Montessori Practical Life Activities at Every Age
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Are you looking to incorporate more Montessori in your home, but not sure where to start? Are you wondering what sort of chores your toddler can do at each age? This blog post goes through tasks you can introduce to your baby or toddler!
We love practical life in our home. Babies and toddlers love to be involved. They love to help. Montessori embraces the love of meaningful work with practical life tasks. These tasks are everyday things like cooking and cleaning, but they build big skills. With practical life tasks, babies and toddlers develop fine motor skills, math abilities, pre-reading abilities, and self-confidence.
If you are looking to start Montessori in your home, I highly recommend starting with practical life. Unlike many Montessori “toys” or materials on the market, practical life can be done for free. It is an easy and meaningful way to get your baby or toddler learning and growing. This blog post offers ideas for Montessori practical life tasks from birth through age 4 plus! Children are so much more capable than we often believe!
Montessori Practical Life at 0-6 Months
Involvement in the kitchen can start from the beginning! Of course, a newborn is not going to be peeling or slicing or mixing, but they are listening. Here are some of my favorite ways to involve babies in the kitchen:
Observation from the baby wrap: narrate everything! I love to exaggerate as I narrate, pretending I am putting on a cooking show. We also do a lot of singing as I cook. I also sometimes bring our Tripp Trapp into the kitchen, and they can watch from the newborn seat.
Smelling spices and herbs. It is so interesting to see what they are drawn to! My babies have especially loved the smell of vanilla
Feeling textures (for example, let them feel a bumpy lemon)
Montessori Practical Life at 6-9 Months
At around 6 months, I give my babies their first actual hands-on tasks! Once they can sit up, I start giving them a basin of water to wash fruits and vegetables in. This is more water sensory play than anything, but they love feeling involved. Here are some favorite Montessori practical life tasks for babies 6, 7, 8 months and up!
Washing vegetables in a basin of water
Banana peeling (they peel the sides as you hold the banana)
Peeling onions (don’t worry, they don’t make your eyes water until you cut into them!)
Drinking from an open cup
Wiping up water with a rag
Choosing clothing from 2 options
Montessori Practical Life at 9-12 Months
At this age, my babies are standing with support. I still keep them in a clip on high chair at the bar, though, introducing a tower at around a year. At 9-12 months, we mostly continue the tasks I listed above, but a favorite addition is:
Emptying the dishwasher (we start with silverware)
Montessori Practical Life at 12-18 Months
The period from 12 to 18 months is filled with opportunities for Montessori practical life! This is when I introduce all sorts of tasks, and also when I introduce a toddler tower! Our favorite tower is here, but I have a blog post on lots of options. Some of these tasks in this section work better once a baby is walking, so age may vary. My third is 16 months and still not consistently walking, so he has been more involved with tasks that are stationary at the tower than things like carrying plates to the table.
Transferring to a bowl or pan
Watering plants
Putting toys away
Putting laundry in a laundry basket
Carrying groceries and laundry
Pouring (we start by pouring with assistance, then practice with water, and then with ingredients)
Mixing/whisking
Using a salad spinner
Chopping (we start with an egg slicer, then a wooden knife, then a crinkle cutter)
Shaking spices
Peeling oranges, eggs, onions, and garlic
Ripping herbs and breaking asparagus
Throwing out trash
Bringing plates to the table
Putting muffin liners into muffin tins
Cracking eggs
Feeding pets
Montessori Practical Life at 18-24 Months
The period from 18 to 24 months is another absolute favorite period for practical life. This is when I have my toddlers cooking through full recipes with me. I will often pre-measure so they can add, or I measure as we go and they do all the adding and mixing. I introduce visual recipes, and they love to see the items we are using to cook in the recipe.
Using a visual recipe
Chopping with a small children’s knife
Using a small vacuum
Sorting silverware into a silverware organizer
Using a guided placemat to set the table
Putting away clothes after they are washed. We have a children’s wardrobe that they love!
Bringing their plate back after a meal
Using a visual shopping list at a grocery store
Helping load the dishwasher
Using a rolling pin
Kneading dough
Using cookie cutters when making cookies
Learning the coat flip to put on coats
Putting on shirts and dresses
Putting on shoes
Montessori Practical Life at 2 Years Old
Two is one of my absolute favorite ages, and there is so much fun practical life at this age! Here, you start to see a lot more control in movements. 2-year-olds can use a wider variety of tools, and by the end of 2, my toddlers have been independently cooking with visual recipes and pre-measured ingredients. It is so much fun to see the development!
Pouring with control (from a container that has more liquid than space in the target container, such as a larger pitcher to a glass)
Pouring batter into a muffin liner
Using tongs and tweezers
Washing a window with a spray bottle and a rag
Spreading on a rice cake
Spreading on toast
Using a citrus juicer
Brushing with a pastry brush
Putting clothes on a hanger
Putting on socks
Arranging flowers (cutting stems, pouring water, arranging)
Preparing a personal pizza (sauce, cheese, and toppings!)
Montessori Practical Life at 3 Years Old
3 is also such a fun age for Montessori at home. Classic classroom Montessori began at 3, and it makes sense! It is an age with so many opportunities for toddlers to do tasks themselves! My 3-year-olds like to take on more big-kid tasks, such as sewing and using a vegetable peeler.
Using a small, low-powered induction burner
Reading simple recipes
Leveling a measuring cup
Folding napkins and then more laundry
Using a vegetable peeler
Opening packages with scissors
Simple sewing
Montessori Practical Life at 4+ Years Old
At 4, I found a decrease in interest in some of the practical life tasks my son had been loving previously. At this point, I found the key was adding more challenging tasks and tasks he could really take ownership over. These are some of our favorite Montessori practical life tasks at 4:
Maximum effort work: think shoveling snow or digging to plant
Letting them own tasks. Let them have tasks that are all theirs. Give them a title! “Official box collapser,” for example.
Giving responsibilities that they can manage themselves. My son loves his daily tasks flip chart.
Letting them cook a recipe from start to finish instead of being the assistant
