South American Pin Map and Flag Pins

I bought the South American map and flag pins from Montessori Print Shop, and I LOVE how it turned out!  Actually, everyone loves this map...even our cat!



It was very easy to put together.  I laminated the map before tacking it to the cork board.  I decided not to laminate the flags, and they've held up fine.




Both of our girls love flags and maps, so this is a great activity for them.  I love to hear E(2) trying to pronounce the names of the different countries.




I've just bought the maps and flag pins for the rest of the continents, so we can use them as we travel around the world with our cultural exchange packages.  Hopefully, I'll find the time to print them and put them together soon!

Sunset Painting

O(5) sat at our kitchen table and painted while watching the sunset over the lake last week.  I've decided to keep our liquid watercolors in the center of our table, so that they are easily accessible (and they are so pretty in their wooden holder).  While she was painting, she said "I'm painting the sunset how I see it...not how everyone else sees it."   Love her!

Our Multiplication Board

When I saw the homemade multiplication board on Montessori Print Shop's blog, it reminded me that I never posted about our multiplication board!  (so many things to share...so little time and motivation!)

Here it is...


To make our multiplication board, I took a picture of O(5)'s multiplication board at school.  I printed it and laminated it.  I taped it to a cork board and added 100 push pins (I could only find plain wooden push pins, so I colored the tops with a red sharpie).  I velcroed plastic number squares to the side, and we were done.

O requested that I make this multiplication, but she hasn't used it much since I made it.  She'll probably use it more next year during homeschool...there's just so little time for things like this when she's spending her mornings at school and her afternoons playing.   (I really like the board on Montessori Print Shop's blog better than ours, and I'm tempted to make another one...we'll see).

Valentine's By Sweet O

I had some cute ideas for Valentine's for O(5) class, but she had other ideas.  My idea didn't involve any cutting or pasting, and that's just no fun!

So, we searched the internet for printable Valentines, and found these adorable girls at The Black Apple.  O cut the girls and hearts out and glued them to heart doilies.  She was VERY proud of her fancy and beautiful Valentine's!

"D" Week

E(2) received her "D" ABC Fun Pack a few weeks ago, and she really enjoyed it!

I'm going to try to stay on each letter for a week rather than 3 or 4 weeks like I've done in the past.  The problem is that I keep thinking of more and more fun activities, so we are slow to move on to the next letter.  E already knows most of the letters, so a week is more than long enough to focus on one letter, and I really want to finish all 26 letters before she turns 3 (because I already have her next "subscription" planned, and I want to be finished with the ABC fun pack before I start the next fun pack subscription).

So, here's D...

Tracing the sandpaper letter d.




She loved playing with the D objects, and she especially loved the dogs, dolphins, and ducks.















E's favorite thing in her ABC fun pack was the dinosaur egg!  She put it in a jar of water and waited for it to hatch.  She kept asking "Can I take it out now?"  30 seconds later "Now?"  and on and on and on... She was thrilled when she saw the dinosaurs head breaking through the egg the day after she put it in the water!

She loved spreading out the dinosaur cards and looking at and talking about them all. 
She loved playing with her "Dress-Up Dolls" (paper dolls). 

We played with our mama duck and baby ducklings and read the companion book. 
We found diamond shapes around the house using our diamond "window."
E really loves her dog stickers and sticker book. 
We had fun looking at dinosaur reels using the viewmaster.  
We read Dancing with Degas every day.  She LOVES this book!
E(2) has 3 books from the Mini Masters series, and she loves all of them (and we hope to get more of them for Easter and birthdays!).  A few days ago, she said she was doing something (I can't remember what) "like Picasso."  Just last night she pointed to a pic of a Degas' painting of ballerinas and said "that's Degas!"

Cultural Exchange...South Africa!!!

The girls received their cultural exchange package from South Africa at the beginning of the month, and we've had a great time learning about South Africa so far!  Here's what was in the package...

handmade finger puppets of the Big 5 animals of South Africa...love them!




A couple of postcards




Photocopied (1 side only) and laminated money.  This is one of our favorite things...the money is really beautiful!




Coins




A tiny wooden elephant and bowl...LOVE this!




a Christmas ornament




 a magnet




mini South African flags.  The girls were excited to have more flags for their mini American girls.




Wire animals...E(2)'s favorite!




Activity sheets




We've really enjoyed this wonderful cultural exchange package.  I don't have a picture of the letter since I don't want to put pics of children other than my own on the blog, but the letter was fantastic.  O(5) said that the letter is the best part of the package!  Thanks to our South African friends!!!

Also, I'd love to hear from everyone who participated in the cultural exchange.  Please leave a comment or email me to let me know if you received your packages and how you liked them.  I'd love it if you would leave a link to any blog posts about the exchange especially if  you have pics of the things you sent and received in your packages.  I've had lots of emails asking what kinds of things were included in the packages, so this could help a lot of people.  I'll be organizing another exchange soon, so if you are interested in participating stay tuned....