Friday 25 March 2011

Print

What's in the Closet? Fun & Educational Surprises for your Child from Monday to Sunday

Montessori-style shelf space for activity trays and boxes from Monday to Sunday + Room Time activity tray/box


http://nurturingthetenderyears.blogspot.com/2010/04/montessori-inspired-workboxes.html

http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2010/11/whats-in-box-wednesday-tot-school.html

http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/search/label/Teeny%20Tiny%20Tot%20School
I have started Montessori activities with J (2Y21D) two weeks ago and I have now found an efficient and effective way (inspiration from other bloggers, see references below) to organize my thoughts and the materials that fits into the life-style of a working mom so as to stay on top of things.

The golden rule is to organize the physical space to make such planning possible and then plan the activities a week ahead. So each morning, I would just go to the activity box for the day and take out the materials that I have planned for J to carry out the activity.

Here are some tips from my experience:

1. Organize the closet into 8 or 10 shelves (1 shelf for each of the 7 days + 1 shelf for Room Time activity) at kid's level as follows:

Shelf 1-7: 1 shelf for each activity from Monday to Sunday
Shelf 9: Family Time Activity
Shelf 10: Daddy Time Activity

We have an IKEA Pax closet 50 x 35 cm in J's playroom, which suits us better to find way to use it, rather than buying plastic drawers as the others do.

2. Label each shelf from Monday to Sunday + Room Time (I wrote the label in 3 languages - English, Danish and Chinese, so that J gets to learn the names in all 3 languages).

3. Because we are using shelves, we have the flexibility of using either a tray, basket or box to contain the materials for the activity, whichever is the most suitable.

4. Come Monday morning, just ask your child to go to the Monday shelf to take out the tray or box, and there you have the material and the activity all ready :-)

5. At the end of the week, re-fill the shelves with new activities ready to start the next week :-)

6. Later on, in order to ensure all learning areas are covered, you may want to designate a specific subject area for the activity for each day as follows:

Day 1: Practical Life
Day 2: Sensory
Day 3: Music
Day 4: Language
Day 5: Numeracy
Day 6: Science and
Day 7: God

Benefits:
1. Your child will know what to expect, and it creates a sense of excitement to find out what's inside the box or shelf that you have planned for him.

2. I get a better overview of the activities and can adjust accordingly.

3. During an emergency, I will not run out of activities to occupy your child meaningfully. This will reduce the temptation of turning to the TV or video to baby-sit the child.

4. I don't have the headache of always having to think of what to do with the child on a daily basis.

5. It helps me to build a good routine into activity time for J.

6. Breaks down the challenge of learning into smaller bit-size chunk that is easier to digest by your child.

7. Builds in your child the joy of learning.

References:
Labelling of shelf in English, Danish and Chinese

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

My Favourite Books

Montessori Materials