Focus: Single Activity Work

My daughter often has trouble sitting down and working on a single task. If she isn't interested than she wants almost nothing to do with it. Now that she is fully walking, working on specific developmental areas can be difficult. Recently I've started reading a number of blogs focused on the Montessori approach to teaching and learning. I like many things about the Montessori approach and I've been slowly trying to integrate that style of learning into what I do with my kids each day.

One blog that I love has some great activities that she does with her 15 month old. One of them was introducing the concept of pouring. Here is the post: The Wonder Years. She used a large container and put plastic Easter eggs inside that were poured onto a tray. My computer is broken (again) so please click on the link to see the pictures that she has. For Olivia I had her pour the eggs into a bowl.

This is a great task for working on several developmental areas:

1) Fine motor - after pouring the eggs into the bowl, I had her put the eggs back into the large can so she could pour again.

2) Waiting - Olivia had to make sure all the eggs were inside the can before pouring again. This is an important skill to work on with kids

3) Visual perception - by having Olivia pour the eggs into the bowl, she had to figure out where to place the can so that the eggs would end up inside the bowl.

The best part? Olivia loved it! She asked to do it at least 5-6 times for several days in a row. I'm planning on introducing more activities like these and I will post them here for you to try as well.