My eldest son went to a Montessori preschool and had a fabulous teacher who not only taught my son, but also took the time to teach me (and other parents) ways that we could help prepare our children for school at home. It wasn’t about drilling them with flash cards or teaching them how to write, but it was about letting children do things for themselves and to increase their independence by letting them use real household items.
This has been something that I have taken with me and tried to do as much as possible with all my children. It has been invaluable for helping them with the social and practical skills that children need when at school. There are many simple ways that you can allow your child to develop their abilities:
Cutting
Let them practice using scissors a lot. This a great way to strengthen their finger muscles and help with fine motor control. It is also a skill that they will need for school.
Sharpening
My preschooler will often just sharpen pencils as an activity in itself. He is still mastering this skill. It requires concentration and significant fine motor control for him to sharpen a pencil.
Grating
Helping in the kitchen is a great way to for preschoolers to work on their fine motor skills. Grating cheese, pouring, juicing oranges and cutting food are all fun activities that a preschooler will enjoy and that they are capable of doing by themselves.
Using Real Glasses
Let them use real glasses, crockery and utensils. Appropriate sizes of course! Now like most families we have plastic cups that we use on occasion, but the majority of the time the kids use “real” household items. By no means am I handing over the Swarovski Crystal, but using real glasses that will break is an important way to teach children to be careful and safe with items. If they only have the opportunity to use plastic and realise that if they drop it on the ground nothing happens, there is no reinforcing messages to the child about taking care of the items.
In an era where there is such a strong focus on safety, it can be easy to forget that preschoolers can safely use many regular household items adequately supervised. Giving your kids the opportunity to do things for themselves with the real tools, is a fantastic way to help them become independent and get them ready for school.
Thanks to Nicole from Planning with Kids for sharing this! This is definitely something that I always incorporate into my planning!
Want to know more about the Planning Queen {aka Nicole}? Read an interview with her here.
Be sure to head over and read Planning with Kids, it is a fantastic site and I am in awe of Nicole’s ability to organise and plan a household of seven and still run a fantastic blog.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent post. Totally agree with kids learning to do it themselves.
We have no real glasses. My husband broke every single one in our first year of marriage. :(
I went out to op shops and found tiny little punch glasses and tiny little espresso cups for my girls to drink from.
I agree with helping kids feel confident about doing things themselves before they head off to school. And you are right, there are so many ways to incorporate these skills into their day and into their play that it doesn’t have to be : “lets sit down and learn how to sharpen pencils”. Sometimes at our writing table I will set it up for sharpening, and the kids love it. We have real cups and bowls and plates in our homecorner and while there is the odd breakage it is all a learning experience.
Marita – espresso cups sound very cute, perfect for some hot chocolate on these cold Melbourne days.
Jenny – I could imagine you home corner would be quite fab!
Marita – I love the espresso cups! I hadn’t thought about using them with G before, but she has only just started drinking hot drinks ( has a taste for asian style teas now!)
Frustrated with kiddy scissors that wouldn’t work I am letting her use my decorative scissors.
I am letting her do more and more in the kitchen, using the mixer, food processor, hand whisk, putting things in a saucepan when making soup, always supervised of course, but always letting her know that I trust her to be able to do things herself.
I second the expresso cup idea- great for holding and a lot easier to break! I plan to use a Japanese style tea cup (no handle but short like a tea cup) with Noah once he gets a bit older.
I have done some research into montessori and hope to incorporate some of what I have learnt at home with my son. I plan to buy some books and read up more on it as well.
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