Well, I am kind of late with this post, as always! lol

Here are our Favorite Five Practical life activities. Since Pinky is an only child and she expends most of her time with me, we don’t do trays for practical life.

Instead, we do everyday tasks as they come. Here are a few examples:

• Table setting. Here is our post.

• Laundry time. Here is the first time we started to help.

• Cook. Here and Here and the posts.

Around 2 years old making pancakes! That’s her proud face!

Oh…my baby!!!

2.5 years old helping to sauté the vegetables.

At 4 years old using an electric chopper. She is fascinated!

Preparing her own chocolate milk! (4.5 years old)

Here she is preparing lunch for both of us: Peanut butter sandwich!

And that’s our cheap Montessori-inspired stool version; a 2 step metal folding ladder.

I think she learned how to use it around 2 years old.

• Organizing around the house. Grocery shopping. Here is the post.

Saving the grocery shopping!

Look at her tiny fat hands!!!

 

There is a place for her shoes!

 

• Cleaning dishes, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning her bathroom

Here is a post about the dishwasher.

Helping to clean the Kitchen cabinets during our moving.

Disclaimer: Don’t try this with younger kids and always watch big kids while helping with this task.

 

Pinky’s very own bathroom which comes with responsibilities, too!

I will try to share later on!

That’s it! Simply activities that include your child at home and don’t get mommy all stress out preparing practical life trays and then looking for a spot to display them and never get touch again.

My very own experience!

Now is your turn to visit MONTESSRI MOMents for more Friday fives!

 

The new school year is almost around the corner. My little big Pinky is just so excited to start a different experience: the transition from a traditional preschool classroom into a Montessori one. We have been so blessed to be able to cost this education for our Pinky. In preparation for the change and just because she is such a big girl (she’s very into acting like a grown up, most of the time), she have an important chore: setting up the table.

My amazing talented friend Monica made these cute and sophisticated placemats for me (I don’t know how to sew just because this dump idea that I will get my fingers caught in the needles way..lol). I wanted something useful for my teaching purposes and cute to be used for everyone. She made 4 of them in NO TIME!!! Isn’t she amazing???  

 

I am really in LOVE with my placemats!

Back to our activity; here is my beautiful princess doing her chore:

Now I just need a beautiful dinning table

Pinky is very serious about her job!!!

Yum!!!

Buen provecho!

Here is a great post from Living Montessori Now about table setting.

If you need more ideas around the web, check these amazing moms:

1. Harvesting Kale: Montessori Monday: Table setting
2. The Mary Frances project: free printable
3. Acquiring a Life-long PhD in Cross-Cultural Homemaking
4. Montessori for learning: Mindfulness Lesson 1: Lessons of Grace and Courtesy - Table Manners
5. Milestones Academy Montessori Folding and Setting Lesson: Video (if you want to do a presentation at first)

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Here we are with more pond-related fun. This was such a great unit. There are many resources available  and ideas all over the internet. I tried to include a little bit of everything but mostly Montessori-inspired activities.

Practical life

Pouring water (this is the first time I set up on a tray this activity for Pinky. She is used to pour water while she helps me to cook, take a bath, or serve her own drinks. The outcome: She mastered, it was kind of easy for her, but fun. It was her favorite tray (you know: WATER!), repeating it multiple times. Self-explanatory (she loved to clean up the spills with the sponge) and independent.

Sharpening a pencil with a cute turtle sharpener from Target. She got really good at this one. Great concentration!

Scooping duck balls (and yellow pom-poms). Not a fav one. She did it twice, maybe.

Tweezing spiders (feeding the frog). I saw this idea featured at Living Montessori Now Leap Year activities post from The Preschool Experiment (she has such a great Pond unit post). This is an empty parmesan cheese container. I glued two green pom-poms, two googly eyes and a piece of red felt.

Motor

Pin pouching a duck silhouette. She loved it!!! Did the whole thing right away. I am thinking about using the duck for an art project.

Foam stickers for pincer grasp. This was a Math activity,too. She made her own patterns. Pinky is REALLY REALLY good at patterning. She can differentiate patterns taking into consideration their shape or color.

 

More stickers. I got this one last year, on sale aster Easter. I am never wrong with stickers!!!

 

Math

Counting lily pads (water beads) up the way ‘till 100. I got this idea from Starry Sky Ranch blog here. Of course, our mat was not that cute because I got a $1.00 bath tub mat at the dollar store which only had 8 rows on one of the sides, so I had to cut and paste pieces in order to get a 10 x 10 mat. Also, I had to paint the cups so she wouldn’t get confuse. Now you now: Make sure to get a bigger mat!!! Otherwise, we just used to practice our numbers and some pincer grasp. She loved it! So bad I didn’t get photos!   

Math game. I found this idea after reading this great Pond unit post. There you can find the link to the picture if you scroll all the way until the end…..believe me this is a HUGE all about frogs unit. I printed 2 copies and glued them on cardstock. Then, add two chips (we used 2 heart-shaped beads) and a dice. One player roll the dice, count how many dots she got and move the chip that many spaces starting at one corner (count how many dragonflies your froggy can eat). The first player to hop all the way until completing the square, wins! This was a hit with Pinky since she LOVES board games.

Sizes. Group by Large, Medium, Small. She wasn’t interested about this one. Maybe too easy for her.

I think this is everything for now! I still have lots of more stuff to post.

Can you guess the place????

Yes, you are right….The Pond!!! I’ll share more pics later! We had a fabulous time!

I don’t remember when it happened and why, but for a few months now Pinky has been sleeping with a night light, Ok two of them!

However, the other night she woke up twice because her bedroom was dark and one little rascal monster was around. (We are dealing with monsters right now at home, those ones that disappear as soon as she is sleeping between mommy and daddy). So the problem was that both of the night light bulbs were not functioning anymore, and after we got the replacement, Pinky wanted me to teach her how to do it BY HERSELF! (she always makes sure to add the by herself part to everything..lol)

So here’s what we she did:

Replacing night light bulbs.

We take the learning process very serious!

First one, DONE! One more to go!

Second one, DONE! Lets try them now!

Don’t you like those beautiful tiny hands at work???

Light’s on!

Great job, my little Pinky!

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