Montessori at Home

I know a lot of people are interested in doing montessori activities with their children but the centres are either inconvenient or costly. Personally, I am just not motivated enough so we go to playgroup. But, I thought I would share what they have there, since much of it can be done at home. That way, more benefit!

Painting, pasting (pics cut out from mag and glue and blank paper), peg puzzles, those egg things that have numbers in them, blocks... some things are montessori equipment specific, like the pink tower and the cylinder discrimination thingies. But practical life has heaps you can do at home. Some examples: a bowl of water, a sink and a float plate, and various things that will sink or float in water. Tongs are used for fine motor skills to put each n the water and then allocate it to the correct plate. A bowl of dried chickpeas or raw popcorn, an empty bowl, and a spoon. The child spoons the kernels from one plate to the next. Other dry beans can be used for this too. A little glass pouring jug with colored water and glasses (keep a sponge on this tray as well). 2 glasses, one with colored water and a dropper. Squeeze up the water in the dropper and transfer it to the other glass. A container of 2 groups of colored buttons. Sort them into color groups.

A board with different sized hooks placed on it (easy to DIY) and some different sized washers to hook onto them. A board with evenly spaced nails and some different color and size elastic bands to stretch between the nails. Cut out fish, attach a small magnet to each then use another magnet as a fishing rod. Write a number on each fish to introduce numbers. A tub of sand with plastic animals and rocks to bury and uncover (keep a dustpan and brush handy!)

I can't think of much else. There is loads of books of course, puzzles of varying complexity, crayons and paper, tongs and cotton balls to group and count, scales and corks to balance and unbalance...

Hopefully there are some ideas in there people can consider anyway. :)