Wooden Knobbed Puzzles - Geography For Kids - Review

Does your child like puzzles? Here is something interesting for those little hands. Montessori inspired puzzles that cover some geography🌎! These wooden toys (knobbed puzzles) are made by artisans in India. 

I came across these wooden knobbed puzzles of India, Continents 🌎🌏& Countries of the world by Stuti Gupta (Wooden Toy Lovers) . Sharing them here for your benefit and if you would like to order these for your child, here is a benefit for all you awesome members of this community. This is a token of love for being here!


PRODUCT DETAILS

Continents puzzle - 399 Rs + shipping, A4 size

Countries of the world puzzle - 700 Rs + shipping, 46*30 cm

️India puzzle - 450 Rs +shipping, 30*30cm

HOW TO ORDER

You can order these puzzles directly by contacting Stuti Gupta on whatsapp 📲 9811987124.


DISCOUNT

Mention the discount code KJUNCTION & get an instant 👉 5% OFF on the prices mentioned above. Shipping is extra for all the puzzles.


PERSONAL REVIEW

These are nice to introduce the concept, names & shapes of the continents, countries & states of India. I do not own them because I already have another version of such puzzles since a year now. But these wooden ones are a better eco-friendly alternative. It has knobs so it also helps in pincer grip. It is sturdier as compared to foam based puzzles of the same type available in the market.

I would have preferred if the country & states shapes & sizes were more to scale but since this is just for representation purposes, it is not that big an issue. The child surely gets an idea about the stuff this puzzle intends to give. Some states in the India map will not have knobs because of their small size. So those pieces wont be detachable from the map board. This is a known limitation because of small size of the state, but needs a gentle mention in this review.

Overall, nice, engaging & educational puzzles. When not used with the puzzle board, for elder kids, the individual pieces of the puzzle can be used for tracing the countries or states shape & kids can color them.

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What Is Lunar & Solar Eclipse - DIY Model & Activity - Astronomy For Kids

With the recent rare phenomenon of Super Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse, kids have been pretty amazed with the eclipse phenomenon. This is a perfect opportunity to make a hands-on model & activity showing how exactly the solar & lunar eclipse occur. This DIY solar system model is super simple & you can make use of things at home to make it. This is a perfect Astronomy starter for kids.

Solar system models are a great way to demonstrate how an eclipse works, and can be constructed with varying complexity for all ages. By setting up the sun, moon and Earth, parents and teachers can demonstrate the phases of the moon as well as an eclipse.


Things Required

• Sphere 1 - Sponge ball or yellow smiley ball or an orange
• Sphere 2 ( smaller than sphere 1) - Ping pong ball or lemon or small thermacol ball
• Wire that can be bent easily but is stable enough. I used pipe cleaner
• Aluminium foil
• Red gelatine paper
• Stack of books or an elevated platform
• Something to put the sponge ball on, I used a diya lying around at home
• Torch

How to Setup

• Sphere 1 represents the earth & sphere 2 represents the moon. I used a sponge globe for sphere 1 and a small thermacol ball for sphere 2.
• Wrap aluminium foil over sphere 2 so that it reflects light falling on it in a better way. Moon reflects the light falling on it. This step is optional though.
• Pierce a little hole & insert the wire (I used pipe cleaner) into the earth, bend it at right angle, then again bend it at right angle & then insert it into the moon. Align the wire such that earth & moon are in front of each other with their equators aligned horizontally. Refer the picture for clarity.
• Place the earth on a stand, I used a diya
• Take a stack of books or an elevated platform (I used a small stool) & put a torch on it. Torch represents the sun. Adjust the height of the book stack such that the torch light falls at the equator of the earth.
• Switch off the lights of the room & switch on the torch.

• With this setup, you can explain first how the earth goes round the sun by moving the earth manually. 
• You can also explain rotation of earth & tell how days & nights happen when sunlight falls on a specific part of the earth. 
• Now by taking the moon round the earth, you can how how differently the moon shines at different alignments because of the angle at which sunlight is falling on it. You can explain moon phases with this setup. 
• Now to explain lunar eclipse, you can align sun, earth & moon in a line respectively. Of course you have to revise your own concepts first before you start explaining verbally about this setup, kids have deep strange questions!

• In a similar way, you can explain the solar eclipse as well.
• To show the blood moon in some sense, you can take red gelatine paper and put it in front of the torch. However this is not the real explanation of blood moon. It occurs because earth’s atmosphere absorbs all the colours in the spectrum instead of red & hence very little percentage of sun’s rays (in red spectrum) reach the moon during eclipse & it appears to be red.

Hope you liked this simple to set up activity to explain earth’s rotation & revolution, moon’s revolution, moon’s phases, lunar & solar eclipses.

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Solar System - Sun, Planets & Orbits - Hands-On Activity For Kids (VLOG)

Watch this simple setup & a hands-on activity on solar system & see how I gave a simple lesson on planets, their sizes, positions & orbits to my almost 3 year old son.

We talked about the sizes of the planets, arranged them according to their sizes & then made orbits using colored wooden blocks, one orbit of one color, then arranged the planets according to their positions round the sun, we also learnt why mercury is the hottest & Neptune is the coldest of all the planets because of their relative positions from the sun.

Watch this video below to know about our impromptu setup.

Book that my son loves & that is mentioned in the video about solar system is - The Party In The Sky.

Source of the wooden cutouts of the solar system - Mumma Diaries.

What activities have you done to introduce solar system to your kids?

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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!

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Virtual Tour Of Montessori House Of Children (Preschool/Classroom) (VLOG)

Tour Of Montessori - Free Video Series

See for yourself what an authentic Montessori classroom looks like. We will give you a complete overview & a guided virtual tour of a typical classroom in a Montessori House Of Children (for children of age 2 - 6 years - preschool age). The K Junction & Benmont Montessori (Pune, India) have come together to create this one of a kind FREE 5 part video series that will give you an insight into all the Montessori materials used in different areas of learning like - sensorial, practical life, maths, language and culture. You can treat this as a Montessori 101 course for your toddler's learning supplies needs!

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The entire video series is FREE! 

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Just sign up HERE now & get these exclusive videos right into your mailbox! 

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• Are you a parent contemplating to enroll your toddler in a Montessori School?
• Are you a confused parent who is researching an authentic Montessori School but unable to decide which one actually is because there are so many so-called called Montessori School these days?
• Are you a parent who is homeschooling or contemplating to homeschool your toddler according to Montessori philosophy and wondering where to start or what to do next or what materials to get and what do those Montessori materials are meant for?
• Are you an Early childhood educator or a preschool or daycare owner or a teacher who wants to know more about Montessori and wants to incorporate the philosophy in some sense in your school?
• Are you a Montessori trained directress and or looking to set up your own school?

Then you are at the right place!

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The K Junction has teamed up with Benmont Montessori, an authentic Montessori House Of Children in Pune (India), to bring to you this awesome super informative & one of a kind series of videos called the tour of a Montessori House of Children. 

You can check out the teaser videos of all the areas before signing up if you wish so! 

• Practical Life Area Tour - Teaser
• Sensorial Area Tour - Teaser
• Language Area Tour - Teaser
• Math Area Tour - Teaser
• Culture Tour - Teaser

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Sign Up HERE right away & watch our 5 FREE comprehensive tour videos!

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You can follow BENMONT MONTESSORI on Facebook & Instagram.

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!

Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!

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Caution - What Books Can Do To Your Toddlers - Book Recommendation

Effects of vigorous book reading sessions as per my son's demands!

My 2 year old son 'A', playing with his local train miniature and telling me -

A : mumma jab delhi jaayenge to local train me baithenge (when we go to delhi, we will go in local train)

Me : mumbai has local train like this you have in your hand, delhi has metro train. We will go in metro train when we go to delhi

A : ok...mumma bangalore me kaunsi train hai? (Which train is there in Bangalore?)

:O

PS - He is a big fan, rather an addict of mumbai book, absolutely adores delhi book and we just started reading bangalore book day before yesterday. This book series from Funokplease publishers is a must have for kids!

Geography has a new meaning in our house ;)

Happy reading aloud & happy parenting :)

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How To Introduce Continents Of The World To Kids - Geography (VLOG)

Are you looking to introduce some geography to your toddlers? Check out this wonderful world map foam puzzle where your kid can learn about continents in a hands-on, Montessori inspired & play way method. 

We started this puzzle as a pattern matching & visual discrimination activity. He continued to ask what is what, and that is how he learnt the names of the seven continents. The emphasis here is not on memorization of continent names. It is easy at this stage when the child is imitating & reproducing anything exposed to them. It can be an item song or a nursery rhyme or continent names. But this serves as a starter for introducing geography to kids - world, continents, countries etc. My son is 23 months in this video.

I supplemented this activity with the following storyline for my toddler -

We live in our house. And our house is in a society named XYZ. He knows this for a fact. Then I extended this concept from known to unknown - what he knows is house & society. I told him there are so many societies like ours in our area & the area's name is ABC. Similarly there are so many such areas in a city & we live in Pune city. I expanded this concept till the level of continents & world.

It is still kind of abstract for him but I am guessing he will get the concept soon. Also, he had been asking a lot these days, where did that uncle aunty come from, where do they live, I want to go there, we will go by car, train etc etc. So I picked up these cues by him to expand more on this concept.

I got this foam puzzle from a facebook page called Creative Express. They have many more exciting products in their store. You can avail an exclusive 15% discount on all of their products. Just mention this discount code while placing an order with them - RPP0107

Check out our SHOP & OFFERS page to find exclusive discounts on many more educational products & kids books.

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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!

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Learning Through Multiple Senses - A Delightfully Shocking Example

I'm delightfully shocked!

We had played with this world map foam puzzle (got it from Creative Express) when he was may be 17 or 18 months old. This was after a lot of simple matching activities that he showed interest in & did beautifully starting from 13 months. He would ask what every piece is & I used to tell him names of the continents. That was it. He had not even started speaking words back then.

Never did I show him a globe. Or any kind of spherical manifestation of the world map.

He turns 20 months today.

Today he was playing with this inflatable ball, he threw it on the floor, Australia faced him, he bent over the ball & with a eureka expression, he said 'Australia Australia'!

And I was shocked, literally!

It's not about teaching continents at this age. I know it will be rote learning. Neither am I interested in memorizing him names of the continents.

I am amazed, how a hands-on learning approach is so powerful. How a child learns & absorbs if more than one sense is involved. How a child can map a flat surface shape to the same shape on a sphere. How they make so awesome connections in their brains.

This is the reason why I love miniatures & figurines too.

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