SENSORY BOXES AS A TEACHING TOOL

I love playing sensory boxes with the LO. It's simple to make, super engaging and provides a number of learning opportunities.  For this sensory box, I have uncooked elbow pasta, but you can use anything... sand, salt, pompoms, etc.  Whatever you like really. 

BUSY BIN: COFFEE CUP HOLE FILLER

Do you know there's a lot of free stuff out there for the taking? Amazing what you could come up with a little creativity.  Here is the LO playing with coffee lid hole covers (I am not sure what you actually call them lol) that I got from a coffee shop. 

BUSY BIN: STRAWS

 Are you familiar with task boxes? I LOVE them.  Task boxes aims to help children concentrate and focus on a tasks.  Task boxes are very structured.  They have one goal in mind -- transferring one object from a container to another container, sorting objects by color or completing a pattern.  They could also be easily made using a shoe box.  Though I love the idea of task boxes, I do not like the idea of how much space it will take if I were to make them.  We live in a 480 square feet after all.

LO'S FIRST BAG

The LO is obsessed with my bag.  She dives into it and go for the good stuffs -- my wallet, keys and planner.  She walks around the house with my bag in her arm or my Iphone in her ear.  I figured, I can buy her her own very bag and found this in Amazon: Kidoozie My First Purse

PAPER PLAY

This is an accidental activity for the LO and it kept her occupied for 20 minutes! (20 minutes of free time for me! wow!) I was going through our mail and tearing the ones we don't need while the LO was having snack.  When she finished eating, she tried to reach for one of the envelopes so I figured "why not?, what's the worst thing that could happen?". I handed her my pile of torn papers and she looked at each one of them as if its the most interesting thing. 

DIY COLOR BIN

I made a color sorting wheel for my class today.  My kids for this year are much younger than what I had last year.  I have some color sorting boards from Lakehore but they seemed too distracting for my little kiddos. 

DIY SENSORY BOX

This is my friend's son Duke.  (He is also my daughter's soon to be boyfriend).  My friend Cita made him this amazing sensory box using common household products and a diaper box.

PLAY AREA FOR 10 MONTH OLD

The LO has a new play area again now that she is 10 1/2 months (FYI this is the 3rd time I have rearranged our apartment!).  She is now cruising and standing up on her own.  She needs a much bigger space where it will be safe for her to explore. One side has the sofa for her to hold on as she cruises, one side has a shelf for her toys and I propped pillows on the wall.  The other side opens to the living room where she could explore even more.

DIY RIBBON TOY

The little one is a curious bee!  She is putting every single thing in her mouth! She especially loves exposed tags and hanging strings.  She will stop at anything to put them in her mouth --- the sofa's tag, my lounge shorts strings, her burp cloth's tag... to redirect her attention, I decided to make a tug toy.  I found one from Imagination tree and made a version of my own.

DIY OBJECT PERMANENCE BOX

 For the longest time, I've been wanting to buy the object permanence box... but I could not justify the $25 price tag.  I just felt it was too much for a toy I was not sure the LO will play with.  So, I decided to make one instead. All you need is a box and a ball.  This is a box from Ikea.  Any rectangular box with a lid will be perfect.

PINCER GRASP @ 10 MONTHS

The LO's pincer grasp has improved a lot over the course of 2  months.   As soon as she started to crawl, we started her on baby cereal and she loved them! and so did our dog!  

BABY TOYS @ IKEA

I love Ikea. What is there not to love? Its modern, simple and inexpensive. Who would have known that I will one day venture into the baby section day? In my search of Montessori toys for the LO, I stumbled upon Ikea toys.  They are very inexpensive and seems very durable.  One drawback is that the toys are not entirely made of wood. This kind of bothers me but for the price, who am I to complain?

Toddler Wagon/Walker $19.99  /  Stack & Nest Cups $2.99  /  Shape Sorter $4.99  /  Building Blocks with Wagon $7.99  /  Sensory Ball $1.99  /  Baby Gym $29.99  /   Play Book $6.99  /  Stacking Rings $5.99  /    Toy Hammering Block $5.99

DIY SENSORY BOTTLES

I made the LO these sensory bottles out of water bottles to heighten her sound awareness.  She is now 7 months and at this age, she is highly receptive to the sounds she hears around her. 

TOYS FOR 6-12 MONTHS

After weeks of research, I have narrowed my list for the ideal Montessori toys for the LO.  The LO is now 6.5 months old.  She is at the "I want to eat everything" stage and "I'm a wiggly worm" stage.  I had to take these two factors into consideration with my choice of toys. 

PLAY AREA FOR 6-12 MONTHS

The LO is now 6.5 months and is ready for a play area upgrade.  I recently got her some toys and I needed to make some changes to her current area to accommodate them.

BABY MONTESSORI PLAY AREA

All done! Loren now has her own play area! She is now 5 months old and I can no longer keep her on the sofa or let alone the bed.  She's at the stage of rolling over and going in circles.  I wanted a Montessori based play area for Loren and though her current play area is not as Montessori as I want it to be, I am very happy with the results. 

MAKING A MONTESSORI PLAY AREA

My baby just turned 4 months last week and I can no longer keep her by the sofa because she has realized that she can now move around by rolling over or pushing her legs on the sofa arm rest.  I've decided to make her a play area in the living room to give her the space that she needs where she could explore her environment.  Upon research and consideration, I've decided to adapt the Montessori approach in making her play area.

I am more familiar with the Creative Curriculum being that it is what I use in my classroom, but I am gearing towards the Montessori approach because I like the idea of less is more.  Here are some inspiration pictures to get me started, these websites offer invaluable information on using the Montessori approach at home and I am very excited to learn even more. 

The Imagination Tree

Itty Bitty Love

Montessori on a Budget

I am so excited to do this project.  It will be a challenge being that we're short on space but I really want this space for Loren and I know it will be really worth it. Wish me luck!