Bambino Academy - More Easter Themed Works

Here are a few more of our Easter themed work trays, for the Bambino among us. Quite often the bigger kids use some of these and that's all good too.

Pastel playdough with these super cute cutters. These have been played with every day this past week.

Easter Bunny puzzle, a little above his ability so someone normally gives him a hand.

Easter Playdough mats. Crosses on hot cross buns, eggs in a basket and adding features to the Easter Bilby.

Handwriting, vocabulary practice.

Cards and counters.

1 - 10 Easter Bilby Puzzle.

Tonging easter 'gemstones'.

Pattern strips

Check out these other Easter themed posts

• Bambino Academy Printable Easter Pack
• Easter Multiplication Printable
• Easter Themed Bambino Academy (Montessori) Trays
• Easter Sensory Tub
• Easter Counting Cards 
• Marshmallow Easter Bunny
• Bilbies' First Easter

Easter Sensory Exploration Tub

Little Surfer Dude has been loving his mini Easter Sensory Tub. A very simple tub, easter grass, a mini baskets, chicks in varying sizes, some bunnies, easter 'gemstones' and some open/close plastic eggs with little things to find inside.

But still offering loads of fun and exploration.

Have you had a look at the Sensory Tubs Idea List lately? Did you know that there are now 170 Sensory Tub Ideas linked up over there........wow!!

Go now and check it out. I am sure you will find something you'll love to create for your kiddos :-)

Bambino Academy Easter Themed Trays

I thought I'd share a few of our Bambino Academy Easter Themed Trays that are available at the moment.

Simple six piece puzzle.

Colouring Easter Eggs.
He needs to choose the correct colour.

Cutting strips. 

Pre-writing Practice Page.

Easter decorating/arranging.

Colouring sheet.

Dot marker page.

Easter Egg sequin craft. 

Simple activity picked up from a 'cheapie' store. Great for fine motor work though.

The printables are all from my Easter Printable Pack.

I have a few others waiting in the wings. I'll do my best to get them photographed over the next couple of days.

Be sure to check out where I am linking this to.

Australia Day - Activities, Baking, Crafts & Fun

~~~ Happy Australia Day ~~~

This week we've been using our Australia Day Unit, which briefly covers the history of Australia Day.

We had a large party organised for today, with lots of Australian themed activities but the SE area has had massive downpours of rain this week, so we made the decision to cancel our outdoor party.

All of us were very disappointed, considering that we have only had one brief shower here all afternoon :(

Hubby attempted his first ever chocolate creation, that was to be the cake topper for today. Yes the entire flag is chocolate.

We spent a little time every day working through the various aspects of the printable Australia Day unit. I was reading The First Fleet section from The Australian History Collection by Bryce Courtney, whilst the kids coloured our Coat of Arms. They were so particular with the colours chose for this.

This collection of short narratives are easy to read and full of eye catching illustrations.  Topics included are Captain Cook, The First Fleet, Bass and Flinders, Buckley's Chance, Crossing The Blue Mountains, Gold, Burke and Wills & Ned Kelly.

Definitely a great overview of Australian History, a good place to start with, the section on the First Fleet really had the kids imagining what it would have been like back then.

Lego Lover sorted all of the 3 part cards (with descriptions) and glued them to place in his notebook.

Little Surfer Dude loved the Do A Dot ABC pages from the Australia Day printable. 

Because today was supposed to be all about fun and add in that it was my lovely husbands Birthday, we decided to have our Australia Day celebration, after all.

Just the five of us instead of the forty odd that were originally planned.

We made silly Red, White & Blue headwear. I simply laid out the supplies and gave no real instructions.

 

Ok, so not a great photo I know, but, what do they say, no shame no game.....they do say that don't they ?! 

I asked Lego Lover to prepare a map for me using our Wooden Australian Montessori map. He traced each state carefully.

Then labelled each of the capital cities. Meanwhile I printed out a sheet of labels for all of the captial cities and placed them in our math treasure box.

It was time for Pin The Capital City On The Map!

The kids had so much fun with this. Way more than I ever expected. They were giggling themselves silly and they didn't even realise they were learning. Granted the 'educational component' of this was more for Fairy Princess, it was fun for Lego Lover to brush up a little too.

They thought it was absolutely hilarious when dad got one of his city labels way off in the Pacifc Ocean somewhere. It probably didn't help that he had been spun way more than the average 3 times before he had his turn.

The completed map. Overall, they didn't do too badly.

We made a batch of basic sugar cookie dough.

And pressed out little Aussie cookies.

And set about icing them, Red, White & Blue!

The icing was a little runny so we ended up with some pretty funky designs.

Of course we had the obligatory BBQ and a birthday cake for dad.

My parents called in to wish hubby a Happy Birthday. Little Surfer Dude enjoyed some pool time with Pop.

There is simply no Australia Celebration without a game of cricket. Lego Lover has really gotten into the game this season. Not so much watching it on the telly, but having a hit in the backyard with dad.

So even though I know we would have had a fabulous time celebrating today with all of our friends and family, we didn't do too badly on our own.

What about you? How did you spend this Australia Day?

Linked up at Enchanted Thursday's blog hop.

A Baby Chino Moment To Remember

Did you notice that Jolanthe and Carissa have started a new linky?

Moments To Remember

~ Little Surfer Dude is 3.4 years ~ 

~Week Ending November 25th ~

From Jolanthe:

Moments to Remember was developed as a simple way to look back on our week as homeschoolers and find photos that encompass the memories we want to remember. 

The week may have been tough, there may have been more bumps than smiles, but in the end these are the moments that keep us going, the ones we need to remember.

This week, the older two had birthday parties and play dates arranged, so Little Surfer Dude and I got to spend a few rare hours on our own.

We both love and cherish these times. It's so hard to get some special time with each of your kiddo's on their own. You really do need to make the effort with this.

Cultivating those special bonds, that can really only truly grow from, special one on one time, is something that I have been working on with each of the children.

Generally it is because we have something practical to achieve, a haircut, new shoes or clothes.  But I choose to use that time to also spend 'alone time' with that particular child. We go out, get done what we need to get done and then generally have some yummy lunch (kids choice) and if time permits do something else together.

These, "Kid Dates" have been invaluable to me and my children.

Little Surfer Dude is in the 'loving baby chino's' stage, so after spending some time at home cuddling, reading and playing, we met my mum for morning tea and a baby chino....a giant one at that, gee they have grown!!

He is so delightfully gorgeous, I just wish I could bundle him up and keep at this stage of his life forever!

Thanks for starting this linky Jolanthe and Carissa. Please visit Moments To Remember, for more special moments.

The Crafting Has Begun!

If you followed along with my Christmas posts last year, you may remember my post in which I participated in Jolanthe's Ornament Show and Tell. Or maybe you could just go back and read the post to refresh your memory ;-)

This year I decided that our tree would be filled with handmade ornaments. Ornaments made by the kiddo's during the lead up to Christmas! A tree filled with meaning, pleasure and fun as opposed to plastic store bought ornaments that are meaningless. Yikes, huge ask, better get started.

So our tree is up, yes very early this year, but that was deliberate on my part. I needed a bare tree looking at me daily to give me the kick I needed to organise the ornament crafts for the kids.

I've been pinning like crazy and have many ideas over on my Christmas board at Pinterest. Now just to tackle at least a few of them.

We started with something super easy, that all members of the clan could complete in a short period of time. I gathered a few pine cones that I've had here for quite some time. Some ribbon, pom poms, old tinsel, glue and glitter and set the kids to it.

First up the glitter cone, smother said cone in white PVA (craft) glue and sprinkle with glitter colour/s of choice.

This is one project where a heavy hand works wonders and a 3 year old wielding a jar of glitter is deifinitely the best man for the job!

All pretty and sparkly and ready to hang on the tree.

I handed the kids a stash of old tinsel, they wrapped and pushed it into the pine cones for another sparkly variation.

Finally, christmas sparkle pom poms. At first I had thought we'd need glue, but no, simply push them in well and voila, yet another ornament for the tree.

I tied a piece of red ribbon to each pine cone for easy hanging and the tree already has some life to it.

Check out all of the crafts linked at this year's Christmas Fun link up.