Practical Life
The
name Practical Life refers to the fact that the activities
and objects in this section are inspired by the everyday
activities children might be observing at their home
such as washing up, pouring, grating, polishing etc. Children
have a natural tendency to copy adults’ actions
but often in a home environment it is not always possible
to
let children perform all these actions by themselves
and for themselves.
In
a Montessori classroom children have the freedom to perform
these actions until they have satisfied
their curiosity and inner drive. Children are not interested
in achieving end results as quickly as possible, but
are far more interested in the learning processes. As a
result
they will happily repeat exercises again and again until
they feel satisfied. Practical
Life activities are usually the first activities children
are introduced to when they arrive at Montessori
nursery. Children are drawn to these activities because they
represent a link to the home environment. Early PL activities
such as spooning serve to spark children’s interest
and to increase their self-confidence allowing them to tackle
more and more challenging tasks.
The activities progress from simple dry pouring to pouring
through a funnel into different containers and from spooning
to transferring and sorting with tweezers. On first glance
PL activities seem to provide children with basic skills,
however their function goes beyond simply teaching the
child to pour or tie the shoe laces. All activities are
also helping children to develop good work habits, concentration,
hand-eye coordination, a lengthened attention span and
control of his/her body.
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