Being a full time mom to two playful toddlers, I get to witness them play all day, every day! Most of the time, I am even involved in their play, and I enjoy and cherish my time with them.

I believe that parents can cultivate their child's love of learning simply through play. Learning through play is actually the basis of the progressive style of education that is more prominent in preschools nowadays. Why? Simply because children enjoy learning during play.

In our Preschool Homeschool, we purposely incorporate learning through play all the time. Whether we're doing arts and crafts or playing pretend, the most important part is that we have FUN!

I always try and discover fun ways to learn through play, whether if it means I have to DIY some sensory bins or crafts, invest in open-ended toys, or lookout for new educational toys and materials in the market.

When my son showed interest in being a superhero because of his Look It's About Me book, I tried and made him a cape and mask out of some cloth and felt I had in my craft stash. 

I'm glad he loved it, but I wanted to get him something better (my sewing skills are not so good, hehe)...

So I found out about Little Human & Co.

Their tagline: HOORAY TO PLAY! Just imagine how happy I was to find out about them...

They have reversible capes and masks! They also have felt crowns, handmade playdough, and Hape wooden toys.

Little Human & Co. is the brainchild of Oliver and Kate, dada and mama to an energetic and hilarious toddler. As parents, they are greatly committed to raise a free spirited and a happy little human the best way they possibly can. 

It all began with a simple parent's task: their little human needed a cape, they made one! All their products are designed based on their son's needs.

Little Human & Co. encourages playful parenting and promotes #nurtureimaginationthroughplay and #learningthroughplay . 

Oliver and Kate believe that our little humans are not “just playing”, this is how they learn. A bare stick can be a lot of things, all we need is imagination!

My kids love their reversible cape and mask, and their handmade playdough.

My son still is into being a superhero, so I let him run around with his cape and mask. My little girl would use the blue side if she's pretending to be Elsa from Frozen :)

See? He just loves to run around with it.

And the best part is, the cape and mask are reversible! You can do up to four combinations of cape and mask outfits :) And we love it because they are well made and made of soft fabric. 

They are available in different colors too, and comes in toddler and kid sizes. And the felt mask is just darn cute!

Our set is color blue and red.

The handmade playdough comes in a tag-along tub, and it includes 7 colors and googly eyes!

We love the bright colors, and the fact that they are non-toxic and safe for babies because they are handmade with edible materials like flour and food coloring :)

Although, like regular playdough, it does dry up after some time of use. But just add a tiny bit of water and squish and knead it again and it's all better...

We love using it for our sensory play lessons. Here are just some of the projects we did with our handmade playdough...

With some googly eyes and pipe cleaners, we made little bugs...

We also tried making animals...

And aliens and monsters, and funny faces!

GOOD NEWS!

Little Human & Co. is happy to giveaway one (1) set of Reversible Play Cape & Mask + Handmade Playdough to one lucky little human!

The contest is open to any Philippine resident, nationwide. Little Human & Co. will be shipping the prize free of charge.

The contest will run from JULY 3 (12am) up to JULY 31 (12am). 

Announcement of winner will be on JULY 31 (afternoon).

Simply follow the mechanics on the RAFFLECOPTER below to enter and qualify.

Don't forget to LIKE Lique's Antics and Little Human & Co. on Facebook!

For bonus entries, share on IG or FB this PROMO PHOTO below.

Share or repost the Little Human & Co. promo photo tagging @littlehumanco and @honeybabyonline with hashtags #littlehumanco #hooraytoplay #LALHGiveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For more details
Like on Facebook: Little Human & Co.
Follow on Instagram: @littlehuman_co
Pre-order: 09771817353

Email: LittleHuman_Co@yahoo.com

Hooray to Play!

Here I am again talking about our Homeschool Journey...

Homeschooling our preschooler was a conjugal choice. My husband and I had long discussions about our toddler's schooling, in the end we both decided to homeschool him until he was about 4 years old, just in time for Kindergarten.

As I mentioned in my previous post on the What, Why, How of Homeschool Preschool, the label "Homeschool" is mainly a term for how parents naturally teach their children about, well, LIFE in general. Whether you read to them, sing songs together, teach them how to talk and walk, let them know about the color of his favorite toy or the names of the things around them... all these are lessons per se.

We started by doing simple activities like I shared HERE, mostly looks like playing, but I do try to incorporate lessons like when we count his toys or sort them by color. 

But as my toddler grows up, we also "levelled up" on lessons. He just turned 3 years old, and we're not thinking of putting him in a brick and mortar school anytime soon. Maybe next year, when he's four and a half. 

By Philippine Law, children are required to attend school (Kindergarten) at 5 years old so they are given the means to slowly adjust to formal education. In Finland, they actually start formal education at age 7! But let us not dwell on that for now.

Homeschooling isn't for everybody; I must admit that I have questioned my capacity time and again if I can do it or not. But we've worked things out and followed a curriculum that was best for us.

I mentioned that we were following the Letter of the Week Curriculum (thanks to my husband for finding it for us, yay!). If you take a look at it, lessons are based on the letter of the alphabet per week (Example, Week 1 is Letter A, Week 2 is Letter B an so on). It has a list of suggestions for various subjects that is based on the Letter of the Week... such as Books and Rhymes, Music and Art, Math and Science among others.

I say these are a "list of suggestions" because we don't strictly follow them as is. We do improvise, especially with the books, theme words, and the art projects.

How do I do it? I have a notebook and I make a list of the lessons every Sunday or Monday morning. I copy some from the Curriculum, but I also add to it, like what theme words we'll be using, the books and rhymes, and music to learn... just as long as it follows the letter of the week :) I check the lessons we've done as we go about each day.

I prepare a list of Songs For the Week on my Itunes. Thanks to our Kindermusik classes, we have a lot of Songs. I also Download some new songs and nursery rhymes.

When we do it? We tried to stick to a schedule, but inevitably just went on about it whenever I wasn't busy or when my child would be interested, he'll say to me "Mommy, mag activity tayo" (Mommy, let do an activity).. "Activity" is his term for our homeschool time. But mostly we do activities in the morning around 10-11am and in the afternoon when he wakes up from his nap. Toddlers have short attention span, so 2-4 hours a day is enough.

We just go about our day as freely as possible. I don't want to pressure my child into lessons; that we should follow this and that, or he should learn this by the end of the week... by doing so, I am putting most of the pressure on myself! And I frankly have so much to do in one day already. I admit, juggling work and the kids require an extra amount of patience and multitasking abilities to keep my sanity in check. It's been quite the journey, but we're having fun as we go along.

What we learn about? I use my list as a guide for what to do for the day, mostly from the Curriculum still, but a little improvised...

Theme Words - I write a set of words on our board. They serve as sight words for familiarity and I draw alongside the words to help him with recognition, or we identify some of the words with the things we have around the house. We practice some Letter writing and tracing on paper or on the board for proper pen handling.

We've also been watching this Get Squiggling YouTube channel, he loves Suigglet the character and he likes to doddle too. And for Phonics, we watch a bit of ABCMouse.

Matching Activity for the Alphabet

Poetry/Rhymes - We say nursery Rhymes by reading books or watching on YouTube if we don't have the book on hand.

Books to Read Aloud - the Curriculum has a nice selection for Books, but when we don't have some on hand, I search for them Online or on youtube and we read along or we simply use what we have from our book collection.

Books we read during Letter B week

Just some of our favorite books. The one in the middle is a Look It's About Me book which we got for Christmas. We also love books by Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss, and of course, our Kindermusik books!

Music and Songs - We listen to the Songs of the Week I've prepared on my Itunes as we do our Art project or do action dances (yes, inspired by Kindermusik still).

This is our song list for Letter B week

Bible Stories/Values - We read our Bible story book, or read/watch about values/characters in the Bible

Math - We simply do counting and patterns for Math. Nothing serious. Learning about shapes is part of Math too, as well as learning about what is "more" or "less" by using manipulatives such as popsicle sticks or marbles among others.

Aside from counting, making patterns is part of Math too. On the left, we have a pattern of leaves, green, red, green and so on. On the right, he is trying to make a pattern out of clothes pins - bonus: it also helps with fine motor skills, yay!

Science  - Mostly learning about the body/body parts, animals and habitats, plants and the environment, dinosaurs, and the galaxy/universe (Earth, Moon, Sun, Stars etc). We also watch YouTube for the things that I cannot explain (Why not make use of technology right?).

My best effort to teach about the parts of the flower and the life cycle of a frog for Letter F week. We also went outside to see real flowers and it's parts, hehe.

Watching how an actual caterpillar turns into a butterfly. We also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar :)

H if for Habitat: Learning about where animals live - Jungle, Forest, Farm

Social Studies - We learn about occupations, countries/cities/places. We also love to do pretend play... like when we're learning about being a baker, we played PlayDough and made cakes and cupcakes.

Art - Probably our most favorite of all lessons, we look forward to this every week and we place our Letter Art in a Wall Gallery! We practice cutting and pasting, and painting and coloring. We also do other crafts and other projects like doing a Philippine Flag or Paper Boat and Fan, and making Christmas and Valentine's Cards for Daddy and the Grandparents.

Sport/Activity - We do Action Dances/Movement along with our Songs/Music or try to do a sport like Playing Catch for Gross Motor Skills. 

We also do simple activities for Fine Motor Skills like playing with clay, picking up Marbles or pompom balls, placing toothpicks or Qtips in a cup. My one-year old joins in too.

And that's our simple approach to The Letter of the Week Curriculum. But really, we just HAVE FUN as we go along, and that's mainly IT! :)

Hope you learned some things from our Homeschool Journey!

I previously shared here how we plan to start our Preschool Homeschool. 

I realized a lot of things from TLB's Workshop. I say "realized" because we weren't taught step-by-step on how to Homeschool, instead, we were enlighted as to how and why we chose or were about to choose to Homeschool our Preschoolers.

If you're thinking of homeschooling too, The Learning Basket holds a number of workshops per year, so that's a good start. Or you can just do it independently, on your own.

I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I did too when we we're just starting...

What is Homeschooling anyway?
Why do I need to Homeschool my child?
How do I start Homeschooling?

I cannot guarantee you that I can answer all your questions in one post, but I'll try my best...

What is Homeschooling?

Homeschooling is basically teaching your child at home. 

You can start as early as you can. You may not be aware, but you are already homeschooling your child... when you read books together, when you point out body parts, or when you listen to music. I'm sure our parents taught us at home too, since parents are our first teachers after all. It's just recently that the concept has been labelled as "Homeschooling". 

Why do I need to Homeschool my child?

There is no easier way to explain it but through this quote:

"You are your child's first and best teacher" -Mariel, The Learning Basket

I'm sure you've heard the saying that "a child's brain is like a sponge." And it's true! They pick up things easily, especially when mommy or daddy teaches them. Fostering a learning environment at home is a great way for a child to love Learning.

You don't have to have a strict schedule or have a list of lessons... Most of the time, I just play with my kids and try to incorporate lessons as we do or read aloud to them.

Another answer as to why you need to teach your child is because not all lessons are learned in school. Like how to properly brush their teeth or how to put on a button and tie their shoe laces... Yes, lessons aren't entirely about the ABCs and 123s. Also, instilling Good Values and Proper Manners come mainly from parents and not the teachers.

And finally, childhood is fleeting. Your child won't stay little for long. Cherish every moment you have while he is small :)

How do I start Homeschooling?

You can teach your child even when he is still a baby. I'm sure reading books and listening to music has been part of every parents' routine. 

And you can even learn through play...

Here are some simple things you can try at home with your child - at least this is how we started out too:

1. Read aloud to your child at least 20 minutes a day.
2. Play with Puzzles or Blocks.
3. Count everything! His toys, the buttons on his shirt, candies, rocks etc!
4. Sing along and dance to nursery rhymes.
5. Pretend Play. One day you're kings and queens ruling a castle, the next day you'll be swashbuckling pirates at sea!
6. Play with clay or have Cutting and Pasting activities. Toddlers need to strengthen their hands as practice before they learn how to hold a pen firmly.
7. Color and Paint. Even get messy sometimes with finger paint.
8. Draw. Hand a pencil and paper to a child and you'll be amazed!
9. Go outside and play! Yes, play! And then tell him about the world around him, from the blue sky, up to the green grass.
10. Make him do things by himself. Independence is an important lesson, because you can't do it for him forever!

For my 3-year old, we are following the Letter of the Week Curriculum. But I use it as a guide and improvise with lessons. My toddler likes arts and crafts more so we do those more often. I'm proud to say he has a firm grip with a pencil now and can even draw already. He can work with scissors too.

We dedicate at least 2-4 hours a day of learning activities spread throughout the day. Because even though we try to stick to a routine, it still depends on my 3-year old when he is "in the mood" to do activities. Sometimes, it depends on me too, because I am a Work at Home Mom.

I'll be sharing some of our weekly activities with you in another post :)

As for my 1-year old, we mostly do reading books and playing with blocks and puzzles. She also loves to dance when we listen to music. I'm happy to say that she also knows some baby sign language, aside from "Water" which she learned early on, she now knows "Please", "More", "Thanks You", "Pig", "Horse", "Duck". And she started talking too! Just the basic "Mama", "Dada", and "Papa" among others.

Here are some great Homeschool Resources (updated as of 11.17.15):

Kids Activities Blog - How to Homeschool Preschool and other Activities for Babies and Kids
Letter of the Week - 38 Week Curriculum
The Learning Basket - Books and Parenting Workshops
Teach with Joy - For ages 0-3 and For ages 2-4
Fun at Home with Kids - Crafts and Activities for Children
Fun2write - Printables and Work Sheets
In My World - Preschool Letter of the Week Activities
Preschool Mom - Printables and Work Sheets
Everyday I Learn Through Play - Activities for Infants and Toddlers
The Measured Mom - Tools for Teaching
Babbledabbledo - Engineering and Art for Kids
The Relaxed Homeschool - Homeschool tips and activities
Pre-K Pages - Inspiration for Early Education
Happy Hooligans - Crafts and Activities for toddlers and preschoolers
Montessori on Mars - Montessori techniques and activities
DIY Corporate Mom - Leave-behind play, After-work play and more, for the Working Mom
Teaching Mama - Learning through play activities and free printables
Fun handprint art blog - Arts and Crafts Free Printables
This Reading Mama - Free printables for reading and phonics
Toddler Approved - Crafts, Toddler Activities, and Free Printables
3 Dinosaurs - Free Printables, Gross Motor, Simple Crafts, and more
Itsy Bitsy Fun - Games, Crafts, and Printables
Easy Peasy and Fun - Activities for kids and free printables

Videos:
ABC Mouse - Phonics, Alphabet, and Stories for children
StoryBots - Educational Videos
Mother Goose Club - Nursery Rhymes and Children's Songs
Super Simple Songs - Children's Songs, Alphabet and Phonics and Educational Videos
Little Baby Bum - Children's Songs and Nursery Rhymes (cute graphics too!)
Kiboomu Kids Songs - Cute graphics, Children's Songs and Educational Videos
Evan's Nanay - Tagalog Videos (like Abakada, Magbilang Tayo, and Folk Stories)

How about you? I'd love to hear your homeschooling experience!

Cheers,

When you have children, the saying "time flies fast" is an understatement. Now, I have an almost 3 year old toddler and a 1 year old little girl. Where did my babies go? I can still remember them as newborns crying for mommy all the time, ah, but time is frisky don't you think so?

My son is now a talkative, playful little tyke. And my baby girl has just mastered going down the bed and pretty soon she'll be walking around the house too.

And because we have growing toddlers already, my husband and I have talked about their schooling. Yes, they go to Kindermusik one to two times a week ever since they were about 6 months old. And their development has been outstanding. They have a liking for Music and Books, and Pretend Play among others. We love our Kindermusik classes, especially Teacher Suzette!

But what about Preschool? 

By definition, Preschool is "relating to the time in a child's life when the child is old enough to talk and walk but is not ready to go to school (Merriam-Webster)."

Either the child is not ready or the parent is (Haha. Guilty as charged).

I am a Stay-at-Home-Mom and consequently I would be my child's first teacher, right? One of my primary reasons to Stay at Home was to "be there" for my children, teach them, watch them grow...

My husband and I have been talking about Preschool over again. Thinking about the options nowadays, such as Traditional, Montessori, and the Progressive Types of Schools. Too much to think about if you ask me. In the end, you will ask about how much the tuition will be or more importantly, what will they teach my child?

ABCs? 123? Nursery Rhymes? Among other things...

(Thinking Out Loud) "Hey, I can teach my child these things!" 

That's Right! We've thought about Homeschooling our Toddler.

Actually, I believe I've already been homeschooling unconsciously.

Here are just some of my Toddler's Activities.

1. Nurture his Imagination.

I say, "Wow is that a train? Where is it going to?".
He loves to play with blocks and creates towers or trucks
or whatever he pleases, and I challenge him to do some more.

He also loves playdough. This is also great for motor skills and
gripping - an exercise for when he is ready to hold a pen.

Encourage pretend Play. In this picture, he arranged the chairs
to be his train (he just loves trains!) and his toys are passengers.

Do a little DIY. I made this "sandbox" (Rice, Oats, and Flour)
to keep him busy. Messy but it keeps him still :)
Great Sensory Activity.

 2. Foster Creativity. 

He loves painting. He learns about colors and shapes here.

Learning colors of the rainbow.

I still encourage him to use coloring books instead of the tablet or
watching TV. Still doesn't know hoe to color inside the lines
but I let him enjoy :) Keeps him busy too.

We also tried this Kahone Activity Box. It has Arts and Crafts Activities good for a month and it has a theme for the month. Know more about them HERE. Kiel enjoys Arts and Crafts :)

3. Encourage Independence.

I let him wash the dishes. He said he wanted to and
he was good the first time :)

Our little sweeper, feeling all grown up.

4. Learning through Play
As much as possible, I make it appear as if we're playing everytime I think of an activity to do. FUN makes him more engaged in the activity :)

I'm still a newbie at this, so I want to learn more about Preschool Homeschooling, so I am attending this workshop by The Learning Basket. You can go HERE to Learn about Full Details about the workshop.

I have been a follower of Mariel and Sanne's Blog and I am inspired to homeschool my kids, even just for Preschool. I expect to learn a lot of things during the workshop. They will also be having Homeschool materials for purchase such as Books and T-Mato Toys among others.

The Workshop will be on November 22, 2014 Saturday, 1:00 to 3:30 PM at Best For Families Inc., 29 1st Street New Manila, QC (Near Robinson's Magnolia).

I hope you're encouraged to homeschool your toddler too! Or do share some Homeschooling tips and experience, I'd love to hear them.

Cheers,

My little boy is.. well... not so little anymore. I will always remember him as a little baby... but I have to face reality: I now have a two-year old! 

Now, I know what they say about the "terrible twos", and in fact I've had more than my fair share of crazy days just because my toddler decides to throw stuff, shout, and run around - even go up and down... when he decides that the white-tiled floor and the mirror is his coloring book... or when he giggles while he tears the pages of his book or my magazine! Makes me think: how can so much energy fit into this little toddler body?

As I start to write this, my little boy is behind me pointing at things, grabbing what he can whatever's in the table... and thinking out loud:

"Ayun book...Lolo papa...Duck...Bus"
"Ito mommy otion (lotion)..otey? (ok?)"
"Mommy, daddy fix yan...ulo, nose, face...diba?"
"Mommy Ique (Lique) pipon (cellphone)...tawag lolo papa, mamu Pau.. hello! dyan, gawa mommy aptop (laptop) diba?"
"Yun, Kiel podi (pogi/handsome).." pointing to his picture on this post, hahaha!

Oh yes, he is super daldal (talkative) now! He keeps on talking behind me, and I am trying to keep up, haha! 

Just recently I shared his video singing Bahay Kubo. We've been singing this to him when he was still a year old. There came a time when it was our lullaby for him to go to sleep. And then one day I was surprised that he was singing it when he was eating: "♪♫ Sitaw, Ba-daw, a-niiiii ♪♫" (sitaw, bataw, patani)..and indeed he was eating sitaw!

For quite a while now, he has weaned from his bottle and drinks milk straight from the glass. Yes, he's a big boy that way..he asks for milk by saying "Mi tasa please" (milk in a cup please). One day, when he was around 20 months old I think, I was lazy to make him milk in his bottle, so I poured fresh milk in his cup and he liked it! It's been like that ever since!

We've also started to introduce him to the potty. Sometimes he has he'll go poopoo, sometimes he doesn't...hehe... So he is not that 100% ready yet to go potty.

He quickly learns how to use things just by looking... Like opening the door, putting trying to put his socks or shorts on himself, and even using the tablet or phone...but I try to limit his use of gadgets from now on ;)

He knows how make the sign of a cross and tries his best  to recite with us when we pray the Angel of God, Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be.

He loves books and can identify a lot of things already...from giraffe and octopus to motorbikes and helicopters. 

Sometimes I am amazed how quickly he learns and discovers new things. I actually don't mind him being extra active...or rather unlimitedly spirited, just as long as he doesn't get too cranky and starts up a tantrum...oh boy, that's another toddler mishap I am faced with.

At this stage he can already understand what we say to him, regarding what he should and shouldn't do. Yes, our parenting skills have been tested as to how we discipline our child. Sometimes he would make a tampo face (sad face) when we give him "the talk"...reminds me of myself when I was a kid actually...hmm...

To think that he just turned 2 last January and we're going through many things already! Pretty soon, he'll be going to school already, so I'm teaching him the ABCs and 123s.. he can even count in Tagalog up to "labim-dawala" (twenty) hehe.. and he can identify his colors too.

Here I am trying to keep up with my toddler, while I also have a growing baby girl who just started to turn on her side and can even sit in a tripod position. Speaking of siblings, my 2-year old has his selos (jealousy) moments... he would try to spank and pinch his baby sister!

Ah, Motherhood at its best! haha.. but kidding aside, I love how my kids show affection, even though Kiel has his selos moments with Hailey, he loves to kiss her cheeks, hands, and feet. He shows her how his toys work and tells her about the pictures in their books. And they almost always fall asleep together, as if their brains are connected somehow :)

For now, I am enjoying while trying to survive the stage of the "super active, highly spirited, continuously discovering" twos (I don't want to call it terrible twos). 

How about you? I'd love to hear your toddler stories! Do share!


Mommy of a 2-year old,