In the past couple of weeks, N has been perfecting her army crawl. We first noticed her crawling when she was chasing a little red ball that kept rolling away from her. It is by far the most motivating object for N, but I’m worried that once her teeth come in (if they ever do!) she’ll start taking chunks out of it. I knew I had a bunch of ball pit balls in my work closet, so I went in last night to find some. This muffin tin caught my eye, and I knew they would be perfect together.
This morning I put N down and placed the muffin tin filled with balls right in front of her. She was immediately intrigued. This serves as an intro to a transfer work, as N can pick up the balls, mouth them, and put them back in the empty spot. The first type of transfer work uses a full hand grasp, which is right where N is developmentally. This works on fine motor control and hand-eye coordination. N is just 7 months old, so for now she is mostly focused on taking the balls out rather than putting them back in. I used a half muffin tin instead of a full one because I didn’t want the work to be overwhelming for N. The balls fit in perfectly, and they’re solid enough that she won’t be able to bite pieces off to choke on.
N is in the sensitive period for movement — her primary goal in all activities is to work on perfecting her army crawl, which will eventually become a real crawl and then walking! The balls really help satisfy that innate yearning for movement, as they roll away when she drops them. N loves chasing after the balls all over the living room. This works on her gross motor development and tracking skills.
This work has been a HUGE hit with N — it’s pretty much the only thing she was interested in all morning! When she loses interest, L loves to help find all the balls and put them back in the muffin tin. #mommywin
Nice idea. Thanks for passing it on. We will try this activity this week!
Brilliant! My kids are too old for that now, but I still appreciate it!
Love this! My little one will be 6 months on the first and I’ve been clueless on what activities to set up for him since he’s still so young.
Great activity! I use this quite a bit in my speech therapy sessions. Always a hit!
great idea..
Nice idea for my toddler! I hope you can follow along our story,too! I am a full time mom, new in the blogging world =)
This is such a brilliant idea. My son who would be turning four years old two months from now would surely be interested in this but he’s way too old for that kind of thing now, I think.
My little guy just started army crawling and is all over the place chasing soft, stuffed toy apples and pears that roll. I love this idea and will be getting out my muffin tin asap!
Perfect – thank you for sharing! I have an 8 month old (youngest of three little monsters). He will be all over this!
Great Fine Motor, Eye and Hand Coordination, Cognitive, and Creativity. Thank you for sharing. Blessings Always, Mtetar
Great activity I’m many years removed from my own children, now have great grandchildren; I remember my son trying to put seven coke bottles in a six bottle rack. Poor darling, he would take one out then put the other one in. Never worked out a solution to that problem but I saw that he had a good amount of concentration, focus and effort. I was proud of him for that. I don’t remember exactly his age, but probably a few months older than your little one here. Happy New Year to you, dear. By the way, I don’t hear much about Montessori now. Is it because I’m past that study time? Is she still relevant as a preschool resource person?
Yes, Montessori is very relevant! There are many Montessori schools around the world. While some are generally pre-school aged, many go all the way through 8th or even 12th grade.