Montessori Practical Life activities

For some reason, most Montessori practical life activities seem to take place at the kitchen bench. Zari (3) likes to be at my level and "help" me - she stands on an adult chair to participate. Rori even tries to get to the kitchen sink by pulling over her little toddler chair but is too short to reach even on tippy-toes (so cute!). 

The kitchen isn't a big space - the bench itself and infact, the kitchen in general. There is no room to swing a cat. I've seen kitchens in one-bedroom flats that are larger! And the dining area is so small we gave up on the family meal idea, turned the table sideways and use it as our computer area. This is good for a number of reasons:

1. I can keep an eye on what my kids are doing online from the kitchen and loungeroom. And when I am on one computer right next to them I have my peripheral vision on whilst innocently staring straight ahead at my own screen.

2. I can easily do things online, such as read blogs and forum entries, check emails, ebay, amazon, youtube and do social networking while I'm washing dishes, preparing meals, feeding the baby or whatever. I have a hundred tabs open. Well, not quite...

3. In the very cold or very hot weather, we close the doors and shut ourselves in this area with either the heater or airconditioner blazing. The other parts of the house are not comfortable climate-wise. I couldnt fit a computer in the loungeroom, so the dining room is the only practical place - if they were elsewhere, we wouldnt be able to use them for quite a few months of the year. Infact, for this reason, even though I am setting up a school room in our larger family room (which has a heater), we will still do many activities in the loungeroom. Saves on fuel bills!

HELPING
Both littlies are both insistent about helping. ("No! I do it! I want to do it!" is Zari's favourite phrase I'm sure.) This can be quite frustrating for me when trying to clean up as I REALLY like a tidy house. Despite their neat-freak interests, they sure make an awful lot of mess. Particularly when washing the dishes - they dont want any help, and the dishes just pile up as they complain when I try to do some. The solution was to finally buy a dishwasher (housed in the laundry), so I can squirrel away crockery and cutlery into it when they arent looking and thus keep the dirty dishes in the kitchen to a minimum. Quite a sanity-saving idea. And of course, loading and unloading a dishwasher is a Montessori Practical Life activity in itself!

1. Making Fairy Bread.

I helped her spread the peanut butter on as otherwise she would've broken the bread apart. She chose peanut butter herself over margarine. I bought the sprinkles which come in long skinny packets for ease of pouring.

2. Pouring activity.
This occured while Zari was insisting on washing the dishes (hence dirty dishes everywhere). Basically, she insisted on pouring one drink of cordial (that hadnt been consumed) from one dirty cup to another to another. Thankfully, no spillage! And no drinking! Although when spillage occurs, both littlies get a tea-towel from next to the oven, wipe it up and then throw the tea-towel into the laundry. They cant actually get into the laundry hamper or washing machine to put them there.

3. Peeling vegetables.
Note the concentration on Zari's face. Hilarious expressions! Potatoes where too difficult to manage so she gave up, but carrots were easier to hold.

More activities and corresponding photos coming in parts 2, 3, 4 etc.