Montessori Practical life exercises

Write a comprehensive note on the importance of practical life exercises.

Ans. In my opinion, practical life exercises are far more important and necessary than regular curriculum for all students in general and for preschoolers specially. Being a teacher, I have observed that students always take far more interest in activities / practical exercises rather than course books and regular educational stuff. And as a result of their keen interest in practical exercises and activities, they learn more.

Students of age group 3-6 years must learn basic life skills first rather than recognizing letters, memorizing poems or coloring, which will be ultimately beneficial for them. As they will feel more confident and independent about themselves. By basic life skills I mean the daily work which makes them more and more independent of their mothers / caregivers such as fetching glass of water without much spilling, pouring beans or rice from one bowl to another so they can take food all by themselves without much assistance, feed themselves without spilling and wastage of food, folding or unfolding of mats to set the bed before sleeping or tidying the room in morning, buttoning, strapping or tying up the lace so that they can change their clothes independently, wiping nose or brushing teeth so that they can take care of their personal hygiene and many more.

First, we must prepare them for basic daily routine chores for themselves and later these exercises can be advanced to the extent that they become rather helpful for their parents, caregivers, siblings and everyone around them. Also, these exercises should encompass the activities that inculcate in them good manners, personality grooming, and showing respect to other human beings as well as any living thing i.e. plants and animals. Being a gardener, I have observed that some children find it fun to tear leaves or destroy grass for no reason. Care for environment should be taught to them from early age.

Therefore, these exercises should not be limited to only households, but they can be devised such that the children grow up as responsible citizens and in broad term a good responsible global citizen. They should know the rights of animals and plants to take care of mother earth. Instead of annoying animals, they should be compassionate and kind towards them. Instead of tearing leaves, they should know some basic gardening stuff to take care of plants. For example, watering them with just right amount of water, difference of water intake of indoor and outdoor plants, removing dead leaves, cleaning and wiping the leaves of plants etc. Similarly, children should learn the feed of pets’ animals and even stray animals for that matter. For example, bird feed can be arranged if the school has window sill or terrace then small activity can be arranged for pigeons, parrots or small birds. 

These days the biggest challenge we face as parents is that children of this technology age are very much glued to the screens be it TV, mobile phones or tablets. Engaging them in productive / constructive learning activities will certainly help to refrain them from long screen time which is neither productive / constructive for their mind and body nor helpful in learning motor skills or any other type of learning. Prolong screen time is also not safe for their health for example eyes, and their tender cervical i.e., back and neck posture. Whereas engaging them in practical life exercises will be healthier for their growing bodies.

Through these exercises, they will learn many things intrinsically for example how to control their movement, their muscles and eyes coordination, develop focus and calmness in their day to day life. Not only these tangible qualities but they also learn some great psychological traits. For example these days when kids play video games on their gadgets they don’t accept their failure but as soon as they are about to loose the game they restart whereas while performing these EPL if they fail to do any task they will accept their failure, correct their mistake and redo it and then practice more which is the key to success. As the famous quote is “Practice makes the men perfect”.

Talking about psychological traits and prolong screen time, some activities can be designed just to bring calmness in children attitude; as the cartoons and video games have made children of this age little restless creatures who always want to be on their toes as well as keep their mothers and caregivers busy to supervise them. For this purpose, silence game is perfect example which is not only meditative, but it also introduces spiritual awareness, attention of the will, maximum control of effort and inhibition of every movement.  Some other activities which increase their concentration and attention are walking on the line. There are many variations of these activities which can be performed in the class to make the students little competitive while engaging them in fun activities.

Besides all these exercises, exercises related to culture and religion can also be done if the class doesn’t have much diversity or can be altered to suit students from all faith and culture. For example, if all students are Muslims, we can teach them how to greet i.e. saying Assalam o alaikum properly or basic Islamic etiquettes and manners but if the class has multifaith students we can introduce general manners of meet and greet for example being polite and kind. 

All in all, EPL (exercises of practical life) prepare the toddlers ready to step in real world, equipped them about basic stuff of daily life be it household chores, manners, personal care, personality grooming or the surrounding environment. Each category of EPL is of utmost important for their health, learning and improvement.