Let me share with you some activities I was introducing to my one year old girl at home. Let me tell you a secret, I do not spend every night preparing activities for her for the next day, not even planning.. My favourite style is to play it by ear. I always keep in mind that it is important to engage all five senses when introducing her to different toys, also offer her something that will help her develop deep concentration and is age appropriate. I try to connect our work at home to events that took place recently in our life. For example, after travelling I set up this station:
Showing posts with label Montessori-Inspired activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montessori-Inspired activities. Show all posts
The other day I saw the most amazing and effective presentation for preschool children on sustainability given by lovely Wendy from Composkids.
Looking for idea for a Practical Life activity? How about making pomegranate juice. One of the oldest known fruits, found in writings and artifacts of many cultures and religions, the pomegranate (punica granatum) is an original native of Persia. This nutrient dense, antioxidant rich fruit has been revered as a symbol of health, fertility and eternal life.
We all would like to see our children flourish: be happy, independent, confident and compassionate. We also realise, as parents, that we can not full relay on childcares, schools, Sunday Schools at Church to do the job for us. There are so many ways to establish and lay foundation for our children to be all we desire them to be to succeed in life. It begins very early in life: with newborns it is as simple (or as hard) as picking child up when they are crying at any time of day and night. These are simple things that can be very hard to do but will pay of in future. Let me share with you today what I found to be effective at home - activities that are easy to make, and ideas that can help you to guide your child's development.
- My toddler is 16 months old. Now she is getting into a stage when she actively seeks engagement in everyday chores and has burning desire to do things on her own: brushing her hear, putting on her socks, shoes and feeding herself with a spoon. It took me all the self restraining power in the world not to feed her. She insisted on feeding herself. At the beginning she would get very little food and would stop eating out of frustration. However, now it is so easy for both of us - she can feed herself easily using spoon and I can eat at the same time. One day when I was hanging her nappies she walked to the basket and started passing me them. Now every time when we hang wet clothes, I ask her to help me.
In this blog I would like to share activities I arranged for our 13 months old girl. I hope these will help you when organising your child's play space. The key for me is not to spend money on new materials (which is always fun if one can afford), but to utilise resources available around: in cupboard, in the kitchen, outside in park, etc. It gives a good practise for imagination.
One of our activities this month are consisted on a few natural objects we found while taking a walk outside: seeds, leafs, etc. A word of caution: child always has to be supervised during his or her time of discovery as materials are not safe if not used carefully. I always keep close eye if there is glass involved, or metal coins, object that have small details on them, or with sharp parts.
At this age movement plays significant role in child's development and is essential. Montessori nature walks are always highlights of the day for us. These are done in child's pace. I encourage you to start noticing smallest details and draw child's attention to it when going for a walk: foot print of an animal, colours of flowers around, sizes and shapes of different leafs.. It will bring enormous pleasure to your little friend.
When I prepare activities I try to make sure they require minimum assistance from me and I always demonstrate how to use it before leaving it on the shelf. The reality is that most likely at one stage child will mix everything up and will find great pleasure in pulling everything from shelf, leaving mess on floor. However, I find that during these few precious minutes a day my little angel follows my gentle guidance so precisely, it brings huge satisfaction to see her develop deep concentration over meaningful tasks.
So here we go.
One of our activities this month are consisted on a few natural objects we found while taking a walk outside: seeds, leafs, etc. A word of caution: child always has to be supervised during his or her time of discovery as materials are not safe if not used carefully. I always keep close eye if there is glass involved, or metal coins, object that have small details on them, or with sharp parts.
At this age movement plays significant role in child's development and is essential. Montessori nature walks are always highlights of the day for us. These are done in child's pace. I encourage you to start noticing smallest details and draw child's attention to it when going for a walk: foot print of an animal, colours of flowers around, sizes and shapes of different leafs.. It will bring enormous pleasure to your little friend.
When I prepare activities I try to make sure they require minimum assistance from me and I always demonstrate how to use it before leaving it on the shelf. The reality is that most likely at one stage child will mix everything up and will find great pleasure in pulling everything from shelf, leaving mess on floor. However, I find that during these few precious minutes a day my little angel follows my gentle guidance so precisely, it brings huge satisfaction to see her develop deep concentration over meaningful tasks.
So here we go.
Nothing speaks LOVE like Easter - "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends". John 15:13
This is the time when I try to show children different side of love - painful, uncomfortable, difficult. Love which presents scarifies and gives up comfort. It can be love for mum and dad - listening, love for yourself - making right healthy choices, love for friends - letting them to have turn first, love for work - see every work done, love for other - keeping promises.
The children need to see that rewards for these sacrifices are so sweet and pleasant, they help them gain something that can not be seen but lasts forever.
During Group time I tell the story of Palm Sunday. Did you know that palm is the most flexible tree? No matter how hard the wind is - it can't break palm tree. I always loved this verse from Psalm 92: "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree". I thought it's quite amazing.
We look into the parts of a palm leaf and talk about why people in those days used palm leafs to greet Jesus. I encouraged children to reenact this story and they make craft with palm leafs.
Later we play "pin donkey's tail" game which they usually find hilarious.
Here are some Easter Montessori shelves activities to encourage work on developing hand grip, finger strength, concentration, fine motor skills, etc. These are activities on transferring, sorting, matching, colouring and cutting.
We look into the parts of a palm leaf and talk about why people in those days used palm leafs to greet Jesus. I encouraged children to reenact this story and they make craft with palm leafs.
Later we play "pin donkey's tail" game which they usually find hilarious.
Here are some Easter Montessori shelves activities to encourage work on developing hand grip, finger strength, concentration, fine motor skills, etc. These are activities on transferring, sorting, matching, colouring and cutting.
You can find this beautiful printable (and more) here: Confessions of a Hoomeschooler.
Check out my Montessori inspired free Easter Around the World printables:
Check out these BEAUTIFUL Ukrainian Easter Eggs activity for Montessori classroom!
Thank you for your time! Happy and blessed Easter to you and your little person!
Follow Montessori Nature's board The Montessori Method on Pinterest.
"85
percent of a child’s brain development takes place by the age of 5.
Synapses are created with astonishing speed in the first three years
of life. For the rest of the first decade, a child’s brain has
twice as many synapses as an adult’s brain. This means that a
child’s environment during the first five years of life can greatly
impact the brains’ ability to develop.”
“What
occurs during the first five years of life can have an enormous
impact on not only do well the baby’s brain develops at the moment,
but how well that baby learns and grow throughout their lifetime,”
Music has been a part of my life
for so many years that it actually became something that forms a part of my
being. I like to get into the very foundation of things, and a fun part of being
a teacher - you learn to break the most complicated issues into little bits and
pieces to make it very easy to understand. I was very passionate about helping
my child to make music an essential part of her world. I would like to share
what I do with her day to day to make it happen.
Love is more than the electricity which lightens our darkness, more than the etheric waves that transmit our voices across space, more than any of the energies that man has discovered and learned to use. Of all things love is the most potent. All that men can do with their discoveries depends on the conscience of him who uses them. But this energy of love is given us so that each shall have it in himself.
Whenever we touch the child, we touch love. It is a difficult love to define; we all feel it, but no one can describe it's roots, or evaluate the immense consequences which flow from it, or gather up its potency for union between men. Despite our differences of race, religion, and of social position, we have felt, during our discussions of the child, a fraternal union growing up between us... Love, like that which we feel for the child, must exist potentially between man and man, because human unity does exist and there is no unity without love.
- Maria Montessori
- Maria Montessori
I would like to share with you snapshots of our day in the Montessori classroom. Please forgive me for not including proper Montessori work photographs, like binomial cube or sound box activity. These are always there and children constantly use them. In this particular post I would like to share our new activities.
As a part of our cultural study we were talking about our state. On the news we read that paleontologist found dinosaur's fossils in our region. Children were fascinated to learn how people discover bones and parts of dinosaurs and collect all the pieces together to get a whole picture. As an activity I set up a tub with send, rocks and some pasta (for "bones") with tools for kids to dig out pieces of "dinosaurs" put make a skeleton picture.
Here is a sneak peek into one of the Montessori Playgroups in Australia.
These are activities that stimulate and help to develop various skills such as fine motor skills, hand grip, finger strength, taking care of self, gross motor skills, hand coordination, logical thinking and problem solving on a basic level. However, it is important to remember that activities are not the purpose, but the opportunity of child to be independent, be able to concentrate for as long as they want with what they want uninterrupted. I hope these ideas will inspire you.
Here are only some fragments of the room. We also usually have easel set up for children for painting, simple craft activity, food activity, such as egg peeling and cutting and a book shelf with Montessori friendly books.
Here are our recent activities. Isn't it amazing to watch them grow and learn at such a great pace! Taking my girl to Montessori Children's house two days a week has really facilitated in boosting her interaction skills, her ability to adopt. It's been so amazing to see her attach to other wonderful people.
This activity is extension to the Sea World theme. Children are encouraged to draw the shells from observation.
There is a story that goes with this activity about the ladybug who did not have any friends. Children make a pass with rise for lady bug to find her dragonfly friend. Children are encouraged to sprinkle the rise within the lines.
I enjoy sharing activities I make for my little baby girl. Here are some of my favourite activities from this year. This blog post is a part of a group of Montessori bloggers's Blog Hop.
My top 12 DIY Montessori activities for infant play

What an exciting season it is for us as a family - to share celebration of Christmas with our new addition. I was so surprised to see her getting into the festive season and getting so engaged. She noticed every little detail as we were decorating our place. Once every so often we get into to a Christmas groove with Christmas carols (which she loooves) at home or go to the city - hear beautiful girls choir sing. Here are some Christmas activities for my 10 months old baby girl.
Here is what on our shelf this week:
These activities are only a very small part of the day. They are there to stimulate language, develop concentration and introduce the concept of order - placing objects on the same spot, the shelf is always tidy and neat. On my opinion, the most important aspect of development is personal interaction and freedom of movement - our main focus of every day.
We had many positive comments from friends regarding our girl's bedroom so I decided to share. We put so much thought into it and modify parts of it as she grows and to suit our life style and comfort. I am very happy with the way it looks now, even though it is not spacious it has a good feeling about it.
"Every baby is born with about 100 billion neurons. Neurons are the special cells responsible for most brain functions, such as thinking, seeing and feeling. We currently believe that those 100 billion neurons are all you get; few or none of them are produced later in life. Neurons connect with each other across tiny spaces called “synapses.” These connected neurons join together to form the systems that perform the various functions of the brain.
During the first eight months after birth, neurons link up at an amazing pace. By the end of that period, a baby can have as many as 1,000 trillion synapses. These synapses, however, operate on a “use it or lose it” principle. In order to become permanent, the connections must be reinforced through everyday experience and stimulation. Many of those early connections end up in the discard pile, and by age 10 a child has about half as many (500 trillion) synapses, roughly the same number as an adult". Source
There are a few main points of our parenting that we truly believe provide a great foundation for brain development:
I try not to offer to my child any toys unless I know they have a very specific purpose: it develops fine motor skills, helps to develop concentration, offers various sensory experiences, etc. We always try to adopt our living place for her to move freely and safely around, and sometimes I feel too many toys can be on the way of her discoveries. Very often her toy can be a piece of different material or a cardboard roll. I stay away from plastic and electronic stuff. I often get an inspiration to make activity for my 7 months old. For example:
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