Today I want to share some really easy water activities that my three-year-old has been loving. I'd suggest these are suitable for older toddlers to preschoolers. All of these activities use materials that I've found around our home but can also be inexpensively found in craft type stores. All of these activities help to develop coordination, concentration and fine motor skills. Transferring corks with Tweezer Tongs - the child uses the tweezer tongs to move the floating corks from the large bowl to the smaller bowl. Lots of other tools could be used depending on the child's age and skill... Read more →
Do your children have toys or materials in their bedrooms? I was recently told that Montessori bedrooms do not have toys in them so I thought I would explore this idea further. 🤔 In Montessori from the Start Polk Lillard and Lillard Jessen suggest that for an infant Montessori bedroom parents consider four main areas including areas for sleeping, changing, feeding, and for activity. Polk Lillard and Lillard Jensen go on to suggest parents create a bedroom that encourages concentration and that furthers self-formation "into complete human beings capable of independence, coordinated movement, language and will". For a child in... Read more →
Have you thought about using visual timers with your children? Visual timers can help children: understand the concept of time independently complete activities for a given amount of time set a timer for simple activities transition from one activity to another We use visual timers for: brushing teeth reminding us to check on bread that has been left to rise baking bread and other goods in the oven boiling an egg, cooking rice and other timed kitchen activities learning about time Visual timers could also be used for: timing screen time (for older children) timing baths or showers (for older... Read more →
If it wasn't for Montessori, I wouldn't even think to have my preschooler clean our windows. While we may see window washing as boring or tedious, the child may see it as a fun opportunity to spray water, to use their large muscles to reach, push and pull the window squeegee. At this preschooler age, all of my children have loved window washing. If you don't believe me I invite you to give your young child a small spray bottle and a window squeegee and give it a go! We've had a lot of rain so our windows and glass... Read more →
I believe there are huge benefits of woodworking with young children but I'm constantly reassessing what woodworking looks like in our home. My main source of information is Pete Moorhouse however, Pete's work is based on woodwork in early learning centres. So while I have a lot of information in front of me I'm considering how we can apply the same principles in our home environment. It's not easy to set up a woodworking environment at home. We've been working on building skills using specific woodworking activities. Now we've introduced a woodworking tray or container for free woodworking construction. The... Read more →
It is forecast to rain heavily for the next 5-6 days. It's not cold but it will be wet enough to keep us from using the art area on our back deck. So while it is still dry and we have the time, we moved our art materials inside. This is a temporary move, perhaps for the week or so, we usually love doing art outside! Naturally, we made a lot of adjustments when moving our art materials inside. We didn't bring in any paints or clay. This area inside has carpet and although we use a rug in our... Read more →
Do you have a toddler or preschooler who has started to ask questions about the moon and stars? I've found that at around three years of age my children start to ask about the moon and begin to point out things they can see in the night sky (and tell me when they can see the moon during the day). We have a lot of children's space books so I wanted to share with you some of our favourites. As a Montessori family accuracy is important to us. Many children's space books are cartoonish or overly simplistic. These books all... Read more →
Do you want to see some really beautiful Montessori spaces? Here are a few Montessori homes and classrooms that have caught my eye. These spaces are not attainable for me and for many others simply due to space restrictions. I find all of these spaces refreshing and insightful, I can see the love and attention to detail that has gone into each of these homes and classrooms. These are all spaces for young children, from infancy to around preschool age. This a peek into a Montessori early learning centre in Germany. It's interesting to see the range of materials here.... Read more →
We have stayed home this week. My nine-year-old has been unwell and unable to go to school, I could feel he was down and getting more frustrated as the days went on. Sport is his release but this week he hasn't left the house. I wanted to try a large-scale art activity to help him relax and unwind. "Creating art also helps children wire their brains to regulate stress. Art gives them the tools to learn how to calm themselves down. Tactile cognitive processing occurs when children create art; the neural networks in their brains fire up and signal their... Read more →
It's almost been a year since I first shared our snack shelves so it feels like a good time to give an update. It makes sense to show you the children's fridge at the same time to see all the food the children have access to. Both of these areas are used by my three and nine-year-old. The food here is for snacks, morning and afternoon tea, and often we will use food from here to make lunch too. The snack shelves also contain cereal and the fridge has milk which the children will use for breakfast. These areas don't... Read more →
Practical life is a huge part of Montessori at home but often it's not the first thing on my mind when I'm trying to clean the house. Most of all I'm just wanting to clean the house as quickly and as easily as possible. I've learnt that when it comes to vacuuming it is easier to allow young children to help. Teaching a young child how to vacuum, where to find and use the vacuum cleaner can also help them clean up their own mess. Our house is split into four different levels so I need Otto (3yrs) near me... Read more →
Hands up if you love tree and branch blocks. They are completely natural, compostable, biodegradable, depending on where you live (and how handy you are) they might be free. They feel good, look good, are non-toxic, and come in lots of different shapes and sizes. My three-year-old is obsessed with Duplo so having some natural blocks around is like an antidote for all that plastic. It's nice to be able to bring new play materials into our home without adding to our environmental footprint, tree and branch blocks are an absolute feel-good toy. Standard cube blocks are reliable and predictable... Read more →
I'm not sure how it started but we have been using a lot of stencils this week. Stencils can be fantastic for developing fine motor skills they also encourage the hands to work together. One hand controls the paintbrush or pencil while the other needs to hold the stencil or paper in place. As you can see on our stencil trays, I have secured the stencil to the tray with tape. The child still needs the supporting hand to keep the paper in place and to hold the stencil down. These trays are for a three-year-old, for an older child... Read more →