CONNECTING OBSERVATIONS TO HELP YOUR CHILD PLAY INDEPENDENTLY

Welcome back to Montessori Monday! Today we are going to discuss connecting observations to activities to help your child play independently.

 

During this session of Montessori Mondays with Holly, we talked about connecting your observations to help your child play independently! Watch the show above and click here to join the Facebook group.

 

 

What Do You Do Once You’ve Done Your Observation?

Do you ever wonder what to do next? This is very common for parents! What happens when your child is lining up toys what are you supposed to do with that? We are going to help you go through what to do in those scenarios!

Start to think about any observations you’ve made in the last week of your child! It can be anything at all!

Are You Doing The Observation Right?

When we talk about connecting your observation to the activity we need to talk about the observation. We need to make sure you are doing the observation correctly! We need to make sure that you are not doing the following,

A) Not overthinking it.
B) Not underthing it.

We need to find a good balance! We really discuss observations in our 4 Days To A Montessori Home challenge to join us over there!  Let’s talk about some of the important parts of observation!

Silent Observation

Of course, you can communicate. The idea behind the word silent is to express that we shouldn’t be talking we should actively be trying to be silent. When we are doing our work period or if you are observing and you want to watch from a distance you don’t want to interrupt them. A lot of the time our instinct is to go help our children if we see them struggling. Or congratulate them if they do something right.

If they turn around and ask you for help you can go over and help. You don’t have to stay there though, you can step away again. You may have heard the term “sit on your hands.” It’s so easy to see a child who is struggling and just reach over and help! These are the types of things we talk about in the 4 Days To A Montessori Home Challenge! We really dive into observation to make sure we are observing the best we can!

Finding What Sensitive Period Your Child Is In

If you are newer to Montessori you may not know what a sensitive period is. A list of developmental stages by Maria Montessori to help parents when their child is going to go through different stages and different ages.

Toddler milestones and sensitive periods are very different. A lot of times we see that Maria Montessori placed those periods in different orders than a traditional school. Traditional will usually start younger than what Montessori suggests. You can read more about sensitive periods here! 

This is something we dive really far into on day 2 we talk about connecting those observations to sensitive periods to finding the activity. If your child is around 12 months you might notice your child is in a walking stage. This is a sensitive period for walking. 12-18 months is specifically a sensitive walking period.

After day 2 in our challenge your get an awesome printable that shows all of the sensitive periods! This is something you’ll want to have on hand!

So now that you have observed your child lining things up and decided this is the sensitive period for order, what do you do?

Ask For Help

So now the fine-tuned skill of connecting observations to activities is by asking for help. I don’t expect every single one of you to know every piece of Montessori out there. I don’t expect you to know all of the sensitive periods.

We aren’t born with Montessori information. We have to learn it somehow. The easiest way to do this is by asking for help! You can do this in Montessori Facebook groups like ours! There are so many different people in different places in here who can help suggest activities to you!

Use our mastermind! This is where we talk about observations and activities!

If you have questions then go join our challenge! Use our staff, other members, and more for ideas! Even if you think you know a lot about Montessori there is no harm in joining! We are always learning!

4 Days To A Montessori Home Challenge

So if you are ready to learn more about a Montessori and learn more about how to master toy rotation I would love to invite you to join us for our 4 Days To A Montessori Home Challenge.

About this Challenge:

• This Challenge is specifically designed to transform your main living space into a beautifully prepared Montessori environment.
• This challenge is NOT meant to be complicated or make your life difficult.
• You do NOT need all the expensive materials to make this happen!
• Our [free] pop-up Facebook group is all about supporting one another, no mom shaming here!

What you need to know:

• The Challenge starts on June 21st!
• It’s ABSOLUTELY FREE to join!
• One lucky winner will win a scholarship to the Montessori Learning Center!

What sensitive period is your child in? How will you connect your observations to help your child play independently?