Let's Play Today! -by Auntie J: Practical Life: 18m

Following my child's interests in Practical Life has been a beautiful thing ... just watch her grow.

“The child becomes a person through work.” ~Maria Montessori

In remembrance of St. Nick, she received her own sized broom and dustpan (18 months). She still loves these items now as she approaches 2.5 yrs old.

She enjoyed sweeping colored rice and snowballs (cotton balls) and anything she could find around the house.

Around 22 months she discovered folding - little washcloths and a basket from The Dollar Tree:

This basket is still on her shelves today; she still takes them out to work on folding. I've recently noted them being used to wash her table, clean her baby's face, wash dishes in her play kitchen and dust her room.

We've been working on solids transferring since a young age. When my daughter started digging in the dog's food bowl and trying to get into the food canister, here's what she worked on:

Dog food transferring (cocoa puffs) almost 18 months.

“Growth comes from activity, not from intellectual understanding.”

We continued to work on pouring solids to develop her small muscles. Eventually we moved to water, which prepped her for helping fill her dog's water dish at 2 years.

In the picture above, we have a plastic pitcher on the shelf under her table. She fills and dumps the water into his bowl.

Here she is at 2 years walking with her tray and glass pitchers for some water pouring. Prepping for pouring her own drinks.

She loves clean-up too!

"He who is served is limited in his independence.”

Unable to reach our water spout in our fridge, we placed a water container with a spout on a low shelf for her to fill her own cup.

I made some button work out of some leftover fabric and a quilting hoop. She started working on this around 18 months and mastered it, buttoning and unbuttoning, at 24 months.