Since I love all the great things about the Montessori method but don’t have the available money to pay the high prices, I decided to “try” to make my own.

Here is my attempt to do our own Spindle box; tiny like my toddler. The price is around $25-30, more or a bit less…..but to me is still too much!

What do we need?

1. An ice stick tray (got 2 for $1 at Dollar tree)
2. Circle shape stickers (got them for $1 and have more for other activities) to write the numbers.
3. A package of bamboo skewers…those to do Kabobs (had the package already of 100). I took the measure of the ice tray and cut them to fix in each compartment. Since I included number 10, I needed 55 “spindles”.
4. A ready to learn toddler!

The best thing is that we had lots of fun with just $2….and still have another tray and more sticks to try a variation or do another activity.

To know about how to work with it, here is a great explanation and here!

I know it says for 4 years and older (and I am not a teacher or Montessori method expert) but my daughter is so into numbers, sequence, counting and quantities; therefore, I decided to give it a try. I didn’t started with number 0 since this aspect I think is still a little bit complicated for her to understand.

Pinky was able to complete the activity and was so proud of herself at the end. That is my priceless moment!

  That’s her “I did it” dance!!!

What a great day!

Linking to:

Some of the activities we are still doing from Christmas! Can you tell that I love Christmas….

The tale of Christmas Homemade Book- from Musings of me!

On the last one, mommy got confused and told her that’s a Head instead of Heart….there is she making fun of mommy! lol

Matching Christmas Picture Cards with objects

 

Counting! She loved these because they stick everywhere!

 

Poem!- Idea and poem taking from My Montessori Journey, here!

 

Color- Red- we were practicing with a photo album I prepared a loooong time ago (Just look for photos on Google about red objects, send them to Walgreens, Target or other and put in a small photo album. In one page I put the photo and in the next a red construction paper with the words), and some red objects to play.    

We also played, pretended, shared (king of!), and strike a pose!

   

Wonderful days! So sad that Christmas is over but we HAVE to move on…Winter there we go!

Just a few weeks ago, I read a post about a new educational and fun way to learn.

Who came with the idea?…Mama Jenn!!!

What is it about? …The education Cubes are just photos blocks which you can insert whatever educational picture you want and have fun learning, playing and using your imagination. (You can find a BETTER description at the Education Cubes Blog)

How can I start? Join the Education Cubes members only site to have access to lots of insert cards.

So I decided to try them with Pinky, since she loves to learn in a fun way. I filled out the membership and ordered my blocks….Everything was fast!!!

I printed out some activities from the Education Cubes website and let my daughter discover them…..Here is her face when she saw them:

“Oh, wao!!!

I started with matching numbers and counting….We read The Nutcracker, I found those here at The activity mom but Education cubes have different counters like Christmas trees, Santas, etc. Also, printed the number until 12. Therefore, we have two blocks with numbers and two blocks with counters.

And after a little bit of time inspecting her new toy, the action began!!

Throw them!!! High, low, higher, to the left, to the right, up, down

(Don’t worry they are safe! No bobos, at least for mommy)

    

Count!!!- One nutcracker

 

Match! Pinky is just 25 months old- How I used them?: She threw the block with the pictures and then count how many were….after that I asked her if she could find that number in the other block…Finally, she matched them!

As you can see: One Nutcracker with number one…..6 nutcrackers with number 6!

I tried the other way (get a number first and count the pictures second) but it was too difficult for her. Maybe in a few more months!

       

Also, you can have a free playtime….under mommy’s desk!

We had so much fun! Lets see what is our next adventure???

Blessings!

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Para mis paisanos hispanos!!!

Esta idea de aprender y jugar a la vez con estos bloques ha sido idea de Mama Jenn (visita su blog para muchas mas). Los ha llamado Education Cubes, los cuales constan de bloques suaves para insertar fotografias, sin embargo, puedes colocar tarjetas con temas que quieras ensenarle a tu nino. En su sitio para miembros solamente puedes encontrar tarjetas ya hechas, las cuales solo tienes que imprimir y colocar dentro de cada compartimiento. Yo lo use con mi nena de 2 a~os y le encanto….practicamos los numeros y a contar ademas de que jugamos en cantidad! Ya tengo varias ideas mas para experimentar como: practicar palabras en ingles, espanol y frances, colores, estaciones, etc.