Every day at a Montessori kindergarten is a new opportunity for children to practice practical life skills that they will use for the rest of their lives.
Skills like taking care of themselves and taking care of their environment are building blocks for success, but they can’t be memorized with a set of flash cards. They must be learned by doing, through real-life application.
These are some of the basic life skills your child will acquire at Montessori kindergarten.
Preliminary Activities
Preliminary activities are the most basic of all practical life skills that are introduced in a Montessori kindergarten. They’re centered primarily around developing fine motor function and can include things as simple as unrolling and rolling work mats or pouring liquids.
At the kindergarten level, these skills can become more complex because children have already had a chance to build their motor skills.
Self-Care
Self-care is crucial for children to learn for a variety of reasons. Good hygiene is important for a child’s safety, of course, but that’s not all there is to it.
When a kindergarten student becomes capable of simple self-care tasks, they are rewarded with a sense of self-confidence and autonomy that can become the foundation of a healthy and fulfilling life.
Some important self-care activities that children perform at Montessori kindergarten are washing their hands and cleaning under their fingernails. They also learn how to dress themselves (by practicing dressing a frame) and fold their own clothes.
Care of Environment
It’s not necessarily inherent in kindergarten children to have a sense of responsibility for maintaining their environment. In fact, the opposite is generally true. However, giving them that sense of responsibility and showing them how to adhere to it can often be more fulfilling and enjoyable for them than playtime.
Some of the care-of-environment tasks that children perform at Montessori kindergarten are using a brush and dustpan, washing dishes and tables, cleaning up spills, caring for plants and animals, setting tables, preparing fruits and veggies, using simple kitchen tools, and simple weaving and sewing.
Grace and Courtesy
Good manners aren’t just basic requirements for existing in polite society — they’re social tools that can help your child get ahead in life. But as simple as they are, they’re also far from inherent in children of kindergarten age.
It can take a fair amount of convincing to ensure that grace and courtesy become second nature to a child, but once these skills are ingrained, they are often there for life.
Some aspects of grace and courtesy that children learn at Montessori kindergarten are proper greeting, avoiding interrupting, patience and consideration, coughing and sneezing etiquette, helping others, and displaying gratitude.
Develop Practical Life Skills at Montessori Kindergarten
The Montessori Charter School of Flagstaff can help your child acquire the simple but crucial practical life skills they need to excel in life. Reach out today to learn more.
