Preparing for a Five year Old

Preparing for a Five year Old

by | Dec 21, 2022 | Homeschool, Parenting, Toddler Environment

Mr Man is getting older and taller and recently I realized that he has outgrown the little kids table and chair set we have been using the last four years. His materials are also growing in complexity and need a larger space to be spread out and used effectively out of the reach of Little Miss’s curious reach. We decided to set up my old desk on the one side of the playroom to create a space just for Mr Man. The children who visit my home for preschool each morning, and Little Miss have all been told it is a space for children five and up. They have acceped this explanation and not one of the children have explored or disrupted the space.

We also set a narrow shelf up beside the desk with the more complicated materials. The division and multiplication boards, the moveable alphabet, and the stamp game all permantly reside here. I will be adding more shelves and materials as we work through them and he moves more into abstraction. Mr Man loves that he has a safe space to store his paper work, his scissors and cutting materials, and his books. While the younger children play I can sit with him at the table and show him a material. Then I can move through the room as usual from child to child while he works undisturbed. So far it is working out beautifully!

To be completly honest I am not happy with the change. Sure it is functional, but it does not appeal to me aesthically. I am not a fan of the metal chair. The room no longer looks like a sweet little preschool space. It feels more crowded. However I am choosing to ignore the side of me that wants a pinterest playroom in order to indulge the educator in me who sees the necessity for this change. Aethetics are important in a child’s space but, sometimes in browsing my Montessori and Homeschooling Facebook groups I notice that aesthetics are being valued over the practicality. No matter how beautiful a play space is, if it does not serve the children who use it then it is pointless. So for now I will keep this space functional and maybe over time I will find a way to make the chair more appealing and find some organizational method to clear the surfaces and make it all appear cleaner.

An Invitation to Play

An Invitation to Play

by | Aug 17, 2022 | Homeschool, Parenting, Parenting Hacks, Parenting preschoolers, Parenting Toddlers, Toddler, Toddler Activities, Toddler Environment

As a home childcare provider I find parents are often curious how I manage to get so much done in my home. I provide childcare, homeschool, write and have a large collection of plants and animals that I care for in my home. I am the one who primarily does the cooking and house work as well since I am the parent who has more time to do so, my husband works many more hours than I do. I was thinking about it this morning when a client was shocked that all three fish tanks in the house were mine. She asked how I manage everything. I think one of the most useful tools in my parenting (and childcare) arsenal has been the invitation to play. This is the tool that lets me get so much done each day. Many evenings before I settle down for the night I set out a few invitations to play. Something in my living room that will greet the children as they arrive (either my own two from upstairs or my clients on daycare days), something in my dining room to attract them while I prepare breakfast, and something in the playroom to draw the children in while I tidy and move us through that transition.
The strategic use of invitations to play has saved me so much time, energy and conflict. So what is it? It is exactly what it sounds like. Some call it strewing, literally strewing toys around to entice children, some call it a provocation to play (technically a little different but I use both) and as this post suggests some call it the invitation.

Take a few minutes to set out a few toys, art supplies, or even random household objects out in a play area (or another surprising area) to draw your child’s curiousity and provoke them to play. This morning I set a few blocks out in a row, put a few cars on top and then rested a baby doll at the end of my makeshift track. It took me two minutes to prepare, and bought me thirty minutes of play and giggles from my daughter and two daycare clients. By the time they finished playing and decided they were ready for breakfast, I was ready for them with a prepared meal. After breakfast they were ready to hop right into the bingo dabber and sticker art invitations that I had set out on trays on the floor around my dining room. While they explored the art materials I made myself a coffee and tidied up breakfast. Then we moved down to the playroom. Last night I had spent 5 minutes taping a picture of a washing machine to a tiny cupboard, filled a basket with doll clothes and hung a makeshift clothesline. The kids were thrilled when they discovered this invitation and played indepently while I drank my coffee and observed. This is just an example of a morning where I used a few different invitations to make my day run more smoothly. They can be used anywhere however. I have placed small dinosaur toys and pebbles out on our driveway near where we park. Conviently out of the way of where I need to carry groceries up to the house. My children are equally likely to either help me with the groceries or get drawn into that play area, but either way I have an easy and unhindered trip to bring the groceries in the house.

Similarly I have left a couple shovels in the front garden, just sticking out of the soil along with a pile of bush clippings. I have set paint and twigs out on my picnic table when I noticed some children are ready to head inside before others. Small starts to activities. Simple ideas or prompts that the children can develop. That is all it takes, a few minutes of planning and some strategic timing and placement. Let me know below if you are interested in hearing about some ideas for invitations or provocations to play.
Updating the Montessori Toddlers Bedroom

Updating the Montessori Toddlers Bedroom

by | Jun 14, 2022 | Parenting, Parenting Toddlers, Toddler Environment

A common discussion in many online Montessori communities surrounds how to prepare a toddlers bedroom in a Montessori manner. The comments are flooded withy pictures of Instagram perfect floor beds shaped like little houses and majority of the time the floor bed becomes the focal point of the conversation. It is true that in the Montessori home there will most likely be a floor bed in the toddlers bedroom, however it would have likely been there long before toddler hood. Something that seems to be forgotten about is the reason for the floor bed. The reason we should be setting up any piece of furniture in a young child’s bedroom. For the child to be able to independently access and use their furniture as they need to. I have seen comments asking if it was too late to move a five year old to a floor bed, or lamenting how their two year old screams to go back in the crib and I think in both cases the main point is being missed. You are doing this for the benefit of the child. A five year old will not benefit from moving their twin bed down to the floor, they can already access their bed just fine. A two year old who has been in a crib all his life, and who is a very strong period for order will be very shaken up if his sleeping arrangements are suddenly changed without his knowledge, understanding, or consent. I love the use of a floor bed, used them with both my children but it is really not about the bed, it is about making the bed accessible and useable. It is mostly for infants and young toddlers. I actually moved my son into a regular twin bed at twenty one months because he was already familiar with the boundaries of a bed and was a really tall guy. He was much more comfortable on a regular height bed, and he could access it just fine. It did not make his room any less Montessori based. 

Ideally a child would start on a Montessori floor bed before they are mobile. Like this they become comfortable and learn to sleep on the bed before they learn to exercise the freedom that the bed affords them. It also means that the room is not changed up just when a child is becoming very sensitive to order and changes. Young toddlers do not usually like things to be changed on them, they also need to test boundaries and explore. This is not a great age to experiment with floor beds without understanding that it will come with some sleepless nights and frustration! If you do decide to change up a child’s room at this age, include them. Tell them what and why you are are changing things around. Have them help set it up, help clean it up. Surprising them often will be more negative than anything. If they are accustomed to cribs do not disassemble it until you know they are comfortable! We recently made a few small changes to Little Miss’s room as she is getting older (she just turned two!) We involved her in the changes, both my children helped set up her wardrobe, install her new lamp, and remove some of the toys she had outgrown. At the end of our efforts both children were proud and excited to use the space. I packed away the old toys in her closet just in case she suddenly felt the need to have them back and they will remain there a couple of months until I am sure she can part with them. 

My main point in the post is just to remember the why. Why are you doing this? How can you make sure this goes as smoothly as possible? How can your child be involved in decisions and changes regarding their life? 

Following Big Brother

Following Big Brother

by | Mar 22, 2022 | Homeschool, Parenting, Parenting Toddlers, Toddler, Toddler Activities, Toddler Environment

Younger siblings tend to want to do whatever they see their older siblings doing. Little Miss is no different in this respect. Everything she sees her big brother doing or enjoying she immediately wants a turn. It has been forcing me to be extra creative in our school planning. Mr. Man has been doing plenty of work recently that is well beyond the scope of his twenty one month old sister. He is cooking, sewing, and cutting with scissors. He is working with materials for multiplication and division and exploring fractions. Little Miss is still working on one to one correspondence and transferring. She is by no means ready for that world of work. This puts me in a bit of a pickle. I do not tend to tell my children they cannot do something because of their age, that is too discouraging. I also do not like for them to explore materials that I know are too challenging and will lead to frustration and again, discouragement. So instead I have been observing what she seems interested in trying and figuring out ways to tweak the activities for her. One activity that she has been fascinated by is cutting with scissors. Mr. Man has been using papers with patterns to work on his scissoring skills and gluing his work in a notebook so that he can see his progress. Little Miss wanted a turn, and her own book but she does not at all have the fine motor skills required for traditional scissors. I decided to provide her with a pair of loop scissors and switched out the paper for cardstock. The cardstock is less floppy which mean she can generally get a snip in no matter how she holds it. I also cut the cardstock in to strips about half the width of the scissor blade so that I could be sure that most snips would successfully cut off a piece of cardstock. The children have been working on their scissoring every day the past week and they are both incredibly proud of their work.

Another recently coveted material has been the math beads. I understand the appeal, they are a beautiful material and her big brother gets so much joy from them. I adjusted a few of the materials for her to use. These are not appropriate adjustments in a Montessori classroom, but in our Montessori homeschool I think they serve us just fine. For the golden beads I created a new presentation for her to just arrange the beads from smallest to biggest on a mat. She is very capable of this activity and it looks similar enough to what her brother is doing that she doesn’t seem too bothered that I have left the number cards out of her reach. With the multiplication and division boards I likewise removed the numbered parts ( the tiles and equation cards) and left her with just the boards and beads. She uses them as a fine motor activity placing the beads in the holes. Lastly we have our colored beads from 1-9 which we have been using as a color sorting activity. With these alternate lessons I taught Little Miss I can leave all these materials on the shelf and know that both my children are benefitting and enjoying the materials. When I begin to see hints that Little Miss is ready to use these materials in the way for which they were designed I plan to put them away for a few months. I suspect we have a few years until that time comes which gives Mr. Man time to finish with the materials. After they have been put in storage for some time I will pull them out and reintroduce them to Little Miss using the intended presentation. I still have quite a few other materials to tweak in the next little while but I enjoy the challenge, and my children enjoy the benefits. 

Toddler Responsibilities

Toddler Responsibilities

by | Feb 5, 2022 | Parenting Toddlers, Toddler, Toddler Activities, Toddler Environment

Toddlers can sometimes get a bad rep. Sure they are impulsive and generally loud but they are also incredibly willing to help. I have never seen anyone react with as much excitement and positivity as a toddler when invited to participate in chores around their home. In basically every household chore there is a way to include a toddler who wishes to help. It will be worth the extra time and effort to invite them to join you as often as feasible. I want to discuss different household chores and ways they can be modified to include even young toddlers. 

Cooking

The easiest way to include toddlers in the kitchen is to invite them to wash your fruits and vegetables. Make it even more fun and through by including a scrub brush for them to use for potatoes and carrots. For the actual food prep start slow, both my children started with peeling half a banana. This task requires careful movement but does not require any tools so it is a great introduction and confidence booster as they will likely be successful. Some other great starter activities are dry pouring- think pouring their cereal in their bowl, or pouring dry ingredients into a recipe. Follow this up with the more challenging wet pouring. Having a small pitcher of water and a cup available throughout the day is an excellent way for them to regularly practice this skill. There are some lovely crinkle cutters available that can be a safe introduction to cutting soft foods. I will be doing a post recommending some of my favorite cooking implements for children soon. 

Cleaning

This is an area of learning that will have so many opportunities throughout the day that we often do not even realize it. There are the obvious tasks of having your child help with tidying their toys, but there are also so many other cleaning tasks that toddlers will take great pride in accomplishing. Wiping the counter with a damp cloth after they brush their teeth. Checking for and wiping any droplets after using the toilet. Hanging up their own towel after a bath. These are just a few examples of ways toddlers can contribute in the bathroom first thing in the morning. Try thinking about what you do for your toddler during your routine and consider if they can do it for themselves (if they want to, don’t invite power struggles) or if they can help. Do you put their laundry in the basket? Or their diaper in the bin? While you are sweeping, what is your toddler doing? When you clean furniture would your toddler enjoy using a damp cloth to wipe furniture as well? Does your toddler have the hand strength to operate a spray bottle? Window washing, wiping down a table and wiping up a spill are all toddler favorites because they include water- which generally fascinates small children. You can get expensive cleaning toy kits meant for children but I do not recommend these as they often come with parts that are not functional and are really just toys. I like going to dollar stores and checking out the small brooms, dusters and mops they often stock there. You can also find spray bottles and squeegees at dollar stores to complete your child sized cleaning supplies collection. A real game changer in our house has been the addition of a cordless vacuum. Now whenever we have a spill or a mess after dinner I can count on either my toddler or my preschooler happily cleaning it up unprompted as they no longer need help operating the vacuum. Another great task to teach a toddler is how to scrape their plate and put it in the designated area. I actually forgot to teach this to Little Miss and was surprised one day when the table was clear because she had the opportunity while I had stepped away and she had been observing the rest of the family do it for her whole life.

Laundry

Most children I have worked with love to participate in laundry work. Putting clothes and detergents in the machine, pulling them back into a basket, hanging them to dry. These are all so much fun for children but also engage so many skills! These are excellent learning opportunities and doing them with your toddler means not having to do them during your downtime while the children sleep. As they become able it is also great to include them in folding and matching things like socks and cloths. I like to play a put away game with my children where I fold clothes as quickly as I can on my bed and they grab armfuls of clothes and try to put them away before I fold another pile. They burn of energy, clothes are put away, and the work is shared! It is also a good idea to include children in sorting through clothes that no longer fit (they may miss a favorite article and this makes it easier to understand) and in restocking wardrobes with the next size up. 

Plant Care

This is Little Miss’s favorite activity these days. She waters my plants a tiny bit everyday right now, and I monitor to make sure they are not over watered or forgotten about. She is twenty months old now and has been doing this for a couple months and my plants are thriving! She also loves to dust the plants leaves and remove any ill foliage. In the warmer months it is also a great joy to garden with toddlers. Playing in dirt is actually really good for humans, there are good bacteria that we interact with and there have been studies done that show how interacting with soil through gardening actually helps people be happy. It is good for us, and it is good for children! There are different kinds of gardening that you can do with children depending on your goals. One really rewarding approach is to grow vegetables! The benefits are obvious, your toddler gets to see how vegetables grow and taste them! May make them more keen to eat them as well! Another great approach is to plant a pollinator friendly garden and take the opportunity to observe the bees and butterflies that visit. I like to do both each year, food in our backyard, and flowers in our front. 

Repairs and Upkeep

When things get broken I like to consider if there is a way my toddler can fix it if they want to. My children have helped with taping torn books, screwing in loose bolts on furniture, and fixing broken toys. They love to help my husband while he works on the car by handing him tools and holding parts in place for him. They help me find missing parts for toys and games and also help with organizing when things get a little too messy. We go through toys and books together to decide what is ready to go to another family, and what they are not yet ready to part with. 

The bottom line is that toddlers are members of the family and they generally desire to feel like they contribute. Toddlers do not have a lot of power and they know it but giving them opportunities to help in a meaningful way is not just great for their skill building, it is great for their confidence! 

 

Pet Care

Pet care must be entirely an adults responsibility but a toddler may enjoy helping pour food, refill water or help with grooming depending what kind of pet you have. We have parrots in our home and so my toddler enjoys giving them spray bottle showers. They love it, and she takes pride in being able to do it all by herself. It is also a great idea to include children in the training of pets, and teach them how to respectfully interact with them.