Toddler Learning

I've been re-reading Montessori from the Start by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen. I'm trying to keep ahead of Jameson, he is growing up so fast. His is 16 months old, and at that stage where he toddles about and basically dismantles the house one book shelf at a time. So I'm hoping to glean some constructive tidbits to keep him gainfully occupied. I have found that when I take the time to mindfully prepare my children's environment for their developmental level, everyone benefits from the peace that ensues. The chapter entitled Practical Life seemed to be just the thing.


This quote from Maria Montessori jumped out at me:

"Children naturally like to have exercises that are complete in themselves
even if they serve no direct outer purpose...but are a preparation for the
activity which is to come. These are what we call 'cycles of
activity.' Children do these things that seem useless, with great care and
interest. They seem useless to us but the child is preparing himself and
learning to coordinate his movements."

This is SO Jameson, he does seemingly pointless things all day long, like emptying a drawer and filling it up again, or climbing up on a stool and climbing back down over and over.


Montessori goes on to describe how a child will climb into an armchair with great effort only to climb back out again. Amazing how toddlers are toddlers across time and place.


I like how Lillard phrases this:

"These cycles of activity not only aid the child by preparing him indirectly for
later actions, they deepen his concentration and perfect his personality,
developing in him 'constancy and patience.'"

So apparently the thing to do at this age to is to include the child in your daily activities, since he wants to imitate you anyway, and this will fulfil his need for "cycles of activity".





The authors suggest rather than going out of your way to engineer learning opportunities for your toddler you

"are simply including your child, according to his interest and capability, and
as time allows, in setting and clearing the table, unloading groceries,
preparing food, baking, pouring water and juice, wiping the table, washing
dishes, sorting and folding laundry, putting away clothes, dusting, sweeping and
mopping, washing a mirror or window, polishing a vase or shoe, picking up a room,
emptying wastepaper baskets, and arranging flowers."

Obviously including a very young child in these activities will slow down the adult efficiency, but the authors insist this is done out of respect for the child, and will yield a new outlook on daily duties for the parent.

"You are no longer a servant; you are an educator."

The rest of the chapter goes on to give practical tips for presenting these sorts of practical life activities to young toddlers. I am very inspired by this and already my head is teaming with ideas to carry these ideas into our day to day lives. I love how this approach to learning is so natural to integrate into the home environment. There is definitely no shortage of laundry around here, I'm glad that it can provide a learning opportunity!

So here is the tray I set up for Jameson this morning. It is a cutting cheese activity. The idea is to take the chopper and slice the string cheese, then put the slices in the bowl for a snack. The materials are arranged left to right, top to bottom to train the mind for future reading and writing. I demonstrated it first, trying to make precise movements, then invited Jameson to try. Immediately Mary swooped in to take over! I asked her to wait her turn and she obliged. Jameson tried to imitate what I had done, it was very sweet! I discovered that based on how his fat toddler hand holds the chopper it is easier for him if the cheese is vertically oriented rather than horizontally as you see here. He was eventually able to make a few slices, and place them in the bowl. The look of satisfaction on his face was priceless!
When Jameson had finished and toddled off with his bowl of cheese, I let Mary have at it, she was able to slice the cheese quite handily and really enjoyed herself.
I would never have thought to do something like this with a 3-year-old, let alone a 1-year-old, but it definitely seemed profitable.

Maybe tomorrow I'll brave water pouring!