Montessori Inspired: Practical Life for Everyday.

"The child is by nature a worker, and when, by working in this special fashion, which is according

to his nature, he can accomplish a great deal of work without ever feeling fatigue. When he works

in this way he shows himself to be happy and by working in this way he also becomes cured of

certain psychic anomalies that he had, and by curing himself of these he enters into a more natural

form of life." (Maria Montessori, 'Child’s Instinct to Work')

Writing a post on Practical Life is probably one of the most difficult ones to do, due to the incredible amount of very practical, detailed and knowledgeable information available on internet. However, I would like to take a different spin on it and do a sneak peek into the past. 50 or 60 years ago it was generally accepted for children, as young as 1 years of age, to help around the house and perform simple, but very purposeful tasks. For example, young children used to help sowing potato by following their parent, who dug the hole in the ground, and throwing it into that hole. It helped to create a sense of belonging from the very young age. In comparison, today, parents are not as patient, everything needs to be done quickly and efficiently. As the result, children find ways to become destructive, because their need to be involved to learn early to perform real life activities not met. On the other hand, when children learn to be engaged in helping around the house, they gain feeling of accomplishment, stronger self esteem and confidence.

I would like to share how we allow our toddler to play her part in our every day life, my experience in the classroom and give some suggestion for different Practical Life exercises.

I found that the best way to allow child to engage in practical life activities at home - is to follow their lead. I am sure you already knew that! To be honest, it was not easy for me to do. But I decided not to push and follow her clues. And surprise! It worked! I placed her special tools around the house next to mine, and whenever I started doing something, she happily picked them up and allowed me to show her how to use them.

1. Mopping is her favourite. Gee.. I wish these favourites would stick with them till the teen age.

In the classroom setting, one of the favourite cleaning activities - is washing exercise:

child brings water in a bucket - pours water into a bowl - puts a little bit of soap onto the scrub brush - scrubs the table - takes a wet sponge and wipes soap of the table with left to right movement - dries the table with a hand towel - pours soapy water back into the bucket and carries it to the bathroom or outside.

2. When A was younger - she used to grab cloth and walk around the house wiping everything that grabbed her attention. Now, since she is a bit older, she is encouraged to wipe and clean her own spills.

3. Working with dust pan is still a bit tricky at the age of two.

In out classroom we used to have a table dust pan for the food crumbs, and table dust pan for everything else, and a dust pan for the floor.

4. Window cleaning is usually one of the first practical life activities which young children can master quite quickly and do on their own - around 18 months of age.

5. I love using mini mortar and pestle for practical life in the kitchen. It can be very helpful. Children from early age can start practicing crushing all sort of things, like egg shells, rock salt, pomegranate seeds, black pepper, wheat bix, biscuits. So much fun and a great learning opportunity - learning to apply pressure, opportunity to observe "cause and effect", etc.

6. Cutlery sorting is great.My miss A takes so much pride in accomplishing this task every morning.

7. Cooking together at this stage can be quite challenging. In my experience, grating, juicing, peeling and baking together has the best effect when it is done in the morning or around lunch time, unless, of course, you child has mastered most of these skills and can access tools without any help.

8. These are the simple tasks which beauty A does in the kitchen. Whenever I see an opportunity for her to get involved - I invite her to participate.

9. Spreading butter (jam, Vegemite, cream cheese, etc.) on cracker.

10. Collecting dry clothes

11. Taking care of self

12. Weeding

These are only a very FEW examples of practical life learning experiences we had in our classroom.

13. Damper baking. This activity was on demand ALL THE TIME. We were very fortunate to have a mini oven in our classroom. On the wall children could see step-by-step presentation of the damper making process and had access to all the ingredients. It is a very simple recipe.

1/2 cup of plain flour

1 spoon of baking powder

1/4 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.
In a bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Stir in milk until a soft dough forms. Form into a round and place on an ungreased baking tray.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until golden.

After that child could enjoy their damper with a choice of butter or jam.

14. Taking care of the classroom. Children were encouraged to sweep the floor and their table after each meal time.

15. Plant dusting - taught children great hand control and being gentle with the living things.

16. Taking care of the classroom pet - changing newspaper, cleaning feeding dishes, replacing food and water.

Here is a list of activities we are working on with my toddler at home: