"Only practical work and experience lead the young to maturity." -Maria Montessori
Establish an environment for your child that respects their role in the family and enables them to practice a sense of independence. Our work is children's play, so get them involved in everyday tasks!
Transfer Work
Dry Transfer Work
Dry Transfer work is a great hand-eye coordination activity. It helps to foster the muscles necessary to fine-tune the pincer grip needed for writing. When presented from left to right, you pave the pathway for reading skills. Transfer work also teaches patience and agility. Dry transfer work can be done with sand, salt, rice, beans, beads, and more! Dry transfer work is the prerequisite to Wet Transfer work. |
Wet Transfer Work
{Controlled} Wet Transfer is the next common activity found in Montessori classrooms after Dry Transfer. Activities like this one prepare children for life skills like pouring their milk, water, juice, and more. The decanter S is using is from the store For Small Hands. It fits her hand perfectly, allowing her to have control over her pouring. Also, note that I filled the decanter with just enough water that it will not overflow the container she was pouring into. A small sponge helps with any clean up necessary. |
Real Life Wet Transfer
Here is an example of {Controlled} Wet transfer applied to a real life activity. I provided this opportunity after several practice sessions of pouring wet items back and forth between a variety of containers. S uses her decanter of milk to pour into her cereal. The decanter provides just the right amount of milk for her cereal which prevents over-pouring. |
Cooking with Children
Cooking with children can be terrifying, especially with a stove. As Montessorians say, freedom within limits. I never leave S alone when she is helping me cook at the stove. She has learned that the stove and oven are not safe to touch because of heat and potential burn. Her exposure to cooking with me has helped to develop her kitchen safety awareness, cooking skills, and identification of foods and seasonings. |
Folding Technique
Making Crab Rangoons (Cooking): S learned folding techniques, names of geometric figures, food safety, and enjoying the fruits of her labor simply by helping make crab rangoons with her Nana. |
Food Preparation
Food Prep is wonderful way to introduce healthy foods to young children. Using a crinkle cutter to cut soft fruits and vegetables is a great precursor to using a knife and developing fine motor skills! |
Care of Self
Dental Care
Cleaning Teeth: S loves practicing brushing teeth with this Tooth Cleaning Activity. Learning basic back and forth, round and round, and up and down motions help S master brushing her own teeth. We even made a teeth cleaning song! Tooth cleaning song: -This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth. -This is the way we brush our teeth, morning, noon, and night. -This is the way we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth, -This is the way we brush our teeth,to keep them pearly white! |
Bike or Car Washing
Bike/Car washing is great practical life activity for young children. It teaches responsibility and care for your property. You will be amazed how detail-oriented children can be in their work. Simply provide a bucket, some warm water, a wash cloth, and soap. S loves riding her Radio Flyer Trike, so keeping it clean is a must! |
Yoga
Yoga is a great practical life activity for young children. Littles love moving their body, providing them the challenge of moving their body in a controlled way adds a new level of difficulty. Check out these toddler yoga cards for your little one. Not only will you be spending quality time as a family, but you will be showing your child the importance to self-care and health! {Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the linked page for the cards} |
Care of Environment
Flower Arranging
This simple activity is a favorite among young children. The beauty, yet delicateness, of flowers engages children in this practical life work. Ideally, you want o provide fresh flowers, but artificial flowers are great for the purpose of being able to repeat the activity over and over. Flower arranging not only teaching children tenderness, but lends itself to the discussion of flower anatomy, opportunities to practice cutting, and color identification. |
Clothes Pin Work
Clothes pin work helps your child develop the correct pincer grip for writing. Squeezing clothes pins strengthens the muscles necessary to complete fine motor tasks such as writing, cutting, and using chop sticks. There is a variety of way to use clothes pins such as matching colors, matching numbers, and simple placing clothes pins around the edge of a container or piece of paper. Here S {attempted} to use a clothes pin to pick up pom-poms to dip into paint. This is a skill that takes time and effort, but is worth the practice! |
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