Kids Co-op link up (#12 for me)

It time for Kids Co-op. To find out more about Kids Co-op or to become one of the host blogs please visit Nurturestore. In the mean time please link up any great kids based ideas and visit some of the others linked this week. I will be linking the following:

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(Goblin is 31 months)

In John Bowman's book "Help Your Preschooler Build a Better Brain" he takes you through Montessori activities that you can do at home with your 2 - 6 year old. One of the sets of activities is called 'transfer sequence'. He talks about getting your toddler to practice transferring things from one bowl to another with the aim of developing neural pathways in the brain and improving hand fine motor control so that the child will strengthen the right muscles for writing. He starts the series of activities with water and a sponge and moves on through bean pouring to water with a turkey baster and then a jug. As with most Montessori activities the task should be set out on a mat and isolated (ie that is the only thing the child is doing). He suggests giving your child a mop cloth to wipe up spills and to do the activities in the correct sequence over a series of days or weeks, not moving to the next step until your child has mastered the first.

Of course I am not great at doing things by the book. I like Montessori philosophies a lot. But Goblin is still young and play is a very important part of toddler development. So we combined the Montessori ideas with some Waldorf philosophies of learning through play, to present Goblin with a water transfer extravaganza!

Goblin had the choice of turkey basters, ladles, salad servers, jugs, bottles, sponges and bowls. It may not have provided quite the same amount of self discipline as a traditional Montessori approach would have done, but it was certainly provided ample entertainment. Goblin concentrated on the activity for ages.

So thats what we've been doing - What have you been doing?

I'm linking this to