Montessori Activity: Ladling Pasta

Age: From 1.5 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objective(s): 

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.

Materials:

1. 2 buckets, one filled with dried pasta
2. 1 ladle
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your toddler by ladling the pasta from one bucket to another.

2. Encourage and let your child try it.

Cost: 

Ladle 5 DKK (1.15 SGD) from Søstrene
Big Bucket (20 DKK) from Netto

Additional Information:

Baby FECS (1y4m22d) shown a lot of eagerness to use the spoon during meal time. She refuses to eat, if we don't give her two bowls, so she can scoop food from one bowl to another. Out of meal time, here is a structured way for her to practice her accuracy by scooping the pasta from one bowl to another.

Montessori Activity: Rice Sensory Box

Age: From 1 year old

Objective:
1. To stimulate your child's five senses

Materials:
1. 1 transparent box
2. Base materials made of 2 packets of rice
3. Some small toys that your child like
4. 1 bowl and 1 ladle (optional)

Directions:
1. Invite your baby to pick the box off the shelf to the floor, helping her along the way.
2. Invite your baby to dig into it.
3. After playing, invite your baby to bring the box back to the shelf.

Additional Information:
Baby FECS tried this forthe first time today 12 July 2017 (1Y1M26D). After a while, she made too much mess out of it, as she pour the rice onto the floor. I had to end the activity. But  it turned to a fun activity for our Little FECS to help clean up by the mess with a vacuum cleaner:-)

 12 July 2017 (1Y1M26D)

Montessori Activity: Inserting Coins

For lesson plan, please see here:

http://www.familyfecs.com/2012/01/montessori-activity-inserting-chinese.html

11 July 2017 (1Y1M25D)

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 :-)

Montessori Activity: Peeling Banana

Age: From 1 year old.

Activity Duration: 5-10 minutes

Preparation Time: 1 minutes

Objective(s):
1. To teach life skills.
2. To train fine motor skills.
3. To give a feel of the concept of sorting

Materials:

1. 2 plates
2. 1 banana

Directions:

1. Place one or a few banana slices with skin intact on a plate.

2. Demonstrate to your child how to peel the banana and place the banana skin on the other plate.

3. Invite your child to try.

Additional Information:

I saw this activity on "how we montessori" blog. and is surprised that young toddlers could do it. But I decided to try it with Baby FECS. Baby FECS tried this for the first time today (9 July 2017 - 1Y1M23D). Like the baby on the blog I got the idea from, at first she tried to eat the banana with the skin on. But after I showed her how to remove the skin, she actually followed suit and could do so. She really enjoyed this activity, and as a result, she ate one whole banana without realizing it. Normally it would take longer for her to eat one whole banana, and only after much coaxing, but this wasn't needed today :-) Hopefully, the novelty would not be gone so soon.

References:

http://www.howwemontessori.com/how-we-montessori/2012/04/preparing-his-own-snack.html

9 July 2017 (Y1M23D)

Montessori Activity: Ladling

Age: From 1 year old

Activity Duration: 5-10 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objective(s): 

1. To train the child’s fine motor skills.

Materials:
1. 2 buckets, one filled with water
2. 1 ladle
3. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your toddler by ladling the water from the big buket to the small bucket.

2. Encourage and let your child try it.

Additional Information:

I noticed that C likes to ladle with her spoon from one bowl to another during meal time. Thus, I decided to let her try this activity. C (1Y1M21D) tried this activity for the first time today. She enjoyed it very much.

Montessori Activity: Inserting Ice-Cream Sticks

Age: From 1 year old

Objective: To train fine motor skills in a fun way

Materials:

1. Piggybank with opening at the top

2. 5-10 ice-cream sticks

3. 1 tray (optional)

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child how to do it.

2. Invite your child to try

Additional Information:

Don't be discouraged if your child is not interested or could not do it. Each child develops differently. Our Little FECS only did this activity at 2 years old, while our Baby FECS is doing it at 1 year old.

Video Demonstration:

Here is a video demonstration by our Baby FECS

21 May 2017 (1Y6D)

8 July 2017 (1Y1M22D)

Montessori Activity: Preparing Food

Washing rice

 Age: From 6 years old

Objective(s):

1. To inculcate life skills.
2. To develop fine motor skills.

Directions:

1. Explain and demonstrate it to your child.
2. Let your child try.
3. If necessary, have two chopping board, and chop the vegetables along with him, so that he can see and do, while you are doing it.

Additional Information:

 J washing rice for the first time at 6.5 years. I only learned to wash and rinse rice at 28 years old, because I refused to learn from my mum, when I was a child.

J is also becoming better and better at chopping garlic. Today he helped to chop the French beans for the first time, and he was surprising handling it very well.

My part-time allows me to do this. I picked him up from after-school care between 3.30-4pm. We come home. He rests. I made avocado milkshake for him. And then we prepare dinner together. It makes daily life far more enjoyable. If I am working full-time, I would have to rush like crazy to pick him, and rush like crazy to make dinner. Now, I can enjoy making dinner with him, and teaching him some practical life skills. I feel really privileged.

Peeling garlic

Here is a video demonstration of peeling garlic:

Cutting garlic lengthwise.

Cutting garlic breadth-wise.

Cutting French beans.

Dicing onion.

Peeling carrot.

Cutting carrots.

Slicing celery lengthwise.

Chop celery breadth-wise into small pieces.

Chopping parsley.

Here is a video demonstration:

Slicing white mushrooms.

Slicing oyster mushrooms. 

Here is a video demonstration:

Cutting tomatoes.

Here is a video demonstration:

Cutting off the end of each stalk of caixin.

 

Cut into 2 inch pieces. Here is a video demonstration:

Wash, rinse and drain caixin.

Cutting meat into strips.

Mixing and marinading minced meat.