Montessori Activity: Stringing Buttons

Age: From 3 years old

Objective(s): To train find motor skills

Materials:

1. 1 bowl with buttons of different colours.
2. 1 string
3. 1 tray or mat.

Directions:

1. Tie a knot in the string with a last bead.

2. Show your child how to string a few buttons.

3. Encourage your child to try.

Additional Information:

J (3Y3M9D) tried this today 14 June 2012 and at this age, he could do it well compared to when he was two years old.

Montessori Activity: Fun with Teaching Pattern Recognition through Stringing Beads/模式识别

First make a pattern for your child to follow when stringing

Age: From 4 years

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To get the child ready for Maths.
2. To teach logic and number pattern recognition.
3. To train the child’s fine motor skills.

Materials:
1. 1 container containing 4 beads each of 4-5 different colours
2. 1 string.
3. 1 clip as stopper (optional)
4. 1 compartmentalized container with 4-5 compartments for sorting.
5. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Tie a knot in the string with a last bead or clip it.

2. Ask your child to sort the beads by colours in the compartmentalized containers.

3. Demonstrate by stringing 1 set of pattern.

4. Encourage your child to continue to spring the beads following the pattern by asking what should the next bead be? See if your child can pick the correct beads to string.

Additional Information:
Recognizing patterns is part of the pre-school kindergarten curriculum in Singapore, and I saw such a problem sum from the Singapore pre-Maths book. However, I make it more fun by translating this pre-Maths problem sum into a Montessori-style activity for Joshua. Joshua (2Y11M21D) tried this today, but he wasn't interested in following any pattern, but insisted on randomly stringing the beads. At some point, he purposely strung the wrong colour bead to see my exasperated reaction. However, he completed stringing all the beads though. It looks like he is not ready nor interested in recognizing patterns yet. Perhaps the pattern I have made is too complex. I will try again with a simpler pattern. If not, I will put this aside and return to it later.

You can buy beads from Amazon:

Montessori Activity: Stringing Small Beads/Snor Perler/穿珠子[chuān zhū zi]

Age: From 2.5 years

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

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

Materials:

1. 1 handful of small beads
2. 1 thin nylon string or fish line
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Tie a knot in the string with a last bead.
2. Show your child by picking up the string with right hand and moving the bead from left to right.
3. Encourage your child to try.
4. Remove the beads and repeat the activity if your child is interested.

Special Warning:

Supervise closely with the string. Remove and store away immediately after activity.

Cost:

2 packet of small beads: 10 DKK (2.50 SGD) from Tiger
2 rolls of nylon: 10 DKK (2.50 SGD) from Søstrene Grene

Additional Information:

J (2Y6M2D) tried this today. He practiced for 3 minutes and then got tired of it. I think a girl would enjoy stringing beads more, but because this is so good for fine motor skills training, I have introduced this activity to J. This is not an activity that I will introduce so often as the fineness of it (thin thread etc.) can be rather demanding on eye-sight.

Montessori Activity: Stringing Medium Beads/Snor Perler/穿珠子[chuān zhū zi]

Age: From 2 years 3 months old

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

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

Materials:

1. 1 handful of color wooden beads
2. 1 string
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Show your child by tying a knot in the string.
2. Show your child by picking up the string with right hand and moving the bead from left to right.
3. Encourage your child to try.
4. Remove the beads and repeat the activity if your child is interested.

Special Warning:

Supervise closely with the string. Remove and store away immediately after activity.

Cost:

A packet of colourful beads: 10 DKK (2.50 SGD) from Tiger
A roll of string: 14 DKK (3.30 SGD) from Søstrene Grene

Additional Information:

J (2Y5M22D) tried this today, and could hold his interest and complete all the beads. He spent more than 15 minutes on this activity today. His attention span has improved a lot, since he started Montessori activity almost 6 months ago.

Montessori Activity: Stringing Large Beads/Snor Perler/穿珠子[chuān zhū zi]

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

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

Materials:

1. 10 wooden beads
3. 1 string

Directions:

1. Show your child by tying a knot in the string.
2. Show your child by picking up the string with right hand and moving the bead from left to right.
3. Encourage your child to try.
4. Remove the beads and repeat the activity if your child is interested.

Special Warning:

Supervise closely with the string. Remove and store away immediately after activity.

Cost:

Beads and string: 10 DKK (2.50 SGD) from the flea market

Additional Information:

J (2Y1M4D) tried this before, but truly mastered it today, after observing A and being inspired by her. Kids are the best teachers for each other.

Montessori Activity: Stringing Beads through Bead Mesh

Age: From 1.5 year old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 1 minute

Objective(s):
To train fine motor skill development.

Material(s):
Colourful beads with wire mesh

Cost:
10 DKK (2.40 SGD) from flea market

Additional Information:
All children are different, although some toddlers love it already at 1 year old, J really started enjoy playing with it around 2 years old. Here is a picture of him having fun with this toy on 6.3.2011 (2Y1D).

Montessori Activity: Stringing Straws/Snor Sugerør/穿吸管 [chuān xī guǎn]

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 10-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.
2. To train the child's eye-hand coordination.

Materials:
1. 1 drinking straw cut into 5 equal pieces to make "draw beads"
2. 1 pipe cleaner
3. 1 tray

Directions:
1. Show your child by tying a knot in the pipe cleaner

2. Show your child by picking up the pipe cleaner with one hand and begin stringing it through the each piece of straw.
3. Go about halfway and encourage your child to complete it.

4. Remove the straw beads and repeat the activity if your child is interested.

Cost: Pipe cleaners: 20 DKK (4.80 SGD) from the hobby set in Tiger

Additional Information:
J (2Y21D) tried this activity for the first time today. He managed to string the pipe cleaner through the straw, but quickly lose interest to continue.... :-( Will try again tomorrow during potty time so that he can concentrate better, before deciding whether to put this activity away for some time before re-introducing it.