Today's montessori activity would be lacing. I am kind of new to montessori idea so I don't really know whether I am being right or wrong about it though. But I've read one of the fine motor skill that the children have to master is lacing. And I use to see Ayyash doing this kind of activity at his montessori playschool. So we bought Melissa Doug's Lacing Blocks from my friend last month. So I guess this is good as a start insyaAllah.

I would love to have my own brand of educational toys with my name written on it. 

(Okay, berangan tak kena bayar. Haha!)

So this morning we are focusing on lacing/ stringing the wooden blocks. This toy is designed for 3+ years old. So it is easy for Ayyash to just lace the blocks. I asked him to string the beads in specific order based on my description of colour, shape or number of dots. Easy peasy for him.

He finished off by becoming a superhero with super-belt haha! 

(Yes, dia belum mandi, hence the busuk face. Haha!)

Ayyash's super duper ooper schmooper belt!

Whilst Maryam was a bit struggling with lacing. Finally, she gave up on lacing but run around with the string instead -_-' . Maybe we should try this activity later for Maryam.

We were having cekodok later that afternoon when they spread the blocks on the table.

Then Maryam starts to stack the blocks making a tall tower! She did it herself without being asked. Maybe its her sensitive period for this skill.

She cheers when her tower tumbles, but she learns what caused it to tumble. And she stack it again, making it taller each try. Well done, adik!

Ayyash joined in. Look! Maryam sneaked one of his block! They were fighting over who has the most block so that they could make taller tower -_-'

Alhamdulillah, it was a fun learning!

Plastic jugs, bottles, funnels. Bigger sized items for the big brother and little one for the princess.

Here's Ayyash doing the activity. Of course we do it outside. I don't want to spend time cleaning up the mess if we did it indoor. Alhamdulillah the weather was good, not too sunny. Just nice!

Maryam looking at her brother doing the task

Now her turn! Alhamdulillah she did it well.

When the bottle was full I asked her to empty it out.

Now she insisted to try filling in the bottles without the funnel.

Alhamdulillah, it did occupied their time for a while this morning. The aim of this activity is for order, concentration, coordination, independence, eye-hand coordination, fine muscle control. Indirectly they'll learn how to use a funnel and learn to pour into containers with narrow openings. You could also teach new vocabulary; tray, bottle, jug, funnel, pour, narrow opening, neck. I guess this is not challenging enough for them as they could spilled as much water as they want without worrying the mess they made. Next time we are going to do it indoors, at a table and try as much to decently reduce the mess. Hehe!

And of course as they haven't had their morning shower, why not take it outside? Hehe!

Till then, toodles!