Teaching Toddlers While Teaching Older Children

Welcome to the forth post of Teaching Toddlers. As I have stated in the past, my experience in the Montessori and the day care was primarily with toddlers. I started teaching Tabitha when she was a toddler. As Amelia grew up she wanted to be included in our activities. It was definitely easier to sit her up in her chair and allow her to color, glue, and use activities side by side with her sister. As shown in the previous post, I made adaptations so Amelia could use the Montessori materials at her level. As she grew she was able to do more advanced exercises. She was learning her letters, numbers, colors and shapes right alongside Tabitha. So, if you have only 2 young children, it is quite easy to include your toddler in activities.

It has become a little more difficult to include the younger ones as we add more children to our family. Sometimes I think it was easier when they were infants because I could lay them down for a nap or sit them in the Bumbo next to where we were working. With Hannah, she was able to sit in the walker and play. Unfortunately Harold wasn't able to because we no longer have the walker.

There are times I will allow Harold to play while we are having lesson time. Unfortunately, that means he is wandering and getting into things. There have also been times where it was just easier to put him in the play pen for a while. However, I prefer to sit him in his booster seat at the table and give him some coloring to do or a small activity. As we are getting ready to start our new year of school I am trying to think of some fun ways to keep him entertained as well as making sure he is learning. There will be times when he can join in, just like the Amelia and Hannah used to, especially when we are coloring or painting.  I plan on continuing our circle time so they can all be involved.  I am also hoping to be able to give the girls some assignments that they will be able to work on independently so I can work with Hannah and Harold.

There will be times when I have to give more individual attention to Tabitha and Amelia. These are the times I will need to give Hannah and Harold some activities they can work on on their own. Hannah does do some parts of the lesson with us, but there are times she gets bored.

There are times I just give Harold the coloring sheet we are doing.

And he gets a snack.

Here are some of the other things I am planning on giving them while they sit at the table:

• Spooning
• Pouring
• Cheese shaker with different things to stick through the holes (pipe cleaners, toothpicks, etc)
• Tonging
• Play dough
• Coloring
• Simple Puzzles
• Small book basket
• Oatmeal canister to be used as a shape sorter
• I am looking into the idea of Toddler Busy Bags.

Don't miss any of the posts in my Teaching Toddlers series:

Monday: Teaching Toddlers Number Recognition and Math Readiness

Tuesday: Teaching Toddlers Reading Readiness

Wednesday: Teaching Toddlers with Montessori Activities

Thursday: Teaching Toddlers while teaching older children

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Don't forget to stop by the other crew member's posts to see what they have to share.