with Shelly Birger Phillips
I recently created this Montessori counting activity for our Montessori inspired homeschool. I started with number stickers and card-stock. Laminated the number cards. Found these beautiful blue glass counters in our game closet, stuck them in a beautiful ceramic bowl. Put everything on a tray and voila! We now have a very popular counting work for the math shelf. Just make sure this activity has supervision as the counters are choking hazards for children under three years.
Toilet learning is something that so many parents struggle with, yet somehow I thought I’d make it through unscathed. Julia has been using the potty occasionally since she was just a couple of months old. You can read about our early Elimination Communication journey here.
But this week I realized that I’ve been rushing her and so I’ve decided to back way off and try again when she’s more interested and ready.
She’s a pro at knowing when she has to poop and has done that consistently on the potty since she was about six months old! Hooray! However, peeing is another story.
Becoming a parent is definitely a rite of passage and I don’t know anybody who has gone through it who doesn’t get a deep and profound sense of ADULTHOOD from being a mom or a dad. Once we realize that we’re responsible for these initially helpless little human beings, we quickly identify all the ways we’ve still been pretending to be carefree and irresponsible and hopefully we grow up.
So now that I’m really an adult I keep having this realization about what life is and how different adulthood is from what I imagined it would be when I was a child.
My daughter loves to help whisk our eggs in the morning!
This is our toddler sink. It was simple to set up and gets daily use. In fact, my 2 1/2 year old daughter often decides to independently wash her hands here. The height of your table or shelf is one of the most important things to ensure success. Also, keep the water level low enough to allow for your child’s whole arm to go in without displacing the water. Provide soap in a small dish and a towel to dry off with (Julia still needs help with pushing up her sleeves and drying off). To really engage your child, demonstrate for him taking great care to soap up well. I find that adding a nail brush also encourages fastidiousness. Enjoy!