Montessori-style Toddler Activities

On my quest to find more structured activities for Weston, I've been putting together some activities he does at Montessori for home use. His teachers tell me that he loves the "practical life skills" shelf which includes pouring water from cup to cup, sorting beans and other things that involve tactile movement. He also loves these little animal figurines that they have in class.  So these are the first two activities I've put together.

Animal Matching Game

This has turned out to be one of Weston's favorite games.  I don't have any pictures of us actually playing it because I'm usually holding the flashcards while he picks out the matching animal and we don't have a professional photog following us around all day.  I found some free flashcards at KidzClub  and downloaded all of the sets. So far, I have only put together the Farm Animal and Wild Animal sets. I printed them out on some old cardstock I had laying around, laminated them using these self-laminating sheets (which are super easy to use), and cut them out.  I also purchased a Farm Animal , Wild Animal and Woodland Animal set of figurines from Amazon.  Side note: the size of the animals in the wild animal set are much smaller, but other sets were a little expensive for what I needed them for.  When we play I usually hold up a card, ask Weston what the animal is, and then ask him to find it in his figurines, which I've laid out on the floor or table.  Of course he gets a lot wrong so Dennis and I work with him on identifying the correct animals and it's fun to hear him pronounce animal names.

Beans

I am sure this has an appropriate Montessori name, but I just call it beans.  I filled two empty containers with two different types of beans.  I also gave Weston a funnel and some other empty containers to play with.  This kid sat for almost an hour and just poured beans back and forth, picked them up and put them in the containers, and poured them into the funnel. I set up a little table with a tray to capture any bean spillage near the kitchen and I was able to make dinner while he played beans! When he was done, he promptly spilled the beans on the floor instead of the containers....so there is a little downside to this game. But he did help me clean them up. So there's that.

 This last one is so blurry, but I just love the look of concentration on his face! Hah!

Let us know if you try out one of these activities and how they work for you!  Happy Learning!



*Affiliate links used for figurine supplies.

DIY Cleaning Chart and Free Printable

My husband and I like a clean house. We’re not crazy everything has to be its place kind of people, but we’re not big fans of dirt, dust and clutter … or animal hair. And since we have two cats and a dog, that last one is sometimes kind of difficult to keep under control. On top of that, both of our parents have allergies to our animals so it is important for us to keep the house clean and somewhat free of dust and dander. After our son was born and I went back to work part-time my mom and mother-in-law watched him on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I would spend all day Monday cleaning in between nap time and play time. I hated Mondays. I always felt so exhausted and felt like I wasn’t able to devote enough time to my son and cleaning the house. I know what you’re thinking—why not just let the housework go?! Doesn’t your husband help?? Well, since our parents are allergic to the animals, I thought it was really, really important that I mop and steam every week to keep the dander down. And yes, Dennis does help. He helps a lot. (Although he doesn’t clean the bathrooms. Can’t he just clean one bathroom?? I mean, he’ll clean the whole house, but he won’t touch the toilet! ... but he does help). Also for some reason, I had it in my head that since I was staying home, it was my job, even though he told me repeatedly that I didn’t have to do anything but lay around with the baby. After a while, I just couldn’t keep up. It wasn’t just MY job. I was exhausted, I was angry, and my house wasn’t clean.

 

These guys are cute, but they sure do leave a lot of hair and vomit all over the place.

One of the ways we have been able to divvy up the chores, keep a clean house, and stay sane since our son was born was to develop a cleaning chart. I took some inspiration from Pinterest to come up with a cleaning list that suits our home and schedule. I divided the chores into daily, weekly, monthly, and semi-annual chores and designed the chart in Microsoft Publisher. This can be easily done in Word or any type of printing program as well. If you don’t have access to Word at home, your local library probably has a computer you can sign up to use. There are also a number of free and purchasable printables on the interwebs or feel free to download this printable and use it in your home. I printed ours out at Office Max (it’s the closest), framed it, and hung it in the kitchen. We use a wax pencil or wet-erase marker to check off the chores when they are done. So simple—anyone can do it!