Transferring activities, I’ve mentioned before, have a lot of developmental value in them. They can be done in different forms depending on the level of difficulty our Munchkin is ready for.

In the past, we have done a Transferring activity, transferring balls from one ball to another with a strainer.

This time to up the difficulty and also to fulfill My Munchkin’s development need, I did this DIY of Transferring with Tongs.

Things needs to make this DIY are:

1)Two small bowls preferably similar ones and of natural material (I used glass bowls);

2)Pom Pom balls of different colours

3)A pair of child size tongs

4)A tray

What do we do? Put the pom pom balls into one bowl and keep both bowls in the tray along with the tongs. This goes on to their work shelf. As always, a presentation of the activity must be given. Show your Munchkin how to use the tong to pick one pom pom ball from the bowl and transfer it into the other bowl. Repeat the same with a few more pom pom balls and then left your Munchkin take over the activity.

Simple and easy to make, isn’t it?

Age: 20-22 months (even earlier / later depending on your child’s motor skills)

Purpose: Helps develop hand eye coordination and pincer grip as well.

My Munchkin loves these simple activities, which are easy for me to make. They are great for her development as well.

Do you make similar DIYs for your Munchkin?

It’s official! My Munchkin has turned two. So does that mean I need to prepare for the terrible twos everyone talks about? Well, we’ll find out.

Unlike her first birthday, which we spent with a small family get-together, we were travelling on her second birthday. We, however, planned it in a way that we took her to the zoo on her birthday and what a great decision it was!

Time at the Zoo

My Munchkin has been to a local zoo earlier when she was much smaller then. She did enjoy it then as well but this time around was different. She recognized most of the animals and hence could enjoy the experience a lot more. You could actually see the joy when she was seeing the animal in real as compared to just seeing the pictures. In Montessori, we believe in giving real experiences to the child and it is at times like this where I truly understand how effective that is.

It was a long day but we did not feel it as My Munchkin was up and about all the time. We are definitely doing Zoo trips more often once back home.

Flight Experience

Although this wasn’t her first flight but it was a long one compared to the one she has done earlier so we were a little apprehensive. We planned the entire journey and took some travel activities for her to make sure she was busy on flight. It was a fairly good experience though and went by pretty easily. I will put up a detailed blog on the activities I made for the trip.

Terrible Twos

Most people dread this age and it’s always talked about as the terrible twos. There was a lovely post I shared sometime back that explains it really well, you can read it below:

https://www.facebook.com/munchkindiaries/posts/523506878048495

Very simply put, Munchkins this age are going through developmental changes and hence what we call tantrums are often frustration for them not being able to express themselves, for us not letting them try doing things themselves, for a “NO” we tell them for most things and so on..

Personally, we haven’t felt it so far and hoping that we would not in the future as well. Have you experience what they call as the ‘terrible twos’?

Colours are first introduced through verbal conversations, eg. Talking about a yellow ball or the green plant, and so on. We do not directly focus on the colour but just keep it as a part of our regular conversation with our Munchkins.

Once our Munchkin is able to match different things and understands how one things differs from the other and begins to show more interest in colours, you can introduce a simple activity such as this to him/her.

The focus of this activity is to just match and put the correct colour in it’s place. We are not trying to teach the names of the colour (it is still too early for that).

Things needs to make this DIY are:

1)1 cardboard box cover;

2)Some extra cardboard strips for the partition;

3)Coloured paper for the base (I used the primary colours Red, Blue and Yellow);

4)Pom Pom big size balls or similar in the same colours (Red, Blue and Yellow);

5)A small box / container to keep all the pom pom balls in.

What do we do? We make three equal partitions in the cardboard box cover with the strips we have. Then paste the coloured paper in each section. The pom pom balls are to be kept in the container and both go on your activity shelf.

Present the activity to your Munchkin showing them how to take one ball at a time and match it to its respective colour. After they have a hang of it, leave them to do the activity by themselves.

Age: 21-22 months (or depending on the interest shown by your Munchkin)

Purpose: Visual discrimination and introduction to colours

More colours can be added later on or even done in a different way. As mentioned, the idea is not to teach names of colours, it is to just be able to match the right colours together.

Does your Munchkin already show interest in colours?

So my Munchkin is almost 2 now. What new things have we gone through? There is a major leap in independence and she wants to do almost everything by herself (or at least give it a shot). This is also with choices; she wants to make her own decisions with her basics needs like clothes, shoes, food and more. We have been experiencing this for sometime now, however, suddenly it’s a big leap and it now happens even more. Well, we do respect her choices and decisions and try to accommodate them as long as it’s safe for her.

Two Year Olds can be Tricky!

It is not always easy to deal with a 2 year old – they can be very tricky. One moment they are laughing and the next you will find them crying. What we can do best is acknowledge their feelings always. It’s okay for them to cry, give them a hug if they need it, and let them know it’s going to be okay. A lot of times, too many options overwhelm them and so they are unsure and that eventually upsets them. Hence, when giving choices keep it as two or maximum three.

Language and Writing

At this age (more often earlier) they are extremely interested in Alphabets and Numbers and would probably ask you what they are called. It’s best to not start teaching these to them yet and divert them. Ideally, you start with sounds and then move to the Alphabet. At 2, they are still too young to start learning the Alphabets and Numbers and most often just rote-learn them, which actually does not help. (I hope to do a detailed write up on this topic soon).

Writing too, should not be introduced for a long time. Yes they definitely want to and it’s best to allow them to scribble as they wish preferably with chalk on a blackboard or with thick crayons on paper.

Surroundings

They are able to understand a lot more now and express themselves well. It is a good time to take them places or to events where they can view various portraits, handwork, décor. We recently went to a mall, where they was an exhibit of artwork and My Munchkin was extremely fascinated by the things she saw.

Culture

A great time to start introducing our culture and festivals to her. Since it was December, the Christmas festivities were in full swing. We tried to take her to as many places as possible where she could simply take in what she saw, ask questions and understand the basics.

Apart from this, as mentioned there was a wedding in our family and we were away for some part due to that. My Munchkin had a blast with all the fun, laughter and love around. It was an experience in itself for her to try and understand things going on.

So this month and the holiday season was pretty much full of fun with both Christmas and the Wedding.

What did you and your Munchkin do during the holidays?

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. – Franklin P. Jones

This statement is especially true when it comes to toddlers, isn’t it?

Patience is actually the solution to most of our situations. As parents, we must learn to be more patient because well, they are toddlers, they are supposed to be running all over the place, touching everything, trying to do what we do and more and more. That is what toddlers do! Let’s explore some of this in more detail.

Apart from patience, it is how we look at a situation. As mentioned above, they touch everything – in actuality, they are exploring their environment. They are trying to take in and understand what they are looking at, what the things surrounding them are. So rather than us taking something away from them, we could try telling them what that is and it’s functionality.

Running all over the place – these adorable little humans are full of energy which the need to exhaust. It is extremely important that we offer them ways to do this – outdoor play, cycling, climbing things in the play area. Most important here is to let them do it themselves. Yes you need to be around, close enough to catch them it if will be a big fall but do not hold them and make them climb – you are limiting their development.

Trying to do what we do – And they do it pretty well! Yes, toddlers mimic what they see adults around them do. It is their way of learning; hence, it is very important that we model good and appropriate behaviour around them. We behave and talk how we would want our Munchkin to do – this becomes the best and easiest way to teach them manners and build their personality.

Before we teach our Munchkins, we need to learn ourselves. We need to learn to let our children be, let them try to do things on their own – try to dress themselves up, eat on their own, fill a glass of water for themselves, cut their own fruit, make their own sandwich – let them be independent. To be able to do these things we need to learn to have faith that they are capable of doing it themselves. It may take a little longer, it may make a mess, it may break a thing or two but the lessons they learn are invaluable.

Do you let your Munchkin do things themselves?

Ho! Ho! Ho! This is a lovely DIY and can be used as DIY gifts too this season.

I wanted to introduce My Munchkin to Play Dough for quite some time but I was sure that I would not use the commercial ones, as you know everything goes into their mouth.

So I researched on loads of different ways of making it and finally found one that worked well for me, and it is just SO SIMPLE to make at home.

What you would need is:

1)  1 Cup of All Purpose Flour (Maida)

2)  ¼ Cup of Salt

3)  ¾ Cup of Water

4)  3 Tablespoons of Lime Juice

5)  1 Tablespoon of Oil

6)  Food Colouring

7)  Food fragrance oil (optional)

What you need to do once you have your ingredients in place?

In a nonstick pan, mix water, oil, and lime juice and heat over medium flame. Add food colouring (whichever colour you choose to use) and food fragrance oil, if using (I did not use any) to the mixture.

Note: When you do not use the fragrance, there will be a little smell of the lime. My Munchkin and I am okay with it so I continue not using this ingredient.

In another bowl, combine the flour and salt.

Once the water mixture become hot (it should not boil), slowly add in the dry ingredients (flour and salt mixture) and keep stirring it in.

Continuously stir this mixture until all the ingredients combine. If you feel any part is sticky, flatten it with your spoon and flip it over and then mix again. It should start forming into a ball (make sure not to overcook it). 

Remove it from the heat and on to a plate and let it cool down a little bit. Next, start kneading the dough for two to three minutes.

The entire process probably takes 5 minutes.

Voila! Your Homemade Play Dough is ready to use.

While kneading you will feel how soft this is to use. One batch of these should make about 450-500 gms of Play Dough.

Store it in the refrigerator in an airtight box and it will stay for a minimum 3 months. So you can make 3-4 colours at a time and keep it.

Age: Whenever you feel your Munchkin is ready. You can start as early as 1 year old (I started at almost 20 months but also because I was looking for the perfect recipe). 

Purpose: Extremely good for gross motor development and also open ended play.

Tips: You often may have a problem that all the colours are mixed up or because they are not put back in the box they dry out. What I do is, I have small boxes (50 gms roughly) where I remove only a little dough at a time and give My Munchkin to play. This way it lasts for very long.

Also initially I would recommend to give only 1 colour at a time, so as to not overwhelm them, and then later increase to two colours and so on.

So hurry and start making your own Homemade Play Dough and share some pictures with us.

With this I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round, Round and Round, Round and Round….

Does your Munckhin have a favourite rhyme? My Munchkin seems to love a lot of them and we hear and sing a lot of them all day long. In fact, I catch myself humming them even when she’s asleep sometimes!

Most important is that rhymes are only sung to her, with her and we do not play them for her on our phones, laptops, etc. We actually have a zero screen time policy for her at home. To be completely honest, we do not manage it 100% and she does watch a little bit when we are on the phone or someone else is (but this is also limited to just a few minutes). I may have mentioned this in a previous article but this is a big reason that she loves reading and it is a big part of her daily activity, also a big source for her increasing vocabulary.

So our main routine has been the same this month with a lot of shelf work repeated so we had lots of Play Dough, Blocks, Books, Matching Cards to Animals, Outdoor Activity, Riding her Bike Practical Life (help with chores done at home) and so on.

We have a construction site close to where we stay and she enjoys watching all the Construction Vehicles at work with the Bulldozer being her favourite. We took her to a spot in our compound which was close to the site and she enjoyed watched the bulldozer at work.

Did we introduce anything new this month? Yes, we actually did introduce two new activities, as below:

Threading Beads

A very good activity for hand-eye coordination. We bought this one online and recommend choosing big beads, so as to avoid any threat of choking, and also it would be easier for them to bead initially. There are many beads that come along with the pack but we initially kept the thread / string in a basket along with 3 beads each of just the primary colours – red, blue and yellow (you can even start with lesser beads if you feel necessary). I presented the activity to her the first 2-3 times she used it and then left her to work. She is still getting a hang of doing it. I try to observe her whenever she works with it to check if she would need another presentation or is moving ahead or needs a slight change. I will have to just wait and watch.

DIY Colour Sorting

By Colour Sorting, I do not meaning learning names of colours. In Montessori, we do not teach names first (on the contrary, they come last). The first step is to show the child how to pair objects of the same colour. We did a simple DIY for this (will upload complete details soon) where My Munchkin has to match the pom poms to their respective colours. She had a lot of fun doing this activity and she enjoyed doing it over and over again.

She got a complete hang of it and managed to do the activity herself in a couple of tries. I plan to add in some more colours soon.

Did I teach her the names after she paired them correctly? No! It is still early for that, we can start this in probably another 6-8 months. Yes, she does know names of a few colours but those have not been taught too her, rather picked up from reading time and regular conversations we have.

Do you enjoy making DIYs for your Munchkin? Do share some with us, would love to have some new ideas.

Did any of you try the DIY on Family Picture Cards? Well, this one is a similar concept and I made one for My Munchkin for Animals.

She is able to recognize most of the animals from the ones she has so thought this was the best time to introduce this activity to her. I made two different sets – one for farm animals and one for wild animals.

Process of this DIY is just like that of the Family Picture Cards only with an additional step.

Try to get animals that look similar to real ones rather than the animated animal figurines. Also having them in a fairly big size is a big plus. We have a small set (like you get in most stores) of most of the animals and I keep trying to look for big ones. Currently, we have the bigger sized ones in a few farm and wild animals (hoping to find more soon).  

To start this DIY, I took pictures of the animals she plays with. What you would need to do is, stick an A4 size white paper on the wall and on the table joined together like a ‘L’. I then kept each animal on this paper, made sure there was sufficient lighting and took pictures.  

Once done, I selected the best image of each animal from the ones taken and transferred it on the computer and cropped them to about 5x5 inches in size (except for the Giraffe which was longer).

Once the images were ready the process was the same like last time with two ways of making the activity:

                    1)Give the images of a photo studio or printing shop and they will print and laminate it for you.

                2)If you want to DIY the entire thing, then get the photos printed on card stock (or good quality                     paper).  You would also need to buy lamination sheets (1 sheet of A3 size would be enough for 4-6               pictures). I would recommend buying one that is at least 125 microns thick. These would be                     available with your local stationery shop.

  You guessed right – we are going to laminate them at home!

Once you have your pictures print, cut them out to the required size. Take your lamination sheet and place the images in between. Make sure you keep sufficient space between them to cut so that they do not open up.

Once this is placed, heat the iron up. Place the lamination sheet on the ironing board or a smooth surface and put a cotton cloth over it. Press down with the hot iron and slowly move the iron from one end to the other. Do this without lifting the iron to avoid bubbles from forming. You can repeat this step once more.

Let it cool a bit and then check if it has laminated from all sides. If you feel it is opening up from some part, cover that with the cloth and iron over it.

Once done, let it cool completely and then cut each image out – do keep some of the lamination plastic as a border (like it is normally seen it laminated documents).  Do round all the sharp edges with a scissor so they do not hurt your Munchkin.

I will try and upload a detailed DIY for laminating at home soon.

I had a basket ready and put in the wild animals along with the pictures and put them on My Munchkin’s work shelf. I presented the activity to her and she was off doing it herself. (If you feel your Munchkin is not ready or not interested in doing the activity you may remove it from the shelf and reintroduce it after a few days/weeks).

Age: The best time to introduce this is once they are able to recognize the animal figures and also images of animals in books.

The last two weeks or so have been a crazy rush of too many things happening at the same time. As you can imagine, having a toddler around you doesn’t always help things go faster. My apologies for the delay in posting an article.

We did not introduce many new things to her this month and worked on her ‘Care of Environment’ skills as well are outdoor activities. But there is so much indirect learning that has been taking place and you can notice it your daily activities.

Indirect Learning

As you may have read in many of my blogs, reading is a big part of our schedule. No matter how busy or tired we may be, we make sure to spare at least ten minutes to read. Honestly, My Munchkin makes sure one of us reads to her so it’s not an option anymore (and we love that!).

So what exactly do I mean by indirect learning? Absolutely everything. Infants and toddlers learn from everything in their environment – the language, habits, culture, food preferences – everything! Like Maria Montessori says, the child has an Absorbent Mind and takes in everything they see, hear, feel, smell.

My Munchkin has developed a lot of her vocabulary through books we read and general conversations. Does this mean we are teaching her things and making her repeat after us? Not at all. These are regular conversations like we adults have or have with older children – just talking about things, explaining what we are doing, talking about things around us. We read a book just how it’s normally done with older children too and read it again if she asks us to (which happens most of the time).

We make a big mistake of underestimating children and thinking they need to be taught things whereas in reality they need to experience things and that helps them learn all about it.

Sticking on Paper

A simple activity for hand-eye coordination. I picked up stickers from the Supermarket of different animals, vehicles (things she recognizes). Gave her a sheet of stickers along with a blank piece of paper. Presented the activity to her by showing her how to remove and then stick on paper and left her to work.

Balance Bike

We have been trying our hand on the bicycle and after a lot of research choose something on the Montessori principles (after we were convinced this was the best choice). We decided on getting her a balance bike (a cycle without pedals). We have this for sometime now but have just about started using it. I will wait for sometime before giving a complete review and experience. Till then, you can read about it and always contact me if you have any doubts about the Balance Bike and I would be happy to help.

Care of Environment

Should we get plants? Is it the right time? What if she puts the mud in her mouth? What is she pulls out all the flowers and leaves? Is she ready?

Some of the many questions we had for a long time and kept delaying it. But this month we finally got some for our house and we are so happy we did. My Munchkin is daddy’s a little gardening helper. She helps him water, sits and watches when he plants new ones. She did not do any of the things we were worried about. In fact, she reminds us every morning that they need to be watered and brings the watering can to help her father.

Plants at home instill in children a core value to care of other plants and tress in our society, city, and country, everywhere. And I am sure you agree this is the need of the hour.

Apart from plants, My Munchkin knows where the duster, broom, mop, etc are kept and quite often uses them to clean the house. For example, when she spills water, she brings the duster to wipe the water. Children watch us or house helps clean and they learn from them. It is very natural for them to want to broom or mop and wipe something and it is important that we let them do this. It is an urge they are fulfilling and it is also helping them learn to keep their environment clean which is something that helps in the long run.

What does your Munchkin do for Care of the Environment? Do you have Plants that they help care for? Do they enjoy cleaning the house too?

As children grow, they are more interested in seeing people and animals; if given a book with realistic images they will enjoy looking at them. after a certain point they are able to distinguish between known faces they see on a daily basis and are able to recognize each of them.

I had once come across a nice DIY on familiar faces and I decided to try that out for My Munchkin based on the above two factors. So I did a DIY of our families’ pictures – My Munchkin, her father and mine. I kept it to just us so that I do not overwhelm her with too much at one time.

What do you need for this DIY? Pictures, that’s what you mainly need.

I suggest having the images of mid size, something like 5 x 5 inches so that your Munchkin is able to hold them easily and look at them.

There are two ways of making this activity:

1)Give the images of a photo studio or printing shop and they will print and laminate it for you.

2)If you want to DIY the entire thing, then get the photos printed on card stock (or good quality paper).  You would also need to buy lamination sheets (1 sheet of A3 size would be enough for 4-6 pictures). I would recommend buying one that is at least 125 microns thick. These would be available with your local stationery shop.

You guessed right – we are going to laminate them at home!

Once you have your pictures print, cut them out to the required size. Take your lamination sheet and place the images in between. Make sure you keep sufficient space between them to cut so that they do not open up.

Once this is placed, heat the iron up. Place the lamination sheet on the ironing board or a smooth surface and put a cotton cloth over it. Press down with the hot iron and slowly move the iron from one end to the other. Do this without lifting the iron to avoid bubbles from forming. You can repeat this step once more.

Let it cool a bit and then check if it has laminated from all sides. If you feel it is opening up from some part, cover that with the cloth and iron over it.

Once done, let it cool completely and then cut each image out – do keep some of the lamination plastic as a border (like it is normally seen it laminated documents).  Do round all the sharp edges with a scissor so they do not hurt your Munchkin.

I will try and upload a detailed DIY for laminating at home soon.

Once you have your pictures ready through either of the above methods, put them into a little basket / tray and give them to your Munchkin to explore.

Age: You can start as early as 5-6 months and they generally use this activity for a long time.

Purpose: Helps in recognition or familiar faces. Later this becomes a goo way to associate a picture to the actual person.

Do try this one out with your Munchkin and leave me some feedback on how they enjoyed it.