Montessori Moment

Here is an example of a classic Montessori "Transfer" work. Notice again that it is set up left to right, and it is on a tray. Ideally the child would be able to choose his work from a shelf of several choices, each on it's own tray or in a basket or container of some sort. I am currently looking for a book case or a shelf to make Lemur his own Montessori shelf. It will be covered with a blanket when it is not his "work" time (his work time will be when I am working on the computer). I will take the blanket off when he can choose work. It will take some training to keep him out of it when he isn't supposed to be in it, but that will happen with time. The tray or basket serves as a way to contain a work and keep it all together. It is also really good for strengthening their hands and wrists, and also for balancing and learning to carry things on a tray. Ideally the child will choose a work off the shelf, carry it to a table or work rug, do the work, put it back on the tray or basket, and carry it back to the shelf and put it away.

My camera was in Hunters car while Lemur was doing this work and I was bummed because he had such a great time doing it. His facial expressions were awesome - it is the first time he has done a transfer work with a spoon.

TRANSFER WORK: Set it up in a left-to-right pattern so that the child scoops from the left and dumps on the right. I chose wooden bowls this time - anything will work but children especially love the feel of natural products: wood, wicker and glass are great. (don't let them use the fine china, of course, but they love to use glass**, and if it breaks, oh well, they will learn to be more careful next time.) I also chose a large spoon because he is a young 2 and not that coordinated yet. As Lemur gets older, I will have him use a smaller and smaller spoon to do the transfer work, making the fine motor movement more difficult, but still able to have success. This time I also chose large decorator rocks - they are pleasing to the eye and make a delightful sound clinking against each other. Lemur had a wonderful time spooning them from one bowl to the other. When he was done spooning, I showed him how to pick up a bowl and pour the rocks into the other bowl and do the work again.

There are a hundred different ways to do transfer work; it is one that you will see often in my Montessori Moments blog posts. It can be any kind of two or more containers, any kind of tool to transfer with (including fingers), and any thing you can think of to transfer (rocks, rice, beans etc.) I promise I'll have more ideas on this in the future. For young children use two containers, a large medium (rocks), and a large utensil or fingers to transfer. For older children, use more than two containers if you want, smaller medium (rice or sand) and a smaller utensil (teaspoon or tiny ladle). If your child has never done it before and is 3 or older, I'd still start with the larger stuff to train them, then graduate them into smaller things as they show they can handle the work. Obviously if they are making a mess with rocks, they will make a much bigger mess with sand and you might want to hold off on that for a while. You'll know what they are ready for.

** GLASS: You will find glass in every Montessori classroom. Maria Montessori believed that children can learn at a young age to use and appreciate beautiful things, including glass serving dishes, glasses, vases, bowls etc. If it breaks, they learn to sweep and clean it up. If they get a cut, they learn how to wash and care for a cut. When I first started teaching Montessori, when a child dropped something that was glass, I cringed and audibly gasped... I learned from the lead teacher to be calm and take it in stride. The child wasn't rattled, she just got a broom and dust pan and cleaned it up. No one else even noticed in the classroom. That was something I had to work on the whole 4 years I was teaching... not to gasp and cringe when something was dropped or broken. It's going to happen, big deal.

This is probably a "work" that everyone has on their toy shelf, or more than likely, scattered in the toy box somewhere. Something I try to do is keep some toys up so that Lemur doesn't have access to them all the time. Things like blocks usually end up in the bottom of the toy box and never get played with. Stick them in a ziplock bag and put them up for special "work." I pulled this out this week and set it on his table. I showed him how to do the work and let him at it. This particular work is actually kind of challenging for young 2-year-olds as they have to put the triangle, square or circle in the correct shape. Often young children will get frustrated with it and stop trying. I took out the triangles since they are the hardest to match up, and used smaller blocks that would fit in both the circle and the square - making it easy for him to have success. As he gets older I'll put all the original shapes in. When he started throwing the blocks, we picked them up and put them away.