I was lucky. I taught both of my now-adult kids to help take care of our home environment from the time they were toddlers. And it stuck. We didn’t have chores because they simply helped care for our home.
It certainly helped that my kids liked to have clean rooms and live in a clean house. But I know that the Montessori lessons they received as toddlers and preschoolers had a big influence on their appreciation of order, cleanliness, and work in general. It also helped that my children had access to real, child-sized cleaning tools as toddlers and preschoolers.
Montessori-Inspired Sweeping Activities
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Today, I want to share some Montessori-inspired sweeping activities from around the blogosphere. Sweeping activities are wonderful to use as some of the first practical life activities children will work on to develop skills in taking care of the environment.
Montessori Sweeping Presentation from Info Montessori
Sweeping the Floor Presentation from Montessori Commons
Sweeping with a Long Broom, Care of Carpeted Areas, and Care of the Carpet Sweeper from Montessori World
Sweeping Stars (Photo from Counting Coconuts)
Sweeping Stars from Counting Coconuts
Sweeping and Dusting Lessons: care for the environment exercises in the Montessori preschool from Montessori Discoveries
The Sweeping Square from The Montessori Motherload
Sweeping with a Brush and Dustpan from Family FECS
Montessori Activity: Sweeping with Brush and Dustpan from Family FECS
Sweeping Beans from My Montessori Journey
Sweeping Activity (Photo from Rockabye Butterfly)
Sweeping Tray from Rockabye Butterfly (The blog is no longer available.)
Sweeping Snow Crinkle Paper into a Dustpan from Discovery Kidzone Discovery Adventures
Sweeping with a Broom and Dustpan (Photo from The Work Plan)
Sweeping with a Broom While Using a Dustpan from The Work Plan
Practical Life at Sixteen Months – Sweeping and Using the Dustpan from How We Montessori
Sweeping from How We Montessori
Montessori Cleaning Station (Photo from How We Montessori)
Creating a Cleaning Station from How We Montessori
Practical Life: Sweeping the Floor from Montessori at Home
Sweeping Activity (Photo from Trillium Montessori)
Montessori at Home from Trillium Montessori
Sweep Away, My Son from Our Montessori Home
New Practical Life Activity from Our Montessori Story
Using an Electric Sweeper (Photo from Montessori for the Earth Blog)
Montessori Sweeping with a Twist from Montessori for the Earth Blog
Traditional Sweeping Set from Montessori Services
Sweeping Materials and Activities available for purchase from Montessori Services
Melissa & Doug Sweep and Mop Set
Melissa & Doug Sweep and Mop Set
Helping Hands Practical Life Activities +Free Printable from Montessori By Mom
Montessori Practical Life Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Have you used any Montessori-inspired sweeping activities with your child/ren?
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We have a little broom that the kids love to use, but I’ve never invested in a little dust pan – I totally need to do that. I love the idea of having them sweep into a tape square!
I love that you can vary what’s swept into the tape square according to the season or holiday, too. 🙂
That’s a lot of great ideas collected in one place! Will definitely have to try some of these out with my son.
Thanks, Holly! I hope some of them work well for your son. 🙂
My kids love to sweep, so much so that we did buy a child-size broom, which is a great investment. I love the idea of having it be a sort of game with the tape square!
Since we have a lot of carpet, we also invested in a carpet sweeper. The vacuum’s too loud and heavy, but a mechanical carpet sweeper is both fun for kids and useful.
I always had a carpet sweeper for toddlers and preschoolers, too. I’m thinking that one of the new rechargeable ones could be nice for my granddaughter. 🙂
We have 2 “lobby” brooms and a little brush and a dust pan between 4 children. They are always in high demand! Sometimes they are sweeping, sometimes they are being horses. I think my most and least favorite were when my oldest son, at about 2 years old, learned to stick them sideways across doorways and make gates that he would then not allow anyone to remove.
LOL! It sounds like your brooms are getting lots of good use. 🙂
What a resource page, thank you!!! Penelope went to a Montessori school last year and I totally fell in love. I actually decided to become a preschool teacher because it was such an inspiring experience. I’m about to dive into your blog!!!