How We Montessori 8 months

Hi Everyone,

I’m keeping up with my promise! I’m not sure why this post took so long, maybe because it’s so hard to actually get a good photo of my chubby bunny doing all her Montessori learning. She’s moving with every camera click so I’m often getting blurry photos!

Here’s a recap of what I’m doing with her on a daily basis. Well. Most days. It’s a bit easier in the winter since I don’t go out that often anyway because it’s just too cold!

Training the Hand Eye Coordination with DIY Straws and a hole in a bottle

Straws (I cut them in half to fit the bottle)
Hole in bottle (My friend got this at a dollar store)

I do this with her EVERY MORNING with her, keep in mind that she loses interests in exactly 5 minutes. So I started this at 7 months… she was in no way interested in putting a straw in the hole. Instead, she was much interested in eating the straws and the glass bottle….

Eventually, she started to pay attention when I put the straws in the bottle. I would show it to her 34879587495 times.

She would get super excited for about 2 minutes. I would take the hand and try to get her to mimic the motion. But, maybe it’s just my child…..she would get frustrated and pull her hand away from me.

I did this exactly for one month. There was no progress sadly, she did stop eating the straws though near the end. She still didn’t put the straws in the hole, so I thought I’ll just stop for now and re-introduce it when she’s 10 months.

So, why am I sharing my failures?? Because I want to share what motherhood is about, I don’t want to share all the glam and glitz in life because well. It’s not. Motherhood requires patience which I barely have but I’m trying!

Pushing the Ball in

Ok, so this is kinda the same concept as my DIY straw and bottle.

It is introduced to children when they are old enough to sit up without assistance, generally around 8–12 months of age. The direct aim of the material is to help children develop their sense of object permanence. It also indirectly helps them develop focus and concentration and gives them practice developing fine motor skills through the whole-hand grasp.

This chubby bunny does grab the ball really well, she can pick it up from the stand. She is finally starting to understand the hammer the balls that push the ball through the ball. In the beginning, she would just eat the ball, or grab two balls together and makes a bang sound. She loves it!

How I play with her

Sit facing my baby
I point to the toy and say “Ball”, “Hammer”, “Hole”
Slowly place the ball in the hole
When the balls drops, I smile and say “yayy, ball in the hole”
Repeat 48543958749587538457 times
I then let her do her own work, and gently guide her

This is the same concept. I teach her shapes and repeat the words to her in Chinese. She in return eats them. I believe all babies at the 8 months stage just eats everything?! She would happily pick it up then rips open the lid and puts the blocks in the bucket instead (the easy way ofcourse!) Smart child. Smart Child.

WOODEN ACTIVITY ZANY ZOO ALPHA CUBE

This amazing cube is from her Godfather. You can purchase yours here She LOVES this thing, there are just so much different activities she can play, it keeps her pretty entertained for at least 20 mins before she gets bored and turns away. But I love how sturdy this cube is. I try to show her a different side of the cube every day.

Other activities I’m doing with her – The Piano

She LOVESSSS it. She loves the music, she loves when I play and sing along, she would look at me in awe and squeal and starts banging on the piano.

I play the piano twice a day for her, sometimes more.

You can get the same model in a different color at Melissa & Doug.

BOOKS

Of course! There is a little section of books for her. We are in the moving stage right now so I haven’t set up a Montessori area for her, but when we move I’m hoping the entire area will be Montessori friendly!

I do have a basket of books for her which she loves to pull the book out and pretend she is reading to herself. It’s super cute. I read to her at least 3 times a day!

She lovessss books. She loves the pictures, I started to read them in Chinese and point to everything and say what that is. I know many starts this at 11 months or so, but I started this around month 7. These are some of the simple words she understands:

“nine nine” which means Milk in Chinese

“Mum mum” which means time to eat

“Fan gou” Sleep in Chinese

“Tang Tang” Her Chinese name

“kong lei” Come here in Chinese

“tse tse” kissy in Chinese

I’m starting to introduce the word “No” I was kinda hesitant to introduce this because I guarantee she’s going to repeat “No” to my face a billion times. But I figured I have to start sometimes, so I would firmly say “No” and she would stop and look at me.

I’m learning to be patient and really try to do all these activities with her everyday. But sometimes I would rather sit on my cough. It’s just soooooo comfy.

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Thanks so much for reading,