Have you tried any blindfold activities with your child? If your child goes to a Montessori school, it's likely they have tried some sensorial activities like the pink tower, knobbed cylinders, thermic tablets, perhaps even the trinomial, binomial cubes or roman arch while wearing a blindfold. What is the point? Wearing a blindfold takes away the child's sense of sight, and therefore the child needs to rely their other senses especially touch. Wearing a blindfold helps the child to develop their stereognostic sense. When using their stereognostic sense the child creates a mental picture through touch; as the child feels... Read more →
Sandpaper Letters are one of the most used Montessori materials in our home when my children are between the ages of three and five. Some children tire of them, but we still have them on our shelves, and Otto works with them periodically. It is important to say we do tons of practical life (including cooking, cleaning and handwork like sewing) and art (including playdough, clay and using scissors), so there are lots of other ways we assist our children in developing fine motor skills required for holding and controlling a pencil. We have used a few different variations of... Read more →
Over the last two years, I've attended felting workshops with a fantastic Steiner (Waldorf) educator. I've made a birthday crown, a placemat, seasonal mats and children's playthings. The crafting sessions have been for adults, but I keep on thinking about how much my children would love them too. So I've started to do some felting at home with Otto. We began with wet felting as it's easier to do with young children (than needle felting), and children often enjoy playing with water and soap. Today we made some Halloween decorations, but we could make Christmas decorations or even little toys... Read more →
There is one really easy thing you can do to promote early literacy in your home - put some magnetic letters on your fridge. Or on your dishwasher or on a metal cabinet. Magnetic letters are just like the Montessori movable alphabet but on a magnetic surface! We can put our child's name with magnetic letters on the fridge to help them recognise their name. We can use the letters to help with letter recognition. The children can play and start to put the letters together, later they can write their own words and even write notes. Otto loves to... Read more →
I Spy is a fun and easy game to help develop phonemic awareness. We can start with just two items that the child is familiar with. Above we've used three fruits. "I Spy with my little eye, something which starts with o." "Yes!! Orange starts with o". To start playing I Spy, I use items in a tray or on a work mat, mostly using small language objects and household items. Below we are using six items. Below is an example of when we've used six items, but three of them start with c (crab, cow, cat). Over time we... Read more →
Paper weaving has meaning in both Montessori and Froebel philosophies. No matter your style of parenting or education preference, paper weaving is a great activity for developing fine motor skills, spatial awareness and early mathematical skills. In Montessori, weaving is a practical life activity. In Froebel, weaving is both a gift and an occupation. Have you read about Froebel? There are lots of similarities between the Froebel and Montessori approaches. Froebel believed that children gain a deeper understanding of the world around them when given opportunities to interact with concrete activities and use carefully selected hands-on manipulatives. Sounds familiar, right?... Read more →
In the last couple of weeks, we've been focusing on drawing with oil pastels and creating with clay; however, every couple of days, I will also set up a new and interesting art tray. Some of these are just for fun, others are to help develop fine motor skills. Let's take a look at the last eight art activities we've tried! Salad spinner art - I cut some cardboard in a circle the same diameter as the bottom of our salad spinner. I presented this with some small squeeze paints (ours are from Kmart AU), the paints are small enough... Read more →
Have you used drawing prompts with your children? It's something I really love to do. I believe in process art and believe children benefit from free and open access to art materials. But I also like to present art activities to stretch their minds and their imaginations, to introduce new concepts and to encourage exploration of art, form, colour and materials. We recently had little visitors, and I put out some drawing prompts, paper, oil pastels, markers and pencils. It was a complete success! The four and five-year-olds loved the spirals, stairs and hearts. The seven-year-old loved drawing arrows and... Read more →
It was Father's day today here in Australia. To celebrate Otto (4yrs) made waffles for the whole family. This is a wonderful idea for children who love to play cafe or shops. Our waffle-making station is on a child's table, so it is at the child's height. This is useful for the child who needs to run around take orders, make the waffles and then deliver them, there is no getting up or down from the kitchen counter. We use honey, icing sugar, strawberries, banana and blueberries. I made the waffle batter in advance, but the child could easily do... Read more →
Grab your child and some clay. Today we are going outside to strengthen our hand muscles! It's been a while since I've shared a clay tray. When I've been studying, I've had little energy for messy play. Working with clay doesn't have to be messy, but it always has the potential to get messy and absolutely requires some emotional energy to wipe everything down. So if not today, save this idea for when you are ready. Or get your clay tray organised - so when the time is right, your tray is ready to go! I have three children and... Read more →
I've been super busy studying, and studying at home with a four-year-old has been much harder than I anticipated. Otto asked me for some new activities, which he has never done before. It was a reminder to update his shelves. I don't have a lot of time, I just finished one assignment and have another due on Monday, so I made some simple printouts that I hope would appeal to him. I can download and print the Etsy activities straight away, so I don't have to look for workbooks or wait for something to be delivered, within half an hour... Read more →
We've been attending a Waldorf/Steiner playgroup for almost two years and it's changed my approach to parenting (more songs, easier transitions). I've noticed changes in Otto (4yrs) too. Now he sings and tells stories every day. After one week of going to playgroup, Otto started asking me to join him for storytime. Storytime with oral stories using toys and dolls, not stories from a book. For his birthday last year, we gave Otto a felt mat and some felt animals like the ones he sees at the playgroup. He will set up his playmat with animals and props. We will... Read more →
This week Sydney experienced a flood emergency. Families are displaced, rained in or have simply spent the week indoors to stay dry. So I've tried to post the easiest, the most engaging activity I could think of that would appeal to a wide range of children. It's also Plastic Free July so I've tried to set this activity up without using plastics. All of the materials for this activity I've found around our home. Above Otto (4yrs) is using our plastic-free Playdough Station. I created it as a surprise, knowing that he would love it even more if it was... Read more →
My four-year-old is obsessed with addition. Out of nowhere, he will start quizzing me "what's 4 plus 4?" and before I can answer "what's 3 plus 5?". If your child attends a Montessori school they may use the Montessori Addition Strip Board. And there are tons of ways we can practice addition in everyday life. We can practice addition with our children when shopping "we have two oranges, if we get two more how many do we have?", when putting away the shopping, when washing, playing shops, playing with blocks, on nature walks and so much more. Addition is a... Read more →
We've been doing a ton of art lately, more than cooking or other practical life activities. I love to pair a book and an art activity, this week we tried two art activities with Leo Lionni books! ❤️ Pairing the two helps to create a connection between the child and the book and it makes us look deeper into the story. Here are six art trays that we've enjoyed. Remember to follow your child including their interests, developmental needs and skill level. These activities don't need to be presented on a tray. We can put them on our art table... Read more →