Do you have a child that is curious about the world? Do you want to introduce your child to other cultures?

It is important to educate our children to be good global citizens. To achieve this our children need to have a good understanding of our world.

Children begin to develop a sense of their place in the world at a very young age. Informal geography can be introduced as soon as they begin to show interest in these things. Maps, globes, books, movies, documentaries, songs, puzzles, games, and pictures are all helpful teaching tools to drive your child’s interests.

Give Your Child the World,

One Continent at a Time

The geography of a region affects the lifestyle of its inhabitants. Learning about world geography and cultures helps children to understand current events and our place in the world. Studying geography gives us an opportunity to observe and analyze the natural environment and the diversity of plant, animal, and human life.

What is culture? Culture is simply the way of life of a group of people. These groups could consist of people from the same family, school, workplace, church, neighborhood, town, city, county, state, or country. Each person can be a part of multiple small cultural groups that make up their personal culture.

Why is world culture important? Are your children benefiting from learning about world cultures? Teaching world culture to our children at an early age gives them a better understanding of the world. Children are naturally accepting of others, and as parents we need to nourish that natural acceptance.

"Give the world to the small child." - Maria Montessori

Travel with us to every continent to learn about the different cultures around the world! Topics include historical and geographical landmarks, foods, sports, and native animals. Add sensorial exploration of these continents by partnering this pack with the ShillerLearning Around the World in 80 Activities Pack.

We'd love to see your children at work learning about geography and culture. Tag @shillerlearning on your favorite social.

Preparing for your family's Thanksgiving feast is a great way to spend time with each other and have fun! Thanksgiving brings family traditions that have been cherished for generations. For those who may not have space for extra bodies, consider creating an area such as the kitchen table for your child’s workspace or offer a floor table.

In this blog post, we add a few practical life lessons to our Thanksgiving-themed homeschool shelves plus activities to help prepare the table where the family feast will be on display. Nut Grinding, Butter Churning, Thanksgiving Punch, Flower Arranging, Table Setting, Note Cards, Feather in the Top, and Water Transfer not only allow your preschool to early elementary child to participate in helping to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for all to love but will also develop muscles for writing and motor skills, learn about simple mechanics, and prepare for mathematics.

8 Thanksgiving-Themed Montessori Activities Using Household Materials

Nut Grinding

What you need:

• Nut grinder or a zip seal plastic bag with a small hammer
• Nuts of your child’s choice

What to do:

If you are using a nut grinder, simply add the nuts with no shell in the top of the grinder. Put the lid on and allow your child to crank the handle. Your child will notice the grinded nuts in the jar.

If you are using a plastic bag and hammer, put nuts without the shell into the bag and seal. Allow your child to use a hammer to crush the nuts in the bag.

One you have crushed nuts, feel free to store them for later use for Thanksgiving desserts, salads, or casseroles.

You may want to use them for a yummy snack such as caramel drizzled apples, topped with nuts.

Butter Churning

What you need:

• Butter churner or mason jar (If you wish to cheat you can use a mixer.)
• Heavy whipping cream
• Cheesecloth or fine strainer

What to do:

Set the whipping cream out and allow it to warm to room temperature.

Once the cream is warmed to room temperature, then pour it in the mason jar, mixer bowl, or churn jar.

Shake or churn until the cream starts to thicken into a solid. This is where the mixer can come in handy. It takes a little bit before the process is completed.

Next, separate the liquid from the butter using a cheesecloth or strainer. Once all the liquid is separated, use an airtight container to store your butter.

Punch Activity

What you need:

• Construction paper
• Printed image
• Cork board or carpet sample for local hardware store (this is just used to protect the surface you're working on from the puncher)
• Pin punch or awl (found at a local craft store)

What to do:
In this activity, we use a printed image to punch holes to transfer the image onto a beautiful piece of paper. To start, have your child pick a printed image. Then put the cork board down on the table and place the construction paper on top of the cork board.

Then place the printed image on top of the construction paper. Have your child follow the black line on the image and punch small holes closely together to create the image on their construction paper.

Flower Arranging

What you need:

• Assorted fresh flowers
• Small vases
• Funnel
• Small creamer pitcher with water
• Scissors
• Towel for wiping any spills

What to do:

Have your child select the flowers they wish to use for the arrangement. Your child may use scissors to cut the flowers. Your child will need to measure to ensure the stems are at the desired height in the vase by holding the main flower next to the vase and trimming the stem accordingly.

Once your child has the flowers they wish to use, have them pour a small amount of water into the vase using the funnel and small pitcher of water. Now your child can arrange the flowers as they wish in their vase. Have your child put their new arrangement where they choose such as the kitchen table, coffee table, end table or maybe on the kitchen counter.

Be sure your child cleans everything up and places everything back on the shelf when they are done.

Table Setting

What you need:

• Placemats
• Drinking glasses
• Knifes, fork, spoons
• Plates

What to do:

Show your child how to set the table and then have your child try. Once your child has a good understanding of how to set the table, allow them to do the whole table by themselves. A table setting printable is available in the Grace & Courtesy Activity Pack.

Name Cards

What you need:

• Pen
• Paper or cardstock
• Art supplies for decorating the cards
• List of names of people who will be attending Thanksgiving dinner

What to do:

Give your child a list of names of people who will be attending Thanksgiving dinner. Next, fold the paper or cardstock in half so the name card is freestanding and then flatten the paper out so your child knows where to write.

Now, have your child write each name on the paper. You may even offer your child to choose where people will sit by placing the name card on the plate they just set.

Feather in the Top

What you need:

• Feathers
• Parmesan cheese shaker (this type of container works best) or pepper shaker

What to do:
Show your child how to place the feathers in the hole on the shaker one at a time.

Allow your child to try. Once your child has an understanding of what to do, you may let them work independently. Add a decorative ribbon and this can make a beautiful accent piece in the Thanksgiving table display.

Water Transfer

What you need:

• Towel
• Two small cups, glasses, or bowls
• Dropper
• Optional: food coloring or natural coloring agent (ex: turmeric, beet powder, red onion peels)

What to do:

Place a small amount of water in one container. If you wish, add fall-inspired food coloring. Now, show your child how to move the water to the other empty container using the dropper. If a single drop spills on the work space, IMMEDIATELY stop and wipe the spill up. This teaches the child to be mindful of messes and to clean up after themselves. This task may seem simple but there is a lot of learning within this single activity. It teaches the child patience from watching the drop leave the dropper. It slows the child’s mind and body by using the dropper to move the water instead of pouring. It also shows the child how suction works.

I hope these Thanksgiving activities have inspired you to bring some Montessori-style learning into your homeschool. Please feel free to share your homeschool adventures with these Thanksgiving-inspire works on Facebook or Instagram #ShillerLearning. Here is a photo of our seasonal shelf.

Check back soon for more inspiring Montessori ideas.

From our family at Shiller Learning to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

With the sound of rustling leaves underfoot, Halloween comes to an end and your little goblin is gearing up for the big gobble day. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Crisp weather, blazing fall foliage, and the aroma of pumpkin spice delight young and old alike. Bringing autumn into the homeschool is a beautiful way to engage children.

4 Fall Montessori Homeschool Activities

for preschool and early elementary

Here are a few simple-to-pull-together activities, perfect for adding the season to homeschool days or windy weekends with preschool and early elementary students. Children of all ages - and even Thanksgiving guests - may enjoy working with the smelling jars.

These Montessori-based activities engage fine motor, classification, and critical thinking skills. The sensory integration is important for brain development and makes learning fun!

Children love to sort objects. For this activity you’ll need three different objects that come in a set. I used what is called vase filler, found at the local craft store. If you wish, take your child on a nature walk and collect items such as different colored leaves, acorns, pinecones, twigs, feathers, etc. You can also use assorted nuts.

Show your child how to sort the materials and then allow your child to try.

You can make this challenging by simply having three different sizes of twigs. Have the child sort the twigs based on the size. This would be a great opportunity to work on words groups such as “big, bigger, biggest,” “small, smaller, smallest,” “small, medium, large,” “thin and thick,” or “short and tall.”

There is a mystery about smelling objects we are unfamiliar with. It's fun to satisfy our curiosity through our senses. Scents have a powerful effect on memory. There are certain smells that can evoke memories decades old. Select aromas that remind your family of autumn, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, dried oranges, pumpkin spice, celery seed (think Thanksgiving stuffing) or even crumbled dried leaves from the yard.
In this demonstration, I used 3 spices. For each selection, fill two jars with enough material to provide scent. Shown are 6 jars total, with 3 spices placed in 2 jars each.

Invite your child to join you. This activity can be done at a table on the floor. Use a 3-finger grip when holding each jar. Take each jar out and line them horizontally from left to right. Starting with the far left bottle, look at each spice together, name it, note it’s characteristics, holding the jar beneath your nose generously inhale the aroma. What does the scent remind you of?

Note that each spice is in two jars. Mix the two sets of jars into random order. Put the blindfold on yourself and demonstrate matching the jars by scent. Remove the blindfold and check your work.

Offer the blindfold to your child, randomly mix the order of the jars, and ask your child to match the scents. Once the child is done, have the child check their own work by looking to see if the spices match one another based on how they look.

An alternate activity is to identify the scents by name while blindfolded or with eyes closed.

When introducing the ear of corn, encourage the child to carefully examine and appreciate the corn. The child can use the magnifying glass to see all of the beautiful details. Demonstrate how to take a kernel of corn off the cob. Allow the child to use the tweezers to take the kernels off the cob.

Older children can keep an observation journal, draw pictures of what they see and/or writing about it.

Children enjoy water works and pumpkin washing is a great addition to the fall homeschool schedule. Using a scrub brush, show the child how to wash the pumpkin. Then teach the child how to dry the pumpkin. Make sure to take extra care to clean the crevices. When the child is done, demonstrate how to clean and put everything neatly away.

We would love to see your child at work with these fall works. Tag @shillerlearning when sharing on social media.

Turn Table Scraps into

Ooey Gooey Wormy Goods

Do you ever wonder what can be done with the scraps left over from preparing meals? As I was preparing dinner one night, I thought to myself, there seems to be so much waste from our family’s kitchen scraps. Egg shells, potato peels, celery, carrots, squash, and the list goes on. This observation inspired some research. I found something called “vermicomposting.” Simply put, it’s using worms to break down food waste.

Did your homeschool mom mind shout, “Science project!” as you read that? Yes, this practical life activity can also check off the homeschool science fair display box.

Worms produce “castings” which are in turn used for fertilizing plants. According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, vegetables nourished with worm castings, produced 30% larger vegetables. Results like that make for impressive charts and graphs.

In this blog post, I’ll show you how to create your own vermicomposting worm bin. You may already have a lot of the supplies on hand. This is a great way to teach your child how even the smallest organism contributes in a big way to our daily life; to be more mindful about what they are throwing out; and about recycling.

You could offer extension activities to maximize learning with your worm bin. Extensions ideas include:

Research Projects:

What Worms Eat
How Worm Composting Works
Worms Life Cycle
Different Species of Worms

Early Homeschool Math Skills:

Using your ShillerLearning number tiles, work with your child on number recognition. Set a number in front of your child and have your child make worms out of playdough. For example, if you set the number 7 in front of your child, have your child create 7 worms and place them under the number.

You can use the same approach for working with addition and subtraction as well. These extensions are perfect for students in Math Kit I.

Homeschool Language Skills:

Provide your child with a science journal to keep with their worm bin. They can write about their worm bin and record observations of what is happening. You can even offer creative writing to allow your child to use their imagination and create a story about their worms. This activity is a perfect accompaniment to Language Arts Kit B.

Complete vermicomposting bin instructions are below. I encourage you to allow your child to look for and collect the red wiggler worms needed for their bin. You can easily find red wigglers on the soil surface where the grass has been covered. If you have a flower pot that has been sitting on the grass for awhile, you will probably find red wiggler worms under it.

Allow your child to gather the dirt as well. Children love collecting materials; it feels like a treasure hunt!

To start you will need some basic items:

• Two Plastic Bins

• One lid to fit the bins

• ¼” drill bit or a screw tip

• Drill

• Shredded newspaper

• Dirt or compost starter

• Worms - be sure to use red wigglers

• Permanent marker, stickers, decals, or bedazzler to decorate your bin (This is not a must, but can be an enjoyable part of the project.)

What to do:

Step 1: Using your stickers or decals, decorate your bin using decals and stickers if you wish. Set this bin aside.

Step 2: Using the second plastic bin, a drill, drill bit or screw tip, drill holes at the bottom of one plastic bin. Be sure to NOT drill holes in the bin you decorated.

Step 3: Using the same plastic bin from Step 2, drill holes on the side all the way around ONLY at the top, using the same items from Step 2. You do not want your worms getting out.

Step 4:  Using the drill, drill bit or screw tip and lid, drill holes in the lid.

Step 5:  Put the plastic bin with the holes in it inside the bin you decorated with stickers and decals.

Step 6: Line the bottom of the plastic bin with newspaper or a paper bag.

Step 7:  Add shredded newspaper. Make sure to spray water on the newspaper.

Step 8:  Add dirt or compost starter. Make sure to spray water on your soil. You want it to be damp like a dampened sponge.

Step 9:  Mix dirt and newspaper together.

Step 10:  Add worms.

Final Step: Add veggie scraps.

Make sure you feed your worms at least once a week. And always keep their environment damp like a dampened sponge.