The Montessori Toddler: A Parent's Guide to Raising a Curious and Responsible Human Being (The Parents' Guide to Montessori Book 1)

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Or you can offer your child additional materials to work with, like playdough tools, fresh herbs, stones, popsicle sticks, and more. By engaging in these activities, your child will develop essential skills such as fine motor skills, concentration, and self-esteem. I would recommend this book to folks who want an intro to Montessori, and it made me interested enough to dive in to Montessori's published books directly to go deeper with the philosophy. I have been busy with this list of Montessori activities for babies, toddlers and preschoolers for weeks! One way to support your child's Montessori education at home is through simple sensory activities, like banana peeling, which will help your child develop fine motor skills.

This need to keep adding to his toy and entertainment collection lasted for about two months until one day I realized our family room had transformed into a one-baby daycare. You can see what traditional sound cylinders look like here, but I would recommend making an inexpensive DIY version at home. Simone has done a marvelous job of offering us another way to think about toddlers, of offering concrete, practical, and relatable examples, in a way that is tender, kind and helpful. It also includes making children feel like important and contributing members of our family or community.If you want, you can encourage your child to gather natural objects such as pinecones, flowers, or stones during your walk.

In this learning environment, children work independently, observe others, explore freely, and express their curiosity and creativity. Learning objectives for your child at this age include developing skills such as language, concentration, problem solving, visual discrimination, and physical coordination. Object recognition by touch** (stereognosis): take an opaque bag and put some items in it, close the bag and let the child figure out what is inside. When your child has mastered this task, you can add a few additional steps to finish the job: Spray the table with water and then use a cloth to dry the table. Your toddler can practice spreading jam, nut butter, hummus, or mashed avocado on their toast or crackers.Finding Montessori helped me so much and now I love to help parents introduce these ideas in their homes too to help them get back the calm and joy with their toddlers.

A self-care area fosters toilet awareness and independence in maintaining personal hygiene (such as learning how to wipe one’s nose and wash hands independently). Of course we can’t always keep our environment perfectly organized or our days structured (nor should we), but the more we can do, the more calm and confident our child will feel. I think Henry is still a little too young to get this wholly, but we will keep trying to encourage it.You’ll also want to start with colors that aren’t too similar to prevent confusion — think red and blue, not red and pink.

The materials go far beyond plastic squeak toys for chewing on and plastic blocks for banging together. You are responsible for teaching them, leading by example, speaking kindly to them, and helping them. This is a fun way to help your child build fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and spatial reasoning. And if you’re in a similar situation or finding yourself and your little one encountering the same struggles as we did, it’s worth giving a try! Simply collect a variety of spices and let your child smell each one; you can even challenge them to identify the different smells.Children select the material that interests them, use it for as long as they would like, clean it up (with assistance when needed), and make another choice. These activities will support your child’s sense of discovery and encourage independent investigation of the learning environment.