DIY / CRAFTS – Page 2 – Mama The Explorer

WASHABLE ART MATERIALS: NOT MONTESSORI ENOUGH?

January 5, 2019 No Comments

Washable crayons. Washable paint. Washable markers. Erasable pencils. Washable stamp pads. Erasable Highlighters. Everything in our home right now is washable/erasable! This is my solution so I can allow my child to draw outside the paper/ blackboard/ intended surface for writing. My son, currently 2 years and 2 months old, is at that stage where he scribbles ALL DAY. He loves working on pencils and chalks and paints so much that instead of toys, our must-have for his going out […]

ACTIVITIES, DIY / CRAFTS, HOME, PARENTING, SENSORIAL

QUICK DIY: LIGHTBOX TABLE

December 14, 2018 No Comments

I’ve always wanted a lightbox table, but my husband hasn’t found time to make one. In the meantime, I brought our container from IKEA (that I bought with this DIY lightbox in mind) and did an easy, quick DIY lightbox table that we could bring with us anywhere anytime. MATERIALS NEEDED: Frosted Container/ Box (ours is from IKEA, you can check their containers for their Trofast/ Flisat line). You can also use glass if you’re comfortable with glass. A camping […]

ACTIVITIES, ART, DIY / CRAFTS, PARENTING, SENSORIAL

DIY COLOR GRADATION MATCHING WORK

December 11, 2018 No Comments

Gradation is a technique where colors gradually transition from one color to another, and as I encounter fixing color cards (or blocks, or anything!) from lightest to darkest, I begin to realize how hard it can really be sometimes – especially when the colors are too close to each other. This is one of the basic skills Montessorians heavily support – from the Gobbi mobile to the color tablets, and homemade activities like this one. My son is very familiar […]

ART, DIY / CRAFTS, HOME

DIY PROJECT: HOMEMADE WATERCOLOR SET

September 4, 2018 No Comments

Publishing my 2014 post on DIY Watercolor Set from my other blog here since I figured many parents will also appreciate this! A really easy and fun way do make your own watercolor set. And the best part is – everything is actually edible, so you know the exact ingredients of your child’s material. Just a note: I know it says it lasts for a long time in the video I will share down below, but in my experience, it […]

ACTIVITIES, ART, DIY / CRAFTS, FINDS, PARENTING, SENSORIAL

INVITATION TO PLAY WITH CLAY

August 2, 2018 1 Comment

My son has really been into clay lately, so today, I’m sharing quickly how I make a tray for him. No, you don’t need to buy those plastic “dough” sets for your child’s play – they usually come out more expensive, but if you already have them, no worries – use them and just arrange them in a more orderly manner in your tray. Look around your kitchen and your craft supplies and you might have just what you need. […]

ACTIVITIES, DIY / CRAFTS, HOME, PARENTING, SENSORIAL

QUICK DIY: MATCHING WORK FOR TODDLERS

July 6, 2018 1 Comment

Matching work is one of the activities Montessori parents do that I easily loved (just by looking at their photos). I was eager to see it in action, but I really want my son to own the discovery for many things, so I patiently waited, and sometime on his 18th or 19th month, I think – he just suddenly started matching and it was probably one of the most exciting days around here for me. I need to stress this […]

ACTIVITIES, CULTURE AND WORLD, DIY / CRAFTS, HOME, PARENTING

DIY BAHAY KUBO (TODDLER-FRIENDLY WORK)

June 12, 2018 1 Comment

We got a copy of Tahanan’s Bahay Kubo book last week, and since then, my son just got hooked to the song (listen to our song here) and the book. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to display a miniature bahay kubo at home (we have a farm-themed one, so I wanted one with trees and miniature fruits), so we visited Balikbayan Handicrafts and Tesoro’s but came home empty-handed. They don’t have bahay kubos except for really small ones […]

ACTIVITIES, DIY / CRAFTS, PARENTING, PRACTICAL LIFE, SENSORIAL

PEELING ACTIVITIES FOR TODDLERS

May 21, 2018 No Comments

My son is at the stage where he loves to peel, rip, peel, rip! I usually don’t mind when he does those because that means he’s also working on his fine motor skills. For books, I have observed that he likes ripping books with glossy pages (think magazine type), and thankfully, we only have a few of those out, so for now, since he started flipping pages, he has only ripped 2 books in total (and both bought on sale, […]

DIY / CRAFTS, PARENTING, THOUGHTS

HOW TO MAKE YOUR MATERIAL MORE MONTESSORI-FRIENDLY

December 31, 2017 No Comments

Sharing my sorta-DIY stacking material for last night. Here’s one way I make P’s existing materials more in line with Montessori’s principles. See, a few days ago, while on vacation, P has shown spontaneous interest in stacking. He’d stack whatever he would find – speakers on a box, phones on top of one another, etc. This is the only one I got to take photos of – he saw our paper bag of containers, got a few and stacked them […]

ACTIVITIES, DIY / CRAFTS, INFANT, PARENTING, SENSORIAL

DIY POSTING WORK FOR MINIMAL OR NO COST (FOR INFANTS AND TODDLERS)

December 11, 2017 5 Comments

My son was 9 months old when he first showed interest in doing posting work. He tried out a peg material that he would see us fix, but we never directly taught him how to do. About a month after that, he showed readiness for the coin-box type of posting work. Usually, they begin to show readiness for posting work from their late infancy to early toddler years. But, children are different, so just observe them and be ready to […]