Monti By The Sea

Ready for tomorrow? 👻🎃🍭🍫🍬

This year, we will be starting a new tradition and doing a variation of a few of these ideas. First, I will be opening a fun “Sweets for Treats” shop! T loves shopping so I grabbed some little items and a few bigger treats to sell at the shop. The larger, more valuable items will cost more candy for sure!

After the shop closes, we save a few to enjoy, and freeze some for future art projects like our gingerbread house next month.

Lastly, for all the remaining candy, we will donate them.

What do you do with all your extra candy? 🍭

Monti By The Sea added a View Shop button to their Page.

SHELF ROTATION 😊🤪😟🍎🍊🥕🥦🟧🟣🔷💔

Here’s our current shelf which we rotate biweekly. T is currently 34 months old.

DIY 3-Part Card Holder with DIY 3-Part Fruit and Veggie Cards and fruit and veggie toob (card holder and cards will be available in our .by.the.sea.shop soon! Figurines available in my Amazon Storefront unde 2+ yr old Materials)
DIY Heart Jigsaw Puzzle
Number Tracing Board, paired with crayons and papers for rubbing numbers (board from dollar spot)
Emotion Pegs (from , aff link in my link in bio)
Bracelet making with beads and pipe cleaners (pouring cup from .playbox)
DIY Shape Cutting and Scissors (free printable in the link in bio)
DIY Hawaii Chunky Puzzle (available in our .by.the.sea.shop)
DIY Shape Matching and Taping (free printable available in link in bio)

Check out my stories for some glimpses of how these activities are going!

SUNDAY SHELFIE 🧧🏮💛💙🤍🧶✂️🎊

This week’s shelf rotation is inspired by Chinese/lunar new year and Valentine’s Day, and includes a couple of other activities that I thought would be engaging and appropriate for T currently. T just turned 34 months old and I typically rotate her shelf every other week and adjust them as necessary, sometimes switching out one or two materials in between rotations.

Here’s what’s on our new shelf:

Top Shelf:
◇ Chinese Lanterns/Color Bookish Play (DIY lanterns and tree from .dollarspot.finds)
◇ Large and small natural rainbow (from our .by.the.sea.shop by )
◇ Domes Instead of Cubes Set (from our .by.the.sea.shop by )

Middle shelf:
◇ DIY silhouette Chinese zodiac matching (diy zodiac cards and TOOB Chinese Zodiac)
◇ DIY yarn cutting (inspired by )
◇ DIY Tools Matching (cards available in our .by.the.sea.shop, tools from TOOB tools)
◇ DIY Spread Aloha Heart Balancing Activity

Bottom Shelf:
◇ DIY Wool Balls Transfer
◇ Magnetic Prewriting Shapes (from .dollarspot.finds)
◇ Chinese New Year Cards (from .montessori) paired with .reader
◇ Button Dressing Frame (by )

DIY SWEETHEART CANDY PUZZLES 💜💚💛

I first made this DIY puzzle last Valentine’s Day, and it has been one of T’s favorite shelf activities this week. Based on some requests, I made some extra sets for our shop which will go live tomorrow at 9am HST on our website.

Your little ones can use these puzzles to practice color matching, all while sharpening their fine motor skills, visual perception, spatial awareness, and hand-eye coordination.

The set comes with three 2-part puzzles, one of each color 💜💚💛 and a little bag to store them. They are made from solid beech wood, and are all hand cut, hand sanded, and hand painted! They took a LOT of hard work and time, and most importantly, lots of love was put into them!

MUSIC SHELFIE 🎵🥁🎷🎸

This week, I decided to rotate the activities on T’s mini bedroom shelf and made it a music shelf, per her request. It’s so great now that T is able to give me feedback on her shelf activities and make decisions about them. We have a music bin where I store various instruments and she asked if she could put some on her shelf. So T basically put together this shelf, choosing which instruments she wanted on it. She wanted to squeeze in more instruments than would fit so I helped her arrange them on the trays by putting some together by category, like instruments you shake or instruments that you blow air into, etc.

We have been loving this shelf and it’s been so much fun playing the instruments together as a family. My only regret is setting it up in her bedroom. For some reason, she initiates a jam session before bed every night 🙄😖😅

Some of these items are hand me downs but you can also check my Amazon Storefront under Art/Music for some of them!

Do you have a music shelf, center/corner, or bin?

BUG EXPLORATION 🐞🦗🐝🦋🪰🐜🕷🪳

I put together this quick sensory bin and flower and insect matching activity for T yesterday before I left for work because she was staying home sick again with my husband 🥲 Sensory bins can be such calm, comforting, quiet play for her, and nice especially when she is low in energy.

T does much better when she finds purpose in activities so I added some of our bug and flower TOOBS (See Amazon Storefront under 1+ Yr Old Materials, some wooden butterflies from .based.toys, DIY bilingual insect cards, and our flower TOOB cards from Etsy shop.

For the base, I used black beans and some moss. I added a clear bottle, some tweezers, mini gardening tools, and a few of our favorite wooden scoopers and other tools. You can find these in our Amazon Storefront under Sensory.

DIY Screw Board 🔧🔩🪛🧰

This DIY has been on my DIY list ever since this past summer when T first tried out her cousin’s screw board during our visit. (You may have seen my post about it)

I wanted to design something specific for T to explore various screw types and tools to work them, including a wrench, screwdriver, Allen key, and her hands/fingers. Some of these are still too difficult for her but she absolutely loves playing with the and persistently work hard on figuring it out. The tools shown here were just small ones I found around the house. They were the best sizes I had but I may replace them with better options when I see them.

Here are the steps I took in making this (Swipe to the 👉🏼 for photos of each step):
1. Find a block of wood (I used a scrap piece I found at home that I thought was the perfect size)
2. If you have a router or cnc router, you can carve out a section to hold the tools (you can also skip this part)
3. Drill holes the size of the threaded inserts you have, by hand or with a drill press
4. Sand and finish
5. Screw the inserts into the holes, by hand

If you don’t have the time, energy, materials, or interest in DIY-ing it, I included some options of great screw boards on my Amazon Storefront under 2+Yr Old Materials.

HAWAII THEMED MINI SHELFIE 🌺 🌈 🌊🏝 🐠 🍱 🍧

T’s mini shelf in her bedroom is often used for special themed activities such as art, math focused, language, etc. This week I decided to include various place-based activities specific to Hawai`i. She has been very interested in puzzles lately so most of the activities are puzzles. I also included some fine motor work and open ended play, as well as music.

As an educator, I’ve always had a special passion in global education. However, before learning about the world around us, I find it so important to learn about our own home and culture. It want T to connect to her home, her culture, and become an postive contributor to her community. Then, I hope she can spread that to the world around her as she learns about other people and places as well. Hawaii is unique and diverse which makes it even more beautiful and special.

Here are the activities on her shelf:
Ukulele (on the side)
Lei Threading (by )
Hawaiian Monk Seal Stacker (by )
DIY Humuhumunukunukuapua`a Chunky Puzzle
`Ono Hawaiian Plate Puzzle (by )
DIY Hawaiian Islands Chunky Puzzle (launching soon in our shop!)
DIY Kamehameha Butterfly Puzzle

Please share something specific to where you live. What kinds of place-based activities do you share or want to share with your little one?

CHRISTMAS TREE 🧲 GARLAND 🎄

Need a quick and easy Christmas activity for your LO? This one took me 5 minutes to prep and my little one loves it! She gets to practice fine motor skills and some prewriting skills too, including that pencil grip!

For this activity, I cut out a simple tree design from green construction paper, added some little dots, and then taped the tree to the back of a baking pan. T loves the powerful tiny magnets on our refrigerator so I grabbed some for this activity. It isn’t easy taking those little magnets apart! You can see her concentration and perseverance as she takes them apart and matches the dots, pushing them around to the right spot.

If you have paper, magnets, and a baking pan, this is a super simple one to add to your Christmas activity list!

CHRISTMAS 🎄 SHELFIE ✝️

Can you tell we love trees over here? This week is the start of everything Christmas! It’s our favorite time of the year and I’m soooo glad I can bring out so many DIYs I made last year!

Here’s what’s on our Christmas shelf this week:

DIY Christmas Light Stringing
DIY Gingerbread Man Emotion Matching
DIY Magnets on Tree
Paint the Gingerbread House (from Target)
DIY Pushpin Ornaments on Tree
DIY Tree Stacker/Puzzle
Bells on Magnetic Tile Trees
DIY Cross Tens Frame

Check out this week’s posts for details on our new DIYs and our stories for previous posts/tutorials of the activities from last year!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 🙏💕

We truly appreciate all your love and support for our account and small shop! Thank you all for following along with us on this journey 💕

MINI BEDROOM SHELF ROTATION 🎄🌈

Last week, I shared our main shelf which is currently math focused. I made this mini shelf for her room a while ago specifically for little focused shelf activities but switched it around last week. So here is a little collection of some mixed activities she has on this shelf currently. I usually rotate the two shelves every other week. T is currently 31 months old.

Here are the materials on this shelf:
Stacking Tree - there are a few left in our shop! (size discrimination)
DIY Christmas tree stacker ( size discrimination)
DIY Tree Puzzle (visual perception)
DIY Short, Medium, Long sort (3 part sorting tray available in our shop)
Button Dressing Frame (fine motor, practical life)
DIY Rainbow Push Pins (color matching, fine motor)

Our shop’s Black Friday sale is going on now for a few more days so check it out!

💘 LAST CHANCE 💘

I’ve teamed up with some incredible accounts to gift one lucky winner the following ⬇️

✨ A nugget
✨ A lounger from
✨ A rocker from
✨ A balance board from
✨ a crayon name set from
✨ $50 shop credit to .by.the.sea.shop .by.the.sea

⏱ TAKES 4 MINUTES TO ENTER:

🌟Like and Save this photo
🌟Tag your friends, each tag is 1 entry
🌟 Answer the question>>> what’s your favorite thing about November? 🍁🍂🍄

🌟Go to and follow the directions on their post!

🌟BONUS: Share this post in your stories for 10 extra entries and make sure to tag so that we can give you credit.

📌 Details: This event will run from Monday November 15th to Wednesday November 17th at 8PM EST and the winner will be announced within 48 hours after the gifting has ended.

🌍Gifting is open worldwide! Private accounts can enter, we will message anyone randomly selected to become PUBLIC so we can verify you are following everyone in the gifting at the time of drawing. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize.

This is not affiliated with instagram. By entering you are confirming that you are over the age of 18.

RAINBOW SALT PLAY 🌈

Have you ever dyed salt before? I never realized just how simple it is! I’ve been meaning to try it for a while and finally got to it. What a fun texture to play with and it’s so much fun mixing the colors together and watching all the swirls and designs form. T has been playing with this for a few days now and loves burying her hands and making it “rain”. She fills the jar up, seals it, and then dumps it back out, only to refill it again and again!

All you need is some salt and food coloring! I purchased 4 bottles of salt from Costco and plan to use this FOREVER like I do with all our sensory materials 😆 Salt won’t go bad, will it 🤨

Check out the next reel to see the making of it!

💘 G I F T I N G 💘

I’ve teamed up with some incredible accounts to gift one lucky winner the following ⬇️

✨ A nugget
✨ A lounger from
✨ A rocker from
✨ A balance board from
✨ a crayon name set from
✨ $50 shop credit to .by.the.sea.shop .by.the.sea

⏱ TAKES 4 MINUTES TO ENTER:

🌟Like and Save this photo
🌟Tag your friends, each tag is 1 entry
🌟 Answer the question>>> what’s your favorite thing about November? 🍁🍂🍄

🌟Go to and follow the directions on their post!

🌟BONUS: Share this post in your stories for 10 extra entries and make sure to tag so that we can give you credit.

📌 Details: This event will run from Monday November 15th to Wednesday November 17th at 8PM EST and the winner will be announced within 48 hours after the gifting has ended.

🌍Gifting is open worldwide! Private accounts can enter, we will message anyone randomly selected to become PUBLIC so we can verify you are following everyone in the gifting at the time of drawing. The winner will have 48 hours to claim their prize.

This is not affiliated with instagram. By entering you are confirming that you are over the age of 18.

MATH SHELFIE 🧮🔢

This week, I decided to organize a math focused shelf for T. She’s been really interested in and exploring numbers and shapes. She has a mini shelf in her bedroom too which usually has a focus but I reversed it this week. I will share that shelf as well this week. T is currently 31 months old and so typically rotate her shelves every other week now that she attends a Montessori preschool on the weekdays.

Here’s what’s on this shelf:

◇ DIY 1,2,3 Puzzles
◇ DIY Number Rods
◇ Wooden Counting Box by
◇ Shape Sorter (See Amazon Storefront under “2+ Yr Old Materials”)
◇ Chunky Numbers 0-10 Puzzle (from our .by.the.sea.shop)
◇ Dinosaur Eggs Balance (from Dollar Spot)
◇ Land And Sky Two -Part Puzzle (from )
◇ Decagon Number Trays Stacker (available in our .by.the.sea.shop)

Feel free to drop a comment 👇🏼or DM me with any questions!

OPEN-ENDED PLAY 🌈

Although most of our materials at home are Montessori materials that focus on specific skills, we are also huge advocates of open-ended play. Some of the many benefits of open-ended play are noted above but there are so many more as well, including supporting pretend play, exploring multiple ways to play with one material, and how it can teach cooperation and teamwork.

Some of the open-ended materials we make available in our home for T to explore at any time includes the following:

Wooden Blocks
Stacking rainbows
Magnetic tiles
Balls
Sensory materials (water, rice, play dough, sand)
Legos/Duplos
Loose parts
Peg Dolls
Piklar
Scarves
Balance Board

This block set is from our .by.the.sea.shop but unfortunately it is currently sold out. Check out our shop website for other open-ended materials like our mini sand rainbow stacker (swipe to the 👉🏼) which is the perfect size to make the perfect stocking stuffer! Our shop link is in the link in our bio. Follow .by.the.sea.shop for more info on our shop items!

What are your LOs favorite open-ended materials?

PLAY SCHEMAS + WHY THEY ARE IMPORTANT

A play schema is a pattern of repeated behaviors that children display to help them make sense of their world. Through their play, they express, explore, and develop their thoughts and ideas.

When you observe and notice your child showing an interest and exploring these schemas, you can better understand your child’s behaviors. It can also help you plan appropriate activities and prepare learning environments to support their exploration of these schemas in an engaging and safe way.

For example, you may notice your child showing an interest in throwing things (trajectory) so rather than your child throwing food or other objects in the house, you can set up a fun game for your child to throw soft balls into a basket.

Understanding schemas is just one of the many factors to consider when “following your child”.

Swipe 👉 to see some descriptions and examples of the different play schemas. You can save this post as a reference too!

What schema(s) is your little one currently exploring?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN from Bluey and Bingo! Oh and Mum and Dad too 🎃

Have a safe a memorable Halloween! What are your plans today?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN from Bluey and Bingo!

Have a safe a memorable Halloween! What are your plans today?

Monti By The Sea updated their business hours.

SHELF ROTATION 🎣 💐 🥕 ⭐️ ♥️ ☂

It’s been a bit busy over here, so I didn’t get a chance to post this yesterday. Here’s the new shelf setup for T for the next couple of weeks. I rotate the activities every other week and do my best to follow T by including various activities and materials that meet her skill levels and her interests. I also try to vary the activities to address a wide range of skills including some fine motor work, language, math, practical life, music, art, etc. I also make sure to have some open-ended materials for her to explore, along with the ones I make always accessible in this space. For your reference, T is 31 months old today!

Here’s what’s on her shelf:

Top row:
◇ DIY Hexagon Stacker (available in our shop)
◇ DIY Shapes Stacker
◇ Cupolas Building Blocks (available in our shop)
◇ Natural Large Rainbow (available in our shop)
◇ Mini Sand Stacker (available in our shop)

2nd Row:
◇ DIY Carrot K***s
◇ Chunky Shapes Puzzle (available in our shop)

3rd Row:
◇ Autumn Patterns (by )
◇ Flower Arranging
◇ Upper Case Alphabet Puzzle (available in our shop)
◇ Magnetic Fishing Letters (listed in my Amazon Storefront under 2+ Yr Old Activities)

Follow our new shop account .by.the.sea.shop for more details about our shop materials and news!

OCTOBER PREGNANCY + INFANCY LOSS AWARENESS MONTH 💕

Although it all still feels very fresh to me, I thought it was a fitting time for me to share my story and bring light and love to all of you who have experienced this kind of loss before. It is crazy to think that 1 in 4 women lose a baby during pregnancy, delivery, or infancy. And so many of us keep the pain and our stories hidden.

No one can explain the feeling of loss, no matter how early on you lose them or how long you carry or know them.

I found out my baby had a rare birth defect at my first ultrasound at around 8 weeks old. My heart sank when the dr told me that my baby boy’s heart didn’t look right, and his heartbeat seemed like two disconnected parts. As the ultrasounds and tests continued for the next weeks, it seemed that his heart was growing outside of his chest. These visits were the worst experiences for me, sitting alone with the dr, watching my baby in the monitor with his little heart beating, his tiny hands, feet, and body wiggling. I listened and wept as the dr explained that if it was what he thought this condition was, my baby boy would not survive after birth. My husband and I prayed and prepared to do whatever it took to love our baby and to trust in God. The thought of him suffering along with all the other feelings and thoughts I had were agonizing, to say the least. The weeks since the news were some of the worst weeks I’ve ever had, but by the grace of God, I was able to find peace amidst the pain. How quickly my fears had changed, from the fear of having a miscarriage to the fear of not having one. Some time in May, my baby boy went home to heaven, right before entering the second trimester. I had a D&C procedure from the missed miscarriage soon after.

This was not the first time I experienced the loss of someone I loved but no matter how many times you go through loss, it never gets easier.

I share my story in hopes that you will know you are not alone and that you find peace knowing God’s plans for us are bigger and better than ours. The dr said it was just bad luck. But I truly believe “God Wastes Nothing” and has a purpose in everything.