Three Year Olds at Work

   

This was the scene in my house last night.  Farmerboy is rinsing the dinner dishes. In the morning he spent about forty-five minutes at the sink washing potatoes with me, and then practicing with the sprayer on our preparation dishes.  I was a little leery of this at first, because the sprayer on the sink would seem to be too great a temptation for small people to resist.  But it was only toward the end of his time at the sink that we had any problems, when I found him squirting lotion into a coffee mug.  (He thought it was soap.)

Much has been written about a three year old's desire for meaningful work. (For some good posts on Practical Life at home, see Rebecca's lovely posts on Practical Life in the kitchen.)  It has been enlightening to me to see how much a three year old can really blossom when given the opportunity for meaningful work.  Farmerboy requires his work to make a difference.  When he uses the electric broom, he is sucking up all the crumbs from off the floor (because there are always crumbs); it is a real job, and the floor looks better after he's done.  When he polishes the coffee table, it's likely that it needs it (although he does tend to go a bit heavy on the orange oil.)  When he hauls leaves to the compost heap, that's also a job that needs doing, and one he often does with Daddy but sometimes also on his own.

What seems to be working best for us in terms of practical life is for me to set out an activity I think he might enjoy in the morning while I read to the older kids.  While I'm reading, they're usually busy drawing, but Farmerboy needs more than that.  If I set out some task in a prominent spot, he's usually drawn to it, I can quickly show him how to do it, and off he goes.  Or I can suggest to him some activities he's enjoyed doing before and can do without close supervision, such as Swiffering, and that will usually set him off on his "jobs".

We don't have a carefully prepared Montessori environment in our house at this time, but what I've found is that many practical life activities can be provided for a preschooler without setting up an entire room or set of shelves.  For instance, yesterday I bought a bead organizer from Walmart, which came with a pair of tweezers and a small scoop.  The organizer itself is a carrying case full of tiny plastic boxes in which to keep small beads. While I was putting beads into the small containers -- a job for which Farmerboy isn't quite ready, especially considering the babies crawling around on the floor, waiting for something to drop -- I let Farmerboy use the tweezers to pick up veggie puffs and put them into a few of the small bead boxes.  This activity kept him absorbed for about forty-five minutes. 

Homeschooling mothers with preschoolers are always trying to find ways to keep them busy.  For a long time I was convinced I couldn't do Montessori in my home because it sounded so complicated and, well, organized.  But to some extent, my fears were unfounded.  Now we are reaping some of the blessings of incorporating these practical life activities into our day.  Farmerboy's confidence, self-esteem, and concentration have all been bolstered through his daily work.  And my floors are cleaner, too.

Comments

[Theresa]

I have had the very same experiences with my dd(5) and my grandson(3). I have learned so much from reading about Montessori methods, which can be applied to real life. I had no idea, before, that they would find this kind of work so satisfying!
Great idea about the veggie puffs, btw.

[Becca]

Great ideas! I've been amazed at what they can accomplish if we give them a chance. My little 4 year old can vacuum the floor, and mop with a real sqeeze out mop all by herself. And do a dang good job, too! The look on her face when she finishes is worth so much to me.

[Rebecca B.]

"Farmerboy requires his work to make a difference."

This is profound isn't it? That at such a young age they want their time to be spent doing important work. My children are not satisfied unless their work actually counts for something, actually helps. My daughter is highly offended when I forget and offer her something meaningless to do when she wants to help with the real thing.

BTW, my 3yo loves to swiffer also! I like that, on the basic swiffer, you can shorten the handle to the child's height.

Thank you for linking my posts. You are a dear!

[Jenn Miller]

That's a big pile of dishes he has to do! This is a great post. We're trying to do the practical life, too. Ds finds it so rewarding.

[Waleria]

I have just discovered your blog, and I'm loving it. While I can't exactly relate to your experiences, being a nineteen year old girl with no prospect of having a family of my own in the near future, I enjoy reading your posts because of the family sense which is noticeable throughout them, which reminds me of my own family's atmosphere. Beside that, you are a breath of hope for young girls like me, who hope to found a family and dedicate themselves to it, in spite of it not being 'fashionable' !