Last night as I was trying to come up with something to feed the family for dinner, the girls kept getting underfoot. Normally, I really try hard to include them as much as possible in the dinner preparations, even scheduling an extra 15-30 minutes to make sure I don't lose my patience and that our cooking experience becomes an
experience and not a mad dash to eat. But lets face it, that doesn't happen every single night and last night since I was sick, it sure wasn't happening. John tries to distract them as much as possible when I'm in a hurry to cook, but few things hold the allure that the kitchen does. So last night I was just trying to put something together that was mildly edible and as I was getting frustrated with their continued "help."
Suddenly my mind clicked onto an image from a
book* my mom bought me at Christmas (I need to find that book.... hum...) anyway it's a book about Montessori activities you can easily do at home. They had a tray with two small bowls and a small spoon. One bowl was filled with rice. The object was to spoon the rice from one bowl to the next, until you emptied the one on the left and filled the one on the right. I wish I remembered what the lesson was supposed to be about (I think fine motor control? I'll have to ask my sister Rhonda.) I paused my dinner preparations and quickly assembled the needed supplies out of small bowls and tupperware. The girls took to it right away. They sat there concentrating so hard working on filling their bowls. When they made accidentally spilled, I told them to lay their spoon down and pick up their hand broom to sweep up the fallen rice before continuing. (Using a hand broom is a Montessori skill too, I think.) It became obvious that the pink kiddy spoons they were using were too easy, so I switched them out with these novelty measuring spoons I had in my kitchen drawer (they are labeled: pinch, smidge, etc.) They enjoyed that but it was a bit too slow and they wanted to "cheat" by using their hands. Luckily dinner was ready and I was able to distract.
This morning we tried the game again, and I told them the rules again. When they wanted to use their hands, I told them that wasn't how we played this game. When it became obvious that I'd lost their focus, I asked them if they wanted to play with the big rice box. I haven't pulled it out in a while so it became a fun treat this morning. It still has rules, (the main two being: 1. don't throw the rice and 2. Keep the rice in the bucket as much as possible and on the blanket no matter what.) They really enjoy burying their toys, hands and feet in the bucket. They love the scoops and measures. It's a great (cheap!) toy for sure!
*found the book: It's called
Teach Me to Do It Myself by Maja Pitamic
Last night Izzie and Maddie playing their new rice game.
When the pink spoons became too easy, I switched them to itty bitty measuring spoons. This is Maddie this morning.
Izzie concentrating very hard!
Focus lost, but they were still wanting to play with rice, we moved on to the more "free" rice experience. Izzie and Maddie.