Montessori Activity: Spinning Spinach

Age: From 4 years old

Objectives;
1. To continue to teach life skills.
2. To make eating vegetables fun.

Materials:
Spinner from IKEA

Directions:
Simply place the washed vegetables into the container, close the lid and turn it around.

Additional Information:
Besides transferring pom poms with chopsticks, cutting with scissors, this is what we are doing now for Montessori Practical Life - spinning dry vegetables.

J likes to help me to wash the vegetables and spin them dry.

We made it into our Desperate and healthy dinner - ready in just minutes today since I have no time to make dinner, after the parents meeting at the kindergarten. You can find the recipe here.

This post is also for memory that finally J learned to like raw baby spinach leaves. He is loving it and says that it tastes yummy. Spinach is very healthy and I am glad that he is eating them like Popeye now :-) He finished the whole bowl today.

And if we want to go jogging after dinner, this is a perfect light dinner that we can have :-)

Montessori Activity: Cleaning Scooter

Age: From 4 years old

Activity Duration: 15 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To teach the child to care for things.

Materials:

1. 1 pail half-filled with water
2. Toys to be washed e.g. scooter or bicycle
3. 1 brush
4. Hand soap

Directions:

1. Squeeze a bit of hand soap into the basin and fill it with water to create bubbles.

2. Get the toy ready for washing

3. Demonstrate to the child how to wash the toys. Tell him that now we will learn to wash the toys together.

4. Invite the child to try.

Additional Information:

It has been quite a long time ago, since I posted a Montessori Practical Life activity. It was 2 years ago, since we started the one of the first Montessori activity for washing toys. At that time, I set up the activity for J. It was J's idea to wash his scooter. Today, he told me that he would like to wash his scooter. I said ok. And so he picked up the pail, went to the bathroom, filled the water and added the soap all by himself. He took it to the balcony where his scooter was, and started washing it. All this while, I did not look over his shoulders, and let him have the freedom to manage it. I just kept it in view. And J did a really good job. JN joined in washing the scooter together. The scooter was squeaking clean after it. It is no longer just playing, but real washing and mommy's real help. It was heart-warming to see that JN could guide him along and to see JN taking responsibility as a caring brother. It was great team work. Thank God for such a simple joy of seeing them working and playing together.

I decided to take arranging the equipment into the Montessori tray and made it into a cleaning post. In this activity, I am truly following the child.

I am not always good in giving positive affirmation and I am learning. I have forgotten to give J and JN the feedback after they completed the task and to tell them that I really appreciate their cleaning the toys. I should remember to do so tomorrow.

Montessori Activity: Washing Toys

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 15 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To teach the child to care for things.

Materials:

1. 1 basin half-filled with water
2. Toys to be washed
3. 1 brush
4. Body shower cream

Directions:

1. Squeeze a bit of shower cream into the basin and fill it with water to create bubbles.

2. Put in the toys for washing.

3. Demonstrate to the child how to wash the toys. Tell him that now we will learn to wash the toys together.

4. Invite the child to try.

Additional Information:

We managed to go for a round at the Summer Sunday flea market today, before heading off to church. I love to get some good bargains from flea market, but hate to wash the toys afterwards. Unfortunately, Daddy is not too keen to help me with this boring task too :-( But I have now found myself a "helper". I enjoy setting up activities for J. When turning this mundane washing toy activity into something educational for J, suddenly it makes me feel passionate about washing toys and looking forward to washing the toys.

I set up the cleaning equipment and let J (2Y3M21D) "wash" the toys until he is done with it. Well, he plays more with it, than real washing, as can be seen in the picture! Then I take over and give the toys a real wash. He can help me to wipe it dry afterwards.

Montessori Activity: Bathing Baby Teddy-Bear

Inspired by The Education of Ours

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 15 minutes

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To teach the child to care for others.
2. To teach the names of body parts.

Materials:

1. Teddy bear or baby doll
2. Wash cloth
3. Small baby bath tub (I use a plastic basket)
4. Water
5. Body shower cream

Directions:

1. Squeeze a bit of shower cream into the bath tub and fill it with water to create bubbles.
2. Put teddy bear into the bath tub.
3. Demonstrate to the child how to bath the teddy bear.
4. Invite the child to try.

Tips:

1. To make it more educational, while your child is washing the teddy bear, ask him to wash his head, hands, legs, ears, etc. so that your child learns to practise the name of the body parts.

2. Alternatively, you choose a part of the teddy bear to wash, and ask your child to name that body part.

Additional Information:

I got to know about this activity from The Education of Ours blog and I have always been wanting to introduce this activity to Joshua, but firstly I don't have a suitable baby doll and secondly I am the type who is a neat freak. I can't stand mess and wet floor, even if it is on the balcony. It did not occur to me that, hey, I could do this in the bathroom, and instead of using a baby doll, I could use the teddy bear!!!

The training teddy bear is getting very dirty, since Joshua brings it along with him everyday and everywhere also to his daycare. He brought it along with us for our vacation to the countryside last week. It is REALLY a high time to wash it.

Before I put the training teddy bear into the washing machine, I thought why not make it into a game? So this evening, I finally introduced this activity, and thus one more activity to cross off my list (I have to admit, I am a die-hard list keeper, and enjoy crossing items off list. It is sometimes not a good thing, as I am always thinking of all the things I have to do, instead of slowing down to enjoy life. I do hope to do better, but it is a real struggle).

J (2Y3M3D) enjoyed showering the teddy bear and playing with water today.

References:

http://educationofours.blogspot.com/2010/07/ultimate-baby-washing.html

2.6.2012 (3Y2M27D) - Giving Patrick a bath

Montessori Activity: Washing Dishes/Vaske Op/洗碗盘

Age: From 2 years old

Activity Duration: 5-15 minutes

Preparation Time: 3 minutes

Objective(s):

1. To teach the child how to clean up after himself.
2. To teach process concept (requires orderly demonstration).

Materials:

1. 1 basin half-filled with water
2. A few "dirty" toy dishes
3. 1 brush
4. 1 soap bottle
5. 1 towel (I recycle the diaper cloth and give it to J to dry the dishes. It is also easier for child this age to use diaper cloth than to use real towel)
6. 1 tray

Directions:

1. Demonstrate to your child in an orderly manner and systematically in this sequence: by pretending to add the "soap" into the basin of water, using the brush to wash the dishes, shaking off the water, putting the cleaned dishes on the tray one-by-one and then drying them with a cloth one-by-one.

2. Encourage your child to try.

Cost:

1 basin: 25 DKK (6 SGD) from Netto
1 brush: 10 DKK (2.40 SGD) from Søstrene Grene

Additional Information:

20 April 2011 - J has been showing interest in doing the dishes recently and he wanted to wash the dirty dishes in the sink, when he came home from vuggestue today. I told him that I would allow him to do so after dinner. Taking advantage of his interest, I let him play with this, which he played with gusto. J (2Y1M15D) washed and dried the dishes. I was pleasantly surprised that he followed the orderly sequence very well :-) It had been a very satisfying time for J and mommy... can't wait for the real day, when I can leave the real dishes to him, and just sit back and relax.

27.3.2012 Updates:

J (3Y22D) asked to play with washing dishes today. This time round, he was quite good at drying the dishes.

Updates 2 years later:

20 April 2014 (5Y1M15D)

From 5 Years Old