We've been doing a ton of art lately, more than cooking or other practical life activities. I love to pair a book and an art activity, this week we tried two art activities with Leo Lionni books! ❤️ Pairing the two helps to create a connection between the child and the book and it makes us look deeper into the story. Here are six art trays that we've enjoyed. Remember to follow your child including their interests, developmental needs and skill level. These activities don't need to be…

The title is slightly misleading as all of these snacks have had some adult involvement, however once they are presented to the child of around three, they may be able to do the rest themselves. Presenting snacks like this allows the child to develop practical life skills like peeling, slicing and spreading. These activities can also help develop fine motor skills. Here are a few snacks that we've enjoyed this week: Fruit Kababs - using cocktail sticks (sharp one end, blunt the other) the…

Today I want to share some activities and last minute printables we've been using this festive season. Some of these activities we put on our shelves but some (like the I Spy) we will use with our family on Christmas day. The two-piece puzzles or the bingo (#6) also make it to our kitchen table for our three-year-old to play with his siblings. We don't do a lot of themed activity trays but I like using a few to add a festive touch to these last days before Christmas. Personalised Montessori…

If you are new to Montessori, practical life is a great way to start with children under the age of six. Today I want to share some practical life activities we've been using with our three-year-old (42 months). These are useful for us right now as they are based on skills we are wanting to teach our child or are based on tasks we need help with around our home. These activities use materials we already have. Cleaning eyeglasses - the aim of this activity is to show the child how to handle…

After many questions on the topic, I decided it was finally time for a home tour! Hopefully this will help give you a visual of our home and how we set up Montessori spaces for both our infant and toddler. I have tried to include links to all of the furniture, materials, and decor I often get asked

Today I want to share some really easy water activities that my three-year-old has been loving. I'd suggest these are suitable for older toddlers to preschoolers. All of these activities use materials that I've found around our home but can also be inexpensively found in craft type stores. All of these activities help to develop coordination, concentration and fine motor skills. Transferring corks with Tweezer Tongs - the child uses the tweezer tongs to move the floating corks from the large…

Are you looking for some new art trays to try? Here are eight that we've tried this week. Tape - my toddler is in a huge scissor phase so he likes this tray, I have coloured tape, children's scissors and card. The card is from Reverse Garbage but the back of cereal containers or other card packaging would work well too. The child cuts pieces of tape and arranges it on the card. Mirror - painting with a cotton bud on a mirror, fantastic for developing fine motor skills. We loooove using our…

I've been looking for some fun ways to use wool in crafts and activities that promote the development of fine motor skills. Here are seven activities we tried recently. Yarn Sticks - this was much more fun than I had expected! Both my three and nine-year-old loved wrapping the wool tightly around the sticks, these are purely decorative but you could pretend they are wands or add faces for people. I tied the wool to the sticks but we could use glue too. Pasting Wool Worms - this is the…