The K Junction: 3 Years

Showing posts with label 3 Years. Show all posts

May 22, 2018

How To Make Handmade Paper From Recycled Scraps With Kids - DIY Tutorial

how to make handmade paper at home with kids diy recycling waldorf inspired project tutorial

Here is an easy tutorial on how to make handmade paper at home with your kids using recycled paper scraps. I did this Waldorf inspired activity with my 3 year old son after we visited handmade paper factory as a part of our homeschool co-op field trip last week. Making paper is magical, therapeutic & its super simple too!

We had visited hand made paper factory recently and since summers are here in India, I thought it is a great time to make hand made paper at home with my 3 year old son. I had been meaning to do this for a long time & for this project, I had also collected old paper bills, scrap papers, left over paper cutouts while making Montessori inspired printable activities etc. They all came in handy while making this handmade paper. And not to mention, my boy was super excited to replicate at home what we had seen in the handmade paper factory recently.

WHAT YOU NEED

Recycled wastepaper (I used old paper bills, scrap papers, paper cut outs from craft sessions, my son's old scribbled papers)
Blender / mixer
Big large utensils
Water
Wide kitchen sieve
Rag clothes
Towel
Flower petals, food colors, thread cuttings (optional)
SUN (lol)

PROCESS

Me & my son tore the scrap papers into small pieces & put them into warm water & left them to soak for 30 minutes while we had our lunch. You see these big utensils that contain soaked papers.

Then I blended the soaked papers and formed a nice pulp out of it.

His friends also joined in & then the kids took the pulp & placed it into the circular kitchen sieve that I had. I use that sieve for flour to make chapatis. They put one layer of pulp on to the sieve & pressed it to make it uniform - neither too thick nor too thin. Putting a container beneath the sieve works well to contain all the draining water.

Now the task is to keep squeezing out water from this sieve. Before that we put in some flower petals on the the pulp to make it beautiful. See those orange petals in the pic? This step is optional. And you can also put in seeds in the paper at this step so that when this paper is discarded & thrown in the soil, something grows out of it. We also put in some thread cuttings into the paper to give it another look.

We used a rag cloth to press the sieve so that more & more water squeezes out of the pulp & the grains/fibres of the paper inside the pulp start to attach to each other & take a form of paper all set together.

My son again pressed the pulp in the sieve kept on old newspaper so that it absorbs water from both the sides.

Finally when we felt that the water is squeezed out pretty nicely from the pulp & the paper which is in the making is binding nicely (basically the fibres), I inverted the sieve & the wet paper landed up on the towel like this. It was an awesome moment to put down our first paper on the towel with no cracks at all.

And slowly we had a bunch of papers ready to be sun dried! We ended up putting food colors in some papers, that is the reason you see greenish paper in the picture below.

And the next day, our handmade papers were all ready!!! They looked gorgeous to us!!! Don't they?

Handmade papers also make beautiful gifts & keepsakes!

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 & Waldorf inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

How To Teach Even & Odd Numbers Using Counters - Montessori Math

$montessori maths counters cards even odd numbers kids k junction$

Check out this simple DIY Montessori Math exercise to explain & teach the concept of even & odd numbers to children. Indirectly it also prepares the child for divisibility of numbers.

If you have been following this blog closely, I has posted about the work with Montessori beads done by my 3 year old son. If not, then you can click right HERE to check that in detail. That exercise was basically to associate digits to the quantities. Quantification is very important to understand.

He has been practicing that for long now so I thought it is a good time to expose him to the concept of even & odd numbers. For that I took out my versatile wooden digit counters from the below set & Montessori beads.

If you do not have wooden digit counters, you can easily make paper cards and write digits on them by hand.

Then I asked him to arrange the beads in the correct fashion. And he did it quite nicely & confidently. Check out in my Instagram video where he is counting & arranging the beads. It is hilarious!

This is how our practice session with Montessori beads looked like yesterday :) hilarious! #thekjunction #montessoritoddler #Montessori #montessorimaths #math #montessoriathome #montessoribeads #homeschool #homeschooling #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #earlychildhoodeducator #mommyblogger #3years

A post shared by Kuhoo Gupta (The K Junction) (@kuhoogupta) on May 17, 2018 at 12:20pm PDT

After that I asked him to place the walnut shells in pairs below each digit as per their quantities. Walnut shells make great counters, right?

And then I told him a quick story. Those which are in pairs have friends to play with and they are called even numbers. Those which have one shell left alone are always looking for a friend to play with, they are called odd numbers.

And this little story gave him a good grasp of the concept! Listen to his answers in my Instagram video below when I asked him whether this number is odd or even for couple of numbers!

After practicing the Montessori bead work for quite some time, I introduced the concept of even and odd to him. Walnut shells make brilliant counters, no? I asked him to count the shells and arrange them in pairs. And then I explained him that those which are in pairs have friends to play with and they are called even numbers. Those which have one shell left alone are always looking for a friend to play with, they are called odd numbers. And this little story have him a good grasp of the concept. Listen to his answers in the video :) #thekjunction #montessoritoddler #Montessori #montessorimaths #math #montessoriathome #montessoribeads #homeschool #homeschooling #earlylearning #earlychildhoodeducation #earlychildhoodeducator #mommyblogger #3years

A post shared by Kuhoo Gupta (The K Junction) (@kuhoogupta) on May 17, 2018 at 6:33am PDT

Purpose Of This Exercise

Direct

To reinforce the knowledge that each number is made up of separate quantities.
To indicate the odd and even numbers

Indirect

To prepare for the divisibility of numbers

You can see the exact presentation of this Montessori exercise HERE.

Which Math exercise/activity have you done with your child recently? Share your blog post in comments below, I would love to see & get some inspiration.

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

Painting Space Nebula Using Soft Pastels - Art Tutorial For Kids

Ever wondered to introduce a new art medium to your kids other than crayons, water colors, acrylics etc? Here is a quick tutorial on painting a Nebula in space using Soft Pastels for kids.

We do a lot of arts in our Homeschool! We have a Montessori Inspired arts corner set up for my 3 year old and he is free to access any art supplies.

Related Read - What Is Open Ended Art & How To Encourage It In Toddlers.

We do unstructured as well as guided/structured art and the pics of our artworks are spread all over my phone. Not every art activity go on to this blog. You might see many art posts on my Instagram & Facebook accounts.

This is our latest guided art work using soft pastels from Kokuyo Camlin. We tried to recreate a nebula from Natgeo book of space for kids.

Here are our resources that we used in this project -

Soft Pastels, Natgeo Book of Space, Black Paper, Sponge for smudging, White Acrylic Paint, Old Tooth Brush. You can go for any of the variants of soft pastels as mentioned below. It is suggested to use a fixative spray on top of your soft pastels art work so that it remains intact.

My son chose this picture to paint.

This is our first attempt using soft pastels. We got inspiration of such artwork from @acraftedchildhood on Instagram. Thanks momma!

My 3 year old son basically used soft pastels on a black chart paper as per the colors seen in the nebula. He did couple of layers.

This is what it looked after a bunch of colors he did.

Related Read - How To Encourage Creativity Through Art.

Then he smudged the colors using sponge when done.

He again layered with red soft pastel with its entire length on to the paper to get a wider & smooth stroke.

And then he sprayed white acrylic paint to recreate stars.

Here is the final version.

How do you like it? Hubby said the painting looks better than the original image, yes he is biased because it's done by our son!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

Montessori Bead Stairs - Math Exercise For Preschoolers

Montessori Bead Stairs is a standard Montessori math material in a 3-6 years Montessori classroom (House of Children). Let us see how it is used for learning numbers & how my 3 year old boy used it.

This activity helps the child learn to associate the quantities 1 through 9 with their numerals. It also introduces the child to the material used in the Teens Beads, the Teens Board, the Short Chains, the Long Chains, Addition With Bead Bars, Subtraction With Bead Bars, and Multiplication With Bead Bars.

Material

The bead stair consists of 9 segments of wire strung with one to nine beads. Every number of beads is done in a different color: 1-red, 2-green, 3-peach, 4-yellow, 5-light blue, 6-lavender, 7-white, 8-brown, 9-dark blue. The beads should be as spherical as possible so that they are equally wide as long.

You can check out the detailed presentation of this material HERE.

Ideally the end product would look something like this & the control of error is creating the triangle.

Img Source - montessorialbum.com

But this is what my 3 year old boy did independently. We follow Montessori at home so I am not strictly concerned about the correct formation of the triangle as far as he is getting the concept right.

Material Sources

Beads

The wooden digits are from this kit

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

Waldorf Inspired Wet on Wet Water Coloring With Kids - Duck

Me & my 3 year old son did wet on wet water coloring together for some art therapy! In Waldorf philosophy of alternative education, wet on wet coloring is very popular. This is a free hand style we did together. It is Spring season right now & we are reading about nature & birds these days, so my son chose to paint a duck.

Here are some bird related books I am reading to my 3 year old these days because it's spring time and my boy has been listening to koyal and other birds these days during our nature walks. We also made a nest using twigs & weaved them into pipe cleaner few days back.

Do you have any favorite kids books related to birds? I would love to know, do share in the comments below.

Since we are reading about birds these days, my son wanted to paint a duck. So we took this page as reference and did our wet on wet painting.

Here is our humble setup.

Products Used -

The brand of water color paper we used isnt showing up online, so I am linking up a similar water color paper of another brand for your reference.

This is how we started our work on the floor.

Our work midway. Left one is my 3 year old son's work & right one is mine. It was done free hand on wet paper. I am actually happy the way my son's artwork turned out to be. It is difficult for a child to do free hand painting. Of course I was guiding him verbally how & what to make.

After the painting was dry, I outlined both the paintings using black gel pen. This is our final outcome & I am very happy about it!

Have you done wet on wet water coloring?

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

How To Make Ecofriendly Natural Homemade Holi Colors With Kids

naturally eco friendly holi colors at home

Are you looking for a super simple recipe on how to make natural ecofriendly holi colors at home this year? Check out this tutorial where I tell you how to do that with kids from your kitchen ingredients. This year, let us play Holi with natural colors & refuse synthetic toxic colors!

Holi is a festival of colors & being a North Indian, I have enjoyed this festival immensely all these years. But in the recent past, I have become more aware towards nature & I really hate to see artificial synthetic toxic colors being used to smear each other. The water & soil are being polluted in the name of the festival & our skin and bodies are prone to so many issues if we use these colors.

Last year, my son was 2 & I gave him plain simple water with a pichkari to play Holi with his friends. I also made a simple mixture of flour & turmeric to make yellow natural Holi color. This year I decided to make some more natural colors with my son.

So here are few eco friendly, natural homemade Holi Powder recipes that can be safely used for kids too.

Using Rice Flour & Food Grade Colors

Watch this video below to see my 3 year old son making his own natural Holi colors (dry Gulaal). All you need is rice flour, water & food grade colors. Instead of food grade colors, you can also use turmeric for yellow, beetroot for red & spinach for green.

You might like other fun activities me & my son are doing this Spring season here in this YouTube Playlist.

Using Real Flowers

You can sun dry rose or hibiscus for dry red color, tesu for dry saffron color, grind them & mix some flour to make the consistency nicer.

You can boil marigold flower in water for wet yellow color.

You might like this Holi song that describes the story of Holi in simple terms. Click here to watch.

Using Leaves/Vegetables

You can mix turmeric powder with any flour to make dry yellow color

You can mix heena powder with any flour to make dry green color

You can boil pieces of beetroot in water and strain the water for wet purple/maroon color

You might want to check out these simple fun activities for Holi that you can do with your kids. Click HERE to browse.

Do you have any more ideas, suggestions or recipes to make natural Holi colors? I would love to know! Please share with me in comments below.

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

Preschool Math Activity - Count The Suns - DIY Number Flash Cards

Math isn’t always fun and games...but it can be! This DIY Math game is sure to catch your preschooler's fancy & attention. Today, we are featuring a simple yet fun Math activity for preschoolers, which is powered by this wonderful educational resources website education.com. Counting is one of the most essential skills for preschoolers to acquire in preparation for kindergarten, so let us dive into a hands-on counting activity using DIY flash cards.

ACTIVITY - Count the Suns: Number Flash Cards

Want to make number skills second nature to your child? Try these cheerful, "sunny" number flash cards! As she enjoys the wonders of math, she'll also get a positive boost from these bright-looking, sun-shaped cards!

AGE GROUP

Preschoolers (2.5 Years +)

SKILLS ADDRESSED

Counting, Reading, Writing

WHAT YOU NEED

Card stock or other thick paper
Scissors
Circle-shaped template (try a large coffee can or the top of a cup)
Markers

WHAT TO DO

Ask your child to describe the shape of the sun to you. Explain that you'll be making the flash cards in the shape of a circle to look like the sun. If she can, help her trace ten separate circles onto the card stock.
Next, cut the circles out with scissors. (Most young kids need adult assistance for this step.) Allow her to try cutting on her own first. If she doesn't get the hang of it right away, simply trace extra circles.
Now, have her draw a sun shape onto the first circle card. Encourage her to be creative and make rays in different colors, or add in clouds.
Turn the card over, and help her write the number one.
Finally, repeat for each number up to ten, making the corresponding number of suns on one side, and then writing the number on the other.

After all ten cards are complete, use these sun-shaped cards to reinforce basic number concepts. Have her count the number of suns on the front of the card, and say the answer aloud. For added fun, make two sets of the cards and play a memory or matching game!

MORE ABOUT EDUCATION.COM

Education.com provides learning resources in over 20 countries and six continents. Their digital resources, tools, and learning materials are developed by educational experts to incorporate leading pedagogical practices. They are useful in any type of teaching moment and many can be used to support national education standards. Their mission is to empower parents and teachers to help their children build essential skills and excel.

Their FREE Math games are interactive drills that work on the same skills as pencil-and-paper practice: counting, numbers, shapes, and basic addition and subtraction. Filled with kooky characters that kids will love, these online math games are a kid’s math practice dream. You can find more such Math games HERE.

If you also have any activities ideas for toddlers / preschoolers / kindergarteners, then we would love to feature them on this blog! Shoot us an email using the contact form HERE along with a brief about you & your idea & we will get in touch with you soon!

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!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

Fun Learning Activity Ideas For Toddlers & Preschoolers (2 - 3 Years) At Home (VLOG)

Ask a mother, she would agree how important it is to keep young kids (toddlers & preschoolers) engaged at home, especially 2 to 3 year olds ;) With the rainy season around, it is all the more necessary to have some activities for them indoor at home to reduce screen time. Being a Montessori mom & an early learning enthusiast, I set up my son's shelf activities at least once a month. Some of them are DIY too.

Here are some ideas that you can borrow from the current shelf that I have set up for my son. He is 28 months (2.4 years) old right now & I am homeschooling him currently. Early learning has become my passion after my son was born.

Here is the video of his current shelf and I have explained all the activities in detail. This kind of set up helps to keep my son screen-free. They are fun learning activities that we all can do at home.

I usually try to cover various areas (as suggested by Montessori) when I set up the activities like fine motor, logic, practical life, sensorial, language, math, open-ended play etc. But I do not necessarily have all of them and try to follow my child's interests always. In past, I have tried to include every area in principle and then my son would not touch some of the activities at all. There are so many ideas floating around on the net, specially pinterest, that it is so easy to get overwhelmed. So it is best to stick to what you think your child would like & what would suits his skill set. Every child is different & so are their interests & skill set at a given age.

Here are few glimpses of our setup in pics, if you do not prefer a video.

Rhyming Words

Human lifecycle puzzle

Magnetic Blocks

Montessori Sensorial - Brown Stairs

Vegetable Puzzle

Pretend Play - Aeroplane Set

Eduedge Puzzle

Eduedge Puzzle 2

Pretend Play - Building A Wall With Bricks & Cement

Pretend Play - Army

Hope you liked the ideas & I hope this will help you in reducing the screen time of your child (if you are trying to do that)

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

Montessori Inspiration At Home - Practical Life Skills for Toddlers - Book Review

I get such questions often in my parenting workshops & as personal messages -

My 2/3 year old is hyper active. He does not sit at one place. What activities can I do with him?
I have very less domestic help. How can I keep my toddler occupied while I finish my daily chores?
How can I start implementing Montessori at home?
How can I increase the concentration of my toddler?
And many more such questions...

The answer is simple but rather difficult to implement. The first thing I answer to such questions is at this age, involve them in daily household chores - which in Montessori terms mean - involve your toddlers in practical life activities.

It can be as simple as pouring water from one container to another to dusting a table to bringing a glass of water to watering the plants, and so on. Many parents wonder how & what to present to the toddlers so that they will be interested. The good news is toddlers love to imitate & they love doing real work as we adults too. We just need to trust them & give them freedom within limits. Montessori practical life activities are a great way to keep them engaged & indirectly these activities help in enhancing so many more skills like fine motor, prewriting, concentration, independence, problem solving etc.

Now some announcement! :)

What do you get when four Montessori moms from different countries come together to compile their first hand Montessori practical life experiences into a book?

I got an opportunity to review this lovely book written by Amruta Ram of Mumma Diaries, Vanessa Theil of Mama’s Happy Hive, Yuliya Fruman Welcome to Mommyhood, and Isabel Arango of Uno Zwei Tutu. The ebook is titled “Montessori Inspiration at Home: Practical Life Skills- Toddler Series” and is available as an instant download in PDF format.

It has some really useful tips to involve your toddlers in real life chores, that you rarely thought they would do, rather they love to do such tasks! The book has a lot of information about how you can implement Montessori principles at home as far as practical life activities are concerned. The design & flow of the book is easy & intuitive to follow. It has real pictures of these mommas' kids' doing those activities, so it is not something only theoretical. Everything in this book is really doable by toddlers. It has step by step instructions how to present a particular activity the Montessori way and equips you with the necessary knowledge. The bonus is a lot of printables that come along with the book that you can use in other related activities. The book also has great collections & pointers to some lovely Montessori blogs, so you can easily bookmark them & start following them for your day to day Montessori needs!

Book Details

Montessori Inspiration At Home - Practical Life Skills - Toddler Series

This Montessori inspired book is a helpful resource for practical life skills for toddlers.
There are 9 chapters that include care of self, care of a pet, care of the home, polishing, cleaning, helping in the kitchen, pouring, spooning, and setting a table.
Also, included with this book is a printable bundle that matches the chapter subjects.
There are over 30 pages of printables and resource information. These printables include matching cards, step-by-step cards, 100 Practical Life Skills Check List, and more!

Extra Resources (Included)

Montessori Method FAQ
Montessori Practical Life FAQ
Printable Practical Life Activities Checklist (100 Practical Life Activities for Toddlers)
Printable Practical Life Materials Checklist
Montessori Books and Resources Checklist
Routine chore chart (visual schedule)

Verdict

For a beginner in Montessori - this ebook is a perfect choice to start implementing Montessori elements at home without getting overwhelmed by pinterest or google results. I assure you will not be lost!

For the parents who have been implementing Montessori at home already - this ebook is a good checklist resource for things they can still implement at home with proper steps & guidance. Of course, not to mention, the printables & other extra resources are fresh from the oven to be used by experienced Montessori parents as well as beginners.

You do not want to miss the special launch offer!!!

Know more about this book in this video

Do share how did you like this book :)

Happy Parenting!

P.S. I am an affiliate for this eBook. I have reviewed the contents as mentioned above and, trust me, a lot of hard work & implementation has gone behind this book. Certainly resourceful for parents who are trying to implement Montessori at home.

Menu

May 22, 2018

How To Make Handmade Paper From Recycled Scraps With Kids - DIY Tutorial

May 18, 2018

How To Teach Even & Odd Numbers Using Counters - Montessori Math

Check out this simple DIY Montessori Math exercise to explain & teach the concept of even & odd numbers to children. Indirectly it also prepares the child for divisibility of numbers.

May 15, 2018

Painting Space Nebula Using Soft Pastels - Art Tutorial For Kids

Ever wondered to introduce a new art medium to your kids other than crayons, water colors, acrylics etc? Here is a quick tutorial on painting a Nebula in space using Soft Pastels for kids.

Apr 18, 2018

Montessori Bead Stairs - Math Exercise For Preschoolers

Montessori Bead Stairs is a standard Montessori math material in a 3-6 years Montessori classroom (House of Children). Let us see how it is used for learning numbers & how my 3 year old boy used it.

Mar 26, 2018

Waldorf Inspired Wet on Wet Water Coloring With Kids - Duck

Feb 28, 2018

How To Make Ecofriendly Natural Homemade Holi Colors With Kids

Are you looking for a super simple recipe on how to make natural ecofriendly holi colors at home this year? Check out this tutorial where I tell you how to do that with kids from your kitchen ingredients. This year, let us play Holi with natural colors & refuse synthetic toxic colors!

Aug 10, 2017

Preschool Math Activity - Count The Suns - DIY Number Flash Cards

ACTIVITY - Count the Suns: Number Flash Cards

AGE GROUP

SKILLS ADDRESSED

WHAT YOU NEED

WHAT TO DO

MORE ABOUT EDUCATION.COM

Jun 30, 2017

Fun Learning Activity Ideas For Toddlers & Preschoolers (2 - 3 Years) At Home (VLOG)

May 2, 2017

Montessori Inspiration At Home - Practical Life Skills for Toddlers - Book Review

Blog Archive

I'm an IndiBlogger

FOLLOW OUR TWEETS