able story by all kids who often times makes up stories of their day to day encounters with friends, teachers, etc. At the same time, the book may be used as an opportunity to discuss pros and cons of making up stories.
Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories
This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.
Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is Fun With Alphabet Stories!Read on this full book review.
Concept: Alphabet Stories Book: Fun with Alphabet Stories (Set of 6 books) Publisher: Navneet Publications (India) Ltd. Age: 1.5+ years Recommendation: Strong
Concept
Alphabet stories are conceptualized to focus on the derived learning it imparts, of words beginning with a particular alphabet. For instance Story of letter 'A', 'B' and so on till letter 'Z'. So there are always 26 stories. These stories can be designed in a progressive way to suit the audience from toddlers to kids age 11-12 years.
Primarily, each Story has many words beginning with that particular alphabet.
The ones designed for toddlers are very, very simple stories packed with as many simple words of that alphabet as feasible.
This is the best way to enhance a kid's vocabulary without fussing about it.
About The Set
There are many books available in the market based on the concept. But this set by Navneet is my absolute favorite.
Divided into 6 six books, there are of course 26 stories. Let's look at one of the stories. Story of Letter 'G' for instance:
Geeta Gorilla guards a Guava garden in Gauhati. Through the gaps in the wall, goats get into the garden to eat the guavas. "Eat some garlic and blast the goats with your breath," Ganju the goose suggests. Geeta eats lots of garlic. She blows her garlic breath. the goats gag and hurry away. Geeta is garlanded as the best guard in Gauhati. "Thank you, Ganju," Geeta says gratefully.
Just 8 simple sentences, telling a proper story (the story has a problem and its logical resolution too), packing as many as 14 different 'G' letter words, including 3 proper nouns and 7 common nouns is an achievement in itself.
Don't you think?
Our Experience
I picked up this set when my child was just one year old. Like most of my books, I didn't pick it up for teaching anything. I picked up because, I wanted books with silly simple small stories to be read to a one year old. What followed was beyond my guess. Kid loved all the stories no ends. I had no choice but to follow 3 steps 1) read out 2) re-tell 3) repeat!
My Recommendation
Buy the set, start with Story of letter A, sit on the story for as long as child wants you to, read, tell, repeat! Move on to Story of letter 'B' when your child tells you to.
You may also want to check out my video review of this set in this video below. It also includes a read-aloud of story of letter 'F' for reference.
Even though I recommend these books for 1.5 years onward, I have successfully done storytelling of these stories with much older kids too.
Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories
This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.
Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Wondering which books to read to your child? Welcome to this wonderful 10 weeks long project of #MondayMorningReviews where Shital Choudhary, a passionate storyteller & a mom herself, shares children's book reviews every Monday! The age group for these books is 0-4 years. This review series will help you choose the best books for your baby / toddler / preschooler / kindergartener. This week's pick is Clumsy!Read on this full book review.
Book: Clumsy! Author: Ken Spillman Illustrator: Manjari Chakravarti Publisher: Tulika Publishers Age Group: 2+ years Recommendation: Strong
About The Book:
Disability is not always physically glaring, sometimes it's more like inability to do things the way it's expected. The book tells a tale of a girl who lacks heavily in what we call 'motor skills', yes! And how she is been treated by all around her on this point alone.
Family, friends, teachers call her names; Some call her 'Clumsy', some 'Butterfingers', some 'Slowcoach', some 'Messy' and what not!
One day, her grandmother gives her a paintbox. She loves to paint. In her imagination she is not clumsy, not butterfingers, not messy. She loves to draw and paint her imagination. She also signs off her painting with a name, that's not Clumsy or butterfingers or messy or slowcoach, but with her real name. Because she has one just like all of us.
The beauty of the story is the message hidden in it. Let's accept all inabilities around us instead of shaming! Let's focus on abilities a person possesses rather than not.
I some times wonder... forget about kids, aren't we adults clumsy at times? It is the time to accept.
Shital Choudhary is a passionate storyteller (a Kathalaya Alumina) and a mom to a 6 year old. Apart from power of stories in teaching concepts and values, she believes that stories can come at your rescue absolutely at any situation in your parenting journey. You can reach out to her at storywayschool [AT] gmail.com. She documents her book reviews, recommendations and reading out experiences at her Facebook page - Children's Book Reviews & Stories
This book review is a part of 10 week long project #MondayMorningReviews which is going on in our Facebook Group. Join in the tribe of involved & conscious parents HERE now! You can find ALL the book reviews under this project HERE.
Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Practical Life Activities are of great importance in Montessori philosophy, specially for young children of 2 - 6 years. We love practical life activities in our home. My toddler is always ready to help me in the kitchen & other household chores. Read on to know what is practical life activity & its importance in early life.
What is Practical Life & Practical Life Activities In A Montessori Environment For Toddlers?
Practical : means basic, useful, purposeful
Life : means the way of living
Practical life exercises are exercises for the child to learn how to do daily routine chores & activities in a purposeful way.
Children, specially toddlers & kindergartners are naturally interested in daily chores. Hence, Dr. Montessori began to use practical life exercises to allow the child to do activities of daily life & therefore adjust himself in his culture & society.
All the materials & supplies of practical life activities should be real, familiar to the child, breakable (if applicable) & functional.
Involving you child in the kitchen is a great practical life activity!
Are you trying to find a way to peacefully cook and also engage your toddler constructively without iPads, TV and screens?
Involve your toddler in the kitchen! It's a great fine motor skill and teaches them life skills. This indirectly also helps in preparing those little fingers for writing, a great pre-writing activity.
We are a great fan of practical life activities and my son loves them.
Watch my 32 month old son making idlis out of the batter.
Benefits & Importance Of Practical Life Activities In Montessori
The practical life exercises are a beginning point in the Montessori environment. They help the child in his whole development - physical, mental and moral.
To develop the child's concentration
To develop fine and gross motor skills
To help children towards independence
To establish order
To develop a good self-esteem
To appreciate and understand the limits of his environment
To develop a sense of responsibility
To aid the child in his construction
To appreciate culture
Read more about practical life activities in Montessori HERE.
Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Montessori Colour Tablets are sensorial materials found in the Montessori 3-6 years classroom. They assist with visual discrimination and perception of colours. They come in three boxes - 1, 2 & 3. Today I have a guest blogger with me - Devi Sekaran, a mom who is passionate about Montessori & does a lot of Montessori inspired works with her kids. Read on to see her kids' experience & extension works with Montessori color box 3, a standard Montessori material used for color gradation. At the end, I will also share an alternative educational material for color gradation & how you can make your own DIY Montessori color tablets using free printables.
Dr. Maria Montessori believed that every child’s sensorial experiences begin when the child is born. And over the years, she created many sensorial materials that covers the five senses: tactile, visual, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory senses. She believed that children should be given as much sensorial experiences as possible. All the materials in a Montessori classroom are carefully designed to incorporate ‘Control of Error’ and to ‘Isolate the Quality’ in order to develop a child’s sense to understand the environment around him or her.
One of my favourite sensorial materials is the Colour Box 3 which is used to develop a child’s visual sense. In a 3-6 Montessori Classroom, a child is introduced to Colour Box 1, then Colour Box 2 and finally Colour Box 3. In our home, we do not have Colour Box 1 and 2 but we do have Colour Box 3 and it has been an amazing addition to our shelf. This material is great for visual discrimination and other extensions involving language and mathematics.
Both my daughters have been introduced to Colour Box 3 in their schools while we use the Colour Box 3 at home to do other extension works. Check out the pictures below on how we use it in our home.
Here my daughter (4 year old) is using the Colour Box 3 and the DIY continent images. She matched the continent images to the colour tablets and continued with grading.
Here, my daughter (5+ years) used the Colour Box 3 and Colour Resemblance Pegs to do colour sorting and as an extension we did skip counting and x7.
Using the Colour Box 3 and Colour Resemblance Pegs, my daughter (5+ years) created this beautiful spiral pattern.
You can read more about Montessori Colour Box 3 HERE.
You can also DIY these color tablets if this sounds expensive to you to buy. HERE is a great DIY tutorial for color box 3. You can download the free printable of color box 3 from HERE.
Happy Montessori-ing!!!
~ DEVI SEKARAN
(The above images belong to Devi Sekaran and should not use for commercial purposes) Thanks a lot Devi for sharing your wonderful experience & extension exercises with the color box 3. Lots of love to your kids!
Devi Sekaran is a stay at home mom of 3 kids trying to make each day fun with playing, baking & learning with Montessori! You can follow her on Instagram, her handle is @minehisandours. She shares some amazing Montessori inspired activities, DIYs & her food adventures regularly!
If you have something to share with the world in the domain of early learning or parenting & wish to contribute to this blog, please do get in touch with me HERE.
I love Montessori color box 3 as well & I have a variation of this material from Skola Toys which is called Skola Color Wheels.
You can check out my review of Skola Color Wheels in this video below. It is a great hands on way to practice color gradation. And do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more such reviews, Montessori & Waldorf inspired hands-on activities, and much more!
Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
Are you looking for an open-ended toy for your child which will grow with the child, keep him engaged for longer, enhance his creativity, imagination, spatial intelligence, dexterity & fine motor skills? Then Rainbow Roofs from Skola Toys is the right answer for you because it can entertain & engage your child right from when he is a toddler to a preschooler to a kindergartner to primary school. Read on to know in how many different & creative ways you can play with these stackers!
About Skola Rainbow Roofs
Stack, nest and arrange rainbow coloured roof shapes in various ways.
Skola Rainbow Roofs
Children explore the magic of creating different forms with this toy - a train, a sofa or a building! They like to share this toy with friends and enjoy trying to balance the uneven shapes.
Nesting the pieces in this toy helps in developing fine motor skills at a very young age. Stacking the individual pieces makes children dexterous and hones balancing skills. Playing with the toy enhances their awareness of colours in a concrete manner and various name games hone children's memory skills. Children also gain knowledge about the rainbow in the form of VIBGYOR.
As children start to develop focus and eye-hand coordination, they can move on to using both hands simultaneously to carry out actions or manipulate objects
Rainbow Roofs are perfect for hours & hours of open-ended & free play! This is a variation of the standard Waldorf/Steiner rainbow stacker which is widely sold by Grimm's. This is the Indian answer to Grimm's rainbow stacker and it is far cheaper than Grimm's, did you see Grimm's price tag? ;)
Having said that, the quality of the wood & the finish of the toy is not at compromising. It is made of high quality wood & the paints are non-toxic.
How To Play With Skola Rainbow Roofs
Watch this video to know how you can play in tons of different ways with the Skola Rainbow Roofs. I am sure you will get lots of ideas to include in your free play sessions.
You might want to read more articles & reviews of other Skola toys that we have HERE. Each one of them is very wisely designed & is a treasure!
Verdict
We love open-ended toys & this one was in my wishlist for long & I could finally lay hands on it & we are absolutely loving it! We make so many different patterns & designs out of it, some of them I have shared in the video above. There is no limit to the possibilities how you can play with this toy, it is only limited by your & your child's imagination. I would highly recommend this toy! #PlayItRight
I hope this post was useful for you. I would love to see how you play with your rainbow stackers in the comments below or on my social media profiles. Feel free to drop relevant links in the comments where I can happily see your ideas to use rainbow stackers!
Disclaimer : This is a sponsored post but the views shared are honest and solely mine. I believe in using the products myself before putting up the review or opinion about them here.
Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!
