Infants: From Sitting to Standing (2)

As we discussed in our earlier post, it is really important never to help your child stand by pulling or pushing, using artificial props (like bouncy seats), or suspending him or her by the arms/hands.

Thank you to the parent who wrote in stressing the mental development aspect of our discussion, too. Yes, one of the main reasons why we do not help children stand is that their brains need to develop the capacity to control their bodies before the bodies are put in that position.

Balance, coordination, brain development, limb and core strength, and experience are all key factors in your infant's progress from sitting to standing.

By providing ample space for scooting and crawling activities, along with supports (discussed in an earlier post) that your infant can use to help him- or herself stand, we are providing our infants the opportunity to build the brain capacity to allow the body to stand.

Are family members bugging you to "get your baby walking"? Ignore them!

Infants Talking: Great Youtube Video of Twins Talking

In case anyone missed this!

How to Help Your Infant Move

Earlier, we discussed what not to do: Don't provide artificial movement for your child (no bouncy seats, for example), don't hold your child's arms over his or her head to help with walking or standing (bad for brain and body development), and so forth.

But what can you do?

Try:

1. Sitting on the floor and letting your infant use your leg as a prop to stand up. Watch in wonder as he or she tries and tries again. Remember not to dive in to help (and no saying, "be careful!")

2. Lie on the floor. Let your infant use you for crawling and propping him or herself up.

3. You can assist an infant on his or her back by holding both of your arms out, so he or she can grasp your hands to pull up. Do not pull your child, but stay stable and still so that you are useful. Let your infant grip your hands as if they were stationary -- leave your fingers closed and curved a bit, so there is a natural grip available.


Have fun and take pictures!

Infants: From Sitting to Standing

Infants are in an amazing state of development as their minds soak in language and knowledge from the world around them.

Physical movement and exploration is one of the most important things for this age group. Creeping and crawling, pulling and pushing, grasping and biting...these all allow our children to explore their surroundings and learn about them in an interactive way.

Infants strive to stand and walk with incredible intensity as this stage of their development is a major milestone.

How can you help?

First, do not physically help your child stand or walk because he or she needs to progress slowly at the pace where his or her body is able to handle the weight of the body and the balancing of this weight when standing or walking. So, if you hold your child's hands, for example, it will prevent him or her from strengthening the muscles involved, and it will hinder balance. Also, holding your child up from his or her arms is an awkward and potentially damaging move (think if someone were to lift you by your arms). Small muscles and connective tissue can be injured in this way.

But you can help by making sure the environment is safe and promotes movement. Your child's bedroom should be completely free of anything that could injure him or her during a fall, and the floor of the bedroom should be comfortable and promote wiggling, crawling, and walking.

More details in our Montessori albums for working with infants and toddlers at home. The samples can be saved to your computer, and you can use the table of contents as a guide starting right now!

Brain-Body Development for Toddlers: DIY Tennis Ball Exercise

Material needed:
One canister of tennis balls with a lid

Make sure the canister does not have sharp edges (some use pop top type aluminum seals).

Open the plastic lid, pour the tennis balls out onto a carpet (a thick carpet or blanket keeps the balls from rolling away), pick up a ball with both hands, and put it back into the container. Do this until the balls are all in the canister. Put the lid on. Ask your toddler, "Would you like open the canister of tennis balls?" (Note that we always use a few useful nouns and verbs).

Let your child play with the canister in whatever way interests him or her. We demonstrate just to give them an idea.

Other materials you can use include an empty oatmeal cylinder and other types of balls, wool felted balls, and so forth.

For everyone who is worrying about infant and toddler material purchase prices, bear in mind that most of the equipment needed in these years can be made at home! The expensive stuff you see for sale increases in quantity each year because it is a fabulous market, not because your child needs all of it.

DIY for Toddlers at Home: Making Music

You can scale down the larger exercise for making musical instruments with empty glass bottles and water to suit toddlers.

Material needed:
One empty glass bottle with a wide mouth (milk bottle, etc)
One small pitcher of water
Tiny teaspoon

Demonstrate pouring the water from the pitcher to the glass bottle, striking the bottle delicately with the spoon, listening to the note, adding more water, striking it again, and then emptying the water into the pitcher. Strike the bottle when it is empty, pour a bit more water in, strike again, and so forth. Your child will be eager to try.

A tip for working with really young children: Make your part of the demonstration short. Then let your child work with the material. Next time, you can show him or her a small extension to the initial exercise. The key point is to show, not tell. (Did you ever have someone try to tell you how to swing a golf club? If that worked, we'd all be pros).

The Montessori Method: Marie Montessori's Own Handbook Online

For all our new readers, I wanted to remind everyone that the classic and timeless handbook written by Maria Montessori herself, The Montessori Method, is free and online. The copyright expired, so The Celebration of Women Writers project volunteered and set it up.

Some of the prose is not as easy to go through as today's works, but it is truly brilliant. I suggest going through it quickly, skimming to find ideas that are useful, and then you will be much more patient wading through the rest of the text. The original was written in Italian a long time ago.

This is one of my favorite paragraphs as Maria Montessori comments on a teacher she is observing:

One day, the children had gathered themselves, laughing and talking, into a circle about a basin of water containing some floating toys. We had in the school a little boy barely two and a half years old. He had been left [Page 92] outside the circle, alone, and it was easy to see that he was filled with intense curiosity. I watched him from a distance with great interest; he first drew near to the other children and tried to force his way among them, but he was not strong enough to do this, and he then stood looking about him. The expression of thought on his little face was intensely interesting. I wish that I had had a camera so that I might have photographed him. His eye lighted upon a little chair, and evidently he made up his mind to place it behind the group of children and then to climb up on it. He began to move toward the chair, his face illuminated with hope, but at that moment the teacher seized him brutally (or, perhaps, she would have said, gently) in her arms, and lifting him up above the heads of the other children showed him the basin of water, saying, "Come, poor little one, you shall see too!"

Undoubtedly the child, seeing the floating toys, did not experience the joy that he was about to feel through conquering the obstacle with his own force. The sight of those objects could be of no advantage to him, while his intelligent efforts would have developed his inner powers. The teacher hindered the child, in this case, from educating himself, without giving him any compensating good in return. The little fellow had been about to feel himself a conqueror, and he found himself held within two imprisoning arms, impotent. The expression of joy, anxiety, and hope, which had interested me so much faded from his face and left on it the stupid expression of the child who knows that others will act for him.

Here is the link to The Montessori Method

Our Montessori curriculum can be found on My Montessori House