Bambino Academy Basics: Washing Up - Sensory and Practical Life Lessons

Our little bambino's are never too young to begin the fine art of washing the dishes. What's more, they actually really want to do it and at times will beg to do it.

I know some you are probably freaking out about all of the mess and the water and bubbles everywhere and granted, that is going to happen, but just look at his focus, he was so into this and did a really great job at it too.

Save all of the non breakable easy to wash items from the day and whilst you are preparing dinner, get the toddler set up at the sink. Don't forget that their little fingers can't tolerate the water as hot as we can, add plenty of bubbles for that fun factor, a chair or stool to stand on and let them at it.

When they are done, they will no doubt be soaked through, great time for a bath (unless of course dinner is ready hehehe) and the floor will be a huge puddle. Well it needed mopping anyway and you don't even need to fill the bucket.

• Flower Arranging

• Colour Recognition and Sorting

• Dry Pouring

Bambino Academy Basics: Dry Pouring

Dry Pouring is a favourite activity around here at the moment. This simple, yet effective work keeps him busy for a very long time....well a long time when you are only 2 that is!

It took me so long to find something that I could actually use to set this work up. Maybe I was just being picky I don't know but I literally spent months scouring second hand stores and came up trumps every time.

In the end I purchased these little tiny milk jugs from a kitchen supply store.

We are using larger items to pour with and always pouring on a try, as that means much less clean up and C can do the clean up himself, especially when we he can pick up the items, such as macaroni, kidney beans and sometimes popping corn (good pincer grip practice too), although that is getting slightly smaller. Eventually we'll progress to rice and sand before tackling wet pouring.

I am led to believe that I should also keep my eye out for pouring implements that have different sized spouts. Which I will do but since I had such a hard time finding these little gems I won't be holding my breath.

The tray is presented very simply, with the jugs ready for him to pour with his right hand into the left jug. I have shown him to swap them around after he has finished pouring to ensure he is always pouring from his right. Obviously the aim with this is build the coordination so that the child can pour effortlessly, wet or dry, independently. An important skill for practical every day life.

• Flower Arranging

• Colour Recognition and Sorting

Bambino Academy: Flower Arranging

Children of all ages love this simple activity and you can make it really easy for toddlers to do.

Next time you are the lucky beneficiary of flowers be sure to keep the tray and the flower foam. (you could also just go and buy some, most 'cheapy' stores sell this)

As you can see, ours is nearing the end of its life span, it has been well used. Having this makes flower arranging very simple.

I purchased three bunches of different flowers from the $2 shop, pulled them all apart (leaving the stems in tact) and B pushes them into the flower foam.

Simple, fun and looks fabulous when they are done.

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Bambino Academy: Cutting & Stamping Fun

~ ~ C is 22 months ~ ~

C had a great week and was more than happy to choose a variety of materials from his shelves. He also had a couple of firsts with some of them too.

Our monthly Art Gallery visit was moved to the morning so he got to come along and thankfully this time around they had out heaps of things for littles to explore.

He fell in love with this wooden cake immediately, spending quite a lot of time pulling the candles off and putting them back on and blowing them out, of course. (practising for something that is just around the corner maybe ;-)

Then he found the knife and was completely enthralled with cutting up the cake.

He chose this little bear puzzle, it's one of those one's where you can mix and match the pieces. We only have enough pieces to make one bear out at the moment, but now that he has mastered it I might add in some of the other bits for him.

Some simple stamping with animal stamps, full of nice messy black ink!

I've been searching for a cheese shaker (non breakable) for ages and finally found one at the local $2 store. He loved this. Simple pipe cleaners pushed into the holes of the shaker. He inspected the ends of each of them before pushing them into the holes.


See mum, all finished!


And for another first, since he enjoyed the cake cutting so much I rolled out some playdough for him and gave him a butter knife to cut it up. He spent well over half an hour doing this one activity, he was completely in the zone.

For more toddler activities be sure to visit:

Toddler Tuesday at One Hook Wonder
Tot Tuesday at Delicious Ambiguity
Tot School at 1+1+1=1

Weekly Wonders #2 - 14th February 2010

Happy Valentines Day!

Well this week was but a near right off! I was quite sick for 3 days (spent one entire day with my head in the toilet, but I won't go into anymore details than that and it took me another 2 days to fully recover) which meant little to no 'real' work was done around here (monday's we are with our homeschool network) and even less of it was photographed.

I have only just caught up on the washing, the folding is another matter. I still need to try and tackle the rest of the house.

We barely even read this week. My nausea was so bad that I just couldn't focus on anything, the most I could do was turn the pages for little C to look at the pictures in his books. But as always the kids seem to keep themselves busy and amused. That is definitely a plus to having older children at home. I barely had to worry about C, he was completely entertained by his big brother and sister, thank goodness!

I'm all good now though so hopefully this week will be somewhat better. I will share the photo's I did get but I am not going to bother to break it down into KLA's, seems kind of pointless for this week.

I am linking up to Tot School for C, he is currently 18 months old.

C actually got to experience his very first sensory tub this week. I know I've been slack in this department, you all come up with such great ideas. Being his first I really wanted to keep it as simple as possible and also tried to minimise the possible mess. Plus it was a spur of the moment decision so I had to run with what I had on hand. The sensory tub was made up of a mixture of large pasta pieces, pom poms and feathers.

I'm so glad of a couple of things, one that I chose the large pasta as he thoroughly enjoyed spooning it all over the floor, two, that I chose to use his large sand/water play tub as K also enjoyed playing with the sensory tub. I do think I will try and move it to an under the bed storage container though as it means the sand/water tub is out of action for other things then.


He did spend a considerable amount of time spooning from one side into this smallish cup and tipping it out. So I think he would be ready for these types of activities on his shelves. I need to hunt down a few items first (small jugs etc) before we can begin.

I have no idea of athe normal age that one would start with pouring/spooning activities with toddlers but does it really matter all that much?


He chose his stacker peg board this week and always stacks them all on top of each other to see how high he can go. When he can no longer reach the top comfortably (when he has to stand) then I have to place the last few in position for him.



I have had this shape puzzle out for a fortnight now and he has not shown any interest in it what so ever. I grabbed it off the shelf on this day and he was happy enough to sit for a few minutes with the material. We talked about the shapes only, for now I left the colours out of the scenario.

One evening this week C and I were drawing together and I drew a quick small circle, told him it was a circle and he then coloured it and did his best at saying circle. From then on he has been coming to me wanting me to draw circles so he can colour them.


A few left over stickers this week. He is slowly gettting better with placing them. A few had lost their sticky so I showed him how to use a glue stick but he really wasn't into that at all. (except for using it as a paint brush)


I have also been peeling off all of the backing from his stickers, this has made it so much easier for him to be able to peel them from the sheet.

We've had quite a bit of landscaping and gardening happening here the last few days. All of the plants were delivered to finish the garden around the new pool area (yes I will eventually show some photo's of that progress) so it was all hands on deck to set the plants out. C was very keen to help out as he always is.

He is thoroughly smitten with 'ducks' at the moment, that is actually trucks to you and I but comes out ducks...too cute! Even what was previously to him a car, is now a 'duck'.

That's our Tot School for this week. To see what other Tots have been getting up to visit 1+1+1=1.

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I'm linking up to Preschool Corner for K, which is hosted over at Homeschool Creations.

After going back through my handful of photo's for the week I realised that I didn't have one of K, not one! What's up with that, she's normally our busiest little beaver, when it comes to output! Oh well, she also normally has the most photo's when it comes to sharing the things the kids have been up to so it all balances out in the end, right?!

K5 had her Gymnastics and Art Classes with our Home School Network on Monday, but I forgot my camera so I have no photo's there. I am so happy with how she has settled in this year. She really hasn't needed me at all. Her self confidence is blooming!



Whilst I was near dying on the lounge (well feeling very ill and sorry for myself) B and K decided that they would make an indoor obstacle course. I did manage to take a quick video of it, my only input was the masking tape line that was supposed to be a tightrope.

This is a better view of some of the planting in action. Well I think they are more just setting everything out here by the looks.


Not sure when this little number got done (remember I was off in the land of the sick sicks for some time this week) but everything is from our 'box contruction' basket.

K did spend some time with her Montessori materials, mainly the sensorial ones. I am still getting everything out and want to make sure that I am giving presentations of all of the materials as they go out on the shelves.

She spent some time working on her Earlybird Maths. She is such a funny thing with her 'school work'. I like her to do some thing, more just to get her into the routine than anything. ( I envisage K moving more into Montessori than any of the traditional working styles) Most days she will tell me that she doesn't want to do it and all I ask of her is to have a go. Then, every single time, without a doubt, she sits down and never wants to finish. I have to tell her to put her math stuff away and do something else LOL!! Honestly I can't win either way LOL!

She did some more work on even numbers, sequencing, counting in 2's and began ordinal numbers. She also worked a little with the number rods and the numerals and counters (although I think she is pretty much beyond that work now).

How do you know when to remove work from the shelf? When they never touch it? When you know that they have mastered it? We don't have the luxury of extra space to leave everything out so we have to remove work from time to time.

Well that is all I have for Preschool Corner. Gee I hope everyone else had a better week than we did. Check out Homeschool Creations for more Preschool Corner posts.

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And so this brings us to B's week, well what I can remember of it anyway!

No camera for Monday's Home School Network Classes, but B is thoroughly enjoying all of his. Mixed Sports I think is the definite winner, he also had Gymnastics and is focussing really well. Art this week did not hold his attention at all, which is a first for B, so not sure if it was the lesson or just him.


Box Construction car for his baby brother.


Surprisingly he did get in quite a bit of Language work. I have purchased the Blue Series Work from Montessori For Everyone (love Lori's materials) and have been getting it all out on the shelves. I know I have said it before and I am sure I will say it again, but all of that cutting, laminating and more cutting really takes so much time doesn't it!

He is finding the blue series work really quite easy (which I thought he might of) however his reading level is still really only in line with the blue series work (most of the time). So for you veteran Montessorian's, what do you suggest? Do I leave the blue work out until his reading catches up or do we move forward and begin introducing the Green Series Work?

Somehow he got most of his next lesson done in the Fitzroy Reading Program (we'll finish it off today so he can start a fresh this coming week) and even a little from his Explode The Code Work.



In math he covered, adding 5's, money addition (which he loves) tally's and graphs, counting in 5's (strange one to include as I think as he has been doing that for 2 years), working with prisms and beginning multiplication (repeated addition).

I'm not quite ready to present him with Montessori Math Materials just yet. I am still getting my head around presenting and getting it all right. I also need to make sure I understand all of the materials before I sit them down in front of him. He is however itching to get to use some that are more at his level.

At some stage this week he decided to draw the Sydney Oper House, with a water reflection and the Harbour Bridge in the background. Then set about painting it.


The finished piece, all whilst I was sick, so I had really no idea he was doing it.

B's also been helping out the garden, although the huge piles of dirt are starting to be alot more fun to play in than actually planting trees.


B in the indoor obstacle course the kids put together.

That brings us to the end of the week. Definitely looking forward to a better week ahead.



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To see more weekly updates from other homeschoolers and some really cool blogs visit:

1+1+1=1 for Tot School Posts

Homeschool Creations for Preschool Corner Posts

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Tot Toys Shelf

I've been asked by a couple of people what I do with my Tot toys, keeping in mind that he is only 15 months so things are still kept very simple around here. I don't believe in making things harder than what they need to be.

Our TV Cabinet is very low and just the right height for him at the moment. The actual shelf opening could be somewhat wider but this all I have to go with right now.

So currently on his shelf he has the little wooden click clack walker dog, some books, babushka doll with only one inside and a stack a peg set. (don't worry I just noticed you can see all of those cords at the back of the shelf, it is very deep and he cannot reach them. I will now go and make sure they are running right along the back of the shelf though just to be sure)

Then down on the floor next to the shelf (as they won't fit on the shelf due to the opening size), wooden stacking nesting blocks (only 3 out of 10 and no I did not buy these because they are Night Garden, they were the only wooden ones I could find at the time, we are waiting on a pink tower) and his hammering station. (and I just found K's wand, she's been looking for that, see it hiding)

I just rotate once he seems to lose interest in these things. (we are out of the house at least 2 mornings a week and he naps every afternoon, plus outside play time so usually I only need to change them around once a week) The best part about this is the mess is minimal. I do have a small basket of other toys and books in the second living room but they are just in a basket. Plus he isn't getting overwhelmed with all of that stuff if it was just a big mass of toys, which I know my daughter did and still does. (working on her room is a Christmas holiday job) I try very hard to come right near him when he is looking like finishing off with an activity and ask him to help me put them away on the shelf there and then.

I do also bring other things out to do with him, but they generally go straight back. Puzzles he really isn't ready for on his own but we do have a go together at these. Crayons and any other simple art supplies I also bring out he his far too young and might I say it 'wild' with his hands and scribbling to leave them out. We have already had a couple of drawings on the walls from rouge pens he has found. (his big brother never did that and his sister only once hehehehe)

So really that's about it, nothing flash or exciting, but it is working for us for now. I am sure in a few months I will need to change things about again as he grows and matures.