Curriculum/Scope & Sequence

Practical Life: Care of the Environment

December 23, 2010

Practical life in a Montessori home is really about allowing your child to become involved with the daily tasks of managing a household. Care of the environment, most often seen as cleaning in the home,  is an essential part of any well-managed household. Even children, as young as toddlers and twos, can participate in many [...]

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Practical Life: Cooking

November 6, 2010

An easy first step into incorporating practical life activities into your home to allow your child to do what you do. It’s likely that they’re already following you around and showing interest in everyday chores. Capitalize on that interest and allow them to get involved. One place we do that is in our kitchen with cooking. [...]

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What is Practical Life?

October 11, 2010

Practical life is an area in the Montessori philosophy that encompasses, well, skills practical to everyday life. They are a series of fine motor skills that include cleaning and caring for the environment as well as preparing food. These activities benefit the child because it develops control of movement and hand-eye coordination that form the [...]

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How do you plan?

August 26, 2010

As I’ve been working on setting up a tentative plan for our school year, I’ve wondered how other families and teachers plan. I’m not too concerned with whether I’m doing it right or wrong, but I’m pretty new at this and there’s a lot to learn. I’m guessing trial-and-error works well, yes? The way I’m [...]

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Sliding Pegs onto a Rim

March 31, 2010

Age: 12-15 months Goal: To develop hand-eye coordination, developing concentration skills, and visual acuity. Materials: mat, tin (or similar shaped container–I used an old grits container), six wooden clothes pegs Presentation Prepare the work and get out the mat. With the child facing you and the container between you begin spilling the pegs onto the [...]

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Practical Life: Crushing Paper

October 8, 2009

Age: 9 – 12 months Goal: Laying the foundation for putting trash paper in a tr ash can as well as developing fine motor skills. Materials: work mat, tray, basket, five pieces of paper (ie, tissue paper, wrapping paper, construction paper) Avoid using paper with words (ie, magazines, newspapers, books) so that you can model [...]

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Motor Activity: Opening & Closing Extension

October 8, 2009

Age: 9 – 12 months Goal: To develop fine motor skills and the pincer grasp. Materials: mat, basket, 5 or 6 objects that can be opened and closed (book, box, purse, etc.) and an object to go in each container Prepare the work and get out the mat. Place the basket on the right side [...]

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