Wrap up of Montessori activites

I thought I would start out by going through the Montessori activities that I put out last time for the girls.

Sensorial - Smelling bottles

These were a hit, P and J carried them around all over the place saying 'smell' and opening and sniffing them.  I am so not a Montessori purist.  However, as I outlined initially, P couldn't differentiate between the smells, even though I thought they were all pretty distinctive.  This was also not helped by small people taking the peppermint lids off the peppermint bottles and putting them on the other ones, leaving everything smelling faintly of peppermint.

Math - Number wheel

This one was a non starter, P wasn't interested in matching the pegs to the wheel at all.

Practical life - open and close containers

The girls enjoyed this activity, but it didn't really hold their attention all that well.  But its definitely worth a revisit.

Practical life - sorting buttons

P enjoyed playing with the buttons, but wasn't so keen on the whole idea of sorting them into the right colours and into the containers.  She spent quite alot of time putting small stickers on the buttons and then decided that they were money and took them with her in a purse when she went out.  So as far as a Montessori activity goes, this one didn't really work.  As far as something that P enjoyed playing with, this was great.

As I've previously mentioned, although I enjoy the idea of the Montessori activities, I don't really like the underlying ethos.  Obviously this has an impact on what my girls enjoy and how they play with their activities.  Check out my Steiner posts to see a different perspective on toddler and preschooler play.