summer • Carrots Are Orange

Montessori Monthly Themes: Amazing, Fun, & Easy to Do

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Holidays, Montessori Tagged With: Fall, Monthly Themes, Seasonal, Spring, summer, Winter This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This page includes Montessori monthly themes for preschoolers including Montessori Activities by Season and Montessori Activities by Holiday. I hope this content helps you create amazing Montessori Monthly Lesson Plans! My goal is to add to this monthly content so that you have dozens of Montessori theme ideas for each month of the year!

Montessori Month by Month Curriculum

The child's development follows a path of successive stages of independence, and our knowledge of this must guide us in our behaviour towards him. We have to help the child to act, will and think for himself. This is the art of serving the spirit, an art which can be practised to perfection only when working among children. – Dr. Maria Montessori

Montessori Winter Activities

It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. ~John Burroughs, “Winter Sunshine”

Montessori New Years Activities

Montessori Martin Luther King Jr. Activites

Montessori Valentine's Day Activities

Montessori St. Patrick's Day Activities

Montessori Earth Day Activities

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of each. – Henry David Thoreau

Montessori Spring Themed Activities

Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own. – Charles Dickens

Montessori Mother's Day Themed Activities

Montessori Memorial Day Themed Activities

Montessori Father's Day Themed Activities

Montessori Summer Themed Activities

Montessori July 4th Themed Activities

Montessori Fall Themed Activities

The Best Summer Essential Oil Tips – What’s in YOUR Bag?

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Living, Parenting Tagged With: Essential Oils, Health & Wellness, summer This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

I am so excited to have my friend, Taylor, guest post on Carrots Are Orange. She is kicking off a series on Summer Essential Oil Tips. Taylor is a nurse living in the Bay Area. She ignited my interest and education of essential oils. Taylor is smart, witty, and a caretaker as a mom, partner, and nurse. Here is a bit more about Taylor on her blog nursefreckles.com. Enjoy this post, the first of a series in Summer with Essential Oils.

Hi everyone, I am Taylor from NurseFreckles.com. My blog brings you adventures in natural healing. I write about kids health, the outdoors, cleaning, cooking, and general health. Who the heck am I? Well, I am a mom, an ER Nurse. Enjoy this post!

Summer Essential Oil Tips

So today I am going to let everyone peak into my summer tote. My bag, equipped with essentials, of course, leaves me ready for any “emergency” that comes up during/after a fun adventure. What's in My Bag?, Nurse Freckles style promises to be far more useful than a glimpse into the movie star's bag in the latest edition of US Weekly.

My bag is not very cluttered because I am usually not a purse girl. It is sort of a running joke with my family and friends that I will show up places with a wallet (or maybe just some money and a credit card) and my phone. They keep wondering when I will grow up, but purses are just not me! Though, when my kids and I are out on an adventure, I will definitely carry a bag with healthy snacks, my phone, and of course my go-to essential oils.

Summer Essential Oil Must Haves

My Keyring
This is ALWAYS on my keys! It holds 8 small sample size oils. The oils may change depending on what we are doing or what emotional/physical needs require tending. I always carry: Melaleuca – to clean scraps after falling on the playground. Lavender – to soothe the pain of the scrap. OnGuard – just incase one of us starts feeling sick. Balance – for anyone *ME* who needs help grounding themselves or chilling out. Lemon – I put this in my water to keep mood and immune system high. Get a pouch. Stock the oils you may need for your kid's moods, to make the car smell good, migraines, etc.
“Owie” Spray
My kids are 3 and 5. They're always falling down from a tree or off a bike. I think my 3 year old basically uses his head as a break. So we use this spray quite a bit. You can spray this on any cut, bruise or scrap and it will help clean out the bacteria. It eases pain and reduce the inflammation, which encourages faster healing!

Recipe:
– 15ml Brown Bottle (I reuse my empty bottles)
– Spray Top (found on Aromatools)
– 15 drops of Lavender oil
– 15 drops of Melaleuca oil
– 10 drops of Frankincense oil
– Fill the rest up with Fractionated Coconut Oil
– Shake and spray

Sunburn Soother
I am a freckle faced swimmer, so I am always PRO sunscreen. I know some people out there like spray sunscreen, some choose organic, while others make their own. So yes, sunscreen is always in my bag but not pictured! But if you forgot to rub that sunscreen on a certain spot or forgot it all together this spray will save your hot, burning skin! Spray this onto your sunburned spot and rub gently. The pain and redness will go away.

Recipe:
– 5ml Brown Bottle (recycled bottle)
– Spray Top
– 5-10 drops of Lavender oil
– 5-10 drops of Peppermint oil
– Top off with Fractionated Coconut oil
– Shake and spray

OnGuard/Lemon Hand Sanitizer
I have never been that mom that carries the mainstream hand sanitizer. But now that I make my own, I use it all the time. Especially after playgrounds! This hand sanitizer is so simple to make, kills the bad bacteria we don't want on our hands but keeps your good bacteria around. Also, it's chemical free!

Recipe:
– 5 or 15ml bottle
– Spray top
– 25 drops of OnGuard Blend
– 10 drops of Lemon oil
– 2 teaspoons of Fractionated Coconut oil or Vitamin E oil
– Top off with Witch Hazel
– Shake and use

Hair Detangler
My daughter is at the stage where she wants to be a princess and that means her hair has to be REALLY long… this will probably take her until she is 20! Regardless, every morning or after any fun, crazy adventure her hair is in knots. So this hair detangler is really nice to have in your bag or at home for those wild hair mornings.

Recipe:
– 5 or 15 ml Bottle
– 10 drops of Lavender oil
– 2 teaspoons of Fractionated Coconut oil
– Top off with water
– Shake and spray

Mom Hair Necessity

As I said above I am a swimmer, so even though my hair is cut into a pixie style it is always a bit dry from the chlorine. This Root to Tip Serum is a MUST!! Even if you aren't a swimmer, sun, saltwater, hair color, or just daily living dries our hair out. This serum doesn't make my hair oily at all. It has a great smell of lavender, peppermint and eucalyptus. After the shower I massage this through my hair. It leaves my hair smelling awesome and feeling soooo soft!

Motion Sickness

Motion sickness doesn't get anyone but my daughter. Without failure, driving to Lake Tahoe on the windy mountain roads, she will start groaning about feeling sick. So, if you are off on an adventure by car, boat, or plane you may want to keep at least one of these close or even put this in your key chain!

Ginger Oil
DigestZen Blend
Peppermint Oil

**For kids and babies please remember to dilute in a carrier oil, Then you can rub it on their feet, bellies or even behind their ears. IF the whole car is getting sick, put a drop or two on the air conditioner vent. Let the cold air diffuse the oil throughout the car to settle everyone's stomach! If mom or dad are getting woozy, put a drop of any of these in your water and sip!

I hope this peek into my summer bag was helpful and gave you all some good ideas on what to bring along on your summer adventures!

Thanks for reading! Come and visit my blog nursefreckles.com!

Taylor

Water Balloon Activities for Kids

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities, Elementary, Kindergarten, Preschool, STEAM Tagged With: summer This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This post includes 10 Water Balloon Activities for Kids perfectly timed for good old summer fun! Simple and inexpensive!

Water Balloon Activities for Kids

Races

Find a hill, fill the balloons, and on your mark, get set, go! Integrate science learning by filling the balloons with different amounts of water and testing the speed of the rolls!

Paint On

I fell in love with this Water Balloon Painting activity on Meri Cherry.

Paint With

Squeeze a few colors of paint onto paper, fill your balloons with water, tie, and roll the balloon over the canvas.

Paint Drop

Squeeze a few colors of paint onto paper, fill your balloons with water, tie, hold above the canvas, and drop the balloon over the canvas. Point out how the paint splatter differs depending on how high or low the balloon is held over the canvas.

Water Balloon Launch

We simply used activity cones to launch our water balloons in the air to see if we could catch them and to one another to see if we could catch them. Simple fun.

Water Balloon Paint Squirt

Water Balloon Squirt! from Growing a Jeweled Rose is the perfect summer activity for kids. Does it get any better than this activity? Fill balloons with water, add a bit of paint, and tie up. Poke a hole in the balloon with a pin or even a sharp pencil, then squeeze onto your canvas of choice.

Water Balloon Bowling

Set up activity cones and bowl the balloon! Kids love this activity!

Water Balloon Toss

Set up a simple, old fashioned water balloon toss!

Water Balloon Whack

When I saw this Water Balloon Piñata idea on Pinterest, I knew my boys would be all over it!

Water BalloonFreeze

Create these super cool ice water balloons! Add a little color to your winter or cool down during the warmer summer months.

Best,
Marnie

For More Fun, Fantastic Fun & Learning has a great list of Water Balloon Activities for Kids ranging from art, science, math, and language

Rock Activities for Kids

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities, Elementary, Homeschool, Kindergarten, Montessori, Outdoor Learning, Preschool Tagged With: Math, summer This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Rocks have to be one of the most versatile real objects to incorporate into fun and learning. Below you will find a list of activities ranging from art to math to science to language.

Rock Activities for Kids

COLLECTING is an easy learning activity that gets your body moving. Grab a basket and go out for a nature walk with children. Discuss the attributes of the rocks being collected as you go along. (I am a big fan of combining learning and movement. Check out why combining learning and movement is so great for children's development.)

SORTING exercises with toddlers, preschoolers and older children. Cater the activity to the child's interests and developmental stage. For younger children, sort by dark/light or big/small, for preschoolers sort by heavy/light or smooth/rough, for older children sort by sink/float or river/ocean.

PAINTING rocks is loads of fun! Lately in our home we've been painting rocks for garden markers. You want to use acrylic paint and mod podge (or some kind of sealer) to make the paint stay a while. You can also use a primer at the start but we just cleaned the rocks up before painting and it worked fine. Oh, and don't forget the googley eyes!

SKIPPING on the water is a fun activity. Incorporating learning into the activity is as simple as discussing why some rocks skip better than other rocks. Early Physics and introduction to great vocabulary.

PATTERN MAKING with rocks is a wonderful early math activity. Simply create a smooth/rough pattern, big/small pattern. Or, if you prepare ahead of time, create an image with a pattern of rocks set out for the exercise. Then have the child match that pattern. Or work with the child, begin a pattern and ask the child to finish it, or ask him which rock comes next in the pattern.

HOPPING to and from large rocks on a playground, in the woods, or on a beach makes for a great obstacle course, providing ample opportunity to work those gross motor skills in a safe way. CLIMBING large boulders is a bit more risky and requires a bit more gross motor strength. If your child is ready for bouldering, go for it. My sons love clamoring up large boulders and taking a look at the view.

WRITING & DRAWING with rocks is always popular with children. I have fond memories of finding the perfect writing tool, a rock, and then drawing until my heart was content onto larger rocks and the pavement. Go on a hunt for the perfect writing rock. Ask the children what the rock might need to look like, what it's shape might need to be like, in order to write on the pavement.

SCIENCE experiments with rocks are always popular with kids. My son loves the SINK/FLOAT experiment. It is so simple and really effective at teaching concepts like “density” in a hands on way. Pumice floats so you'll want to get your hands on a piece of pumice for the activity. Using words like “heavier” and “lighter” works well with younger children, while introducing terms like “density” will be welcomed by older children.

STORYTELLING with stones is on my short list. My sons love story sequence cards like Eeboo's Tell Me a Story: Mystery in the Forest. So, why not do this same activity but with stones of your own creation? With older children you can write words, too, to make a story. With younger children, use stickers or glue real images onto the stones. I love these Story Stones from Happy Hooligans! Another great idea is to create story stones based on a favorite children's story. You can also use play dough with rocks and other materials with rocks to build and create imaginary scenes! Another language related activity with rocks is Sight Word Pebbles like this activity from The Imagination Tree.

MATH activities with rocks is an easy way to bring natural objects into your home or classroom and to engage children. This activity can involve a simple Introduction to Numeration by matching numbers to quantity, or quantity to quantity. You can also arrange piles and ask for estimations and “which pile has more or less”? Another clever math related idea are Rock Dominoes. Older children can create their own dominoes, while simply presenting these beautiful dominoes to younger children will hook them. These Rock Dominoes from Repeat Crafter Me are lovely!

I hope that we inspired you today! Let me know your ideas and activities with rocks. We'll be rocking' this project all spring and summer long. Definitely check out my recent post on Children's Books about Rocks to get you started not this rocking' journey. Ok, I'll stop now.

Have a great day!
Marnie

4 Parenting Tips: Preparing Kids for Camping

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities, Nature, Outdoor Learning, Parenting, Seasons Tagged With: Kids and Travel, Practical Life, summer This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Melissa and Doug. All opinions are 100% mine.

“Children are born naturalists. They explore the world with all of their senses, experiment in the environment, and communicate their discoveries to those around them.” ~ The Audubon Nature Preschool

A top parenting goal for me in general is to create & to instill in my children a sense of awe & wonder for the world. Preparing children with skills and a proper mind set will lead them in the right direction of not only having fun but of actually building confidence while having the adventure. Feeling capable goes a long way in a young child.

Below you will find a four part approach to preparing children for a camping trip. This post highlights the truly enjoyable part of preparing a child for a weekend in the “wilderness” – INDOOR CAMPING! Kids generally love building forts. Indoor camping simply adds more structure and creates a pretend play activity.

We are fortunate to have Melissa & Doug sponsor our summer camping adventures by supplying us with some fabulous kid's camping gear, especially the gear to get us ready and prepared to go on our journey.

#1: INDOOR CAMPING

“If a child is to keep his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.” ~ Rachel Carson

My son wraps himself in the Melissa & Doug's Augie alligator sleeping bag in Melissa & Doug's Tootle turtle tent.

The Invitation: Asking kids to “set up camp” indoors is not a stretch. In fact, I didn't even have to ask my boys to do anything, they did it themselves. They led me to set up the tent, put batteries in their flashlights and help them zip their alligator sleeping bags. They were so thrilled to set up camp indoors that the practicing part was all play.

#2: PRACTICAL LIFE SKILLS

We focused on Practical Life Skills like zipping up their alligator sleeping bags, turning on their bumblebee flashlights in the light and the dark and helping to set up the turtle tent.

#3: CREATE A SENSE OF AWE & WONDER WITH ZOOLOGY & BOTANY

We talked about critters like ants and worms, creatures like deer and plants that we may find on our adventures this summer. We explored life cycles of various critters, wriggled like worms and caterpillars in our Happy Giddy Tunnel and read many books on the topic. A few books you might like include: Wonderful Worms by Linda Glaser, Garden Wigglers: Earthworms in Your Backyard by Nancy Loewen and Wiggling Worms at Work by Wendy Pfeffer for worms. Plus National Geographic Readers: Ants and National Geographic Readers: Frogs! are also great first readers to prepare your children for all the goodness of the outdoors.

And of course we practiced sleeping in our tents.

#4: CAMPING ACTIVITIES

There are no iPads or iPhones allowed on our adventures. {GASP!} There will be exploring, observing, telling stories and reading. So we prepared for Outdoor Activities by introducing our Family Nature Journal, going on a Nature Walk where we search for colors and a Listening Walk. We also decorated a Treasure Box to carry with us on our hikes.

Star Gazing: I love this idea from Stacy at Kids Stuff World for star gazing indoors using a strainer and a flashlight. My boys were totally into this activity. We also took some time to learn about the constellations and read some of the lovely myths that take place in the sky.

Reading & Singing: Aren't books and songs so great? A few of our favorites camping books are included in this post on Children's Books for Camping with Kids. I love singing and I especially love singing with my boys. My husband, well, he isn't so much into the singing but he is highly entertained by our singalongs. A few of our favorites songs include She'll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain, Down by the Station, Orca Whale, The More We Get Together, Ring Around the Rosies, Ants Go Marching, I've Been Working on the Railroad, You are my Sunshine and Mr. Sun. I could go on but hopefully that inspired you a bit.

I hope that you enjoyed this post. Were you inspired? Are you planning an outdoor adventure this summer? Please leave a comment and let me know! Definitely connect with Melissa & Doug's On the Go Series throughout the summer.

Warmly,

Marnie

Easy & Inexpensive Summer Activity for Kids

By Marnie Craycroft Filed Under: Activities, Infant & Toddler, Preschool, Seasons, STEAM Tagged With: summer This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Grab your Melissa & Doug spray bottles filled with water colors (simply mix paint with water to create a nice thin paint to put into the bottle). Set up an easel with paper {outside preferably} and grab a few brushes for extra fun.

Spray Bottle Painting

Spray Bottle Painting Materials

Spray Bottles
Easel
Brushes
Paint
Clothes for getting a little messy

The approach was so simple. The joy was so pure. The creativity was so organic. Your child will know just what to do. For my children that meant spraying the paper and creating a beautiful piece of art work but it also meant spraying each other…and the fence…and the grass…and even my mother. Life is grand.

Full disclosure: This activity could result in paint, well, paint everywhere.

Thanks for choosing to read this post today. Have fun!
Marnie