Montessori Inspired: Practical Life for Everyday

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“The child is by nature a worker, and when, by working in this special fashion, which is according to his nature, he can accomplish a great deal of work without ever feeling fatigued. When he works in this way he shows himself to be happy and by working in this way he also becomes cured of certain psychic anomalies that he had, and by curing himself of these he enters into a more natural form of life.” (Maria Montessori, ‘Child’s Instinct to Work’)

picture title showing children doing practical activities

Writing a post on Practical Life is probably one of the most difficult ones to do, due to the incredible amount of very practical, detailed, and knowledgeable information available on the internet. However, I would like to take a different spin on it and do a sneak peek into the past. 50 or 60 years ago it was generally accepted for children, as young as one year of age, to help around the house and perform simple but very purposeful tasks.

For example, young children used to contribute to planting potatoes by following their parents who dug the hole in the ground and throwing it into holes. It helped to create a sense of belonging from a very young age.

In comparison, today, parents are not as patient, everything needs to be done quickly and efficiently. As a result, children find ways to become destructive, because their need to be involved in learning early to perform real-life activities is not met. On the other hand, when children learn to be engaged in helping around the house, they gain a feeling of accomplishment, stronger self-esteem, and confidence.

I would like to share how we allow our toddler to play her part in our everyday life, my experience in the classroom and give some suggestions for different Practical Life exercises.

children doing daily cleaning tasks

I found that the best way to allow the child to engage in practical life activities at home – is to follow their lead.  To be honest, it was not easy for me to do. But I decided not to push and follow her clues. And surprise! It worked! I placed her special tools around the house next to mine, and whenever I started doing something, she happily picked them up and allowed me to show her how to use them.

1. Mopping is her favorite. Gee… I wish these favorites would stick with them till they are teenagers.

In the classroom setting, one of the favorite cleaning activities – is the washing exercise:

A child brings water in a bucket – pours water into a bowl – puts a little bit of soap onto the scrub brush – scrubs the table – takes a wet sponge and wipes soap off the table with a left-to-right movement – dries the table with a hand towel – pours soapy water back into the bucket and carries it to the bathroom or outside.

2. When A was younger – she used to grab a cloth and walk around the house wiping everything that caught her attention. Now, since she is a bit older, she is encouraged to dry and clean her spills.

3. Working with a dustpan is still a bit tricky at the age of two.

In our classroom, we used to have a table dustpan for the food crumbs, and table dustpan for everything else, and a dustpan for the floor.

4. Window cleaning is usually one of the first practical life activities that young children can master quite quickly and do on their own – around 18 months of age.

children helping around the kitchen

5. I love using a mini mortar and pestle for practical life in the kitchen. It can be very helpful. Children from an early age can start practicing crushing all sorts of things, like eggshells, rock salt, pomegranate seeds, black pepper, wheat bix, and biscuits. So much fun and a great learning opportunity – learning to apply pressure, the opportunity to observe “cause and effect”, etc.

6. Cutlery sorting is great. My miss A takes so much pride in accomplishing this task every morning.

7. Cooking together at this stage can be quite challenging. In my experience, grating, juicing, peeling, and baking together have the best effect when it is done in the morning or around lunchtime, unless, of course, your child has mastered most of these skills and can access tools without any help.

8.  These are the simple tasks that beauty A does in the kitchen. Whenever I see an opportunity for her to get involved – I invite her to participate.

children doing some weeding sorting laundry spreading topping on cracker and sorting combes

9. Spread butter (jam, Vegemite, cream cheese, etc.) on a racker.

  1. Collecting dry clothes
  2. Taking care of self
  3. Weeding
images showing objects packed away neatly a plant in a pot and clean bird cage

These are only a very FEW examples of practical life learning experiences we had in our classroom.

13. Damper baking. This activity was in demand all the time. We were very fortunate to have a mini oven in our classroom. On the wall, children could see a step-by-step presentation of the damper-making process and had access to all the ingredients.

After that child could enjoy their damper with a choice of butter or jam.

  1. Taking care of the classroom. Children were encouraged to sweep the floor and their table after each mealtime.
  2. Plant dusting – taught children great hand control and to be gentle with living things.
  3. Taking care of the classroom pet – changing newspapers, cleaning and feeding dishes, replacing food and water.

Here is a list of activities we are working on with my toddler at home

 a list of practical daily activities and chores that children can do

Practical Life - Children's Learning Resources


  About Anastasia. Anastasia is a former Early Childhood Teacher and the founder of Montessori Nature, a blog about Montessori - inspired and Nature-based explorations. She taught in a Montessori setting for 10 years and has been practicing the Montessori way of learning and living for the last 20 years. She loves designing engaging educational printables for children. Browse Anastasia's educational resources on Teachers Pay Teachers.


5 thoughts on “Montessori Inspired: Practical Life for Everyday”

  1. Hi! My partner, with whom we often disagree as to how many responsibilities a child should take on at home, sent me this link. My question is (and it regards my 6year old daughter, of whom he is the stepfather), do you consider it ok for a child of preschool age to have specific chores assigned to him/her exclusively? And if yes, considering the importance of play and leisure in the life of a preschooler, what time flexibility would you consider adequate?
    Thanks!
    Daphne

  2. Hello Daphne!
    I found that young children – around toddler age – are generally more keen to do chores because they love to imitate us and follow their parents and caregivers. Once children grow older, their focus switches to more independent play and desire to spend more time with their friends. At the age of six usually children are expected to take care of their own messes, spills, make their bed, fold their closed, prepare themselves snack (for example, toast with jam), etc. The rest really depends on you and your preferences and what you agree as a whole family. Children at the age of 6 can unload dishwasher, dust, water the flowers and a few more tasks you would feel comfortable them doing personally in your house. However, again, you need to agree as a whole family what these responsibilities are. Number one responsibility of the child is to take care of their own needs and messes. When it comes to chores I believe you need to find what works for you – something that won’t require constant nagging from your part and will be helpful to you, realistic. As the child grows and matures more can be passed upon them and become part of their daily and weekly responsibilities. It will only benefit them since they will learn more to appreciate what they have and appreciate your hard work as well. It will equip them for future. I hope this answers your question!

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