Sharing some Montessori inspired educational activities that I had set up for my 26 months old son around Easter time. Do checkout my Easter storytelling setup HERE.
Hope you found some ideas for your child from this video.
If you prefer seeing pictures of the activities, then here are the pics!
Do you have music instruments in your child's toy collection? If not, then you should seriously consider adding few instruments today!
My 26-month-old son surprised everyone with his self-discovered beat pattern and that motivated me to share with everyone so many benefits of music instruments, specially percussion, in early childhood! Being a singer & musician myself, I cannot be happier to see the beat sense developing so beautifully in my son :)
Check out this video to know some awesome benefits of introducing music instruments to your child!
My son is now 2.2 years and art at our home is mostly about open-ended exploration with various mediums like crayons, pencil colors, water colors, tempera paints, sketch pens, ice paints etc.
At the end of an engrossed art session, my toddler calls me to his art desk & tell me, mumma, see I made a sun. Mumma, see this is road & car, this is a house.
Ice painting
tempera paints using paint brush
Mumma, this is golden sun, red sun & green sun!
And the art work never looks like that particular object, of course because he is just 2.2 years right now. But what I am happy about is the way he is continuing to express himself on the paper, with no adult prompts, totally motivated on his own.
There are so many of his art works now that I have no idea how to store them ;)
Last night he did this painting while I was browsing through facebook on my bed.
Mumma, this is Anaconda
Usually, he calls me to show his artwork when he is done, but last night he suddenly got up from his chair & ran away from the room. I asked him what happened? He said with a mischevious smile, mumma, I made an anaconda, he is going to bite me! I laughed out so loud on this :) Then he teasingly said, mumma, this is just a toy anaconda, it will not bite me!
I was so surprised & amused with this episode that I decided to write this entire blog post on open-ended art for toddlers! Hope this is useful for you too.
What Does An Open-Ended Art Activity Mean?
Here is a checklist to know if what you are doing with your child is open-ended or not -
Variety of art supplies are there for the child to choose from & there are no direct instructions to choose one or more
The supplies are kept at a reachable place for the toddler, the furniture is child-sized so that the toddler can help himself when he wants to practice art
The place where the child would practice art is accessible, well maintained & clean
There is no end product or sample to follow, the child is free to express with the art supplies
There are no step-by-step instructions
The emphasis is on the process of making the art & not the final product, there is no right or wrong way to create an art work
The end product may or may not look like some creature or some thing really
The child decides the time & duration when he wants to do the art, there is no arts-time in the time-table
How Does An Open-Ended Art Exercise Help Toddlers?
Fosters independence & responsibility while they freely use the materials & take care of them
Enhances their power of expression while they use their little hands to reflect themselves on to a piece of paper
Enhances intrinsic motivation because there is no one to tell them when & what to paint. Going forward in life, it is very important to have that intrinsic motivation to succeed
Boosts their creativity
The process of making such art relaxes them, it is therapeutic
Kids feel accomplished when they make something they want to make themselves, it boosts their self-esteem
It improves their planning, problem-solving & comprehension skills as they try to create something on paper that they have in mind, they choose the art medium, colors, shapes all by themselves
It enhances their fine motor skills of course!
How To Encourage?
I have set up a small arts corner at my place where he can work on his art projects independently & whenever he wants to. Sometimes the masterpieces are done in the mornings, sometimes evenings & sometimes at midnight too ;) This is so Montessori inspired! The prepared environment for the child :)
Here is a sneak peek into my toddler's art corner. I have used whatever I had at home, no fancy easels or boards. It is super budget friendly. You can take some ideas to set up something similar with what you already have at home.
I would love to hear from you all & see pictures of your child's art spaces!
It was me 2 years back who sowed the seeds and would patiently wait for the greens to grow. Now it's my toddler's turn :)
My then 25-month-old son sowed Fenugreek seeds and we harvested fresh and lovely Fenugreek leaves after few weeks. He said he will eat methi paratha with those tender methi leaves! He loves it! And that is why I chose Fenugreek so that he is able to appreciate the process from start to end - from sowing seeds to watering the plant to seeing micro greens to seeing mature leaves to harvesting to actually consuming it happily.
He now knows how important trees and plants are for us, specially in hot summers these days, trees provide us shade. And of course, that plants give us food.
This generation kids need to know the importance of going green so much more than our generation for obvious reasons!
My now 26-month-old son sowed Spinach seeds recently, here is a sneak peek of our cute gardening exercise.
Gardening in itself teaches a lot to kids of all ages, starting from toddlerhood! Let us look how does it benefit -
Multisensory Learning
Montessori focusses on learning through multiple senses because that is how toddlers learn! While gardening, kids can touch & feel the soil, seeds, water, leaves. They can see beautiful colors of nature. They can smell the earth & the plants & flowers! They can hear the lovely birds chirping on the terrace & the wind blowing. And of course, they can eat what they plant (conditions apply)
Motor Skills
As seen in the video above, a lot of large & small muscle movements are required end to end. A great way to enhance gross & fine motor skills while working in nature, no frills activity, no activity box needed!
Sequencing
A very important skill to master, in addition to using puzzles or printables to teach the lifecycle of a plant, it would be great if we can give toddlers a hands-on experience of the same. They would remember this for ever then.
Science
According to the age, we can talk about basic science concepts like photosynthesis, composting, worms, insects etc. And further, we can supplement it with book readings. This can be a starting point of deep conversations with the toddlers. They are super curious & answering their questions related to gardening would be fun science lessons.
Life Lessons
Caring & Responsibility, patience, cycle of life, confidence, focus - all these deep & profound lessons can be learnt while gardening, taking care of the plat & seeing it grow.
Healthy Eating
If kids grow their own food, and are involved from end to end, they are likely to eat better & of course healthy.
Hands On Maths Lessons
From counting number of seeds to sow to measuring the right depth to sow the seeds to counting petals in a flower or leaves in a green to measuring the height of a plant, maths is everywhere. And gardening in every way is helping the child to sharpen his maths skills.
Bonding
A Sunday morning sowing seeds with mom or dad - the child will always cherish such beautiful memories. Gardening gives us a chance to bond beautifully with our kids & have great conversations.
Relaxation & Mindfulness
Gardening for me is like a meditation. It is therapeutic. It relaxes & helps us to become mindful of our surroundings our nature. And it is the same for kids too. Read my post HERE about 6 ways to develop mindfulness in kids.
I would love to know how & what did you do with your kids in your terrace garden! Hop on to our facebook page or closed facebook group to be a part of this parent-tribe :) And do not forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, I would love to see you guys in my next video!
Mindfulness can help children improve their abilities to pay attention, to calm down when they are upset and to make better decisions. In short, it helps with emotional regulation and cognitive focus.
My 2-year-old son A, one fine day -
A (out of no where) : mumma, how to do dhyaan mudra? Pls do it for me Me : ok here you go (and now you can see my son's picture doing dhyaan mudra, above in this post) And then he said, 'family meditation time' ... And we both did Om chanting, Gayatri Mantra and Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra chanting together.
If you are wondering how to develop mindfulness in your toddler or how to introduce meditation or any spiritual exercise to your toddler (which is very important in today's world), here are some tips on the same - Start With Yourself
Start doing it yourself from today. Toddlers LOVE to imitate adults. You will wonder how beautifully they will start following you in no time & they will be proud of this fact too.
Set A Rhythm
Waldorf philosophy talks so much about setting a rhythm in a child's life. It makes the life of this little being more predictable & setting a rhythm has so many more benefits. Set an everyday rhythm for any mindfuness exercise - which means meditating or chanting mantras at a specific time of the day every day so that the practice is set into the daily rhythm of toddlers - remember they do not have much sense of time or days as yet. We have started this 'family meditation time' as a ritual with me, my husband and my son every night to introduce him to what is called 'silence lesson' in Montessori. Mindfulness and meditation come naturally to us - I'm an energy healer and Reiki practitioner myself and husband is a serious Yoga practitioner.
Sweet & Simple
Toddlers cannot process much so initially keep it super simple so that they are not overwhelmed with the entire exercise. You can even start with a simple Om chanting two or three times or just counting their breaths up to 5.
Keep Your Expectations Zero
Initially, when we started family meditation time, my son just roamed around in the room while I & my husband chanted mantras. But remember that children are listening & observing all the time, even the time when we think they are ignoring everything around them. Gradually he started sitting with us during chanting & now he chants along with us when he is in a good mood, but with eyes open hehe. When he is in a super playful mood, he even monkeys around on our laps while we chant. So the key here is to be consistent in our practice & kids will assimilate the practice gradually, but may not exhibit it always.
Do Not Limit Mindfulness To Meditation Or Chanting
Mindfulness is not just sitting with eyes closed & chanting mantras or concentrating on the breath. It also means being present & aware in your day to day tasks. One great way to be mindful when you are outdoors with your toddler is to make him listen the bird sounds, sound of the trees waving, sound of the water flowing in the streams and so on. We do this with our son & now he himself tells me when we are in a park, mumma, listen the koyal singing, mumma which bird's sound is this, mumma, I hear an ambulance siren and so on. And many times we realize these sounds after our son tells us! And I wonder when did we lose this capability of registering everything that is happening around us...
Prayers & Gratitude
It is a great idea to involve the little ones in prayers. It is equally important to teach them to express gratitude. The only way is to say grace & courtesy words often ourselves - to our little imitating monkeys :) It is so heart warming when my son says sweet thank yous when I set up new Montessori shelf activities for him or when I get him his favorite stuff to eat etc. And it is so funny & amusing to listen to something like this from my son - mumma, I got a glass of water for you, say thank you :) :)
Please do share what else worked for you in developing mindfulness in your kids!
Happy Parenting :)
This article was also featured on ChildSafeMedia on International Yoga Day 2017. Read HERE.
Easter is here & since I want to raise a multi-cultural child, we not being Christians does not stop me from telling my 26 months old son about Easter, its story & its significance.
Easter or Resurrection Sunday, is a festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial after his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus, preceded by Lent (or Great Lent), a forty-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance. Source - Wikipedia
I thought & looked around for activities for my son based on Easter theme but most of them were egg based. I do have his Montessori shelf setup with some egg-themed activities (Will cover the shelf in a separate video) but I wanted to make something more meaningful to make him learn the real meaning of Easter. So I came up with this DIY Easter garden. I have shared the setup & details in this video below. Hope you like it :) I would love to read your comments!
If you are here, you might be interested to look at my Christmas Nativity Storytelling setup as well, that I had set up last Christmas for my toddler - HERE & HERE as well.
And now some pictures of my son with the Easter Garden setup!
Listening to crucification story
Putting Jesus inside the tomb
Putting the stone to close the tomb
Bonus, now a super fun activity with Easter egg & kinetic sand! Just put some kinetic sand into the Easter egg & shake shake shake! Open it & see an ellipsoid :) Watch the video below for details.
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