Gross Motor Skills — I cannot even begin to stress how important it is to allow a child work on this (For a quick read on what they are and why they’re important, click THIS). By nature, they know. They know they need to move in all sorts of ways (from walking to running to skipping to moving side to side to…falling, yes falling!) so that they can acquire the skills necessary for their own development, and sometimes, as parents, […]
Hello, friends! Today, I’m sharing a super quick, easy-to-do DIY pin poking work for your toddler. I came up with this idea because my 26-month-old loves working with my mom’s push pins at her house (she has a huge corkboard on the wall), so I thought maybe it’s time I let him work with pins. Before we start with the usual pinning work in Montessori classrooms, I thought of introducing this just to let him get used to working with […]
One of the first things people often notice about children who are from Montessori homes/schools is that generally, they are very comfortable in the kitchen. They do all sorts of things including actual baking and cooking at such a young age (young here being younger than the typical). In the Montessori community, this is definitely not about having a competition on who did it younger, but really a matter of respecting the child’s capability to do actual, purposeful work. I […]
Gradation is a technique where colors gradually transition from one color to another, and as I encounter fixing color cards (or blocks, or anything!) from lightest to darkest, I begin to realize how hard it can really be sometimes – especially when the colors are too close to each other. This is one of the basic skills Montessorians heavily support – from the Gobbi mobile to the color tablets, and homemade activities like this one. My son is very familiar […]
Summer is officially here! It’s been so hot lately that I’m starting to crave for iced desserts. In the Philippines, HALO-HALO is a favorite for many Filipinos. It’s a mix of different textures and tastes put together with milk, ice, and if you’re lucky, ice cream and our beloved leche flan. In our household though, I grew up with this simple banana and milk dessert. And since I was craving for it after lunch earlier, I decided to introduce it […]
If you were to tell years ago that toddlers are naturally orderly, I would have laughed at you. I mean, have you seen how homes with children look like?!? Well…I am writing now to tell you that it is apparently true. Maria Montessori was right. Toddlers do get into the sensitive period for order. Just like the photo below. What?! How in the world is that photo orderly, right? That’s probably what you think. To appreciate that, you should first […]
Sharing my sorta-DIY stacking material for last night. Here’s one way I make P’s existing materials more in line with Montessori’s principles. See, a few days ago, while on vacation, P has shown spontaneous interest in stacking. He’d stack whatever he would find – speakers on a box, phones on top of one another, etc. This is the only one I got to take photos of – he saw our paper bag of containers, got a few and stacked them […]
We had a visitor the other night. My godson slept over our home without his parents for the very first time. And I thought it was a great opportunity for him and my son to spend time together. When he arrived from school that afternoon, we talked about what he wanted to do. I offered him choices. Did he want to visit a nearby gym play area? Or did he want to stay home? Did he want to eat already, […]
If there’s one question I often get on Instagram, it’s this: “May I ask what books you read to guide you with your parenting?” I am not ashamed to admit that I am the type of mom who relies on lots and lots of books to help me guide my son. If I’ll be honest here, I admit I don’t believe in “mother’s instinct” 100%. If that were true, we’d all be doing the same thing and treating our children […]
If you read the principle of Montessori on infants, there really is much stress in freedom of movement. Infants can slither from birth, and continue to develop their body throughout the year. In the second month of life, the muscles of the neck are brought under control and the head can be supported without assistance. Between the third and fourth month, coordination begins to extend to the hands. At the age of five months, they are already slithering skillfully. By […]