The Lunar New Year season is upon us and one of the highlights of the festival has got to be the food. Hot pot or Steamboat as it is known in Singapore, is one of the more popular traditional Chinese meals during the season. It is also very delicious! Luckily for us, hot pot is a great and easy teaching tool to learn with. Hot pot is essentially a pot of hot water or stock – this part is fiddly and adults will have to keep a close eye on the little ones –  that various foods are dipped into to cook, before being consumed.  We’ve found three activities that your children can help to prepare with you. Firstly, you will need a hot pot (either gas or electric, you can pick them up from bigger supermarket chains or home appliance shops). Once you have that set up, it’s time to get cooking! 1. Shopping  Hot pot ingredients are many and varied. Make a list at home with your child and then plan a trip to the market or supermarket to pick everything up.  2. Ingredients Some easy ones that we would suggest are:  Green leafy vegetables like bok choy are pretty and pretty delicious too  Carrots: cut into rounds  Mushrooms: get a selection of the different types and discover the difference between the long, skinny enoki mushrooms or the shorter, rounder shitake Meatballs: mix with soy sauce and roll minced chicken into balls  Eggs: check out what happens to raw egg when you drop it into hot water  There are lots of different ingredients that you can use for hot pot. Try them out and let us know what you cooked! 3. Sauces  Make your own dipping sauces –  let the children pick and create their own sauce.  You will need: Minced coriander (cilantro)  Minced garlic  Soy sauce Sesame oil Salt  Pepper  Lime juice (let the kids cut and squeeze the lime themselves)  Peanut butter Montessori tips:  Food and cooking are some of the best and most fun ways to include Montessori learning at home. Children love being involved in cooking for the family and being able to contribute in some way. They also are more receptive to eating (or trying something new) the food they have prepared.   Engage your child by giving them a part in picking the ingredients to purchase: write the shopping list together and ask them to help you find items at the shop. This is a great, fun way to have discussions about healthy food and how it nourishes them.  Once you get home, the little sous chefs can help out in the kitchen. Let them wash, prep the vegetables and lay them out on platters. Prepare a small knife to cut carrots into rounds (supervised) and have scissors on hand to cut herbs with. Make sure there are bowls and spoons ready to mix and roll the meatballs with. While you’re working on this together, have discussions about colours, smells, tastes and textures.  Once everything is ready, turn the pot on and help them to cook their own food – and yours. Enjoy! Don’t forget to clean up together afterwards! 

As we head into the holiday season you might find yourself at a larger than usual number of dinners, which with young children can sometimes be more stressful than anything else. Montessori teaches grace and courtesy as part of the Practical Life curriculum, and there are many lessons that children can learn and practice at home, too! So how can you practice table manners in preparation of those holiday get togethers? Consider how they can practice grace and courtesy before the meal even starts, by helping to set the table! You can show them how you’d like each place setting to look, and even print off a guide for them to follow. They can practice carrying dishes, pouring water, and folding napkins. Make sure to give them plenty of time before the dinner, and even practice a few nights before. For other skills like sitting patiently, conversing politely, and eating without too big of a mess it is important to practice a lot and practice early. Start with your family dinners, and make sure you are modeling the behavior you want to see (so no phones at the table!) In Montessori we like to isolate skills; don’t try to teach everything at once and just focus on one thing at a time. You can have a whole lesson on napkins– how do we fold them, how do we use them, where do we place them and when! Finally, be understanding of their limitations. Dinner parties are often chaotic, with variables we can’t control for. If things start to go awry avoid yelling or describing what your child shouldn’t do, and instead let them know how you’d like them to behave in positive terms. If they’re starting to run from the table tell them they can be excused once they’ve thanked the host, or if they’re grabbing for more bread remind them that if they say “please” someone will help to pass the bread to them. Subscribe to our mailing list! Don’t miss out on House on the Hill Montessori Updates and Tips!

Do you know this tongue twister about weather? Whether the weather be fine, Or whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Or whether the weather be hot, We’ll weather the weather, Whatever the weather, Whether we like it or not. While it may never be too cold in Singapore, it certainly does get hot, and occasionally hazy. On these days we often find ourselves indoors lamenting the weather, but we have a fun way to weather those hazy indoor days and practice some Montessori along the way. Weather is science, and it is replicable in your own kitchen! A great indoor activity is creating rain in a jar. This activity needs: 1 clear glass jar 1 plate 1 cup water 1 cup of ice cubes Gather your materials. Children can help to carry everything to a clean work surface that is at their eye level.  Adults heat the water until it is boiling and fill the glass jar ⅓ full.  Your child can place the plate on top of the jar, covering it.  Wait 2 minutes and then have your child place the ice cubes on the plate.  Watch what happens in the jar! The cold plate causes the moisture in the jar to condense and form water droplets on the plate and sides of the jar. The droplets then fall down, just like rain.  As you watch the ‘rain’ you can introduce new vocabulary! With younger children, you can introduce words such as raindrop, and talk about the sensations of hot, cold,  and wet. With older children, you can use the rain jar to introduce condensation and precipitation.   

This month we’re playing and learning with water! It is easy to do at home, and adaptable for children of different ages. First things first, find a space and a tub. You can use big buckets outside, the bathtub inside, or even bring a non-slip stool over to the kitchen sink. No matter the space is it a good idea to have some towels nearby and watch for slippery areas.  Filling the tub is can be as much fun as playing in it! Use the filling time as practice for counting and measuring. Children can use a small cup and count how many cups are needed to fill the bucket and how many buckets are needed to fill the tub. It is a great time to introduce older children to standard measuring amounts such as teaspoons and milliliters.  In Montessori we like to focus the activity on one particular sensory experience or skill at a time. To turn your tub time into a fun lesson you could consider focusing on one of the following topics:  Sink or float: Choose a variety of objects for the child to drop into the water. Older children can make predictions and record the results!  Pouring and filling: including a mix of cups and recycled bottles will encourage children to practice the practical life skills of filling, pouring and transferring the water to different receptacles.  Washing: another practical life skill is washing! With a sponge and a rag children can practice washing and rinsing dishes and toys.  Whisking bubbles: whisking water with a dash of soap to make bubbles can be a fun way to practice a new skill. We recommend using an eco-friendly soap, especially if you’re playing outdoors!  When it comes time to towel off and drain the tub we suggest finding ways to recycle the water. Some ideas include non-soapy water to water house plants, or adding soap or detergent and using the water for cleaning the floor. Talk with your children about other ways you can recycle the water!   

Montessori does not always mean specific materials found in our classrooms, sometimes it is about reimagining activities we do with our children to better engage their curiosity and develop their senses. Even a nature walk can be Montessori! This month we encourage you to get outdoors and explore nature with your child. Here are some ideas about how to make it a fun and educational adventure! 1. Have your child carry a basket or canvas tote on a walk around the park. They’ll be encouraged to pick up fallen leaves, small pebbles, feathers, flowers and other treasures from the trail. These can be used for lots of art projects! The children at Pasir Panjang recently made a smiling face out of their found pieces. And of course, if you find litter encourage your children to safely pick it up and recycle or throw it away. 2. Find a small patch of green space, whether it is in the botanic gardens or at the bottom of the block, and set your child up with a sketchbook and some pencils or crayons. You can show them how to make leaf rubbings, or they can sketch the flora and fauna in their line of sight. Choosing a small area will help them practice focus and attention to detail. 3. Download guides to the local flora and fauna to help you identify and interact with Singapore’s environment. Help your child take photos or bring a notebook along to draw sketches of what they find. Later at home, they can compile a book with the images and names of everything they discovered! Dr. Maria Montessori believed children belonged in nature, and we encourage you to make time in your day to bring your children outside and let them explore! And remember to tell us all about it when you get back!

Almost every aspect of our daily routines must at some point be learned: putting on shoes, politely answering the phone, pouring our glass of water. And while writing a letter in this day and age might not be a daily activity, it is still a life skill and an engaging activity for children of all ages! Writing a letter can be as fun as receiving one. Try this month to help your child write a letter to a grandparent, friend, or even their teacher at school. Start by preparing all the materials for your child. For their letter, they will need paper, an envelope, writing or coloring materials, the address of the recipient, and a stamp. Have your child write or draw a picture that they want to send. If the child is older and is able you can have them ‘sign’ their name, and even start the letter with “Dear… “ Depending on the age of the child you can have them fold the letter to fit the envelope, either on their own or with your assistance. After sealing the envelope they can stick the stamp in the top corner! You can assist your child to address the letter. Take a walk to the mailbox and send the letter on its way! Hopefully, you’ll get a response. Montessori Tips A practical life activity in the classroom would be neatly found all together on a tray, so when the child begins they do not need to interrupt the work to find missing materials. If you don’t have a tray collect the materials together on the child’s workspace. Encourage the child to do as much as they can on their own. If they don’t know how to fold the paper show them with a different piece and get them to fold their own. It doesn’t have to be a perfect fold to fit in the envelope! Talk to your child about where the letter will go and who will collect and deliver it. The mail delivery service is an integral part of their community! Subscribe to our mailing list! Don’t miss out on House on the Hill Montessori Updates and Tips!

A simple way to make your home more child-friendly and engaging is to display your child’s Montessori artwork at their eye level, rather than just at adult height. When their Montessori artwork is placed where they can easily see and appreciate it, it encourages curiosity, sparks questions, inspires creativity, and invites them to create their masterpieces. How to hang artwork for your child: Figure out your child’s eye level! Have them stand against the wall and measure. Find the appropriate place. Kneel to their level and look around the room for a good spot to hang the art, such as next to their bed, in the living room, or wherever they like to play. Choose some art! Art is everywhere–you can make or buy online prints of famous works, make copies of illustrations from their favourite books, frame old postcards, or make art from pressed flowers found around Singapore. Get your child involved in the process of choosing, too, their choices may surprise you! As they grow, the Montessori artwork should too! We suggest using 3M strips or other easily removable hanging materials so as your child grows, you can change their Montessori artwork in the frames and adjust the height. Montessori Tips: Art is everywhere, and the levels of engagement are endless: you can ask your child about the image, introduce new vocabulary through the artwork, and challenge them to make their own art! But you can also hang it and walk away– the biggest reason we hang art for our children is to beautify their space and to allow them to quietly enjoy it