practical life with the tods

In observing the toddlers this week, one thing that stood out was an obvious interest in what Montessori called practical life. Practical life exercises provide real life experiences for young children.

Children spend much of their day watching the adult giants in their lives perform daily tasks like: washing dishes, scrubbing tables, folding laundry, preparing food and more.  Naturally they want to participate in the daily care of their environment, community and themselves.  The toddler teachers are sensitive to this and work collaboratively to ensure that the classroom belongs to the children as much as the teachers.  The children are busily engaged in sweeping, mopping and all manner of classroom maintenance.  They don their own slippers, hang up their coats, prepare their snack and more.

The toddler teachers and I are discussing how we might use studio encounters to further scaffold these natural interests in the days and weeks to come.  If you have stories practical life encounters in the home, please drop by the studio and share them with me, add a comment here or email us some of your ideas.