How To Prepare Toddlers To Write - Prewriting Skills - What, Why & How (VLOG)

How To Prepare Your Toddler To Write? Pre-writing Skills - What, Why & How? This article showcases the facebook live video I did on this topic recently as a part of my #TuesdayLive Facebook live series.

As an early childhood educator, it pains me to see queries from parents where the kids are not comfortable writing in kindergarten, some do not want to complete their homeworks, some do not want to color properly and the list goes on.

Let us see what the underlying issues could be & how can we as parents, help kids to enjoy writing & not dread it!

This video below talks about how a parent can prepare a child to write, about prewriting skills, its whats, whys & hows.

Share this blog among friends/communities who might be looking for any kind of help/support as far as writing & Montessori is concerned.

You can also contact me using this form.

Relevant Links Mentioned In This Video

Importance of puzzles for toddlers & how to introduce puzzles

What are prewriting skills & how to develop

Montessori inspired Practical life activities for young kids

How to set up Montessori inspired arts corner for kids

Montessori inspired shelf activities that I had setup at home

Other Montessori related blogs of mine

Alphabet tracing & prewriting for preschoolers

You can go through other Facebook live videos HERE & I will keep adding them in this archive and you can find them all at THIS link anytime in the future. You can also join my facebook page & group to follow the updates.

---

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!

---

Read More »

Pattern Writing & Waldorf Inspired Chalk Drawing For Winter & Christmas Season (VLOG)

Watch this video to know how we did our prewriting & tracing exercises this winter season using the DIY chalkboard wall at home. I also did my first ever Waldorf inspired chalk board drawing, so watch the video to know how we are going to utilize our chalk drawing. This video is a part of the Youtube playlist where I am sharing (on-going basis) winter & Christmas theme activities that I am doing with my 34 months old son. Last year Christmas activities were all Montessori inspired, but lately I am reading & researching more about Waldorf philosophy so you would see more of nature based learning, seasonal activities, celebrations of festivals, handwork etc in our day to day activities in addition to Montessori materials & activities.

Hope you liked these ideas.

---

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!

---

Read More »

Alphabet Tracing Prewriting Activity For Preschoolers On DIY Chalkboard Wall (VLOG)

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 books everyday. I never planned to introduce tracing activity to him this early but since this was completely lead by him, I went with the flow.



We have done tons of fine motor & practical life activities in the past 2 years that has prepared his hand muscles for writing.

You might also want to read about prewriting exercises for toddlers HERE.

You can find the YouTube playlist of our literacy activities HERE & I will keep on adding new videos on teaching reading & writing.

---

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!

---

Read More »

Book Review & Giveaway - iDiwali - Interactive Diwali Story & Activity Book For Kids From Your Learning Capsules (VLOG)

iDiwali is an interactive Diwali story and activity book for toddlers & kindergarteners with crafts, coloring, greeting cards, lanterns and sensational Diwali stickers. Watch the inside pages & review in the video below. Do not forget to avail the limited time discount of 10%.

About The Book

The Ramayana story summarized in 10 chapters, with hands on activity in each chapter. Additional Diwali experience activities - Rangoli, fireworks, sweets and more!!! 18 activities packed in one engaging book.

Publisher - Your Learning Capsules 
Age Group - 2.5 Years +
Price - Rs. 299 (FREE shipping anywhere in India)
Get 10% off till 19 Oct 2017. Use the discount code "kjunc10"

Try your luck & participate in the GIVEAWAY HERE where a lucky one can win this book for FREE! Giveaway will close on 11 Oct 2017 11.59pm.

You may like more of our featured products & discounts related to early learning for kids HERE.

The Author Talks
"Love interactive apps, but not the media time"
As a mother I am always trying to balance between the interactive and engaging experience of the digital world and just simple story telling, I present this experiment of mine to you - an interactive hands-on book!

Review
Watch the inside pages of the book & my opinions here in this video



What I Loved About The Book

• Absolutely engaging
• Designing is really nice
• Entire story of Diwali is covered in the form of activities
• Whole range of activities for different age group kids - coloring, tracing, stickers, numbers, writing, sequencing, storytelling etc

• Extra stickers so that if few are lost by kids, the activity can still be completed

• Good quality thick pages & stickers are easy to peel off & use without getting frustrated
• Even after all the activities have been done by the kids, this book can still be used next year as a simple storybook, so this book is going to serve you for the next couple of years surely & you can combine it with other storytelling setups with blocks or figurines etc

You may also like this "Story Of Diwali" book, a fun, non-preachy, simple-to-read rhyming storybook which talks about how five days of Diwali are celebrated. Review & buy links of the book HERE.

What Could Be Improved

• I would have loved if the pages were of laminated quality so that the stickers could be reused couple of times & the book could be reused next year too. But with this competitive pricing, I would not mind the existing type.

All in all, a must have for little kids this Diwali season!

Buy Links

BUY NOW so that the book reaches you well before Diwali this year! This will certainly give your kids an enriching experience!

You might want to check out YourLearningCapsules.com for more such awesome stuff for your kids and some free printables of activities! 

---

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!

---

Read More »

What Are Prewriting Skills & How To Develop Them In Young Toddlers - 12 to 30 Months

Do you think you should start paying attention to your child's writing skills only when they start to write alphabets & numbers?

The answer is NO. It actually starts very early! Your child is already preparing himself to be able to write in future & you can aid his preparation with what is called "pre-writing exercises". I have compiled some really easy to do activities that can be done using simple things at home. They are engaging, educational & enriching.

What are pre-writing skills?

To put it simply, these are the skills that children need to develop, to be able to write. For example – holding a pencil, using a pencil to move around on the paper, ability to draw something, copy or colour it, ability to draw different lines, patterns, shapes etc. The skills encompass; hand and finger strength, directional movement, hand position, pencil grip, proper usage of large muscles like elbow and shoulder, proper usage of small muscles like wrist and fingers, hand-eye coordination, bilateral integration, object manipulation and so much more!

The best place to start prewriting activities is your home. You really do not need to invest in expensive materials to develop the mentioned skills. As complex as they sound, the skills are not very difficult to master. Provided you give the muchneeded exposure and stimulus to your child.
In the article linked below, I am sharing some prewriting Montessori inspired activities that you can do with young toddlers (12 to 30 months)

Check out my entire article on BABYCHAKRA HERE.

Read More »

How To Encourage Creativity - Open Ended Art Projects For Kids

Open ended art projects are very essential for the expression of the child! They help sp much in encouraging creativity & imagination in children of all ages! They also serve as great prewriting exercises. It gives the toddlers exposure to different textures & finger grips. A great sensory activity.

It is not about the end product of such art exercises but the enrichment during the art making process. It is therapeutic for even adults. Try it out some time :)

Here are 4 engaging & open ended art projects for kids of any age, starting from toddlers!




To facilitate arts in my home for my toddler, I had recently set up an arts corner for him. Check out this video how you can do the same in a budget friendly way!

Happy Parenting :)

Read More »

Cheap, Simple And Quick Learning Activity Ideas Using Tape (VLOG)

Did you know you could use that tape lying in your stationary items for learning for your toddlers or preschoolers? Here in this video are few simple, cheap & quick ideas to use a simple colored tape to enhance skills like gross motor, fine motor, prewriting & much more. Not to forget, creativity, free play & pretend play brings out the most of any learning activity in kids :) So go ahead & try this out & do let me know how your kid liked it!

Read More »