Helper’s Workshop

 Maria Montessori believed that education begins at birth and that the first few years of life are the most important, both physically and mentally.  Even the smallest baby must be exposed to people and sounds, and cuddled and talked to if s/he is to develop into a normal happy child.  During the early stages of a child’s development s/he needs encouragement from the adult in order to gain confidence.

You are an important adult to the child or children in your care.  Remember - a young child learns much from imitating adults and other children.  In this way they learn both good and bad habits.

Be free with your praise. A child who is constantly criticized soon loses interest in attempting new things.

When the young child constantly handles and touches everything in sight or repeats an activity over and over, s/he is not being naughty, s/he is only being curious. This is how a young child learns.

From an early age children want to be independent but we are too eager to do things for them.  If you take the time to teach the child to do things for him/herself, the rewards will be great for both of you. The words you should hear with joy are “LET ME DO IT MYSELF”.

It is important to give the children a chance to be self-reliant and to do this with patience and understanding.  If some morning the child should show particular interest in buttoning his own sweater, this is your perfect opportunity to take the time to show him how it is done.

A rule you should use is NEVER DO FOR A CHILD WHAT S/HE IS CAPABLE OF DOING FOR HIM/HERSELF. The 3 or 4-year-old child should take great pride in doing things for him/herself. A child of this age is perfectly capable of dressing him/herself, picking up his toys, making his own bed (won’t look as good as when you do it) and helping with simple chores around the house.

The child must be taught independence and you, the helper, must resist the temptation to always “help”.

Please don’t make the child dependent on you.  Let the child try to do things – like pour a glass of juice form him/herself – even if it might make a mess the first (or fourth) time.  Show him how to clean up the mess rather than doing it for him.  Practice makes perfect and a child cannot gain independence without practicing.

You might be wondering what sort of activities and things you could be doing at home so the child that is in your care becomes independent.

Social Skills

·        Greet the child, make eye contact when speaking to the child, and speak at the child’s eye level.

·        Practice turn taking while playing games.

·        Help the child to initiate a conversation. For example, encourage the child to say, “May I play with you?” “Can we share the blocks?” “Would you like a turn?”, etc.

·        Encourage and practice cleaning up after play. Let the child tidy up his/her toys. Make it a game.

Independence

·        Encourage the child to dress him/herself:  Putting on jackets and sweaters, fastening or tying shoes, putting on socks, changing from shoes to slippers, zipping jackets, tying buttons, zipping and unzipping back packs.  All of these are wonderful opportunities to develop fine motor skills which are needed for later writing.

·        Show the child what do in the toilet: pull down pants, sit on toilet, wipe bottom, flush the toilet, pulling up pants and trousers, wash hands thoroughly with soap and dry hands. This procedure is very important. Please don’t do it for the child.

·        Allow the child to feed him/herself, don’t feed the child – this should stop as soon as a child can pick up a spoon.  Show him how to hold a spoon, fork, knife etc.  Mess and touching foods of different textures is actually important for a child’s sensory development.  It should make no difference if they make a mess, it is easy to clean it up.  It is harder to teach a child to feed him/herself later – or be willing to use his/her sense of touch to learn.  Make the food look interesting and remember when packing lunches make them healthy but something the child likes, and use child size portions.

·        Young children love to imitate adults and think arranging flowers, making beds and cleaning things are fun. Let them do simple chores, for example putting away groceries, folding the towels, washing fruit - there are endless jobs for the young child to do in the kitchen and around the house.

Some other Ideas

·        Opening and closing doors, drawers, bottles and boxes. This will teach the child an appreciation of quiet and order and to give the child a sense of achievement.

·        Shoe lacing and working on buttons will teach self-reliance, self-control and coordination of movement.

·        Pouring rice from jug to jug or water from cup to cup. This will teach to pour from cup to pitcher in a neat fashion and to develop the muscles involved in pouring.

·        Dusting little things will encourage neatness and responsibility of keeping things neat and clean.

·        Show him/her how to carry a chair and fold a napkin

·        Setting a table, washing dishes, washing hands and sweeping the floor will teach muscle coordination and give a sense of enjoyment and achievement in doing household chores.

As children love to work with their hands, here are some finger-dexterity exercises, which will develop hand-eye coordination and muscular movement.

·        Bead stringing

·        Opening bottles and tops

·        Cutting paper

·        Painting and colouring

·        Using glue

·        Pasting paper

·        Working with play-dough

·        Doing puzzles

·        Baking 

Speech and Language Development

·        Read books

·        Talk about everyday experiences, encourage conversation.

·        Limit T.V and videos.

Gross Motor Skills

·        Allow the child to walk up and down stairs,

·        Practice throwing, catching and kicking a ball.

There are endless activities we can do with the child.

While the child is in your care you should try to help the child to be independent, and to have a strong sense of self allowing him to improvise and use his creativity in working and learning as a healthy, thinking individual. These traits will remain with him throughout his life.  What more could you ask for?