Montessori-Style Activities for Parents to Try With Their Kids at Home to Promote Proper Health
Young children love to be independent, and this is something that the Montessori system understands very well. That’s why it involves teaching them basic life skills from an early age. These skills involve a number of activities that typically impart knowledge and that can also have benefits like promoting good health. Have a look below to see some of the Montessori-style activities that you can do as a family to promote proper health.
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Cleaning the Table
The first activity that you can try with your children at home is cleaning the table. This includes wiping up any spills and food that may have gotten on the table while you were eating. The table is just one of the things that you can try cleaning as a family, and it’s one of the best since it can help keep germs to a minimum. Note that The Montessori Method was developed in the early 1900s by Dr. Maria Montessori, according to the American Montessori Society. It has since then been embraced by many people around the world who’ve seen the benefits it can offer to a family.
Brushing Their Teeth
Another Montessori-style activity that you can try at home with your children that will boost their health is brushing their teeth. You could go a step further and actually come up with a good oral health activity that can help your children have an easier time taking care of their oral health even without having to be reminded to do so. The fact that up to 96% of Americans have some form of tooth decay or another by the time they reach the age of 65 years old is enough to show you the importance of taking good care of the teeth from an early age.
Discussing Mental Health
Mental health is an important part of overall health, and it’s a good thing that more and more people are starting to realize it. That said, you can set aside some time to talk about mental health with your family. Since Montessori places an emphasis on peaceful and mindful behavior in general, a short mental health discussion is bound to be an important part of things. This can prove beneficial since half of all mental health disorders show their first signs before a person turns 14 years old. An astounding three-quarters of all mental health disorders start before the age of 24 years old. These numbers show that it’s a good idea to start taking care of your family’s mental health early.
Helping with Meal Preparation
The final activity you could do with your children is to ask them to help you with meal prep. Children are naturally going to be happy to get involved in the kitchen, and the best thing is that you can let them do this as a learning activity. You can be sure that they’ll enjoy using kitchen tools to help prepare food. There are many parts of meal preparation that your children can help you do. From washing and cutting things like carrots and tomatoes for children old enough to safely handle a knife to preparing their own snacks, you can be sure that there’s a lot for them to do in the kitchen.
These are just a few of the Montessori-style activities that you can do as a family. They’ll help you bond a bit better and also go a long way to help improve and secure their health both now and in the future. Remember that it will take practice to be able to do some of these things well, especially by themselves. This calls for being patient and allowing your children to learn at their pace.
