Washing Her Tools- Toddler Practical Life

Avery has been sick for the last few days so we have been cooped up in the house the entire time. Ugh. Not only is mama going insane but Little A seemed to be going stir crazy as well. When her whining had reached a peak that was unbearable I finally decided to do something about it.

I got out some materials and a few waterproof toys...

This set up is very typical of a toddler practical life activity. The little bucket is filled with soapy water, there are a few toys to "clean", a rag to clean with and then a tray to try and catch the overflow water. This is a great way to teach young children how to take care of their own things and prepare them for chores later in life.

The hardest part of this experiment for me was being stressed about the water spilling everywhere. My slightly controlling personality was trying to keep her from spilling even a drop of water, but this kind of helicopter teaching is very counter-productive when teaching in a montessori style. One of the basic principles for montessori education is to let the child fully explore and carry out the activity on their own. (As this mommy is literally sitting on her hands to stay out of the way.)

This is the way that I'd like to pretend the whole activity went...

This is how the majority of the activity actually went... 

Little A really enjoyed this practical life experiment but it definitely did not go "perfectly". The toys got every bit of soap suds sucked off them (see hilarious picture above) and the rag was used for squeezing out water over the carpet. The drying, however, was her favorite part and she did really well.

We ended up with a much happier tiny kid, a only slightly more stressed mommy and slightly cleaner set of toy tools. Overall, I'm rating this a success.