I thought I would share a bit about how we do practical life activities in our home.
I love practical life trays and activities, but given we are at home practical life is always interwoven into the flow of our daily life.
Ava's favourite right now is their water bucket.
I created this basket/kit filled with goodies that is generally used at the kitchen sink during the day. It can easily be stored away under the sink when not in use.
This kit contains the following: ice cube tray, ladle, mixing spoon, dropper, tweezers, garlic press (inspiration for this found here & here), small containers and plastic cups, sponges cut up, small plastic pitcher and funnel. Lots of things get added into the mix here and there.
We also have a similar set up for bath time.
This basket and everything in it, are from the dollar store. The colour is so pretty!
You can of course take out all of these items commonly found in the kitchen for this purpose, however I found it much easier to put the kit together. I really did not wish to go searching for things I needed but rather have this ready and available.
Also things like the garlic press are very light plastic, and easier to use than my heavy steel counterpart.
This is actually a Saxoflute that makes for great water play.
Pouring glasses of water, and transferring back to the pitcher.
Water transfer with a dropper - filling each cube in the tray.
Pressing sponges with the garlic press.
Ladling sponges
Tweezing sponges
We have worked with many transfer activities and here is an amazing tray that we put together.
This is mainly Ava's sorting and transfer tray. This tray includes lots of clear objects that work really well on our DIY light table/box.
Everything you see here is from the dollar store. I do change things out with the seasons.Here I included some valentine themed items.
She has been doing transfer activities for quite some time now. With this setup she chooses what she would like to transfer, and with experimentation the implement that she feels works best.
Laundry and Folding
Both of them love laundry. They often help sort, and fold their own laundry.
We chat about colours, sizes, names of articles of clothing, and the name of the person in the family it belongs to.
"This is Xander's shirt!"
This is an older picture of Mr. Xander hanging clothes on their tiny line.
They both love hanging their clothes, and we have a small retractable line at their height for them to use.
Baking
They both love to help bake. Miss Ava loves to experiment in the kitchen while we are baking. The kitchen is very magical for children. They love to mix, pour, and spoon ingredients.
They bake often with us but in addition here, I had set her up with a tray so she can do this to her hearts content.
Buttering toast is a big favourite!
Xander LOVES to clean glass and dust.
I have created a similar cleaning bucket for the kids that you can check out here.
I have created a similar cleaning bucket for the kids that you can check out here.
Practical life is perhaps the easiest and most in expensive part of the Montessori (in class curriculum) to create at home!
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Hi. I love all your ideas! especially pressing sponges with garlic press or tweezing sponges... Do you have a home-made light table?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!!!! So many blog moms have posted amazing ideas...there is no shortage of inspiration!!
DeleteWe did make two light boxes...they're in January's posts...there are two posts actually.
Thank you again:))
Another fun day! Looks great Cherine!
ReplyDeleteAhhh thank you...these are pictures I have taken off and on over a long period. That would one busy awesome day though ...thats for sure lol!!!
DeleteGreat ideas for practical life activities, Cherine! I love the idea of pressing sponges with a garlic press! I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow
ReplyDeleteThank you Deb...I always love your warm comments...makes me feel like I'm on the right track:)) I really appreciate your sharing this!!!!
DeleteI have been doing Montessori for a little over a year but have had trouble with the practical life area. I don't like putting PL things on trays because I like "practical life" to take place in it's appropriate place in the house. I LOVE this idea. Can you tell me how your daughter goes about pulling out a particular transfer work? Is everything in the cabinet and she just choses the transfer item, the transfer tool and both dishes to hold before and after transferring? Do you keep trays in this area so she can grab what she needs or do you have to set it up for her and she just tells you what she wants? I also love the water PL stuff. I'm going to the Dollar store tomorrow! Thanks a bunch for all your wonderful ideas!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer!!! I started with a few prepared trays. I had many things to use for transfer prepared, and set aside for quick assembly of trays. Many times I would prepare a themed tray and leave it on their kitchen play table to see what they thought of it. I always had our bean transfer activity bucket on the shelf for them. I would also leave this out on their table sometimes. When baking I would/still set up spooning or scouping activities. I found the water transfer activity bucket awesome for us a little later after a few initial trays of work/practice. I do still have some things ready to assemble, but mainly now most of our practical life activities are done through lots of consistent daily involvement/tasks around the house. This has always worked well for us. The most important thing for us was that we have available practical life work in some form readily available at all times and consistently included the children in practical home life activities. I hope that helps:)
ReplyDeleteI also like blue colour ;-) And I just love the idea of pressing sponges and tweezing sponges. I know what we'll do tomorrow :D
ReplyDeleteMe too!!! Have fun!!!
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