Practical Life activities include among others, care for self and others and care of the environment. Caring for plants is part of caring for the environment and it is a wonderful opportunity for a child to develop responsibility, discipline, and most importantly affection for nature. "There must be a provision... Read more →
Adrian is almost three years old, and he is very interested in numbers. He counts everything and everywhere. So, today, we are having an introduction to a Montessori Teen Board, where I offered him to count beads and match them to their corresponding numbers. He would count the beads first,... Read more →
This wooden number-to-quantity interlocking self-correcting Numbers Puzzle (buy similar here) is more abstract as a toddler is not actually holding any quantity to substantiate the value (like with Spindles or Numbers Rods), but rather matches a numeral (e.g. number 2) to the quantity shown on a picture (2 cows). This... Read more →
Today, we are exploring Africa. First, we would read about Africa in a World Atlas book (buy here). We love using these animals as language objects during continent unit works as well as for zoology. But what about taking a trip to a real savanna in Africa to see all... Read more →
Fundamental skills such as pouring, spooning, and tonging follow a sequential order where ideally each lesson builds upon the last one. Thus, spooning, while being one of the first Practical Life activities a toddler would do starting at around 18 months, is generally introduced after dry pouring and water pouring.... Read more →
Montessori World Map puzzle (buy here) is generally introduced after a child is comfortable with Colored 🌈 Continent 🌎Globe (read a presentation here). In a Montessori Geography curriculum, a child first learns that the Earth is a sphere by exploring the Globe. Then, the concepts of land (continent) vs. water... Read more →
In a Montessori 3-6-year-old environment, children through sensory experience and stories, learn about the physical world around them. They can touch a sphere and compare its shape to the globe or a ball they are used to play with. They build landforms using play dough and fill water forms with... Read more →
In a Montessori geography curriculum, you begin with: STEP 1: Sandpaper Globe (buy here), which is one of the first geography materials to introduce to your child at around two years of age to explain the difference between land and water. The sandpaper globe is a concrete representation of our... Read more →
Today, we are counting backwards. We are also tracing dotted-number printouts with dot stickers to practice fine-motor skills and learn the number's shape. (Fore more on using marbles, read a post "Marbles and Sand-Paper Numbers" here.) We would also play a game, where Adrian would run around the table, and... Read more →
Children really enjoy folding – they see us - their parents at work, and they want to mimic what we do. Most importantly, young children really want to feel useful and helpful. Montessori Practical Life Activities offer children the opportunity to do all that! I first introduced a traditional folding... Read more →
Adrian has been enjoying pasting and doing Paper Mache "art" since about two years old. This was Adrian's first pasting project at 26 months using Christmas paper. Read here how Adrian was pastingPaper Mache his glass pencil jar. At two-and-a-half, however, his art projects are less abstract, with a definitive... Read more →
In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated on June 14th (commemorating Flag's adoption in 1777 on June 14) with multiple parades, emphasizing on the special place the flag holds in the hearts of the US Citizens. F Is for Flag (buy here) is a good book to introduce this... Read more →
Trinomial Cube (buy here) a classic Montessori sensorial material, is generally introduced after the Binomial Cube. Once the child had mastered the Binomial cube, the transition to a Trinomial cube is rather quick since the method of completion remains the same (just more cubes and prisms to work with). The... Read more →
Knobless cylinders is four sets of ten cylinders in each set, varying in height and/or diameter. Each set is in a separate wood box with a lid painted the same color as the cylinders: red, green, yellow and blue. Yellow cylinders vary in height and diameter. Green cylinders vary in... Read more →
"Montessori Practical Life is more than the wonderful feeling of doing real work, of being helpful to others, this work also sharpens valuable mental skills including planning, organization, task initiation, working memory, self-regulation, flexibility, goal-directed persistence, and sustained attention." —The Universal Child, Guided By Nature (p.2) by Susan M. Stephenson... Read more →
Lacing Shapes is very useful activity as it teaches colors, shape recognition, and threading (indirectly preparing a hand for sewing one day). Made in the USA, these six wooden geometric shapes (circle, triangle, octagon, hexagon, pentagon, and square) with color-matched laces, encourage a child to work with the hands, indirectly... Read more →
Who would not be interested in seeing the unseen? In seeing the whole new world unfold in something perceived obvious and conspicuous? From ancient times, humans wanted to see things far smaller than could be perceived with the naked eye. In the XVIth century, such curiosity had led to the... Read more →