Nurturing Practical Life Skills with Household Tasks

Including children in the day-to-day routines that adults are accustomed to helps them understand and develop their practical life skills. Daily life activities around the home are a wonderful way to deepen their appreciation for contribution and community. We’ve put together some developmentally appropriate activities for each age group. Have you tried any of these with your Montessorian?

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The Montessori Notebook  offers some tips, and things to keep in mind, when establishing tasks for children to complete and help with in the home. 

• Never force the child – you can do these alongside each other or step in when they need help

• Look for child-sized brooms, mops and utensils to give the greatest success

• Slow down taking time to show your child how to do these tasks

• Keep your movements slow, and limit talking at the same time – makes it easier for them to copy you

• Makes chores around the house lots more fun if there is a little one alongside trying it out too

• Let go of perfection – you may find that the spill is not completely wiped up, there is water at the bottom of the pot plant etc.

• Scaffold skills – start with one step at a time and build on it

• Enjoy yourselves – if it starts to feel like hard work, come back to it in a couple of weeks