I can't stress enough how important it is to teach children how to help around the house. Today I had those two rascals doing laundry. They put the clean ones into the blue basket, they put the wet ones in another basket and took them outside and hung them on the line. I highly recommend you invest in a retractable clothes line. This is a great skill for the toddler and bigger child to master. They can easily hang those clothes for you. They love to do it actually. Its the folding the clothes part where they really complain. That's usually when I can bribe them with an otter pop (we live in Arizona, it's like 108 today) to get it done. Plus again...that cold popsicle is sensory right?
Then I put them to work helping me load the dishwasher. Dax pretty much knows how I like the thing loaded. I am picky about spoons forks and knives going in their own separate space. Jocelyn jumped in on the fun and helped load the plates. Let them experience putting in the soap, closing the dishwasher and pushing the buttons. Independence is key here!
Then came some working on letters. My little man does not like handwriting at all. He gets so frustrated with himself if he can't write something legible. This is when I put it aside and we try something else. If some activity makes my kid angry at himself, Im going to try doing it a different way. One that he'll enjoy. Then we'll revisit this same way later and see how he does. Make sense?
We then read a scripture from a "scripture Master" card pile I had since high school. He always impresses me when it comes to the gospel. Usually people read these things and have no idea what they mean, but he was able to read almost every word of that old age scripture talk and he told me in his own words what it meant. Proud mamma here folks.
So I took him outside after the frustration period and we wrote our letters in chalk on the sidewalk. Much better! Thinking outside the box. We're trying to master little "g".
And while we were out there we decided to turn on the hose and water the dead spots on my lawn. That soon turned into a rivers and streams discussion as they saw water in the gutter. We made our own stream in the gutter. Then we found things in the house that would either sink or float and we talked about that. This led to Dax wanting to be sprayed by the hose....I was more than happy to hose him down. But then he turned on me and came after me with the hose....I was soaked to the bone and laughing the whole time. Mary Poppins came to my mind "With every job that must be done, there is an element of fun"....I love her.
Then we went in for snack time. We did some sensory stuff again using our taste. Jocelyn trying a lemon....Sour....then some salt.....Salty! There is no word to describe salt.
Dax had so much fun cooking waffles the other day, I got him cooking shrimp today. This was cool. He was able to season them, turn them with tongs, shake the pan back and forth and really feel like a chef. We used math too. "Put 3 shrimp in each bowl", then Dax served us our food at the table. There were 8 shrimp left..."How many shrimp do each of us get to make it fair" I said..."3" he said. "But we only have eight" I said. He had to think about this for a second. "2" he said and theres 2 left over. "Good" I said. At the end they each wanted more, so he said "Jo and I get one each...that would be even and fair"....more comments were made like "Im the best chef in the world huh mom", "I can cook anything in the world"..."Yes you can son....yes you can"
The ducks came back today. They got real close to. We hurried out and fed them a piece of bread.....Interactions with animals is pro montessori. Taking care of and feeding them is a great skill to develop. Then we went back inside and cleaned up our lunch mess. Jo swept the floor with her little broom. I highly recommend purchasing a camping broom like this one. It's easy for kids to manage.
Then for lunch: Grilled cheese in the waffle iron! Why not? It changes the texture which is also Montessori. Plus my waffle maker was already out. Kids love when you change up a favorite meal.
