practical life skills: vacuuming

Children naturally want to participate in the daily activities they see adults in.  Dr. Montessori introduced these activities in a very accessible way for children to learn and excel in.  These are called practical life exercises and they help a child become independent in his/her environment.  They help a child to do it by themselves.  Practical life activities prepare a child for his environment during his sensitive period, from birth to 6 years, as they work towards independence and autonomy.

Children utilize and practice key fine motor skills while engaging in practical life.  Grace, courtesy, balance, and patience are all learned during repeated practice of these skill sets — such as pouring, transferring, brushing, zipping, folding, cleaning, wiping, serving — there are so many things to learn and embrace!!

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I recently shared a post of a compilation of my children with their practical life work — it is a collection of over 40+ Montessori Practical Life activities.  I will continue to post some of what we are doing as I am able.  Here, my son was just gifted with a “restaurant vacuum” as I call it.  They are not battery powered or electrically charge, so they can last a long time.  You can find the multi-brush cordless sweeper vacuum here.  They pick up debri on a hard surface or carpet — and it actually works!  Seriously, for $20, I could have had my house vacuumed every day by a sweet, excited, eager young boy.

He is so happy to have his very own vacuum that works.  And it does work!  The amount of dust and dust bunnies and crud he is picking up really makes me question the quality of my expensive vacuum.  I highly recommend this for any home — as it has helped my son to be incredibly proud and confident in his skills as a keeper of our home.

The Big Book of Big Dinosaurs is available here.