Montessori Activity: Pouring

Age: From 1 years old

Activity Duration: 5-10 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objective(s): To train the child’s hand-eye coordination skill

Materials:

1. 2 mini jugs (preferably identical)
2. Water (half filled in one of the jug)
3. 1 small towel (to wipe dry the tray)
4. 1 tray (optional)

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your toddler by pouring the water from one jug into the other slowly and repeat.

2. Encourage and let your child try it.

3. Then demonstrate to your child by wiping the tray dry using the towel.

4. Encourage your child to try wiping.

Video Demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enlFg35MKLU&feature=related

Additional Information:

Baby FECS was playing with her bowl, cup and spoon at meal time a lot. She tried to scoop, pour and transfer, making a big mess with lots of work for clean up after meal time. I decided to let her try this Montessori pouring activity to allow her to pour to her heart content. Hopefully, that will reduce her desire to pour during actual meal time. 

Alas, it wasn't quite a good time, as she was quite thirsty. So instead of pouring, she drank most of the water instead!!! Earlier, she even drank water off the tray, but I wasn't able to capture on video.

This is not exactly following Montessori concept wholesale. I didn't use real glass jugs as advocated by Montessori that I did with J's toddler's years. I think she is too young for it, and thus I am sticking to plastic for now.

https://youtu.be/XUSwZUarBPo

10 July 2017 (1Y1M24D): We tried again today. She still enjoyed this activity very much, and there is some progress with pouring :-)

Hopscotch/跳格子

Age: From 3 years old or when the child can hop on one foot

Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Objectives:
1. To provide a fun way to practice hoping on one foot
2. A way to revise the numbers 1 - 10

Materials:
1. 1 chalk
2. 1 concrete backyard or corridor

Directions:
1. Draw a hopscotch design on concrete floor with chalk.

2. Throw a flat stone or to land on square no. 1 without touching the border. If you don't get it right, you lose your turn and pass the stone to the next person.

3. If you do get it right, hop on to square no. 2. Through all the squares, skipping the square you have your stone on.

4. When you get to no. 10, turn around on one foot and hop your way back, picking up your stone on the along the way.

5. Pass the stone to the next person. If you completed the course with your stone on square no. 1 without losing your turn, throw your stone onto square no. 2 on your next turn. Your goal is to complete the course with the stone on each square. The first person to do this wins the game!

Tips:
For variation, try with number from 11 - 20 next time, or try even with words. If you are Christian, you can write verses on the squares instead.

Additional Information:
Joshua could hop with one foot for some time now, and I have been wanting to try hopscotch with him. Finally Joshua (3Y5M9D) got to try it today at our corridor. Hopscotch is a great way to practise gross motor skills of young children - just make sure that you draw the squares pre-schooler size. I amde the mistake today of drawing them wee bit too large. He got frustrated at not being able to hop in one step to the next square, and decided to play lego with daddy instead. Neverthemind, I will try again next time.

Playing with Joshua brought back lots of childhood memories. Growing up, I used to play hopsctoch with my best friends at Holland V. It doesn't cost a penny, but it is a lot of fun.

References:

http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Hopscotch

Montessori Activity: Sound Cylinders

Idea from How to Raise An Amazing Child The Montessori Way

Age: From 2 years old

Objective(s): To develop the ability to discriminate sounds

Materials:
1. 6 opaque containers in 2 different colours filled in pairs with something that would make a distinct and interesting sound when shaken (I use rice, salt, goji berries. You can also use beans, sand, nuts, etc.)
2. 1 tray
3. 1 mat

Directions:

1. Demonstrate by taking a blue container, shake it and ask your child to find a green container of the same sound.

2. Invite your child to try for the remaining containers.

Additional Information:

Joshua (3Y3M8D) requested to do this today. So I prepared it this evening. He tried this for the first time today, and could match the sound of the containers. He was especially enthusiastic about matching the goji berries as he rewarded himself by eating them after opening the container for verification!

I recycled the vitamin containers. However, I didn't have two sets of different colours, but I use stickers to differentiate the colours.

I will collect more containers to make a set of 12 containers.

References:

http://mymontessorimoments.com/2010/09/21/sound-matching/

Montessori Activity: Teaching Letter Recognition

Age: From 3 years old

Objectives:
1. To provide a fun way of teaching letters recognition

Materials:
1. 1 page of large-print advertisement from used magazine. (You can also use used printed powerpoint presentation).
2. 1 pencil
3. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Pick a letter, for example, the letter "e" and circle out the first letter "e" you see on the page.

2. Encourage your child to try to look for all the letter "e" on the page and circle them out.

Tips:
1. Read out the word to your child, as he succeeded in finding and circling the letter.

Additional Information:
This is another way of variation of teaching letters, that is free, and enable you to recycle the magazines in a useful way. Joshua tried this today, but he wasn't so interested. I will try it another day.

Hide-&-Seek Under Comforter's Cave

Age: From 2.5 years old

Materials:
1. Coffee table or dining table
2. 1 big comforter, blanket or bed sheet

Additional Information:
Joshua loves to hide under blankets and comforters. This is not exactly a real hide-&-seek game, as it is very obvious with the prominent cave, but nevertheless, it thrills Joshua a whole deal. It is something that Joshua does with Florian, while Mommy concentrates her energy on more serious Montessori stuff (so good to have Florian here to do silly things with Joshua). The most fun part is when you count to 3, and lift up the comforter! Lots of laughter! Remember to take some pictures to capture the memory for years down the road, when your child is grown up, and you look back with fondness those times...

This is so simple and a game played by all parents, but once in a while, it is good to be reminded that often the simple free games are good enough, and often one of the best ways to spend time with our children. I am posting it down to serve as fond memories and to remind myself never to forget such simple fun in our lives.

Build a Cozy Cave

Age: From 2.5 years old

Materials:
1. 2 chairs
2. 1 big bed sheet
3. Some clothes pegs

Additional Information:
I used to have a lot of fun building my own "house" at home when I was a child and have been wanting to try this with Joshua. Finally we did it today, since the weather was rather grey outside. We brought in the teddy bears too and read some books using torch light inside "Joshua's house".

Updates:

12 June 2014 (5Y3M7D)

At 5 years old, J is really into making caves. The other day, he got frustrated because he could not succeed. Today, he used the lap-tray as support for the roof. This was his own design and creation. It turned the whole living room upside-down - well almost, so for a neat freak like me, I endured it as I know it was fun for him. But I think my endurance will only last until the day after. He decided that he would like to sleep in his cave this evening.

References:

http://inthehouseofmamastacey.blogspot.dk/2011/12/build-teddy-bear-cave.html

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+build+a+blanket+fort

Montessori Activity: Pasting Pictures of Denmark with Glue

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Objectives:
1. To train the child's motor skills.
2. To train the child's hand eye coordination.

Materials:
1. 1 blank piece of paper (write a title if you wish)
2. 10 pictures cut out from magazines
3. 1 stick of glue
4. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Show the child how to put the glue onto the back of the picture.
2. Show your child how to paste the picture onto the paper.
3. Encourage your child to try.
4. Talk to your child about the pictures he has pasted.

Additional Information:
It was a big success with pasting pictures of Singapore with glue. As part of Heritage Education Programme that I designed for Joshua, I have decided to repeat this activity with pictures of Denmark. I have cut out some pictures of Copenhagen from tourist brochures that I took for my sister's visit here. The first picture that Joshua (2Y6M7D) chosed to paste is the picture of Tivoli.

I noticed that what attracted Joshua to this activity were the attractive, full colour and well-designed brochures of Singapore and Denmark. This seemed to prove Maria Montessori's hypothesis of only using pleasing materials when educating children, although I am still more of a functional and pragmatic type of person that would not sacrify function for design.

Montessori Activity: Pasting Pictures of Singapore with Glue

4.9.2011 (2Y5M30D) - The collage completed by Joshua with my guidance

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 15 minutes

Objectives:
1. To train the child's motor skills.
2. To train the child's hand eye coordination.

Materials:
1. 1 blank piece of paper (write a title if you wish)
2. 10 pictures cut out from magazines
3. 1 stick of glue
4. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Show the child how to put the glue onto the back of the picture.

2. Show your child how to paste the picture onto the paper.

3. Encourage your child to try.

4. Talk to your child about the pictures he has pasted.

Video Demonstration:

Additional Information:
The pasting tray has been lying on the shelf for some time, but Joshua showed no interest for it. Yesterday, he took it out and asked to work on it. He enjoyed it very much.

Last night, Daddy FECS and I were doing some spring cleaning on an old book shelf. We cleared out some old literature, amongst which some old travel brochures on Singapore. I decided to use it for the pasting activity by cutting out some pictures of Singapore, and thus adding some heritage education element into this activity.

Recently, our Little FECS has been mentioning about taking the plane to Singapore. It would be good to introduce him the scenes and sights of Singapore through these pasting. The materials are prepared, and I wrote the word Singapore on the blank paper.

After breakfast this morning, the first thing he picked from the shelf is this activity - yeh!

Montessori Activity: Opening and Closing Boxes

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5 - 10 minutes

Materials:

1. 2 boxes each with something interesting inside such as a fridge magnet.
2. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Shake the box to attract the child's interest.

2. Show your child how to open the box to take the thing out.

3. Close the box and encourage your child try to open it.

4. Show your child how to put the item into the box and close the box by folding the 2 flaps followed by the cover.

5. Encourage your child to close the box.

Additional Information:

Before throwing away the boxes containing the cream I bought, I thought why not let J practice opening and closing boxes. He (2Y5M29D) had some problem trying to find the opening, until I pointed to him the side to open. He then managed to open the box, but part of the cover was torn. He then tried to close the box, but didn't know how to handle the flaps. After showing him, he was able to close it well. After several tries, he was good at opening and closing boxes. The whole activity took 5 minutes.

Montessori Activity: Pouring & Funneling "Milk"

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objective(s): To train the child’s hand-eye coordination skill

Materials:

1. 1 milk packet recyled
2. 1 funnel
3. 1 - 2 cups
4. Water (half filled in one of the jug)
5. 1 small towel (to wipe dry the tray)
6. 1 tray or stand

Directions:

1. Show your child how to pour the "milk" from the packet into the cup.

2. Encourage your child to try.

3. Demonstrate to your child by pouring the water from the cup through the funnel into the milk packet slowly and repeat.

4. Encourage and let your child try it.

Additional Information:

J started to practice pouring water when he was 2 years old, and he is very good at pouring water from jug now. He pours himself water during snack time. However, it is more difficult to pour milk from a packet into a cup and J also got tired of pouring activities, since it is no longer challenging. I recycled the milk packet and let him practice pouring "milk". He (2Y5M22D) did well today. I think I will let him practice a little more, before I allow him to pour himself real milk from the milk packet. This activity costs almost nothing, and brings a lot of fun and self-fulfillment to the child, knowing that he can pour himself a cup of "milk" for himself.

Pretend Play: How to Turn Household Garbage into Toys for Your Child?

Joshua simply LOVES his ktichen set, which we bought from the flea market. It is probably the best investment I have made, as he plays with it almost every morning, making food for the teddy bear and the toy dog for months now. Thus, I am spending some time to think of how to expand his stock and selection without spending too much money.

You don't have to spend money buying those expensive wooden food toys. The next few pictures show how you can recycle household garbage and turn them into interesting toys for your child, when you combine them with some of your child's toys. It provides free-of-charge play... well, almost :-)

I recycled the bread package for Joshua's plastic bread toy, and he loved it. It made the plastic bread toy much more real and life-like.

Here are Joshua's plastic pieces of bread coming straight out from the bread package:

After we have finished eating the cheese, I recyled the cheese pack and put Joshua's rubber cheese toys into it. Joshua finds it very amusing. He now has his own "cheese" complete with real cheese packaging.

After drinking the milk, I washed the milk carton and recycled it for Joshua. He can play pretend play by pouring milk into his toy cups and serve it to his teddy bear.

Don't throw away the pasta package the next time you finish a pack. Save a little of the pasta in the package and include it in your child's pretend play kitchen set stock. You can also turn it into a Montessori inspired activity for your child to scoop the pasta into a pot with a ladle :-)

I recycled the ham package for Joshua's plastic salami and ham toy. It made the plastic salami toy much more real and life-like. Joshua was very excited, when he saw it and played with it immediately.

Montessori Activity: Teaching Basic Counting to Toddlers with Small Stones

Age: From 2.5 years old (Level 3)

Activity Duration: 10 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To teach counting.
2. To train number recognition

Materials:

1. 1-5 number typed or hand-written cards in a container
2. 15 small stones in a container
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child by putting out the number magnets or cards in order from 1 to 5, reciting the name of the number as you go along.

2. Allocate 1 glass stone, count 1 and place it in front of the number 1 magnet. Then allocate 2 glass stones, count it a loud and place it in front of the number 2 magnet. Do the same for the rest of the number.

3. Put back the materials into the respective containers and encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:

Why pay so much for Montessori materials when you can use glass stones. But why pay for glass stones, when you can use ordinary stones (unless you are vain like me, and bought those glass stones)!!!

J could now say from 1 to 10 in Mandarin Chinese (however he keeps missing out the number 4). He also could count from 1-2, and occasionally 3. So I thought I will try out this activity and see how it goes.