How to Teach Your Child to Use Chopsticks?

Age: From 4 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Objective(s): To train the child’s fine motor skills.

Materials:

1. 2 containers
2. Approx. 10 pom poms
3. 1 pair of kid's length chopsticks (approx. 15 cm in length) (You can make your own by chopping off the length of a pair of wooden chopsticks, which I did here)
4. 1 Tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate it to your child by transferring the pom poms slowly one at a time using chopsticks.
2. Encourage and let your child try it.

Here is showing the technique of how to hold chopsticks I found from the internet:

Here is an excellent post by a non-Chinese on how to hold chopsticks:

http://learnbydiagram.blogspot.dk/2011/08/learn-to-properly-use-chopsticks.html


Additional Information:

Among all my Chinese friends, only YL's daughter, A, who is currently 4 years old, manages to hold the chopsticks well. In fact she now asks for chopsticks using meal times and chopsticks has become her preference of choice.

It boiled down to parental expectation, and in the case of A, YL has been very determined that her daughter learns to use the chopsticks.

Many Chinese parents in Copenhagen as well as Singapore do not have the will to allocate time to teach their children to use chopsticks. It is too tiring and too much work. We fall back on easy solution - just use the spoon, and hoping that the child will learn to use the chopsticks on their own when they are older. It does not happen this way. If a child does not take time to learn it, he will not master it all of a sudden one day.

Chopsticks are part of our heritage, and it is a pity that many modern Chinese parents no longer have the determination to teach it. This part of heritage is lost forever. Ironically, more and more Danes are learning how to use chopsticks. While dining at Japanese, Chinese or Thai restaurants, I encourage J by showing him that even the Danes are using chopsticks. It inspired him to know that it is a good skill to learn, that even Danes know how to use it, so why not him - who is both 100% Chinese and 100% Danish :-)

At the age of 4 years old, J still could not hold the chopsticks as I had not been very firm with him to learn how to use chopsticks. As such, the lack of chopsticks skills frustrated him and he didn't like to use chopsticks. He will enjoy using chopsticks more, if he is skillful at it. It can get messy to practise using chopsticks at the dining table. Also he doesn't have so much patience to practise chopsticks during meal times, as he is hungry and just wants to send the mouthful of food into the mouth as fast as possible.

But he is already 4 years old now, and it is a good time now to devote learning this skill until it is mastered, no matter how much time it will take. So I am returning back to this activity to provide J more practise of using the chopsticks. It is not one of his favourite activities, but at least he is accepting to practise using the chopsticks, while he isn't hungry. That is helping him slowly to be better at it.

My plan of action is that he should spend 5 minutes a day on this activity for the whole of this month, until using the chopsticks comes as a second nature to him, without him using any conscious brain energy. Practise makes perfect :-).

Thanks to the tip of a mommy blogger MieVee, I made a pair of kid's length chopsticks for J.

Updates on 1 August 2013 after almost a week of practice:

Montessori Activity: Teaching Counting with Pom Poms

Idea from Confessions from a Homeschooler

Age: From 2.5 years old

Objectives: To teach counting objects in a fun way

Materials:
1. 1 counting worksheet (Confessions of a Homeschooler has a fantastic one you can download here)
2. 1 bowl containing pom poms
3. 1 pincer
4. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Demonstrate by putting one pom pom on the label called "One" and two pom poms on the label called "Two", saying, "Joshua, this is one, it gets one pom pom... this is two, it gets two pom poms This is three, how many pom poms should it gets?"

2. Encourage your child to try to do the same for the remaining labels "Three" to "Five".

Additional Information:

15 March 2012 - Florian gave Joshua tried this today (3Y10D) and he enjoyed it, but he did not

complete it.

 

 

References:

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/05/prek-numbers-shapes-colors-review.html

You can also buy the pom poms from Amazon:

Montessori Activity: Sorting Pom Poms with Cheat-Chopsticks

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objectives:

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.
2. To teach the concept of squeeze and release.
3. To teach the names of different colours.
4. To teach sorting.
5. To teach counting.

Materials:

1. 1 container
2. 9 pom poms of 3 different colours (keep it simple, not too many)
3. Medicine tablet organizer
4. 1 pair of cheat chopsticks
4. 1 Tray

Directions:

1. Show your child to transfer the pom poms with the container into the respective table organizers sorting according to colours using the chopsticks. Say "squeeze" and "release" as you use the tongs. Say the colour of the pompom you are holding. Count as you go along filling the bowl with pompoms.

2. Pick the pom poms back into the container using chopsticks.

3. Encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:

You can get pom poms from Amazon:

http://amzn.to/24rB1pF

Montessori Activity: Transferring with Children's Chopsticks

J's friend, Amy (2 years 11 months) transferring beans and stones with chopsticks in Xiamen, China

Age: From 2.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s): To train the child’s fine motor skills.

Materials:

1. 2 containers
2. Approx. 10 pom poms
3. 1 pair of chopsticks
4. 1 Tray

Tips:

For older and more advanced kids, try using beans and stones instead to make it more challenging.

Directions:

1. Demonstrate it to your child by transferring the stone slowly one at a time with the chopsticks
2. Encourage and let your child try it.

Special Warning:

1. Supervise closely with pom poms and don’t start with a toddler who is still mouthing. Remove and store away immediately after activity.

Cost:

European Chopsticks 10 DKK (2.40 SGD)  for 2 pairs from Tiger.

Additional Information:

I was very excited when I found these chopsticks from Tiger. Although it is more suited to be described as "cheat"-sticks, as it is chopsticks made easy for Europeans, which is a cross between a pair of chopsticks and a tong. But because of that, it makes it easier for young children to use, and at the same time, it adds an element of heritage education to Montessori activity. I can't wait to let J try it this weekend!

Montessori Activity: Transferring Pom Poms with Tongs/Overførsel af Pom Poms/使用镊子/夹子[shǐ yòng niè zi/jiā zi]

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objectives:

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.
2. To teach the concept of squeeze and release.
3. To teach the names of different colours.
4. To teach counting.

Materials:

1. 2 bowls (preferably of equal size and colour)
2. Approx. 7-10 pom poms (keep it simple, not too many)
3. 1 pair of tongs
4. 1 Tray

Directions:

1. Put the bowls on the tray side by side with the tongs on your right and fill the bowl on the left with pompoms.

2. Show your child to transfer the pom poms with the tongs from the bowl on the left to the bowl on the right. Say "squeeze" and "release" as you use the tongs. Say the colour of the pompom you are holding. Count as you go along filling the bowl with pompoms.

3. Switch the bowls so that the bowl with the pompoms is back on the left and encourage your child to try.

Cost:

Total cost: 35 DKK (8.40 SGD)
Pom poms: 20 DKK (4.80 SGD) including other materials in a hobby set jar
Bowls: 15 DKK (3.60 SGD) for 6 from IKEA

You can also buy the pom poms and tongs from Amazon:

http://amzn.to/24rB1pF

http://amzn.to/1TldjDQ

Additional Information:

J (2Y20D) tried this for the first time today. At first, he was hesitant, wanting only to see me doing it. Then he tried and succeeded after a few attempts. That got him more interested, and he began to be better and better at it. In the end, I had to take the tray away, as there was no more time left. Will definitely try it again for J.

References:
http://educationofours.blogspot.com/2010/11/squeezing-work-pompom.html