Practical life is one part of the the Montessori Curriculum that can be implemented at little to no cost at home - given many of the activities replicate home tasks in a classroom environment. I put together about 80% of our activities with things I had around the house. The rest we purchased from the dollar store. There are a massive amount of amazing Practical life activities to be found on Pinterest.
Ava loves husking corn! This is fantastic because the pincer grasp is required to pull off all of the tiny silk fibres.
Preparing her own sliced apples. I do still help her to place the apple on the spikes:)
Ava loves to peel carrots for snack & dinner prep.
Stringing beads and jewelry making is something both kids just loved, especially for making gifts. They started very young doing this activity with a large wooden Melissa & Doug Set. We also made a simple set by drilling out Dollar store alphabet blocks we already had.
So this post is evolving now from practical life into our practical family organization:)
Just a few things...
Ava's clothing is easily accessible for her to dress herself (as are Xander's), and she does so daily in a creative fashion. We have tall Ikea dressers for the kids, and the clothing for everyday dressing is always in the bottom few drawers. They are also able to easily help put away their own laundry.
Ava is very interested in laundry.
I decided not purchase or make any special furniture for this purpose, though I have seen some amazing ideas!!
As for outdoor clothing this is the setup we use for the kids, and it has worked amazing for us.
This setup is in the laundry/mudroom at our backdoor. Coats for the current season are on child height hooks. The buckets are filled with hats one for each. This makes our lives so easy. I never (rarely anyway) need to look for these items as the kids place them as soon as they get in the door. This also makes quick exits for outings much easier.
The storage cupboard below holds seasonal outerwear up top, and the bottom has racks holding buckets for shoes. The kids buckets are at the bottom so that they can easily see/find and replace their shoes.
This one makes sense for us perhaps not to anyone else 😃 I bought this guy from Ikea and he hangs in our laundry room bath. Our home is two story and this is the washroom our kids use nearly 100% of the time. I don't know about you but...we go through tons of underwear & socks!! Both kids have a pocket in this guy for holding these items. My kids are barefoot basically 100% of the time but when socks are required it is usually when we are getting ready to leave, and this makes things simple to grab. Also they can quickly grab their own fresh underwear or socks when ever needed, and trips upstairs are not required.
This is Ava's Practical life water bucket I posted about it here. This is *now*always under our bath sink so that she can take it out and work with it when ever the mood strikes. She uses her step stool, and hanging hand towel for cleanup.
This is another small thing that is not beautiful, but useful to us. This is a cheap rolling storage unit that in placed in our coat closet at the back door. We have a pool and this has been a great place to store our swimwear. We also store folded reusable shopping bags and a few other things. The kids can pull out their own swimwear and get dressed. This also makes things easier for beach days. I keep a stack of folded pool towels on the laundry counter for grabbing on the way out, because we are in and out a ton throughout the day during the summer.
This is another area that we frequent with the kids. Our baking area. This may seem funny to add in for kids storage, but I found that things went far more smoothly when I had everything we needed organized and accessible while baking/cooking with the kids, and it has been amazing for me as well. This unit is from Ikea.
Basically in preparing our environment for the children we followed one rule of thumb - everything had to be accessible for the children. This was accomplished in a variety of ways, with child size furniture and surfaces to work/play. Toys/game shelves, and craft supplies are stored at their height.
To check out that stuff visit these posts:) Many things have changed here and there since then but it's a pretty good idea of how we fit things in.
http://makingmontessoriours.blogspot.ca/2011/04/book-game-storage-at-our-house.html
http://makingmontessoriours.blogspot.ca/2012/04/our-sun-porch-play-area.html
Oh one more quick area! This area is located on our second floor hallway. We built shelving around the window to house books and other things over the years. Right now it holds our storybooks, early readers and early language games.
To check out that stuff visit these posts:) Many things have changed here and there since then but it's a pretty good idea of how we fit things in.
http://makingmontessoriours.blogspot.ca/2011/04/book-game-storage-at-our-house.html
http://makingmontessoriours.blogspot.ca/2012/04/our-sun-porch-play-area.html
Oh one more quick area! This area is located on our second floor hallway. We built shelving around the window to house books and other things over the years. Right now it holds our storybooks, early readers and early language games.
I wish you the best of luck in creating your accessible home environment!
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Wow this is great organization!! That's the key really... find out what works for your family and stick to it. It is a fantastic way to teach your children when it is easily accessible for them.
ReplyDeleteThank you!! I completely agree, every home/space and family needs are different, and finding the grove for your own family is a fantastic thing for all:)
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