One of my kids' favorite Montessori-inspired activities involves painting their plastic animals and subsequently giving them baths. They've been doing this activity every once in a while since before they were 2 years old. This morning I made the mistake of asking the kids what they wanted to do (I usually pick what we do for Preschool in the morning). L said she wanted to paint, and E said she wanted to play with animals, so I was reminded of this animal painting/bathing activity, and both kids were happy...
Now that the girls are a bit older (40 months), they get smaller figures and smaller paint brushes to paint with. I love the level of concentration that the kids display as they paint their animals.
I provided the kids with tupperware containers full of soapy water and toothbrushes for scrubbing their animals clean. Super simple and lots of fun! This task occupied them long enough for me to give Baby H a bath. Then the girls got baths and had the opportunity to take their plastic animals with them in the bathtub for more scrubbing and extra games (like searching for the animals beneath the bubbles). If only they could learn to scrub themselves as well as they cleaned those toys..
Love it! We just saw that some of my daughter's baby dolls are looking a bit dirty and could use a bath. Maybe I'll let her paint her babies first before taking them into the bath/shower with her. Thanks for the idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun idea ... and great for a number of skills! Thanks for sharing at Montessori Monday, Lilac! I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow
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