Relaunch... Or Something.

In my corporate world of marketing, we love using the word "relaunch". 

New ingredient and packaging?  Relaunch.

Someone came in early for once (me)?  Uy nag-relaunch ka na.

Officemate got a new haircut?  Ooh what's with the relaunch?

And then there's the vague "restage" which just means you're trying to manage everyone's sales expectations down.  

(source)

In the last year and a half since starting to put myself out there through this blog, I've noticed I've changed.  I've let myself become more empowered at work, and I feel I've become less judgemental of others.
As a pretty private person, that's a big relaunch.
But this blog still is what it was meant to be.  I didn't want a diary of my life - you won't see me posting daily reviews and sharing every moment of my family with you.  This blog is about useful ideas and thoughts that could be worth sharing with people who connect with my own values on hands-on parenting with a full-time career.
Having a blog is sometimes embarrassing I'll admit,  because my husband and I used to snicker at people who have them.  

This is why.  And sometimes this is still true.
(source)

Hello, humility.  I was expecting you.
So when you eventually get to read this post, dear reader, I would humbly like to ask for your feedback on this little space.  If you're one of my treasured fifty who seem to have found something to follow faithfully, I'd love to know more about you!  
If you're part of the next two hundred or so to reach this space through a play activity, thank you for wandering over.  This new gallery page is built for you.
As for this new blog look, this is a restage relaunch restage...   I haven't decided yet!

*****

diycorporatemom.ph@gmail.com

Math Rods and Timers

I'm notoriously a math-hater and may have passed on the dislike to my daughter by osmosis in my tummy.  Unlike other play we do, bringing in math practice takes more brain cells from me.  

That's why I get a little kick that one of the more popular posts on this little space is our beginner round-up to using number sticks at home.  (Thank you, Living Montessori Now for the link-up)

If anyone out there dreads teaching math like me, I hope sharing these simple tools and tricks will help make things easier and *gasp* even fun.  

Click here to see how else we use timers in play

Make a line of 'puzzles' that help make math concepts of addition and subtraction familiar.  I watched this and this video on Education Unboxed for this idea.  Keep in mind these only work after mastering what rod represents what number.

This one teaches "what is one plus (a number)?"  Just count on.

This one teaches the concept of subtraction : "what rod fits in the space?"

The timer makes it a game!  Turn it over and try to do as much puzzles as you can.

Put a little bell at the end to 'ding!' when she's done.

She didn't quite grasp the concept of addition yet here -  find one stick that's the same length
as the two sticks.  But she rang that bell with gusto!

Another way to use number sticks to help visualise numbers and concepts (rather than memorising) is to bring it out in real-life applications.   You know, important stuff like waiting for Plants vs. Zombies 2 to slowly update...

Put down a hundred square to represent the end goal of 100%.
Then build the numbers with tens and unit sticks as it keeps going. 

Let them build the number on the screen : this one was 68%

Almost there!  The excitement was contagious.

Also a great opportunity to reinforce the number bonds of ten which we were learning
during this time.  What goes with eight to make a ten?  Two!  Now we made another ten!

Doesn't that make so much sense?!  It's called building number sense, which leads to mental math later on.  Kids would be able to do this much better if they have a strong understanding of the concept of our decimal system.

Lucky our children!  I'm pretty sure my math struggles are because of that lack of foundation too.  And now when numbers fly over my head during meetings, I can't keep the blank expression off my face.  Haha.

I wonder if it's too late for me?

Time for Color-Mixing Fun This Summer

Of all the play that we do, mixing colours is the one that never gets old.  It's fun and messy and magical.  We've been doing it since she was one!

Which means this is going to be a big round-up.

  

When she was younger and color-mixing was new, play always ended up in brown.

Which is fine, didn't make a difference in the exploration or lessons!

The best materials, I've found, are poster paint.  Water-colour sets are cheaper but too frustrating for toddlers to start with.  Divert the toy budget to this, and you won't be sorry!

Get a complete set, and it's enough to last a year :
Crayola washable poster paint (Gymboree, 750 pesos)
ELC poster paint (99 pesos for a huge bottle - this is the best!).

What you do with paint is pretty self-explanatory so let me move on to our other favourite material: good old food colouring.

We keep ours in both the dropper and a trigger-spray bottle diluted with water.
The spray bottles from Beabi are really easy for toddler-strength.

Nothing could be simpler.  Instead of structured lessons which she gets in her Montessori school, I like to let her play at home with a little help from suggestive materials.  

Slap some paper on a tray and get exploring.  If you have some water-colour paper use that.

This one is all over Pinterest! 

The idea is to let the primary colours travel through the kitchen tissue and see them mix together
in the empty glasses in-between.  It takes about ten minutes so leave it and check back.

I wasn't blogging back then so I only snapped pictures of the play afterwards!

Irresistible to any child : learning through touch too.

Irresistible in my house: making a mess sensorial play with water!
There's every opportunity for colour lessons while you play.

One mad heatwave in the summer last year, we dragged in the plastic pool (construction was going on outside) and pretended to be scientist chefs:

She was at this for a whole afternoon.  Yes the water will get coloured, and that's okay!

Potions for sale, lady?

We've saved up a good amount of random glass jars to make this colour-mixing potion activity a regular set-up outdoors:

This is my go-to playdate activity.  Everyone loves it and the kids get occupied for a good hour.

We've done the colour-mixing inside the pool many times since.  It sparks a lot of pretend play too.

It's easy to find simple ways to keep the play fresh:

(Note: Montessori methods teach one sense at a time, so maybe do this only when the kiddos have learned the basics well)

Bring out small toys as "ingredients"

Add another sensory element : smell.  I had used expired Listerine for the blue colour here,
but you can also add in water-based scents or artificial flavour with a nice smell.

Turn the pool into a bubble bath and mix up pretty bubble colours!
(We use Lush bubble bars, but they are pretty pricey so this is a rare event)

Magical isn't it?

No round-up post of mine would be complete without sharing how I adapt these activities into leave-behind play trays for Ladybug Girl to play with while I'm at the office.   As usual these are very busy-mom-friendly to do with very little prep work!

Here's a simple one to make the colour-wheel concept something real for a child:

The idea was to mix up the primary colours in the white sticker label to make the secondary colours.
She was too excited to do the tray when she saw it the next morning, so I didn't get a chance to take a "before" photo.  

We had this water-colour set where you could pop out the colours.  So I stuck them on an acrylic sheet (from a cheap picture frame), and then stuck white label stickers to make the rest of the wheel.

We also do a lot of colour-mixing in the bath - see our toddler round-up and preschool round-up.

And that's the round-up, folks.  I hope this post wasn't too heavy.  There's never enough time to write about all the individual activities that have worked for us, so I'm grateful to you for following this little space along even though I only post weekly (at best!).  

As we say in office jargon: go for fewer, bigger and better.  Haha.

Have a happy summer!  Our compressed summer workweek begins -- whoopeeeeeee!

Easter In Our Little Corner

Unlike Christmas, Easter feels deliciously lazy around here.  It helps that everything closes down for the Holy Week.   Everyone looks forward to either rest, reflection, or family time.  Hopefully all three.  

It's my 5-year old daughter's favourite holiday.

The chill feel extends to our play.  Nothing too elaborate and effortful, really.  

Our Recycling Corner

I've been feeling off my game lately, and it's not just because I'm sick as I write this.  I've been in a state of  busy work glorification in the office and at home, and it's boring the heck out of me.

I miss getting creative.  Not that I'm artistic.  I just need to create something - a strategy at work or a play idea with my daughter.  

Or a recycling corner in my home.  I'm not kidding.  It's these little things that make me feel productive.  

 

This is an odd little wall in the kitchen next to a screen door that leads to the utility area.  It needed to be a useful spot to put our trash cans, water dispenser and kitchen stools:

Montessori gave me the idea to turn it into another area of the home that encourages order and self-sufficiency:  Everything is easily accessible here for a little one:

The paper recycling bin.  A lot of Ladybug Girl's used artwork ends up here:

The glass and plastic bin:

When the garbage trucks come, these are emptied.  The paper bin gets full easily and so the contents are transferred to an area outside - we also have 3 large segregated trash bins in the garage ready for pick-up.  Sometimes mamang bote-dyayro comes and yaya uses this to fund her phone load.  Win-win.

Some months ago we had a recycling drive at work to fund newborn health kits for Unicef.  This gave me a kick in the pants to get started recycling at home.  All too often going green is all gloom-and-doom, but here was a sweet reminder I loved watching:

The Smallest Room

If you're a Montessori-convert like I am, you'd be interested to know that they don't teach about the earth being in danger at preschool.  The first important step is to encourage love for nature, not fear.  There's a lot of outside work and play and learning the names of things first.

We've done the same at our home and I've steered clear of the heavy readings on dwindling habitats, pollution, etc.  But there are still a lot of books that do positive teaching to go green.  Her favourites:

But nothing really beats modelling behaviour at home.  A late start, but an important one.  Nothing like an easy creative solution to energize you for more.  Know what I mean?

Time to get back in the game.