Valentine's Day Spooning Activity

To complete this activity O spooned a marble into each heart on the silicone heart tray. She had a little difficulty balancing the marble on the spoon, but she enjoyed the challenge. We'll be doing more spooning activities in the future.

Valentine's Day Transferring Activities

Here is another simple Valentine's Day activity (anything pink or red is classified as a Valentine's Day Activity :).

This activity was more visually appealing than the one above, so I didn't even put the first one out. O picks up a pom pom with the tweezers and puts one pom pom in each opening. The tray came from IKEA. O really enjoyed this activity and has done it repeatedly.

Winter Transferring Activity

I set up this simple winter transferring activity for O last week. She used the chopsticks to transfer the cotton balls to the ice cube tray. The cotton balls are supposed to represent snow :) This activity promotes fine motor control, one-to-one correspondence, attention to detail, and concentration. O enjoyed doing this activity when I first presented it to her, but she wasn't interested in doing it again. (So it's already back in the Montessori rotation drawer to make room for lots of fun Valentine's Day activities).

Bell Activity

I brought this activity out of our Montessori rotation box since I thought was appropriate for the season. O enjoyed doing this work...until I borrowed a couple of bells for a handmade gift :)

The idea for this activity came from The Wonder Years. It's a simple and fun activity which was easy to put together. I took 10 bells and removed the balls from the centers of 5 of them. Then I put them in a bowl together. O picks up one bell at a time, shakes it, and determines if it should go on the sound side or no sound side.

Candy Activities

I bought a candy cane filled with Christmas star candy for us to use for various activities. We used them for a couple of days before I let O in on the secret that the stars were actually candy (she was calling them beads). She was amazed and thrilled!

She's gotten quite good at using the chopsticks. She likes to create a pattern when transferring the stars.

For this activity, she counted out the correct number of stars to match the numbers. I was surprised by how much she enjoyed this activity. I only had the numbers out to 5, but she insisted on doing the numbers up to 9. (Hopefully, her early interest in numbers indicates that she'll be better at math than I am!)

Christmas Sorting

O had fun sorting these Christmas erasers using chopsticks. After she finished sorting the erasers, I showed her how to make a pattern using them. I started a pattern, and she finished it. She then created her own pattern (or "patterin" as she says). She really enjoyed teaching Baby Sister all about patterns. It's so much fun to include E in on our activities, and she enjoys all of the attention O showers her with :)

The erasers are from the Dollar Tree, the tray is from Walmart, and you can find the chopsticks at Let's Explore.

Montessori Baby Toys

If you're looking for the perfect gift for your Montessori baby, this is it!
These sweetly simple Montessori baby toys are sold in a set by Pinkhouse Handworks, and we were so pleased when Janice agreed to send us a set to review. The toys are from or inspired by the Assistant to Infancy Montessori training for ages 0 to 3.


The 5 toys included in this set are a crocheted rattle, interlocking discs, wooden grasping beads, egg and cup, and peg and cup. The toys are intended for babies ages 3 months and up, and an information card is included that gives the approximate age at which to offer each toy and the purpose of each.



I love the simplicity and beauty of these toys. The rattle fits perfectly in E's hand, and she immediately and happily put it in her mouth :) I'm looking forward to introducing the other toys to her as she gets older. Make sure to check the Pinkhouse Handworks Shop for more simple and sweet Montessori baby toys.

Edit to Add: Pinkhouse Handworks is offering FREE SHIPPING on the set of Five Montessori Baby Toys.

Matching Silly Animal Pictures

I recently made O another matching activity from a mini calendar. (Here is the butterfly activity that is similar to this one). I cut the calendar apart and laminated the pages. Then I cut the tiny pictures (that were on the back of the calendar) out for O to match to the bigger pictures. She used a magnifying glass to look at the tiny pictures before matching them. This was a fun activity especially since the animal pictures are so silly.

Phonics Bag Sorting

O had a great time sorting her phonics bag miniatures according to their initial sounds. We emptied the objects from 3 phonics bags into a pile and picked up one object at a time. She labeled each object and decided under which letter to place each object. What a great, fun way to practice phonics!

Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

O enjoyed doing this life cycle of a pumpkin work this morning. I downloaded the pictures from Montessori for Everyone.

Halloween Spooning Work

The idea for this fun Montessori spooning work came from Itty Bitty Love. Sifting the spiders from the rice is fun and takes a lot of concentration (so you don't spill the rice!). I haven't introduced this work to O yet, but my 5 year old niece really enjoyed it!

Halloween Tweezer Transfer Activity

O REALLY enjoyed this Halloween tweezer transfer activity. She picked up one porcupine ball at a time with the tweezers and placed each one in the dish. She was very focused and purposeful in her actions :) The porcupine balls came from the Halloween section at Wal-Mart, and the dish came from the craft section at Wal-Mart.

Sorting Spiders

O sorted these Halloween spiders by color using chopsticks. The first time she tried it, she said "I don't like this because it's hard for me." (She usually does not like to use tongs or chopsticks). She asked if we could do "hand over hand" to sort the spiders. She did MUCH better with the chopsticks today, and she REALLY enjoyed the activity. I hope that she'll finally start to enjoy using chopsticks and tongs now :)

Sorting Money

O has been learning to sort and identify the different coins lately. She loves to play with the coins and really enjoys this activity.

Sifting Sand Activity

O had a great time learning to sift objects out of sand! To make this activity, I put play sand in a wooden box (the box that her Melissa and Doug Unit Blocks came in). We put shells in the sand and covered them. Then I showed O how to dig around with the sifter to find the shells, shake the sifter to remove all of the sand, and put the shells in the glass bowl next to the box. The sifter has 2 points on one end which made scooping the sand a little difficult. I think we may try a slotted spoon next time.


After she finished the activity, she REALLY enjoyed playing in the sand with funnels, scoops, and measuring cups. She was having so much fun that I couldn't convince her to go down to the beach with me to play!


Then, she and Elliott had a great time pretending that the sandbox was a desert habitat while playing with her small desert animals.

Elliott is REALLY good at pretend play with O (better than me!), and she especially loves it when he plays "baby dolls" with her!

Transferring Ice Cubes in Water

O REALLY enjoyed this transferring activity! I gave her a slotted spoon to transfer the plastic star ice cubes from the bowl of water to an empty bowl. She transferred the clear stars first, then the blue stars, and then the pink stars. She was very focused and worked carefully. I'm sure we'll do this activity again soon!

The star ice cubes came from the dollar section at Target.

Paper Clip/Craft Foam Color Match

We've done several paper clip color match activities, and this is the most recent one. The idea for this activity came from another blog, and as usual I can't find it on my starred items on google reader (that is what happens when you have over 800 starred items!). To make the color match activity, I cut strips of craft foam and hooked them together using a brad. I showed O how to match the paper clips to the craft foam by sliding them onto the foam strips.


This activity was very difficult for O because the craft foam is very bendy. I will probably remake this activity for her using cardstock.