Getting Started with Practical Life Activities

simplifying days at home: email 2

When life is really busy and I don’t have a lot of time to create beautiful play invitations for my children, I like to involve them in real world activities. If, like me, December is a really busy month for you, this approach might just work for you too.

Today we are going to be exploring practical life activities and how they benefit everyone in the family. 

You might've heard of the term 'practical life' activities from Montessori bloggers. The term has become wildly popular over recent years as accounts share (sometimes very expensive) ideas on how they’ve created a home environment that helps aid their child’s learning.

If you haven't heard the term before, practical life essentially refers to activities that are purposeful in nature. Practical life activities relate to:

• self care: brushing teeth, getting dressed, putting on shoes etc.

• care of the environment: watering plants, cleaning up, helping cook etc. 

Before we begin:

Montessori has almost become synonymous with expensive toys, expensive furniture and expensive accessories - which is actually pretty ironic given the origins. But it doesn’t have to be that way at all. This particular lesson will help you implement simple practical life activities at home without having to spend a lot of money.

December at a Glance

Newsletter Release Dates

1. Simplifying Play: An Introduction - 6th December

2. Getting Started with Practical Life Activities - 13th December (this email)

3. Working on your Beliefs about play - 20th December

4. Your Role in Play - 27th December

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What You’ll Learn in this article:

• The difference between practical life activities and chores

• Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs and How it relates to practical life activities

• How practical life activities help you and your child

• When you should get started with practical life activities

• Examples of activities per age + downloadable resource

• Equipment essentials

What do you receive as a paid subscriber?

• Access to this article and the other newsletters in this masterclass series (which are released over the course of December 2022)

• Printable resources

• Journal prompts and reflection questions

• Access to the Playful Prompts library

• Seasonal Rhythms Guide and Printable resources

• New masterclass topics every month - plus access to previous masterclasses

• Access to community discussion boards

• Bonus video overview of each topic

This newsletter is part of the Simplifying Play Masterclass which is exclusive to paid subscribers. To access the content, including printable resources and guides, please click the link below.