KADESH: Cuty mixed blue and red paint to get the purple wine color and then painted his cup of wine as well as inside the letters

 URCHATZ- Cuty traced his hands and then I cut them out for him. He then painted the kvart and glued them all on by himself

 KARPAS- I cut out leaves for the parsley and Cuty stuck them onto the parsley that I drew for him. He then glued actual salt onto the bowl for the salt water. The way he did this was I poured salt into a bowl and he used a spoon to put the salt on the glue. With the remaining salt he poured it onto a tray and played with it, making pictures with his finger and just enjoying the salt through his fingers

 YACHATZ- We worked on the concept of the right, left and middle box and where each Matzah goes. Cuty didnt want to break the middle matzah though so we just stuck a whole matzah in the middle

 MAGGID- Using the theme of numbers, we discussed the 10 Plagues (brought down to a 3 year olds level), 3 Matzos and 4 cups of wine, along with matching stickers… but Cuty had his own agenda with the stickers

 RACHTAH- Same thing as URCHATZ, but added the brachah

 MOTZI MATZAH- Had Matzah Stickers so Cuty made a “matzah Snake”

 MAROR- I drew the maror and someone crying because it is so bitter- Cuty stuck pieces of foam on it

 KORECH- We made a sandwich out of construction paper and pieces of foam stickers

 Munchkin had her own project while we did some of our pages:)

While I personally really love the Montessori method, my Cuty tends to get bored pretty quickly when doing certain activities… these 2 math activities took about 5 minutes each until he decided he was done- maybe they were too easy for him? I’ll keep trying new things!

 This was Munchkins activity just before bedtime… I had tons of pieces of foam scraps in all different colors- so I took off the backs and stuck them on the table for her to stick on the paper by herself… she LOVED it and I was able to get a few things done in the kitchen while she was busy:)

For the past 2 weeks it has been unseasonably rainy, cloudy and windy- and so we have pretty much had to stay indoors… which for us is pretty challenging given that we are usually always outside! So check out what we have been up to!

 We took Puzzle pieces and Cuty traced each shape… he was a little hesitant to do the hexagon, but he did it all by himself:)

Cuty did this book with the Cheerios, really great for fine motor skills and getting kids ready for writing using the pincer grasp…

I found a bucket of dreidels from Chanukah and Munchkin was kept busy for about 20 minutes filling it up and emptying it out over and over again…

We sorted into different colors, then shapes…

Matched Upper case letters to Lower case… (went through the whole alphabet)

Sorted Alef Bet magnets into different colors…

Lego Jumbo Jet created by Cuty all by himself (age 3!)

and Magnets, Munchkin did the farm, Cuty did the ocean-

We do lots and lots of reading, my kids absolutely love books and will read by themselves or have us read to them.  The kids also turned the living room into a lake and the couches were the boats… then they took some pillows and turned them into different farm animals to ride on- Its so much fun seeing where their little imaginations take them! And then when the sun came out we went outside and traced our shadows on the driveway with chalk- Cuty got such a kick out of that~ Its just never ending all the fun and learning these kids can do!

Today was a rainy, windy really yucky day… and so we decided to make our own playdough. Now, my Cuty is only 3, but he was able to make this all by himself and it kept him busy for an entire hour!

Here is the recipe that I found in the “Everything Toddler Activity Book”:

1 cup Salt

1 cup Flour

1/2 cup Water

Food Coloring

In a large bowl, my Cuty and I measured the salt, flour and water and he mixed it all together with a wooden spoon. I gave it a good mix once or twice just to get a proper consitency but he did most of the mixing. He then used his hands to knead it into an actual dough which he loved. Once it was a dough, we divided it into 4 sections and mixed in 4 different color food coloring. It came out pretty cool.

He then went on to make a snow man (the closest we will get to the real thing, living on Maui!)

and then a rainbow. And he did this completely by himself at the kitchen table while I made chocolate chip cookies with Munchkin (his little sis). I will add that recipe too as they are so delish! Enjoy!

Delish Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

3/4 cup White Sugar

1 cup margerine

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Egg

1 Bag Chocolate Chips

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (or white, but I use Whole Wheat)

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Combine sugars, margerine, vanilla and egg and mix well. Add chocolate chips, flour, baking soda and salt. Drop by tablespoons on a well greased cookie tray and bake for 13 minutes. Allow to cool for 2 minutes then move to a wirewrack. Enjoy!

This week we are going to concentrate on the different laws of Shabbos and the Mishkan-

I really enjoy the Montessori method of learning and am trying to incorporate it into our daily lives.  I love the idea of having trays of activities and how the kids almost teach themselves with our being on the sidelines. If we can master that, we will be really happy!

So now I am just brainstorming some ideas for the coming week:

1- A Shabbos Lapbook: we will draw/cut out pictures of things that we do and don’t do on Shabbos and put them in the correct column. I’ll put the empty lapbook on a tray along side a glue stick and pictures for Cuty to paste. Also will put a few markers if he wants to color and draw pictures of his own.

2- Discuss the idea of Mana and how we were given an extra portion on Fridays, hence we have 2 Challahs… and then bake Challah which is an amazing activity in itself (from the rising of the yeast to the measurements of ingredients, kneeding the dough etc.)

3- Starting this Friday night and Shabbos day we will get Cuty to start helping to set the Shabbos table.

4- We will go through our library and take out a bunch of books about Shabbos to read this week. Also, we have Hebrew and English flashcards and will take the words out that relate to Shabbos and practice reading them

5- In regards to the Mishkan, it may be a bit too complex for Cuty but I think we can really bring it down to his level and go through each thing that was used… Ah! We will MAKE playdough and use it to make the different things used in the Mishkan, will let you know how that turns out!

My Cuty wasn’t feeling well this week so we have had a week of lots and lots of free play… which has been so great- from legos, to cars, to constuction set, to big blocks, wood blocks- he has just kept himself so busy… even getting extra time in the bathtub with cups and balls and bowls- it just goes to show that kids are just constantly learning and discovering and exploring and creating and it eases the pressure to follow a specific curriculum since they figure so many things out by themselves just through playing.

So I think we will continue this week with freeplay and just organize the playroom a little more and get rid of any toys the kids havn’t played with in a while and reintroduce them in a few weeks once they have forgotten about them.

Cuty has also really been into telling the time on a clock- he realizes that when the big hand is on the 12 and the small hand is on a number, it is “that number” o’clock and gets really excited when he tells the time. We have a cute book with a clock that you move the hands which he loves to read and change the time on the clock.

We just go along with what he is interested in, which works really well as well as introducing things to him and seeing how he responds to it. If he likes, we go further, if not, then bring it back later on.

A really fun way to introduce fractions to kids (when they are ready and old enough to understand) is through food-

We started using fishsticks- and introduced the concept of halves, thirds and quarters and how much of each make up a whole. My Cuty really got it once I showed it to him and now he loves eating his fish sticks and telling me “mommy, I ate HALF my fishstick” or “I ate 2 thirds of my fishstick!”

I guess you can use almost any foods, but it is definitely a friendly fun way to start~

Oh, and don’t forget to practice the correct blessings on the foods you are using!