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MarilynW
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| Posted: June 11 2009 at 1:38pm | IP Logged
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What practical life activities do you do with your toddlers and preschool/kindergarten aged children? We do sweeping, polishing, cutting fruit and making sandwiches, pouring and spooning, handwashing. What things do you do? Do you use your own materials or do you buy from places like Montessori and Such.
Thanks
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Marilyn
Blessed with 6 gifts from God
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: June 11 2009 at 2:52pm | IP Logged
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We get our things from all over the place.
My 5yo son uses the toaster oven to make things; he has some easy recipe booklets created by me (just pictures of each step with as few words as possible - ingredients and measuring scoops are color-coded).
Cutting designs and other basic art skills (rubbing, contour drawing, etc) - though not everyone considers art as part of practical life
polishing (glass, metal, wood - all-natural polishes available through Montessori Services)
Washing a table
Washing the floor
I'm sure we do more, I'm just not thinking of things right now.
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Garden of Francis
HS Elementary Montessori Training
Montessori Nuggets
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 11 2009 at 3:31pm | IP Logged
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We make and use our own materials. Most things just "happen" -- using tweezers to remove Indian corn kernels, sorting rubberbands (by color, by size), cutting (lots of colored strips to cut into squares, then used to make mosaics), sewing cards, beading on a string, sorting beans are a few that come to mind. Also setting the table, clearing the table, unloading the dishwasher (sounds like chores, doesn't it  ) but that is practical life. Activities from the atrium, like flower arranging, silver polishing, shining shoes, dusting, ironing, washing windows/mirrors. I bought little creamer pitchers to that my son could pour his milk every day. That is his favorite thing.
I have bought very few Montessori materials, and mostly used if I could buy some, like the movable letter alphabet. I made my own sandpaper letters, but have the red letter Alphabet book and blue number book.
Books that I have gotten inspiration to use what I have around the house and approach it for the child. I've included the titles on the steps to reading, because many of Montessori activities are isolating some skills or steps to writing -- pincer grip, working right to left, etc. Most of these you can find in your library:
By Elizabeth Hainstock:
Teaching Montessori in the Home: the Preschooler Years
(also her Essential Montessori and Teaching Montessori in the Home the School Years). These are older titles, before we had all the opportunities of buying real materials for less money. Her books are still my favorites.
By Barbara Curtis:
Mommy Teach Me!
And her Mommy Teach Me to Read!
Barbara had some great points about becoming deliberate and slow in your own movements so by your example you teach the child. I had learned that in my Catechesis training, but the points in the book are very practical, too.
Montessori Play and Learn by Lesley Britton
Montessori Read and Write by Lynne Lawrence
How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin
At Home With Montessori by Patricia Oriti. This is just a very thin book, don't overpay for this title.
Teach Me to Do It Myself: Montessori Activities for You and Your Child by Maja Pitamic
Basic Montessori: Learning Activities For Under-Fives by David Gettman. This books breaks down the steps, like the Montessori manuals.
And last weekend I saw Jody's Hands On Learning Materials and was really impressed by her Montessori on a ShoeString booklet. She has all sorts of great ideas, how to make them in a small budget. These ideas were used on her own kids.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 11 2009 at 3:32pm | IP Logged
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Oh, and tracing around things, like cookie cutters or other shapes, and then cutting them out.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Angel
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| Posted: June 11 2009 at 5:08pm | IP Logged
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We do a lot of gardening.  Digging, pulling weeds, stacking wood... wiping/washing (the floor, the table, furniture, etc.)... cleaning windows... vaccuming (for my 6 yo).
What would you consider stickers? I find they need a lot of fine motor control. I have to present the way to get stickers out of sticker books.
Sorting plastic math counters (fish and transportation) was popular here for a time.
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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MarilynW
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| Posted: June 11 2009 at 5:12pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Jenn for the lists. I do have a lot of Montessori books I am reading at the moment - in my nursing basket. I am reading the Barbara Curtis, Polk, Seldin, Gettman and Hainstock - I read them all for Matt a couple of years ago but need a refresher for Mike. I figure Matt can do a lot of the activities with Mike again. I am interested in Jody's book - but right now I am feeling a little pressured at planning school for 5 children (high school to precocious toddler) with a newborn (beautiful and so calm and peaceful as she is!) - I am not sure what I can realistically make this summer. I just want to add a couple of things to our collection.
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Marilyn
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MarilynW
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Sorting is huge here. We have the colored bears set which has survived 5 children. Also sorting mini motors is a hit with the boys. I have been trying to do a blog post of all our Montessori type toys - but not sure when I will ever get a chance right now
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Marilyn
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Angel
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| Posted: June 11 2009 at 5:54pm | IP Logged
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A few more things occurred to me...
Cutting yarn (provide a bowl to collect the snipped pieces; all my kids have loved this)
paper chains
nuts and bolts
sorting corks
stringing beads
pounding golf tees into clay
My oldest also liked to fold washcloths and match socks, but I haven't done too much of that with my little ones... probably because they have a tendency to throw laundry.  But they do like helping me load the washing machine and dryer.
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Angela
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violingirl
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We do a lot of cutting with scissors (DS1) and a lot of cleaning. The boys are especially busy with the wood food that is held together with velcro- they cut it with a play knife and it makes that satisfying chopping sound. I just presented folding a washcloth.
We've used toothpicks for a lot of things with DS2- his two favorites are pushing them into styrofoam and dropping them into a narrow-necked bottle.
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Erin
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Mackfam
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I always buy my practical life materials from thrift stores...more often than not, I repurpose something I already have at home. I spend my $$ on some of the lovely Montessori materials used for specific purposes that I don't have the time to make right now.
Favorite practical life activities
:: Cutting....zigzag lines, yarn, random paper, hair (  just kidding, but I thought I'd throw that in there since I barely caught my JP before he did this)
:: Polishing...wood polishing particularly. I do buy the safe metal and wood polishes from Montessori Services, but since then, I've really only given the littles something wooden to polish because beeswax is so pleasant smelling and so easy to work with as polish (as long as it is mixed with mineral oil - I haven't time to link this morning, but I get mine from Nova Natural, and there is a recent thread about making your own I intend for us to try.) S. and M. do all the metal polishing for our Mass set because they really enjoy it.
:: Eye droppers and colored water
:: Tweezers, tongs, chopsticks, grabbers of any kind and felt wool balls to tweeze.
:: Sorting activities (nuts, bolts, types of pasta,
:: Scooping rice
:: Working with a sand tray or cornmeal - both are really loved here! (I keep it in a shallow rubbermaid bin with a lid, and set it out on the porch outside, or on a big sheet inside with various tools for making patterns and tracing lines. This is something that really attracts my 8 yo son. Old paintbrushes are fun to use with this.
And...of course all the practical work that goes on in REAL life during the day!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Wildflowers and Marbles
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Practical Life activities?
