Today’s Highlight
People in my Montessori group seem obsessed with the sink that has real running water. They almost got their hooks into me too, before I reminded myself that we already had a perfectly good set-up, and what’s more, we can use ours for washing hands and dishes. (The other sink says not to use soap because of the pump.) So I took the opportunity to focus on practical life a bit, and get things set up so that Bella could really start washing dishes.
The water bowl is filled up by us in the main sink. When Bella’s older, she’ll be able to fill it up herself using the water dispenser. The drying rack is our latest addition, a recommendation from someone else in the Montessori group who uses their kitchen for real-life activities like us, and it’s perfect. It’s the right size, and more importantly, it’s easy to use. You don’t have to put things in at the right angle, just stick it in and it holds. Bella loved ‘cleaning’ in the water and then pushing the dishes into the tray. A couple hours later when I saw her wander over and start playing with the plate, I asked her to put them away into the cupboard below, which she did happily.
It’s a lovely little set-up. Obviously, it takes longer, because I have to wash the dishes with Bella after a meal, before moving on to the rest of them at the main sink, but it’s still a beautifully independent way for her to learn about this element of practical life.
The Low Point
Bella would not nap today. She woke up late, really late, so I delayed her nap to account for that. She still did not go to sleep. We got her up, ate some food, played for an hour, tried again. It took awhile but she eventually got there. All these antics meant that we ended up missing out on a tour of a local heritage site that I’d booked tickets for ages ago. Thankfully the tickets were free, so we aren’t out of pocket, but the site is only open to the generic public with tours one day a year, so I’m really sad to have missed out. I struggle sometimes, to figure out whether it’s better to give her a new experience and see and do things, or whether it’s all about the routine and nap etc. I know she won’t remember any of this in years to come, so the routine usually wins, but I hope we can still keep on fitting in more and more of the experiences.