Montessori Monday: Self-Dressing

 

We've been focusing a lot on potty training around here lately and one of the practical skills related to potty training is dressing and undressing one's self. I love the Montessori idea of helping your child learn how to help himself.

In order to help Jonathan learn how to master all the intricacies of snaps, zippers, buttons, etc. there are a couple activities we've engaged in lately:


1) Hanging daddy's clothes on our learning tower and having Jonathan practice snapping or buttoning or fastening the item of clothing.

2) Using our Melissa & Doug Basic Skills board. This is a puzzle as well as a tool for practicing basic skills. The drawback to this one is that since it is a puzzle, the pieces are not 100% stable for working on the different items. It's still a fun addition though:

3) We have a quiet/busy book which my mom made for me when I was a preschooler. Each sewn page features a different skill set. Here's an idea for a similar busy book:

Source: fortytworoads.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

We haven't mastered these skills yet, but it's good practice!

See more Montessori-inspired ideas over at Living Montessori Now! and One Hook Wonder. This post is linked up to Montessori Monday over at those terrific blogs.

Potty Training- Day Three

Well, I think perhaps we made it!

We had no more accidents yesterday-- and Jonathan even stopped playing to run to the potty. We had no accidents this morning until we ventured out to the park, but that was the only one. He has one more big present left to earn on his potty chart (the Cars DVD). But, I think I can say that he's potty trained! I expect accidents here and there, but he's initiating and going potty on his own. We use Pull-Ups for nap time and I may for church this weekend... but I think the hardest part is done.

Whew! I am exhausted. I hope to be back to regular posting next week. For now, I'm going to take it easy! Have a great weekend!

Potty Training Update-- Day Two

This is our singing potty chair.
Warning: It will serenade our house guests at random!

So, we went through 14 pairs of underwear yesterday- I think that may be a record! But by the end of the night Jonathan had started initiating more-- and even got enough stars on his chart to earn a Tow Mater truck I bought at Walmart.


This morning, we only had two accidents and he went potty by himself enough times to earn another Cars toy-- I think its name is Pacer. So things are looking better! Both of the accidents were when he was distracted (a toy or eating lunch), so we'll continue to work on it. At least we've made good progress! I feel exhausted, my house is in shambles, but I'm encouraged nonetheless!

Potty Training Day One

It's been quiet around here. I'm taking the week off to focus on potty training. We babysat for friends Monday and Tuesday. And today we started potty training... all that to say, I'll be back with Kids in the Word (and other posts) next week.

For those of you who are interested in the potty training details...

We're throwing Jonathan a three day potty party. This morning he woke up and the family room and bathroom area were decorated with streamers and balloons (left over from 1st birthday celebrations). We bought a boy doll that goes potty and started to "potty train" the doll. Our doll went on the potty a few times and got treats (which he shared with Jonathan) and star stickers on his potty chart.

I intended to keep Jonathan in diapers until after nap, but then he wanted to be in big boy underwear just like the doll. So we moved into his Cars and Thomas the Train underpants.

Now, our biggest hurdle with potty training is having him initiate going potty. He's been very comfortable sitting and using the potty-- but always at our initiative. He typically uses it three or four times a day (after every meal). We've had the occasional dirty diapers and lots and lots of wet ones. And every once in a while he'll initiate going potty. But not usually. So, my hope is by moving him into big boy underwear, he'll begin to initiate more.

At first, we had one poop in underwear which he told me about right away. Then, we had several pairs of wet underwear-- one of which he told me about, the rest he didn't seem to care. I was pretty discouraged! We checked every 15 minutes to see if he was dry. If he was dry, he got a treat. If he was wet, we changed his underwear and put him on the potty. If he got anything in the potty, we put some stars on his chart,

I knew to expect accidents, but I didn't expect him not to care. We cleaned up the accidents and talked about how our pee/poo is supposed to go in the potty-- not the floor. We also talked about telling our body to wait until we ran to the potty.

So, he finally initiated and told me "Mama! I have to go pee!" So we ran to the potty, he went pee and mommy did a happy dance. He put a sticker on his chart (which happened to complete a row) and got a toy-- a Tow Mader truck. Suddenly, he was a lot more motivated. He initiated one more time after that and now it's time for nap (in a pull up).

I don't know whether or not the trend will continue, but at least it's progress! Stay tuned for more updates... but I'd love if you have words of wisdom to share...