Montessori Inspiration At Home - Practical Life Skills for Toddlers - Book Review

I get such questions often in my parenting workshops & as personal messages -

• My 2/3 year old is hyper active. He does not sit at one place. What activities can I do with him?
• I have very less domestic help. How can I keep my toddler occupied while I finish my daily chores?
• How can I start implementing Montessori at home?
• How can I increase the concentration of my toddler?
• And many more such questions...

The answer is simple but rather difficult to implement. The first thing I answer to such questions is at this age, involve them in daily household chores - which in Montessori terms mean - involve your toddlers in practical life activities.

It can be as simple as pouring water from one container to another to dusting a table to bringing a glass of water to watering the plants, and so on. Many parents wonder how & what to present to the toddlers so that they will be interested. The good news is toddlers love to imitate & they love doing real work as we adults too. We just need to trust them & give them freedom within limits. Montessori practical life activities are a great way to keep them engaged & indirectly these activities help in enhancing so many more skills like fine motor, prewriting, concentration, independence, problem solving etc.

Now some announcement! :)

What do you get when four Montessori moms from different countries come together to compile their first hand Montessori practical life experiences into a book? 

I got an opportunity to review this lovely book written by Amruta Ram of Mumma Diaries, Vanessa Theil of Mama’s Happy Hive, Yuliya Fruman Welcome to Mommyhood, and Isabel Arango of Uno Zwei Tutu. The ebook is titled “Montessori Inspiration at Home: Practical Life Skills- Toddler Series” and is available as an instant download in PDF format.

It has some really useful tips to involve your toddlers in real life chores, that you rarely thought they would do, rather they love to do such tasks! The book has a lot of information about how you can implement Montessori principles at home as far as practical life activities are concerned. The design & flow of the book is easy & intuitive to follow. It has real pictures of these mommas' kids' doing those activities, so it is not something only theoretical. Everything in this book is really doable by toddlers. It has step by step instructions how to present a particular activity the Montessori way and equips you with the necessary knowledge. The bonus is a lot of printables that come along with the book that you can use in other related activities. The book also has great collections & pointers to some lovely Montessori blogs, so you can easily bookmark them & start following them for your day to day Montessori needs!


Book Details

Montessori Inspiration At Home - Practical Life Skills - Toddler Series

• This Montessori inspired book is a helpful resource for practical life skills for toddlers.
• There are 9 chapters that include care of self, care of a pet, care of the home, polishing, cleaning, helping in the kitchen, pouring, spooning, and setting a table.
• Also, included with this book is a printable bundle that matches the chapter subjects.
• There are over 30 pages of printables and resource information. These printables include matching cards, step-by-step cards, 100 Practical Life Skills Check List, and more!

Extra Resources (Included)

• Montessori Method FAQ
• Montessori Practical Life FAQ
• Printable Practical Life Activities Checklist (100 Practical Life Activities for Toddlers)
• Printable Practical Life Materials Checklist
• Montessori Books and Resources Checklist
• Routine chore chart (visual schedule)

Verdict

For a beginner in Montessori - this ebook is a perfect choice to start implementing Montessori elements at home without getting overwhelmed by pinterest or google results. I assure you will not be lost!

For the parents who have been implementing Montessori at home already - this ebook is a good checklist resource for things they can still implement at home with proper steps & guidance. Of course, not to mention, the printables & other extra resources are fresh from the oven to be used by experienced Montessori parents as well as beginners. 

You do not want to miss the special launch offer!!!

Know more about this book in this video

Do share how did you like this book :)

Happy Parenting!

P.S. I am an affiliate for this eBook. I have reviewed the contents as mentioned above and, trust me, a lot of hard work & implementation has gone behind this book. Certainly resourceful for parents who are trying to implement Montessori at home.

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Montessori - Practical Life Exercise For Toddlers - Line Drying Clothes - VLOG

I have been following Montessori principles with my son since he was 7-8 months old. And every day I thank my stars that I stumbled upon this philosophy. Here in this video, I share yet another beautiful moment my son gave me. He is 25 months old in this video. Suddenly he wanted to line dry, couple of hand towels & then also put the clothespin over them. I let him do it & only when he asked for help, I helped him.

Practical life skills form a very important part of Montessori principles & curriculum. They help children develop order, concentration, coordination, and independence - skills which help in all learning. This particular activity of line drying clothes is a great life skill to learn. Putting clothespin is an inexpensive fine motor activity. Doing real work gives the child a great sense of satisfaction & confidence.

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Montessori Principles That Work For Us - A Montessori Toddler Reader In Action - 25 Months (VLOG)

I have been following Montessori principles with my son since he was 7-8 months old. And every day I thank my stars that I stumbled upon this philosophy. Here in this video, I share yet another beautiful moment my son gave me. He loves to read. Check out the video to see how independent he has become at 25 months :) I have also briefly mentioned in this video what Montessori principles work for us!

You know you have done something right when on his own (while momma is working in the kitchen), this toddler goes to the kitchen, grabs a breakable glass, gets himself some water from the matka, drinks it, goes to the bedroom with the glass in hand, puts it down on the floor carefully, grabs a book from his bookshelf & starts reading to himself. All this with absolutely no adult prompt.

The independence, confidence & life skills that he is gathering melts me every single day ...

I again thank my stars that I stumbled upon the Montessori philosophy & that I am able to implement it more or less at home.

I hope to write a separate post or a Youtube video on elaborating the Montessori principles mentioned in the video above. So please do not forget to subscribe to this blog & my YouTube channel :)

Happy Parenting!

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Montessori Inspired Budget Friendly Arts Corner At Home For Toddlers & Preschoolers (VLOG)

A budget-friendly, Montessori inspired arts corner for my 2 years old son to foster creativity, love for arts & independence :) And he is loving the experience! So am I :)

Child-sized furniture, prepared environment, inviting & beautiful setup - Thanks to Montessori for all these knowledge & nuggets!

Watch this video for a quick tour of this space that my son absolutely loves!

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Toddler In The Kitchen - Montessori In Action - 23 Months (VLOG)

Involving your toddler in the kitchen has so many benefits such as

• Fine Motor activity
• Practical Life skills & independence
• Indirect math skills
• Better eating habits
• And much more

Watch this video to understand more & see my 23 months old son in action :)
PS : No, the image above is not of my son ;)

How do you involve your child in the kitchen? Do share :)

Happy Parenting!

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How We Switched To Ceramic Cup For My 22 Months Old Toddler - Montessori In Action

A small but significant step in making our little ones more independent, responsible, confident & self-sufficient 😊

We started with a ceramic cup for his milk last week. He is 22 months. It was completely led by him.

It started when I gave him mud clay figurines during Diwali for decorating them on the killa. I told him it's made of mud n easily breakable so be careful while handling. He played beautifully with them. One figurine accidentally broke while playing n he realized what it means to break n the consequence that he won't be able to play with it.
He then started asking for our tea cups (ceramic). I gave him telling they are breakable n he handled them beautifully. He used to take them from the kitchen slab, play n give me back happily.
Then one day he said he wants to have his milk in papa's tea cup. I gave him n he happily drank it by himself! This weekend I got a ceramic cup for him exclusively n he was super happy 😊

Its all about trusting them & respecting their demands, of course under supervision & danger limits.

I cannot count the reasons why I love Montessori 😊

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Baking A Cake - Day 18 of 18 Days of Christmas-ness Series

This is Day 18, the last day of "18 Days Of Christmass-ness" series, presented by The K Junction in collaboration with BabyChakra. We are ending this series today. The goal of this series was to have lots of fun & bonding with our kids & explore the festivities around us this December in the form of Christmas & New Year themed activities! Hope you have found this series useful for your child. Of course, you can come back to it any time of the year to do these activities!

HERE is the landing page of the series if you have missed any activity in this series! 

DAY 18 - Today's activity is BAKING WITH KIDS

My 22 months old son was reading one of his books on his own & blabbering to himself. On a page, there was a cake. He stopped at that page, saw the cake for few seconds & then turned up to me saying, “I want to eat cake, I am hungry”, with those desperate eyes! Who could have said a no! He was adamant he wanted the cake right there & then and was getting impatient. So I thought let me involve him in the cake making process. That way he will get distracted from his “I want now, I want now”, learn that food has to be made & is not readily available. That he would appreciate the entire procedure when he actually sees & does it. And of course, with the benefits of practical life activities as Montessori tells us! We used THIS recipe.

Works on practical life, fine motor, sensorial, maths & sequencing skills.

For more details on what materials to use, how to do the activity step by step, age group, tweaking the activity for younger & older kids, time required for setup, if you can replace some materials with what you already have at home & related resources - Visit my detailed post on BabyChakra 

Have you joined already?

Make sure to either follow The K Junction via Email or via Facebook Page or via closed Facebook Group or follow me on Twitter (@kuhoogupta) or Instagram (@kuhoogupta). 

We end our "18 Days Of Christmas-ness" series with lots of gratitude, read the post HERE.

If you have additional favorite simple toddler Christmas ideas please tell me about them in the comments! I always love finding new ideas!

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Montessori Practical Life Activities For Toddlers - Taking Care Of Self & Surroundings (18 Months)

"Why is my child learning to throw trash in a dustbin, put footwear in a shoe rack or wipe off water spills when they should be learning how to do something more academic, like ABC, 123?"

Math, reading, and language all require one to have the ability to focus, to be able to complete a task with logical and sequential steps, to concentrate, to make intelligent choices, and to see a task from start to finish. This is precisely the intent of the Practical Life activities. Through the Practical Life work, children learn to calmly go about their work and to take pleasure and satisfaction from their efforts.

Practical Life activities are the activities of everyday life and they are involved in all aspects of life. The child observes these activities in the environment and gains knowledge through the real experience of how to accomplish life skills in a purposeful way. These activities help give the child a sense of being and belonging, established through participation in daily life with us. The child feels important and gains self-esteem. He learns to trust that he and his environment will be cared for and his needs satisfied.

During the child’s sensitive period between birth and 6, the child is constructing the inner building blocks of his person. It is therefore important for the child to participate in activities to prepare him for his environment, that allow him to grow independently and use his motor skills, as well as allow the child to analyze difficulties he may have in the exercise and problem solve successfully.

Montessori also saw the child’s need for order, repetition, and succession in movements. Practical Life Exercises also helps to aid the child to develop his coordination in movement, his balance and his gracefulness in his environment as well as his need to develop the power of being silent.

“A child who becomes a master of his acts through long and repeated exercises of practical life, and who has been encouraged by the pleasant and interesting activities in which he has been engaged, is a child filled with health  and joy and remarkable for his calmness and discipline”  ~ The Discovery the Child 

Here in this video, is my 18 months old son doing some such activities.



Do you involve your child in household chores? I would love to know about your experiences, questions or comments if any :)

Source: 
Info Montessori 
Montessori Guide 
Montessori Training 

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Four Ways How We Damage Self Esteem Of Toddlers

In day to day life, we often knowingly or unknowingly damage the self-esteem of our super enthusiastic toddler. At one moment, we consider our child to behave as a grown up & another moment, we snatch away their control or reprimand. All the experiences of a child help in shaping the personality in the long run. We should be wary of this fact & change our behaviour accordingly.

Here are some common scenarios where the child's self-esteem gets severely hurt -

• Comparision - Few kids are around & you say to your child, look how beautifully that particular kid is playing. Why are you glueing on to me? It is pretty useless to compare any two individuals, rather it's dangerous to their self-esteem.

• Reacting To Wrong Answers - You are reading a book of animals to your child & asking who is this & that. You point to a zebra & ask what is this, your child replies elephant. You say, NOOO, this is zebra!! The child is still learning. Imagine you are in Japan & trying hard to learn what water is called in Japanese. And you are bashed by the shopkeeper by asking for water & saying something else. Instead tell your child, this is an elephant (pointing to the elephant) & this is a zebra (pointing to the zebra) with a mild tone.

• Prohibiting The Exploration & Curiosity - You are out in a supermarket & your child is picking up the minutest trash he can see on the floor & collecting happily. You see that & say what trash you are collecting, go throw it immediately! This world is an experiment for them & they want to touch & feel everything. If it is not anything dangerous that he is picking, I would let him do this exercise, give him a bag to collect all this stuff, come home & explore it with him. Hear his version of stories about this trash. Name them myself. It's a great sensory & language building activity & will boost the creativity of your child.

• Snatching Away Control - You gave him a bowl of porridge to eat himself, he decided to get messy & spoil his clothes. You snatch away the bowl saying I will feed you. He is learning to eat, learning to hold the spoon, learning to be stable, sudden change of control sends him a message he is not capable of eating himself. If you are not in a hurry, let him be. If you want to take over to feed him, tell him that you are going to help him eat quickly & that you need to go out soon.

Have you seen yourself or others practicing like that? I personally see this happening many times when I'm in a park or a social gathering etc. As a mother, I try to avoid such remarks or reform my sentence to a gentler tone to help boost my child's self-esteem. I agree, practicing is tough & this may not come to us very naturally. But in the interest of our child, let us refrain from such negative conversations & make our surrounding positive.

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