Montessori with kitchen tools

(Goblin is 24 months)

Today I found a lovely new factory seconds kitchen shop. They had lots of equipment in lovely colours and I bought Goblin a turkey baster and new kitchen tongs. "Why?" I hear you say. Well both tongs and turkey basters can be used to do some Montessori practical life activities that strengthen pincer action and encourage accuracy in placement. 

Goblin was so excited by his new tongs that he played with them in the car all the way home and when we got home he ran straight into the garden and started tonging sand from the sandpit into his bucket. The sand was quite damp so it held together quite well.

 Then he packed his bucket of sand in the back of his tractor trailer and drove over to the guineapig's hutch where he started tonging straw from the ground into a flower pot. It really reminded me of the Eeyore's birthday story in Winnie-the -Pooh. The straw was Goblin's popped red balloon! 
When I finally coaxed Goblin in from the cold he discovered the turkey baster on the table. So I set up some bowls with water and blue food colouring. 

I didn't realise how tricky this activity actually is. You need to squeeze the turkey baster, lower it into the water, leave it in the water while letting go of the bulb, wait for it to fill, then transfer the water to the other bowl with a clear aim. I was quite impressed at how well Goblin did it. Although as he got the hang of it he actually got worse because he started trying to pull the baster out of the water before it had filled. When the water got low Goblin cheated and poured the water across.