Saturday, January 29, 2011

When Practical Life is internalized it often comes home to roost.

When a child is allowed to spend as much time as needed in the Practical Life area of the classroom, over time the lessons learned are internalized.  Very often, those internalized skills show up at home.

This happened to G's mother the other day when he announced that he wanted to make dinner.  I will let her tell the rest of the story.


"G. made dinner for the family tonight - in 23 steps! So I took some pictures for you.

He decided to make Pan Fried Herring (local from Port Alberni), with broccoli and snap peas, with stuffing (yuck - stuffing!! whatever... it was his choice).  It was cool because it was a bit of a science lesson - looking at the fish eyes, the gills, chopping the head off and gutting it - are those eggs inside? Wow. Ewwww, the blood, bladder, and guts!

Cleaning the fish. 


All clean.


Chopping up the veg.


Preparing a dredge for the fish.


Cutting up and arranging lemon pieces on a plate.


Preparing the pan for frying the fish.


Frying the fish.


Preparing the stuffing.


 Setting the table......

...and Voila! dinner is served!


It was fun and he was so proud of himself. He even washed & dried some dishes. Our little chef! Practical Life seems to be approached differently now by G., not so much a learning of skills as a perfecting and contributing to the family that makes it so wonderful for him (and us!)."

By the way, G. is 5 and a half!

Wow!
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

6 comments:

  1. Montessori BeginningsJanuary 29, 2011 at 9:32 PM

    Way to go G!!! and G's mom, nice post you should start your own blog : )

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnniclesJanuary 30, 2011 at 2:17 AM

    It is so amazing when this happens. Well done to G - fish is not easy to deal with!

    Practical life makes a child be able to be part of the running of the home rather than a passive observer or a "helper". I love it when I come downstairs and find my three children have made something in the kitchen and I didn't even know they were cooking. I don't even freak in retrospect because I know they are safe in the kitchen. They are 10,8 and 6 years old!

    ReplyDelete
  3. aly in vaJanuary 30, 2011 at 5:44 AM

    Truly amazing given his age. As open minded and willing to "follow the child" as I think I am, I'm not sure I'd follow her to the stove and skillet :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 31, 2011 at 5:34 PM

    Are you sure he is only five? He looks closer to eight years old. Just wondering.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cynthia DyerJanuary 31, 2011 at 7:50 PM

    Lol! Yes, I am absolutely sure that G. is almost 6. I taught him for the first couple of years in primary and he will go into level 1 next September. Both of his parents are tall so he does seem bigger than the average 5-6 year old.
    Thanks for asking.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cynthia DyerFebruary 1, 2011 at 2:52 PM

    Also, G.'s Mother just told me that he is standing on a stool in all the kitchen shots. You get a better idea of how tall he actually is when he is standing beside the table.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)