A Montessori Work Cycle At Four Years Old.

Lola has new shelf work and I thought I’d show what she’s been doing lately. Now that she’s four, I’m trying to establish a work cycle each day. In Montessori philosophy, a work cycle is a 3-hour block of uninterrupted time when a child gets to choose their activities based on their interests and skills. When I was homeschooling Javi last year, we would have two work cycles each day; the first from 9AM-noon and the second from noon-3PM. That’s a little much for Lola. Plus, she goes to school for Speech at 1PM almost every day of the week. So the goal right now is one morning work cycle a day.

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Here are some of her choices:

Pin Punching: Pin punching is an activity where you use a pin puncher (essentially it’s like a large thumbtack) and you poke holes along a line until the shape is punched out. It’s considered a pre-writing activity because holding the pin puncher encourages a pincer grip. I have out snowman and winter hat shapes.

One to one correspondence: Lola can count past 10, but she’s still learning about quantity. In this work, she puts 1 bird on the tree that says 1, 2 birds on the tree that says 2, etc. It helps her slow down.

Sound work: Lola gets words each week from her Speech Therapists that she practices and they send her home with small slips of paper. Rather than recycle them, I keep them in a small box and pair them with an auditory feedback phone so she can practice saying the words and listen to her pronunciation.

Parts of a bird: These little activities are great because they include multiple steps: naming, cutting, matching, gluing.

Playdough kit: I try to have a mixture of activities that range from difficult to easy. Playdough kits (and kinetic sand which she also has) fulfill her sensory needs but they’re also good open-ended activities for her to have available during moments in the work cycle when she either doesn’t know what to do, or if I’m with Eva and she’s waiting for me, she can pull something like this off the shelf.

Puzzles: I try to make sure she has at least one puzzle on her shelf and she’s enjoying this one from Lovevery. Each piece has a letter on it and you have to match it to the initial sound of each picture.

Sandpaper Letters with objects: Lola’s slowly starting to work with Sandpaper Letters. She started using them around 2.5 but mostly just for the tactile experience. She did some sound work, and some texture rubbings with them but now she’s learning the sounds and letter symbols. She matches the animal object to the Sandpaper Letter… so moose goes with /m/, alligator with /a/, etc.

Threading/Making bracelets: She also has a bead box available and some bracelet string. She’s been threading beads and making jewelry which she loves.

Watercolor painting: Lola loves painting, too. She has a tray with all the supplies she needs. It’s important she has all the materials she needs on the shelf so that she doesn’t need to ask for them. This helps her feel confident in her work choices and encourages independence.

Other work: Her shelf work is all in this room but the work cycle doesn’t just include shelf work! When she’s hungry, she takes a break for snack, she’ll ask to read books with me, or help around the house by doing Practical Life work like laundry, or dishes or even cleaning.

And that’s a typical morning for Lola! Around noon, we break for lunch and then go to Speech!