Montessori Puzzle Balls

I have been looking and thinking about how to make these for ages now. 

I found a tutorial over HERE and HERE

and started making my own, and for others.

I can't wait for this coming addition (I am now coming to my 7th month of Pregnancy) to have a go at it.

In case you are wondering,

what the heck is a puzzle ball and what's it good for?

Read on :)

Montessori Puzzle Ball is a wonderfully versatile toy that follows your child from infancy through toddlerhood. More Variety Coming soon!

During Infancy: Hang the ball above your baby's movement mat or car seat / Bouncer / Gym and you might notice them beginning to reach out to touch things whilst lying down. This can start happening from as early as 12 weeks, and although your baby's movements w

ill be very clumsy at first...if you watch carefully you will see a definite pattern in the motion of their arms and legs.

3-4mths: Baby in Sitting Position frees the baby's hands for working together and the puzzle ball is easily grasped and passed from hand to hand. The ball is also great for rolling as it doesn't roll very far due to its unique shape. Babies delight in reciprocal games, so rolling a ball back and forth will rate highly on their list of favourite activities.

The ball offers great incentive to early crawlers, as it presents the right amount of challenge. Rolling far enough to make them want to chase, but not so far as to cause frustration.

And as a toddler your little one will love to practice throwing, catching and kicking with the indoor-friendly puzzle ball.

And Here are a few of the Puzzle balls that I have made:

Have the time?

Go make one for your little ones!

My little Chago is enjoying a kick at it and tossing it around and feeling and pinching it whenever he gets his hands on them :)

Till I sew Next!

Counting Play Mat

I had another request for a playmat... Actually, to be honest, I had lots of requests but I had to turn them down. It takes a lot of head cracking, hardwork and TIME as well as some stretching and some patience when it comes to sewing a play mat. This order was long overdue actually. Since December I think? Luckily it was for a friend and she understood. Plus, the first trimester I had wasn't exactly the same easy going one like when I was pregnant with Chago. 

So here's the finished product.

The counting Play Mat.

kind of actually thrilled at the fact that just after minutes of uploading the pictures, I had over 150 hits on my facebook album! Thank you So much for the grand Support! It makes me feel so so special  :)

Enjoy!

P/s: Forgive me for the quality of the photos taken...

Chago just couldn't contain himself therefore I had to mind him and the picture taking at the same time!

Customized for Qayyum

An Apple in a basket

A car with TWO wheels

A sandwich with THREE eggs

A Fish bowl with FOUR Fishes

A night Cloud with FIVE stars

A dice with SIX Dots

A bag of Cookies with SEVEN Cookies

A flower with EIGHT petals

A Birthday Cake with NINE Candles

A tree with TEN birds

Now time for the "Play"

Starting with the flowers since they are the most colourful ones on the mat

Took them off, counted, named the colours with mama and fixing them back on :)

Counting stars and humming to "Twinkle Twinkle little Star"

Dice! Count them dots!

Getting the cookies out. Chago said that these were Raisin Cookies!

Raisins makes his world go round :)

Counting as he takes them off

Anymore in there?

Getting the little fishies out.

Here, Chago actually looked at the colour of the fish, the eyes and was making them swim in the bowl 

hahaha, too cute!

EGGS!!! Chago loves eggs!

Count them and put them in!

During the making of this mat, occasionally I found myself alone in my bedroom...

Whenever I had to look for him, I would find him sitting on the unfnished mat pretending to eat the egg sandwich :) I could hear him say "onomnonomnom"

Chago named the colour of the apple and said "Only one"

Counting the birds, naming the colours and even counting the feet!

Wasn't expecting him to count the feet

Sang Happy Birthday and pretending to blow the candles

Hahaha, this boy can really entertain himself.

He was counting the candles in this picture

Taking the wheels off and putting them back. He loves cars (don't all boys!)

He even counted the windows!

Here, he found the letter M

Ahhhhh

"Time to relax" was what he really did say :)

Till I sew next :)

Stick them eyes on!

Here's what we made and that I haven't blogged about.

Chago actually enjoyed doing this and I can see him concentrating when he's gluing the eyes on.

Helps with coordination too.

I need not tell him where the eyes are supposed to go to.

He just went for it!

The finished project up on our refrigerator

Here's Chago gluing on Papa's eyes :)

The Grand dad's Next

  

Want to gues who this is? :)

This little guy needs no introduction at all

Here they are - Glued on!
The eyes of the people Chago have grown to love

Up on the refrigerator :)

Post Crossing

While having a cup of hot Milo the other day,

I was browsing through my Facebook updates and saw that one of the Home Schooling mamas I know through one of the Homeschool Network Groups have an album on Post Crossing.

This is something new to me...

Interesting too...

Sending and receiving Post Cards like how I used to write letters and on post cards too to pen pals I once had during my younger years.

Chago may be too young to understand this now but I am hoping that by the time he learns to appreciate any of this, we'll have a lot of postcards on the wall scattered and threaded onto countries on a huge World Atlas!

Today, most people communicate by email, social networks and the whole letter writing and postcard thing isn't appreciated much anymore.
I however, actually still do prefer printing my photographs on paper,

Sending Greeting Cards physically than virtually,

Send little silly notes in envelopes to some of my customers sometimes.

All these things adds personal touches to what the other end is receiving...

This is also the reason why I prefer DIY handmade gifts rather than to buy them off stores.

The effort and time put in to do something worth more than just putting money over counters.

ANYWAYS....

Chago and I signed up for Post Crossing and we've sent out 4 postcards to Finland, Russia, Taiwan and Netherlands.

We're excited to get a postcard back!

We got news that one of our postcards have made it's way to Finland! Hooray!

Here's the Postcards that we have sent out.

Photos taken by me, printed them out and turned them into postcards.

Enjoy!

Picture of a Temple near Jalan Sultan, nearby Jalan Petaling in Kuala Lumpur for Brigette Van Der Heyde of The Netherlands

Malaysian Bear Uniting for Peace for Dorofeeva Ola of Russia

A typical rainy day of our local Kampung Air in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for Piitu L of Finland

A picture I took at Lokawi Zoo of an Orang Utan mum smelling her young for Shiu-Wen of Taiwan

Hope to get ours soon!

More Than Anything!

I have been subscribing to a few Great, Interesting Parenting sites/blogs

and one of them made me jump this morning!

Mummy's Review made me jump when I read an email on a sponsored 

Montessori Teacher Training Program by Karen Tyler!

This is something I have been talking over and over again with hubby Miguel!

That I just needed this sort of course

Ever Since Miguel had started working,

I have been spending more time with Chago

and have been neglecting my sewing as I have promised myself to committing to home schooling

the Montessori way.

And if you have been following me here and on Facebook

You already know that I have been talking about this sort of parenting style for months now.

Even my Pinterest  has lots of links and ideas based on The Montessori Method.

Chago learning to spread honey and cream cheese onto his bread.

He is also learning to set his table.

I went all the way to buying books, pdf files and scouting for toys

including disposing off toys that didn't give much learning satisfaction to Chago.

I invested in more books for him as he loves reading so much!

And now even thinking about turning

my sewing room into Chago's Learn and Play room. 

It would be great to have an experienced teacher who have had many many years of experience 

to coach me on applying Montessori at home.

I would have to admit that, home schooling scares me a little...

Scares me not because I think it will not work out

Scares me because I am a little afraid that I might not know enough to home school.

I would like, therefore, to have that opportunity to enrol into this course.

To boost my confidence.

To gain better knowledge with an experienced mentor.

And the most important reason of all is,

To give to Chago what he deserves.

The Love, Respect, Knowledge, Confidence and Education 

that I once wished I had as a very "curious" toddler.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

Let it be Us!

Cluck, Cluck Here & A Cluck, Cluck There!

We took a trip down to Labuan Island to surprise my Grandma who had turned 70 last Tuesday..

Well, It WAS supposed to be a surprise

She found out about our trip down the morning we arrived :s

We spend most of our days there wandering around with Chago.

We learnt that my uncle, who lived 2 houses down from my grandma's

apparently, is "breeding" Chickens!

Well, their Nanny, Amy, is actually rearing these chickens.

The Chicken would only listen to her which is really fun to see.

So, Chago and I were excited that we dragged Miguel over to see the chickens.

Amy said they ran out of corn so she got some stale bread out to feed the hen.

Chago was so intrigued by the Chicken,

He started imitating how the chicken was eating the bread off the floor!!!

Too Cute!

He got to pat the hen

He got to chase after it

Even scare it a little

Feed it

And watch what it was doing

He was even clucking to call the chicken over to eat.

He yelled,

"Come!!! Cluck Cluck Cluck!! EAAAAATTTTT!"

No Joke! He really said that hahaha!

What would be so rewarding for this little curious being??

What about a splash in an old aluminium wash basin!

We even made our way to the park for some "Play Ball" time.

Look at him run!

What does a mother like me do when she sees her boys running about giggling all the way?

There's nothing much to do except join in on the fun and giggle away too!

Getting his hands in Bread Flour

The lights went out and so it's hot and gloomy inside.

Chago was going round and round in circles.

Poor thing...

So mama be nimble, mama be quick!

Mama ran to the kitchen with some pots and sticks!

Mama got some bread flour and a packet drink...

And mama... placed them outside for Chago?

So okay Okay I KNOW!

I can't rhyme so let's just forget that for now.

Let's just enjoy the pictures... Shall we?

The texture of Bread Flour is much more softer and fluffier than wheat flour...

So... okay, the packet drink was meant for more mess but I guess Chago had a hidden agenda...

There you go!

"MUM! Now WHERE'S THE OVEN!!!"

:)

Till we get messy next time :)