"Teach Me To Do It Myself"

I recently bought a highly recommended book for doing Montessori at home with preschool-aged children called, "Teach Me To Do It Myself." I think this book looks like a real winner! Each activity is simple and takes up two open-faced pages with glossy pictures.

Lately John has taken to washing his hands . . . by using up half the bottle of liquid soap and then soaping down every surface in the bathroom. This has happened three times this week and, the first two times, I explained why he shouldn't do that, then the third time he got a time out for it. Now I've (temporarily?) replaced all the liquid soap dispensers with bar soap because I figure he can do less damage with a bar of soap and it's much less expensive than liquid--no reason for me to provide him an occasion of sin! Also, I noticed in my new Montessori book that hand-washing is one of the first Life Skills activities for children ages three through six. Perhaps John has a very age-appropriate "need" for exploring hand-washing! So today we did hand-washing, Montessori-style.

I set up a pitcher (that should have been smaller) of warm water, a bowl, a bar of soap, and a towel. He got to learn through his own discovery all about how much water could fit in the bowl, what happens when he puts in "too much" water (a concept still foreign to him), what soap bubbles do when frothed up, what happens when you drop a bar of soap into the water from a height, how the bar of soap can even stick to things, and that we rinse and dry our hands because soap leaves them slippery (and causes us to drop our pitcher full of water).

John had so much fun! And I got literally about a half hour of peace at the cost of minimal supervision and a load of towels I had to run through the laundry.

Then John wanted to move on to scooping rice, which is also a Montessori activity, although I've had it sitting on my counter for weeks now, to grab at opportune moments when I'm working in the kitchen. With the above casually assembled items, John learns about the different qualities of heavy ceramic, light plastic, wood, and metal.

Miss Mary is such a little eater! I'm very casual about feeding her (no formal sit-down meals or anything), and some days she doesn't eat any solids, but she loves picking off my plate and comes racing every time she sees me eating. She loves flavors! Tonight she had a huge dinner of an apple slice, a tablespoon of rice, two tablespoons of shredded cheese, and half a chicken nugget. She is such a happy eater!