Toy of the Day: Montessori Sandpaper Letters Sensory Basket (6M24D)

9 December 2016 (6M24D): Baby FECS loves touch-&-feel baby board books now. So as an extension of the same touch sensory idea and concept, I prepared this Montessori sandpaper letters sensory basket. You simple pick a letter, trace the sand-paper textured letter with baby and say its sound. This is just to give her a foretaste and fun, and familiarity with letters, not to hammer in learning letters at this young age.

8 December 2016: Oops... Before I could put the basket away, I was away for a split second and she started playing with it now... It was supposed to be for tomorrow!

9 December 2016 (6m223d): Baby FECS found the sounds of letters really funny. We traced b, m, k, g, s, o, u, q and v today. She found it fun to sit in the basket and picked a letter.

Here is a video on the sound of letters by a fellow mom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWZ_8vRdZM

Mess-Free Montessori Activity: Montessori in a Tub

Joshua's days of doing Montessori on a potty in the bathroom is numbered... as he is almost fully toilet trained now. I am a clean and neat freak! I need to think of new ways to allow him to play, yet, kept the mess to a minimum. I really envy moms who can take all the mess. It is a talent I do not have. It gets me really distress when everything is in a mess, and I freeze and could not function. I thought of this idea - Mess-Free Montessori in a Tub. He can play with pouring water, beans, flour etc. all within this tub.

I use a 50x39x26 cm transparent smart box as the tub.

Instead of using a tray to demarcate the activity, this tub serves to demarcate the activity. The tub is thus a walled-up tray.

Now I can feel free again to let him continue his activity, while still fulfilling my needs for cleanliness :-)