I wanted to share, for a very long time now, how we learn at home AFTER school time. Besides from weekends, holidays or vacations, we have just 3 hours and a half to motivate Pinky’s learning. As you can see, just a few hours can make a difference in your child’s life.

Everyday, after school, Pinky comes home eager to do activities about a new theme (mostly one that she studied at school) or to continue any work about an old theme. Because of the lack of time, I try to do short activities re-using old materials into hands-on-activities. Sometimes, I print out worksheets but they have to be in relation to the theme of interest and be able to be used in an interesting way.

Just following my child interests, as one of Maria Montessori believes (the one I LOVE the most!), I am helping myself to give my daughter:

1- An special mommy-daughter bonding time.

2- Confidence in herself- she is learning to identify her interests or doubts about any theme and to request further learning. She is learning about not staying with any doubt! She learns to speak for herself.

3- Research time. She is learning about where to look for anything and how to ask for help. She is very aware of the Internet, specially Google! Also, and most important, what are a Dictionary and an Encyclopedia and how to use them. Well, that was the way before the internet and I want Pinky to learn it, too!

4- Concentration. Because we study themes that she asked and I was not the one to impose, her concentration time into certain activities has been increasing. Sometimes, I have to stop her because is past bed time!

5- Joy. She has been finding joy into learning! Isn’t that the best reward?

6- Memories. We are creating beautiful memories, not only for Pinky but for mommy, too!

7- Simplicity. This one is for mommy! I don’t have to get crazy looking for themes, activities or crafts in a random way. I don’t have to get disappointed after expending time creating a masterpiece unit just to end with a “I am not interested kiddie face” (lol I had been there!!!).

8- Satisfaction. Both for mommy and daughter. Even if it was a one day only theme, Pinky is happy because I’d listened to her curiosity and took the time to look it up. As a result, mommy is happy, too!

 

Sorry for the long post! Just wanted to share in case there are more moms getting frustrated because they want to give more to their schooled kids but think it has to be all the way into homeschooling. Now you see there’s an easy and satisfactory way for both mom and kid. Just follow your kid: Listen to them!

 

Ok, continuing with out post tittle…..this is the time Pinky came back home wanting to learn more about the United States! Well, this was my easy and fast way to expend two afternoons:

 

Activity #1

Melissa & Doug USA puzzle 

 

Montessori-Inspired activity: from the classic Montessori activity of matching objects to pictures. We built the puzzle and them matched some objects to the pictures on the puzzle for each state. For example, Orange picture over Florida state and she added Minnie Mouse because Disney World is located there, too!. Cactus for Arizona, Golden gate bridge for California, Pineapple for Hawaii, car for Ohio, Lobster and Lighthouse for Maine, Statue of liberty, yellow taxi and Empire State building for New York, etc. We found an object to match to most of the states. This is really an easy, fast and fun activity with lots of possibilities!

 

Activity #2

United States floor puzzle

This puzzle I found it at Goodwill for $1.99. Good deal!!!

We love that it is so big! She decided to use her USA placemat to make sure both were the same! lol

Maybe we could add some postcards from each state to do with this puzzle? souvenirs? flags? states birds, animals, flowers? Presidents??

Too many possibilities!!!

 

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This is going to be just an ALL picture post (mostly).

Why????

Because I am going to share how silly, innocence, cheerful, joyful, lovely and imaginative a child mind can be.

Here is a post about my beloved Pinky’s hobby: she LOVES to dress-up……she loves to pretend she is someone else…..she loves to have fun wearing glittery dresses or tie and pants……she is just a wonderful 4 years old! 

Lalaloopsy

Super Mario Bros.

Cowgirl

Princess

President of the United States

Gold miner/explorer

Super fashion model

Egyptian mummy

I am not sure…..Snow White??

Snowflakes ballerina

Where’s the fire?

Luau dancer

Chef

Pinky: What are we gonna be next????

Cousin: Well, I am not sure……

Pinky: For now…we rock these shoes!!!

Cousin: Yes!, we look GREAT!

 

Oh yes, everyone has to join the fun when visiting our home!!!!

She has lots of customs, thanks to the Halloween after sales….and EVERY day, maybe 2-4 times a day, she is pretending to be someone else!

 

So, do you get dressed or do you dress-up?????

 

Check these very interesting articles about Dress-up play:

Playtime in peril by Lea Winerman from the American Psychological Association (APA).

Play Therapy: How it Helps Children Feel Better and Improve Behavior by Kathy Eugster, MA, RCC, RPT

Don't Get Dressed - Dress Up: 5 Benefits of Dress Up Play by Sara McTigue from It All Started with a Meatball.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to watch my little one’s Half Birthday walk. Pinky’s teachers decided to celebrate Pinky’s half birthday because she is a summer baby. It was such a beautiful celebration. Pinky was so proud, walking around the sun carrying the globe on her hands. Of course, she didn’t turn around the sun 4 and a half times only. In fact, I thinks she did it a bit more. lol

While she was turning around, her friends were singing the song:

The Earth goes around the sun,

The Earth goes around the sun,

The Earth goes around the sun,

And now Pinky is one (1)….. (repeat)

 

After the walk, the teacher read Pinky’s story of life….from the time she was born, until her 4 and a half years. I wrote about all the places she has visited, her milestones, her friends, special holidays, recitals, classes, etc. I wrote about her sweet and adventurous personality, things that she loves, like food, dance, soccer, music, paint, draw, etc.

While I was writing her story, I realized all the wonderful things that had happened in Pinky’s life, and how blessed I am for get to be part of them. This is the blessing of having such a hard working daddy!

Later, we got to talk about Pinky’s picture poster. Well, the teacher remind mommy about the birthday walk just the afternoon before the amazing day. As you can see, mommy didn’t have anything prepare. So, I found a carton box I was saving for another project, cut it and made a 4 layers poster. Then, glued scrapbook paper and some random photos. I think it looks like a Scrapbook poster! lol Since I have thousands of Pinky’s photos but none printed, I had to print some in paper praying that my printer won’t run out of ink. It was such a long night! But, it was amazing at the end!

Here is a photo of my darlings amazing day! Pinky is officially 4 years and a half! Big girl!

Now she is on her way to turn 5!!!!

For our Christmas holidays, we had a road trip to Canada. Since, this was the first year with our little Elfie visiting, mommy had the obligation of continuing with the fun until the end. It was a hard time trying to keep Elfie hidden and ready every night to re-appear in the next hotel! However, it was fun and priceless to see my little’s one face every morning amazed that Elfie had found her.

Here are the last days with our Elfie Elizabeth visit for the 2012 Christmas!

Elfie as Mrs. Potato Head

This one was a hard one! It took me to much time to put it together, so at the end I added to much tape that Pinky asked me why Elfie loved to use my tape? LOL I saw this idea in this video.

 

Elfie preparing her stuffs for the road trip the next day with the family!

 

Elfie found Pinky at the first hotel after the road trip. She was kind of tired form the driving, so she decided to take a cotton balls bath.

 

Elfie was having a Caroling time or concert with Rapunzel and Doc Mcstuffin.

I bought this cute card at Target! When you open the card, there’s a tiny Elf’s voice singing Jingle bells. Pinky was so excited!!! She carried the card everywhere…..not so a good idea when you are driving around! lol

 

 

 

Elfie pretending to be Santa!!!

I’d bought a cute Red bag at CVS just to do this one but forgot it at home. Too bad!….until next year!

The next day Pinky was laughing very amazed by Elfie’s custom!

 

On Christmas Day, Elfie was not around anymore in the morning. W e were just starting to miss her, when we found that she had been playing with mommy’s camera the night before. She took some photos telling a secret on Pinky’s ear and kissing her goodbye. Ah!!!!!! Elfie was such a good and well-behaved elf!

 

So long Elfie…..thanks for bringing such a magic time and laugh to our holidays. It was fun having you around helping our family to build more memories!

Until next year!

For more fun ideas, visit our Pinterest Board: The Elf on the shelf

Here is such an AWESOME opportunity to complete your Continent Boxes! Montessori Print Shop is having 9 days of giveaways celebrating their 9 years. I would love to win this one……just this one and I am gonna be reallly really happy!!!! lol If you want to have a chance, check this link: Continents giveaway.

 

Good luck to all……someone is going to be really happy!

I think this is going to be our last post about our Africa continent box! It has been such a wonderful experience, not only for Pinky but for her mommy, too! Also, the fact that daddy went to South Africa makes our learning much more interesting. I will try to make this a not so long post but I don’t promise anything! So, make sure to grab a cup of coffee or tea and get ready to be inspired (I hope so!!! lol)

African flags

Our map of Africa, printed from here with the countries’ flags (link below for the flags). The flags attach to the countries with magnets. I don’t pretend that Pinky learns the flags for each country now. We just talk about the different flags, colors and designs, and maybe get to identify the one from South Africa and Egypt. So far, she knows the flags from USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Haiti.

I wrote numbers behind each flag and on each country on the map so we could match them by numbers. The size of the map is four 8x11 size pages; however, I think a bigger size would do it better since there are some small countries on the west that the flags doesn’t fix so well, as you can see. This is a fun activity to get kids interested about the different flags and their countries. Additionally, we have flashcards bought at Target (dollar section) inside the box in an envelope.

 

Egyptian mask

This is such an awesome activity!

This was a mommy-daughter craft since it is complex for Pinky to do it by herself. However, we had such a great time making it together! The outcome was BEAUTIFUL! It really looks as we bought it from a very expensive souvenirs store. (jaja!) Here is the link if you want to try it with your kids. Instead of newspaper, tissue paper and glue, we used dried gypsum paper we bought at AC Moore craft store. Pinky loved to wet the paper (she mostly played with the water jaja) and gave it to me to cover the mask. To hold the mask in position to the cardstock I used tape and then my hot glue gun to make sure it stayed in position (you know, Pinky will be using it to play around). We had to let it dry for a night and the next day she painted everything with the gold paint and I made the lines with the blue paint (TEAM WORK!….well she really got tired of painting the mask plus mommy wanted to paint it perfectly lol).

What do you think???? Isn’t it great???

The finished product was kind of heavy and big for Pinky’s head. We are keeping it as an art exhibition on our Continents bookshelf.

 

Coloring art

This is an easy and fast activity. I printed animals prints on white cardstock with an animal picture. She colored the prints and then glue the animals pictures on top of their prints. Here we talked about the animals skin differences: stripes, patches, spots. I think it will look great in a frame! I have the links saved in my Pinterest Board (link BELOW!).

DIY Necklaces

This was such a fun activity that Daddy joined us after he came from work. I think we loved the relaxing moment caused by lacing the beads and just having a nice conversation about our day.

Nice jewelry!

 

The goodies from Daddy’s trip to South Africa

Well, daddy loves to buy! Jajaja

 

If you are interested about putting together a Continent Box for Africa, below are some awesome ideas from other bloggers. We were so lucky that Daddy had the opportunity to visit Africa last November. Also our Asia box (Daddy had a trip to China) and North America box (I’m from Puerto Rico, Daddy’s from Haiti, we lived in Dominican Republic and now USA, so we have a few souvenirs from those countries, plus Daddy had a trip to Cuba, and we went to Canada for the holidays vacation) are very well covered, too! However, the Europe, Australia and South America boxes need LOTS of help!!! For these boxes, I keep looking at Goodwill, Craiglist, garage sales or friends generosity . Sometimes I am lucky and find things at different local stores, like a flute from Peru! Just keep your eyes open, be patient, creative and have fun!

 

My Pinterest board: Continent Box: Africa. It has a recompilation of different activities around the web. We tried some and saved other for future studies.

Continent boxes: Check them and get inspired!

1. Our very own Continent box- visit our post here and here for more activities to include to your Africa Continent study plus a FREEBIE (we are sharing our own Animals cards, Elephant 3 part cards and instruments cards for your enjoyment and PERSONAL use! There are NOT perfect but help with the job!
2. We don’t need no education –she used green mini folders to save the cards, Love it!
3. Homeschool in the hills –many great printables to add with links!
4. Living Montessori Now- great post summarizing different continent boxes with lots of links. If you want to know more about Montessori and get inspired, make sure you follow Deb’s post!
5. Noor Janan Homeschool – love the World felt map! Check her link: Africa: is not a country. It has lots of resources about Africa.
6. A bohemian education –beautiful way to decorate your box on the outside.
7. What did we do all day? she added photos from their Daddy’s trip to Africa. This reminds me about doing the same….great keepsake!
8. Discovery days and Montessori moments –saved the cards inside mini green folders.
9. Just thinking –love the ideas of swatches of fabric for matching.
10. La Paz home learning –she decorated each one of the boxes. The final outcome have so much personality: beautiful!
11. Like a bird –pictures of each one of the boxes.
12. Counting coconuts –beautiful and well organized Continent bag!

 

Printables:

1. Paper Sphynx
2. Expedition Earth: Discovering God’s Animals from Confession of a Homeschooler (free)
3. Free printable Africa bingo cards- I used the flags for our Flag map above. Fold in the middle so the flag is on the front and the name of the country on the back. Then add a magnet in between and tape around the corners. You won’t be able to see the magnet which gonna be inside the mini-flag. We can use the flags for our map or for a Bingo game!
4. South African money worksheets- maybe for older kids?
5. Africa map –here’s the web-site I used to print our Africa map to use with the flags. I used 4 papers but maybe one a bit bigger would be better!
6. Nuttin’ but preschool has a free Africa lesson plan with lots of ideas to try.
7. Africa outlined map
8. Ancient Egypt and Unit lapbook from Homeschool share (free)
9. Visit the Homeschool den if you want to expand your Africa learning into Egypt. There are several post about the theme. She also made Egyptian masks and there are a few printable links.
10. Montessori Print Shop- if you don’t have the time to make your cards, here you can buy them. Their materials are wonderful! They have Flamingo 3-part cards for free.

 

Uff! Kind of a LONG post!!! Sorry about that!

Did you make a Continent Box????

Let us know!

We’ll love to check it out!

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