Back to School: Homeschooling Infants/Young Toddlers 6-9 months old

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

The last post on the topic of homeschooling infants and young toddlers covered birth to six months old. In this post, homeschooling infants and young toddlers in the age range of 6-9 months old will be explored insha'Allaah.

Initially, this post was to cover 6-15 month olds but the information for both would combine to make a very long post therefore they will be covered in separate posts insha'Allaah. For those who are waiting for 10-15 months, your patience is asked and appreciated. Insha'Allaah, the time between this post and the 10-15 month old post will not be long.

Homeschooling your 6-9 Month Old Child

At this stage in your child's life, he/she is quite possibly able to roll from his/her stomach to his/her back and vice versa. He may also be reaching for objects now and tracking objects with his eyes. Now you may wish to begin introducing activities that will help your infant start developing hand-eye coordination, visual acuity, develop his/her concentration, balance and coordination insha'Allaah.

Your little one still needs regular naps throughout the day and this will be taken into consideration as you plan what you would like to teach your child insha'Allaah. Athkaar and Quraan are still essential just as they were for the newborn to 5 month old.

Baby's schedule at this age can include activities such as:

• Treasures baskets: fill a wooden (not plastic) basket with various objects for your child to explore. These baskets have lots of potential as you can choose to have items that have a particular theme such as: colours, textures (i.e all wooden objects, all red objects, lots of different colour fabrics, various pieces of velvet, etc), items that represent places in the home (i.e. safe items that we use for personal care- soft brush, wooden comb, clean sponge, soft small towel, etc.). You can change the items in the treasure basket every week or when you notice your child has lost interest in the current items.
• Parts of the face: teach baby the following names: nose, ears, face, hair, and mouth/lips by touching each part and slowly and clearly saying the name of the body part.
• Give baby a pot and its lid to explore. First show baby how the lid comes off and how we put it on and then allow baby to explore on his own.
• Pincer grasp activities: Give baby a bowl of cheerios (or other similarly healthy cereal). With your thumb and forefinger only, show baby how to remove the cereal from the small bowl and place it on the table. Then show baby how to put the cheerio back into the bowl. Allow baby to try on her own. This activity requires that you show and you do not need to explain your actions.



Creative Commons: Steakpinball

• Sound bottles: These can be easily made using empty film canisters. You can place safe non-edible things into the canister, seal it to make sure it cannot be opened by the infant and allow him/her to shake it to experience the sound different items make. Items that you may consider placing inside include: sand, a large button, a or a coin. Try to choose items that have distinctly different sounds. It is extremely important that you make sure the canister cannot be opened by the infant and that the items you place inside do not present a choking hazard.
• To help baby work on fine motor skills and grasping, you can still present beautiful Montessori Inspired Wooden Toys for play and exploration insha'Allaah.

• You can also take a soft toy and place it in your child's field of vision. When you notice he/she has noticed the object and is paying attention, slowly move the object from your right to your left (or left to right if your child will read and learn in English or any language that is read from left to right), allow the child to track the object (visually).
• Since baby may be sitting up and rocking (but not yet moving forward), you can assist baby in developing the ability to move forward by placing a soft toy (that you feel confident she likes and will want) in her direct line but not too far away. Allow baby the time to try to move forward to obtain the object. She will be using the large muscles in her legs while trying to obtain her objective. Do not allow baby to become frustrated but do not give the toy to baby too soon. Allow her time to work on trying to move forward to get it independently.
• Play hide and seek: With a toy and a pillow, hide the toy under the pillow leaving a large part of the toy showing. Invite baby to find the hidden toy.
• Montessori Object Permanence Box with Tray and Ball:The child drops the ball into the hole in the top of the box. The ball will roll out of the box and into the attached tray. This action allows the child to experience object permanence by seeing that the ball did not just disappear. "It practices precise hand movements while sending information to the brain as well as develops hand, wrist and finger control - also known as "refined hand movements" {from Amazon.com}.

Activities such as those mentioned above do not need to be long in their presentation and can last a few minutes or several. Again, if your child wishes to continue with an activity allow him/her to do so uninterrupted but if you notice the child has lost interest, end the activity and take the child with you as you clean up the materials and put them in their correct spot.

Your baby's weekly schedule may resemble the one below:

Click for larger view insha'Allaah

Present such activities 2-3 times each day insha'Allaah (i.e. after breakfast present a treasure basket, after baby's first nap play hide and seek, before dinner give baby a pot and pan to explore after showing her how to remove and replace the lid). Change the activities up as you notice baby no longer shows interest. Hmm...that sounds rather like a prescription from the doctor does it not? "Present activities 2-3 times each day...repeat until baby no longer shows interest". Unintentional of course.

Insha'Allaah, the next post will cover 10-15 month olds. Check back!

Slideshow of beautiful infant/toddler classroom

Assalamu alaikum,

Sharing beautiful things: This is a slideshow that shows a gorgeous Montessori Infant/Toddler classroom.

Montessori Infant/Toddler Classroom Slideshow

There are lots of ideas to be gleaned for setting up a comfortable, beautiful, purposeful, and fun learning environment for your infant or toddler at home insha'Allah.

Enjoy insha'Allah!

DIY Montessori Object Permanence Box

Assalamu alaikum,

Sometimes we'd like to use Montessori learning tools in our homes but when it comes down to it the materials can be expensive. But there is no reason to fret - many of the materials used in Montessori classrooms can easily be made at home with a little imagination insha'Allah and I believe that most homeschooling parents do not suffer from a shortage of imagination masha'Allah (smile).

I have no idea where this idea came from but all of sudden there it was swimming about in my mind. This is a do-it-yourself Montessori object permanence box made using craft sticks and a knob from a wooden puzzle destined for the trash bin because we couldn't figure out how to remove the facial features from the pieces. Well, I thought, recycle, reduce, reuse, and I took the knobs off of the puzzle before it leaves our ownership (trust me...my little grey cells are really working to figure out a way to get the faces off of that puzzle so it doesn't end up in the bin.) .

For the lid, I took the knob from one of the puzzle pieces

and screwed it into the Popsicle stick in the middle of the lid (before I glued it to be part of the lid) 

You can find tutorials for making boxes from Popsicle sticks all over the internet but I used this one for the box I made.

Object permanence boxes are used to teach infants the concept of object permanence: the idea that objects exists even when they cannot be seen, heard or touched. It is believed, and waallahu alim, that the understanding of this concept develops in infants around eight months of age and some researchers believe even as early as three months of age. You can see some object permanence boxes here and then you may have ideas of how you can design your own at home to use with your infant insha'Allah.

For this box, you can place an object like a small yarn ball, a ping pong ball or a small velvet ball into the box and invite the infant to discover where the ball is. Be sure that you have the infant's full attention as you are placing the object in the box. You can say, "Watch ________ (child's name). I'm going to place the ball into the box insha'Allah". Then slowly remove the cover of the box (with slow exaggerated movements) put the ball into the box, replace the cover and ask, "_______ (child's name), where is the ball? Continue in this way as long as the child shows interest. Afterwards, you can put this activity on a low shelf for the infant to play with independently as often as he/she wishes insha'Allah.

Enjoy insha'Allah!

Object Permanence Activity: Where is the prayer rug?

Assalamu alaikum,

For those who are considering using the Montessori method to homeschool or are currently doing so insha'Allah, I wanted to share this activity insha'Allah. This is another activity that is used in Montessori education. This activity helps develop object permanence in infants about 9 -12 months old. You can buy the object permanence boxes used in Montessori classrooms but some of them can cost as much as $54.00 (ouch!). You can see some object permanence boxes here insha'Allah. But all I did is hop over to the craft store and bought a wooden box with several drawers.  You can even make one using a box that has one drawer like the Q-Tip Boxes.

What is object permanence? This term refers to the idea that an infant does not realize that an object still exists even though it is no longer in sight/view. When an infant reaches the milestone where he/she develops object permanence, the child then realizes that yes, an object does still exist even when he/she cannot see it.

This activity also helps a child practice fine motor skills which will be used later in writing. This is accomplished when the child uses the 'pincer grasp' (using the thumb and first finger to grasp something) to open the drawer. Through this activity the child also has an opportunity to develop hand-eye coordination and finally the child is able to work on object permanence insha'Allah. To do this activity with your child you will need a box or container that has 1 (or more than 1) drawer insha'Allah.

If you use a box like the one pictured above, first be sure to cover it with construction paper, or something similar, in a solid uniform colour (you want to avoid using more than one colour so the infant is focusing on the objective of the activity and not the different colours of the box). You can cut a hole in the shape of a circle on the top of the box and invite your child to drop a ping pong ball into it and then open the drawer to locate it insha'Allah. Be sure to demonstrate to the infant how to do this before you invite him/her to do it on their own. If you use the prayer rugs, you can simply open the drawer (no need to cut a hole in the top of the box) and show the infant that you are hiding the prayer rug and then ask him/her where is the prayer rug and allow them to open the drawer to find it insha'Allah.

If using a box or container that has more than one drawer like the one pictured below, you will do the activity in the following way insha'Allah: Sit with the infant across from you or next to you insha'Allah. I strongly recommend using a mat (called work mats in Montessori education) because this helps the infant understand and delineate a defined workspace insha'Allah.

Wait until you have the infant's attention and then tell the infant that you are going to hide the prayer rug insha'Allah. When you are sure you have the infant's attention, slowly open the drawer (or one of the drawers if your box has more than one drawer) and put the prayer rug inside. Ask the infant, "Where is the prayer rug?"  Invite the infant to find the prayer rug. Do not be concerned if he/she opens the wrong drawer. The child will self-correct after doing the activity several times insha'Allah. Allow the child to open all of the drawers until he/she finds the prayer rug. When they find the prayer rug, simply smile and say "Jazakum Allahu Khayr. Yes, that is where the prayer rug was."

 

**I forgot to mention: keep hiding the prayer rug for as long as the infant shows interest. When the infant no longer shows interest, put the activity away. Try to involve the infant in the cleaning up process as much as possible (even if you simply take them with you to put it away insha'Allah). This helps lay a foundation for learning to put things away later when they are older insha'Allah.

You can print out the prayer rug images here or design your own insha'Allah. The prayer rugs in my file are about 6 cm x 3.2 cm so you may need an image that is larger or smaller depending on your box. For durability, mount the prayer rugs on sturdy cardboard or card stock insha'Allah.

Enjoy insha'Allah!

Treasure Box - Infants 6-12 months

Assalamu alaikum

This idea is not specific to any one school of education but the approach that I prefer is one that suggests having as few plastic objects as possible for the child's sensory experience. This is a great sensory activity for kids and they stay engaged with it for a long period of time. Be sure to change some of the objects in the basket every few days to maintain interest insha'Allah.

Directions:

• Get a wooden/wicker basket and fill it with a variety of objects. (Ex. tennis ball, measuring spoon, fabric pieces, wooden spoon, baby food jar filled with beans - seal the jar with tap to avoid it being opened, ball of yarn, etc.). Avoid small objects that can present a choking hazard.


• Sit with the basket between you and the infant.


• Take an object out of the basket and explore it. Involve the infant in this process as much as possible (i.e. touch the infants hand with the object, hold the object under the infants nose, etc.)


• Allow the infant to explore the contents undisturbed for as long as he/she wishes. Leave the basket in a place where the infant can easily get it when he/she wants.

I found this pic as an example on dovegreyreader.

Enjoy insha'Allah!