Post bundle

I’m very behind in my posts so I’m going to just post the pictures of the last few weeks of our home ed days! 

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

Lady P Officially Starts Reception

We have been trying to spend the last remaining nice days outside before the British Winter/Rain begins.  It’s been surprisingly mild and dry so that’s pretty exciting.

Toddler School

Lady P is in nursery today so I spent some time with Baby S doing whatever she wanted!  First, we played with play doh making Minnie Mouse bows (she wanted a mummy bow, a daddy bow and a baby bow).  

Afterwards, we did her alphabet puzzle and did all the letter sounds together.  Then we did sandpaper letters.  I got her to trace them (barely) and say the sound of s, a and t.  She knows s already because of her name. Then I asked her to point to each letter which she did.  But then she didn’t want to do anymore. 





After this, she chose her new rainbow toy that someone bought her.  We practiced making a rainbow and I asked her to pass me the colours.  So far, she knows orange.  Then she made a tunnel using the pieces from the rainbow. 





While I did laundry, Baby S watched The Letter Factory and managed to sit through the whole thing! Now she’s having a nap!  So that was my very simple toddler school!  All accomplished holding a newborn! 

Montessori Sorting and Fine Motor Skills

Great Montessori inspired activities are sorting games that work on fine motor skills.  Montessori teaches that children need to be physically ready before they can write.  One way to get them ready is to strengthen their fine motor muscles in their hands.  I bought a pack of large plastic tweezers from Amazon.  Lady P has finally reached the stage where she is strong enough to use them!

DIY Octahedron Mobile

My baby S is now 11 weeks old and very alert. She tends to cry if I put her down so infant mobiles have worked really well with her. I decided to make an Octahedron mobile as it is really beautiful and simple to make. It helps with depth perception and aids the visual sense.

Firstly, I found a octahedron template from here. Then I traced the template onto the back of metallic card stock (red, blue and yellow) which I bought from the local craft shop. I cut them out and folded the cutouts and used hot glue to make the octahedrons. I used clear beading string to hang them from a wooden dowel. Voila! You have a very simple, yet beautiful mobile!

Mobiles are a great start to the Montessori method of teaching at home!

DIY Gobbi Mobile

I have been reading about how I can stimulate my 10 week old baby girl. She is very alert and gets very fussy if she is bored. I never realised a newborn could be bored before now! I suppose with my first baby, I naturally stimulated her. She was the centre of my world! My attention was never divided. But now, with an active toddler on overdrive, my baby girl doesn’t get the time I could give my eldest. So I have been reading about Montessori mobiles. I made a black and white one out of paper before she was born but it’s nothing to write about! But then I found out about Gobbi Mobiles.

Gobbi mobiles (so named after the creator) are a series of spheres in graduated shades of the same colour. The intention is to stimulate the visual sense. Also, you could put it within arm’s reach so that she randomly bats at it. Eventually, she will realise that she is responsible for the movement of the spheres.

I used four spherical polystyrene balls, 4 times 2 metres of ribbon (shades of green), beading string, hot glue and skewers (which I don’t recommend; a dowel would have been better).

My baby girl loved this mobile! It’s not the best job in the world but for £6 you can’t go wrong! I hope you find this helpful!