Arts and Crafts Come with Time

As Maria Montessori writes, the biggest happiness is to watch children, to see how they develop, how they become curious about the surrounding world.

Just I would like to share the observations of how Maria was growing up in terms of developing her creative abilities and her likes/dislikes of the tools to create masterpieces =)

She started going to the toddler’s school when she was just 1y. 4 m., which she enjoyed a lot. There she was offered to try to work with the modeling clay, to paint with crayons, to play with cereal, as well as to dance, make exercises etc.

In the beginning the only thing Maria liked was physical activities and listening to the cheerful songs. Being a bit disappointed with her dislikes of other activities, I was also offering her crayons, clay, paints at home. No result! When growing older (~1y.6m)., the started to enjoy gluing things together. At the age of 1y. 8m. she actively started to work with clay (our flat resembled sculptor’s workshop with pieces of clay being everywhere). Finally, the non-fading desire to draw with crayons came in place, which appeared when Maria was about 1y.11m. Still she is not very much keen on paints (enjoys but for a very short period of time).

So, it will all come with time and every child will try him/herself in as many fields as s/he will be willing ,in order to be able to find their major occupation.

Palm and Finger Painting

Maria 1y.8m.

Perhaps, the first tools to use for kids, when painting, are own fingers and palms because it is much easier than to draw with a pencil or a brush and of course it is a FUN for both child and adult!

I suggested Maria finger painting when she was 8 month old. It was cool! but the duration of the painting process was quite short as she couldn’t concentrate for long. Besides, she didn’t like her hands to be dirty :).

Few weeks ago she herself proposed finger painting and now almost every morning she takes out her paints and starts creating masterpieces; she adores when her parents also take part in it. Since then we have quite a lot of things which Maria created with her colourful palms: butterflies, dinosaurs, Santa, fish, flowers, fireworks etc.

Fairy Tale and Geometry

Maria 1y.7m.

Maria knows geometric shapes relatively well thanks to the poster which was once hanging on the wall as well as the sorter puzzle. Not to forget things once learned, I try to repeatedly speak about them. So, I cut the shapes of different colours (for repeating colours as well) and size and told Maria a story, which was supposed to motivate her to visualize it with the help of available shapes. Of course, one can think of more complex story, involving many more shapes and colours. Ours was the following:

The Sun was shining high in the sky. Just under, the small squared house with triangular roof was built. In the garden near the house in the oval blue pond there were lots of fish. A cow named Annabel was walking on the rectangular piece of grass. Once she fell ill and didn’t have any milk. She was treated with medicines in the rectangular packages, but all was in vain. The only thing which helped were the oranges brought by little girl, Kate. Actually, not the oranges themselves but the loving and caring attitude of the little girl helped. Annabel and Kate became friends soon. Annabel got well pretty fast and treated Kate with the milk every day.

I must say that Maria selected shapes on her own and though at first it was not very fast, the most rewarding was that she liked the thing a lot. Every time she did it better and better. Now, she can do it without any fairy tale. =)))

Toddlers’ language – as logical as it can be

Maria 1y.6m.

Children are our great teachers! Probably one of the most important things to learn from them is to be happy with every little thing (which we usually take as it is): when sun shines, when one plays balloon or feeds ducks, etc. We really lack positive emotions in our routine lives and can learn to do so when looking at our child. What we can also learn is to be logical when speaking.

Toddlers have already extensive passive vocabulary, understanding everything what is told them. They also start to try speaking themselves: imitate animal sounds, shorten the words, mix sounds in the words. The process of language development is outstandingly interesting. I’m also astonished how logical is everything what they say. Sometimes there is just one-two words enough to understand what Mary wants to tell (while for adults it can take at least a sentence of several words) – she finds exactly the words, which convey the bulk of information. Another thing is negative question, which is sometimes puzzling for an adult: Don’t you want to go to sleep? Children perfectly know what to answer: Yes! - if they don’t want and No! – if they want.
And this is probably just the beginning…

Water Week

Maria 1y.5m.

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

As most of the children Mary loves to take a bath, sometimes it is really hard to get her out of it. So, when I had a week off I decided to tell her more about the water – unique resource of our Planet, which is so vital for every living creature. I was telling her about the water and its place in the nature, about the ponds, seas, rivers and lakes. Of course, it was done with the help of presentations for children (e.g. http://900igr.net/kartinki/priroda/Voda-i-vodojomy.files/Vodoemy.html), books and showing it in real nature.

1. First, I told her about the water cycle showing it in the book: Water evaporates and forms clouds – the clouds provide rain and snow – which is collected in rivers, lakes, underground reservoirs, and oceans – that are the source for further evaporation. Mary enjoyed it a lot as she liked that the book was interactive: one had to match figures (e.g. sun, clouds) in the right place.

2. We conducted an experiment to observe water in its different aggregative states: we boiled the water and put a glass with a bit of water in the freezer.

3. We made an aquarium out of bottle (sorry, didn’t manage to take a photo). We cut PET bottle into two parts, put clay in one of the part and dented there my former beads =) and small stones. We used green cotton, which became weeds, and poured water inside. Aquarium became a centre of attention for the whole week – it was definitely a new experience for the small one!

4. Water games!
• The game Mary liked the most is also the simple one: to catch “fish” with the help of glass from the bowl and put it in another bowl. She played it for approx. 1 hour, what is veeery long for this age group.

• Pour water in a bowl and with the help of sponge put it in another bowl – interesting game, probably, for older children;
• Before Mary took the bath I worked a bit with two bottles. I made some hole in one bottle and int hte cap of another bottle. When Maria was taking a bath, I showed her new toys :) - I filled in the first bottle with the water and we together observed how water was running out through the multiple holes. Then, we filled in the second bottle with the water: it was much fun for both of us, we could sprinkle each other!
• We didn’t try it ourselves yet, but it should be interesting to have several bottles/containers with water, which are coloured in different colours. This is also good material to continue studying the colours.
• Another thing is to make an experiment to find what stays afloat and what drowns when one throws them in the bowl/bath etc.

5. Of course, we could not live without creative part. As Maria still likes a lot to work with cereals I suggested her that we make a fish out of it. Then, she also made an aquarium with green weeds (studied green colour), where glued several fish. On the bottom of the aquarium she put some clay where we dented beans and pasta, which depict pebble and shells.

Farewell to Autumn

Maria 1y.5m.

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter. ~Carol Bishop Hipps

I love autumn… It is so beautiful and quiet… It is such a peaceful time for mind and soul, indeed as a pause between heat and cold. It encourages to think a lot, it encourages to take care of everyone and everything, to start smth new… It is definitely a lovely time to be either outside or at home..

We are often walking with Maria outside, observing how the nature prepares for the hard winter: birds are flying away, leaves are changing colour and falling down, people around putting on warmer clothes. She seems to be interested in the whole process but possibly not as much as I am. She loves much more to touch things, so we gather acorns and chestnuts; we make bouquets of colourful leaves (pity, that they shrivel so fast); we run in the puddles and walk when it is raining…

At home we try to catch the breath of autumn on the paper, too. I drew the tree and Mary glued the leaves to show the shedding of leaves. Here, she drew the rowan with her fingerprints.

We also made men of acorns: I was doing the first, Maria repeated what I did; I just helped her in the end with mouth and an eye. Then, she had a task to insert matches into piece of clay to make a hedgehog. She loved it so much that I made a fir-tree, where Maria also inserted matches. On the hedgehog’s needles we put some apples (violet, though =)) prepared by Mary.

Socialization Era

Maria – 1y. 4m.

Definitely human is a social being and communication with others provides us with lots of valuable aspects: sharing experience, sharing emotions, learning, caring… (the list seems to be endless). Once there emerges the moment of acute communication hunger in everyone’s life.

I see now how Maria becomes more attentive towards others, how sincerely she is interested in other people's life, how closely she watches the faces of people passing by. When she sees kids, she goes straight forward to them to gain some socialization experience. Of course, there is a long way of learning communication science but some success we already have. Before borrowing the toy, which does not belong to her, she asks whether she can take it. She says also “Thanks!”. She can share her toys, but not always willingly does it =).

But there is still a way to go. Often, when Mary sees than someone is there, where she wants to be (e.g. swing is busy), she can burst in tears. So, I’m teaching her now that one should stand in a queue and wait until the thing she wants is free. With a help of toys and roleplays we started a full-fledged learning of how to communicate with kids and adults. I really hope, it will help obtain socialization experience in efficient way.