Last week, I decided to get the pasta and string out for Freddie and Sasha so they could partake in some good old-fashioned pasta threading. Great for developing fine-motor skills, this is always a winner with my two, and really is great for improving concentration and patience.
I also must have lost my tiny mind, as I thought it would be a good idea to get a load of rice, two ‘bowls’ and a cup for scooping and pouring, and let both children pour and play with the rice. Believe me, this is one for the hardcore among you- I’ve been finding rice in all sorts of random places nearly a week on, it went EVERYWHERE!
From a Montessori perspective, pouring rice begins to open up a world of independence for your toddler. They start with trying to transfer and pour the rice from one vessel to another, and as they get better and better, less and less rice is spilled. Once they are confident with this, you can move on to practicing with a jug of water/juice, and pouring into bowls, and then progress to pouring from a jug into a drinking cup. Et voila- your little one can begin to pour their own drinks!
Both these activities bring out a sense of self-reliance, and if you lead by example, encourage neatness and cleaning up after themselves. Cleaning up with brooms and a dust pan and brush was just as much fun for my two!
I was surprised that the children sat down and played with the pasta and rice for a good 45 minutes. Sasha was entranced with the pouring of the rice back and forth, and took great pleasure in showing me what she was doing. I also find it fascinating how children can still use their imaginations with the most basic of materials. After a while Freddie stopped threading the pasta, and mixed some rice in with it and started creating a “rabbit mountain, where the rabbits live”, without any prompting at all!
A great activity rain or shine- even better if you can take it outdoors and save your house!
Let kids be kids!
At least dried rice doesn’t stick to the carpet in quite the same way as cooked rice! My Elma is very enthusiastic about eating rice – to the point where by some extraordinary coincidence of kitchen planning we’ve started mostly having it on nights when we eat in the garden! She’d love pouring rice though – I might have to pull that one out tomorrow if it’s as wet as the forecast suggests!
Author
If she loves rice, she’ll love this! Def keep a broom/hoover handy though! 🙂
Oh bab – love this! My girl really struggles with pouring and the like. I may have a little go but I also will ensure that I do it outside! I have wooden floors and they would for sure get all in me cracks. Brill idea xxx
Author
Thanks lady! This really is great for helping them gain confidence pouring. If you have cracks, for the love of god do it outside- i should have mentioned this in my post! Have fun if you do try it x
I love simple activities like this, which teach kids so much, without needing much equipment or too much mess! I know what you mean about the rice though, it ends up everywhere! We haven’t done pasta threading for a while, I may buy some penne (doesn;t work too well with fusilli ;)) and set monkey up with it, I know he will enjoy it! Thanks for linking with #letkidsbekids
Author
It’s great as it uses such simple materials and gets kids back to basics- I was genuinely surprised (and feel a bit bad that I was!) at how Freddie used his imagination during this activity!