Kittens for Keeps (Jenny's Surprise Summer)

This is a hard to find book, lucky we were able to borrow one.

1. WEATHER

We talked about sunny days and rainy days.

Free downloadable printouts are pasted and we added some more to color

2. EXPERIENCE THE BEACH

Since the story is set by the beach, and we couldn't run out to beach , so we pulled out our photos instead.

Happy swimming with dad, morning dance by the
pool and a walk with me to the beach

Indoors, my daughter played with sand and took her pick of pebbles and shells.She even selected her favorite shell.

Practiced transferring shells from one plate to the other with hand, with spoon and by plate pouring.

3. LEARNING MORE ABOUT CATS

We didn't have a cat, the nearest we could get was a walk near Quirino grandstand where she saw three kittens.

Wasn't able to document the walk,
instead, here's a photo of a cat I took from my client's place

Discussed the basic needs of a kitten

Caring for your pet

4. CHOICES

We discussed similarities and differences, what sets each kitten apart. How the character came to a decision. I asked her who among the two is she choosing, if she was in her place and why.

We read rhymes and poems too

Practice and develop your child's logical reasoning and choices, no matter what age. You'll be surprised and amused on how they think.

She'll be an Achie (Big Sister)!

As soon as we knew we were expecting, I thought of ways how to explain to a 2 1/2 year old what it is to have a brother or a sister.

My daughter saying hi to the'baby inside mommy's tummy'

1. VIDEO
Showing her a link from Baby Center to show her that babies develop in a mother's tummy.
My cue that she got the idea when she leaned to my tummy and said Mommy I do not fit there anymore.
:)

2. BOOK
One of her favorite books We're Going on a Bear Hunt shows four siblings. we revisited the story and discussed each family member.

3. MEETING WITH FRIENDS
A play date with my friend's daughters explaining they are sisters just like the movie Frozen.
(In the movie Frozen she noticed the main characters look alike, I took the opportunity to explain what it is to mean to have a sister or a brother)

fun play date

4. SYMBOL
I love charms, my daughter helps me bead when there is one added to my mini collection.
My daughter identifies each face as one of us.
Now she is pointing another one for the baby to come.

5. PICTURES
Showed her an album, a timeline of photos from my 1st pregnancy picture, the time she was born,  till the recent one that she can recognize that it is her.

Another is an ultrasound of the baby to come, It's a photo of the 'baby inside mommy's tummy'. She responded with Yes I can see but it's too dark! :)

FURTHER EXPLAINING
Together with this we are explaining to her the needs of a newborn, how helpless she used to be, and how much attention we need to put when the baby arrives and her role to play as a big sister.

And the greatest thing she is looking forward to is that  she is going to have a playmate!

Come and see the Clouds!

Yesterday is the first typhoon my daughter remembered. Looking outside the window seeing the strong winds, falling branches, she asked me What's happening, Mommy?

To answer her, we explained what a typhoon is, a simple answer to satisfy a 2 1/2 yr old child.

Power interruption is a minefield of doing productive activities because you have the full attention of your family. We went on to pick-up Eric Carle's Little Cloud.

We made our own art version of Little Cloud, all glittery and bright.

My daughter put the glitters, drew the grass and counted sheep

We walked through the sequence of events.

Drawings by her dad from Little Cloud to Rain Clouds

Then I remembered my husband is fond of taking sunsets and landscape photos.
Focusing on looking and seeing the clouds, we had fun creating Little Cloud's transformations.

A Ship behind a ship, my daughter named it Ship Nessis (she is the only one who knows what it means, ;) ) 

Taken from one of our trips last year, never noticed the Train behind

Doodles we did on a tablet, with my daughter coaching me what colors to use and what it should look like!

A Plane flies thru the Manila Bay

A Giraffe walking thru the deep seas of Bali

This is the smiling Fish as my daughter said

Never seize to imagine. It sparks the magic of every child in you.

Ang Pambihirang Sombrero (The Amazing Hat)

Two Languages
This local book is  bilingual -  English & Tagalog. I have given some friends a copy of this, some of their children has difficulty in English and some in Tagalog, so this would be a great addition to their collection. 

Go on a Field Trip 
Exploring this book, one suggestion is to go around the neighborhood visiting each character. 
We'll put off that for later when my daughter gets a little bigger and then we will revisit the book. 

Memory Exercise
What we did is sequencing of events and identification of items.

Daughter colored the hat plus  pasted each item
on top of the hat. as the book sequence goes.

Math


We made fun shots as the character Mia tried on nine different ways to wear a hat, we did nine different ways to wear nine different hats!

We counted each pose in English and in Mandarin too.

Coloring and Writing Skills

At the end of the book there is a matching of every profession and their tools. We printed a copy as little daughter tries to learn how to match dots.

Daughter did the color selection and obviously the coloring, haha!

Hope you find your pambihirang sombrero and make magic!

Prayer for A Child

With the start of the school year this June, we wanted to go with the bandwagon of starting on something.

We are now doing a lapbook, well it's more of a sketchbook of what we are doing.

Starting off with Prayer for a Child, it's simplicity appeals to every child.

To make a book more of an experience for us, here are our activities:

1. We pray before sleeping using this book. 

2. We drew things that we were thankful for. 

3. We pray for other kids and represented them by pasting a printout of kids of different nationalities.

4. At the end of the day we thank for each member of the family and pray to keep us close and away from harm.

Have a great day and don't forget to be thankful even of the tiniest of things.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

A seminar I attended has recommended this book and I bought it thinking my daughter will enjoy this at a later time, she took interest in it before she turned two. Letters didn't mean much to her that time, so we set it aside for a while.

Meanwhile we enjoy Moncure books and singing ABCs at the start and end of each set.

Still waiting to coplete the set

We were surprised when she sang the whole alphabet one afternoon. So we revisited  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, oh what fun she had.

We have come upon a song by the author, John Archambault , and an activity for it.

I did the cutting, my daughter did the pasting, rolling and sticking!

My daughter and I discussed our next project and shopped for the materials. (anticipation is a great factor in any activity).  Well she has been eager and saying to all that we are making a Boom Boom tree. 

Stickers are always a seller to kids.

After the tree, she went on to play with the magnetic Mommies and Daddies that are 'running to their babies' to get to the Coconut Tree!

she said it's her idea to line up the letters by color :)

Have fun and hope you enjoy learning or reading to our ABC story as we did!

A Mother's Love

One good Mother's Day book, I would say is THE RUNAWAY BUNNY. We read this for more than a week.

It is a simple story about a mother's unwavering love to her child. I have never understood the depth of a mother's love until I became one.

The world I saw is being a daughter for thirty years, until that night I became a mother.

I held my daughter with tears with my eyes thinking this is what a mother feels like. I thought of my mom.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and the moms that touched your heart.