Montessori practical life lessons are the foundation of 2-6-year-old education. Instead of explaining how you should do every exercise, I felt it would make the most sense to give you a list of the lessons and outline how to create your own. You will see that you can be creative and follow your own instincts and your child in your homeschool environment.
All of my information is taken precisely from the Montessori albums that I created with The Center for Guided Montessori Studies. When you are in school, they provide you with almost all of the lessons, and then through the years, you begin to add your own.
Categories of Practical Life
Grace and Courtesy
Fundamental Skills
Care of Person
Care of the Environment
Food Prep
Grace and Courtesy:
- Carrying a mat or rug
- Rolling a rug
- Carrying a tray
- Carrying a basket
- Putting on an apron
- Filling a pitcher of water
- Using your inside voice
- Shaking hands
- How to interrupt you
- Watching your siblings doing work
Fundamental Skills:
- Grasping
- Spooning
- Transfer with tongs or tweezer
- Squeezing a sponge
- Sponge transfer
- Transfer with an eyedropper
- Dry pouring
- Water pouring
- Pouring with a funnel
- Folding a napkin
- opening and closing containers
- Locks and keys
- Nuts and bolts
Care of Self:
- Dressing; velcro, button, snap, hook and eye, zipper, buckle, bow, lacing
- Putting on a jacket
- Polishing shoes
- Blowing your nose
- Washing your face
- Combing your hair
- Putting on gloves and mittens
Care of Environment:
- Dealing with water spills
- Hanging towels
- Sweeping the floor
- Dusting
- Wood and metal polishing
- Plant polishing
- Window washing
- Table washing
- Dishwashing
- Ironing
- Arranging flowers
- Watering plants
- Raking the leaves
- Weeding a garden
Food Prep:
- Banana slicing
- Egg peeling and slicing
- Apple slicing
- Grape juice making
- OJ making
- Setting the table
How to? Friends, it is as simple as you making a presentation to your children and then allowing them to give it a try.
Let me give you some examples. For grace and courtesy, you will simply want to demonstrate the action and then ask them to do the same. There could be a fun song you sing as you present. With rolling a rug, you could use “row, row, row your boat” and say, “roll roll roll your rug, roll it nice and tight, when you roll it nice and tight, it will fit just right.”
For fundamental skills, I have examples on the blog you can follow.
When creating your care of the environment lessons, you will want to use a small basket or tray and have a little sponge, cloth, and any other necessary items to complete it. Then demonstrate for them and ask them to give it a try. I can create one for you to provide you with a more concrete example.
Finally, with food prep, just get in the kitchen and have fun. Banana slicing is so fun and straightforward, and they will love it. You will need a small tray/basket, a napkin, a serving plate, a knife, and a banana. You could also have toothpicks in there if you want to teach them how to go around the house and offer siblings a slice of banana. SUCH FUN!
I hope this isn’t overwhelming, and you find it helpful.
As always, please contact me if you want more information or have further questions.
