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.
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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.