We have seen how children feel more grounded and cooperative when they have a role to play. Thus, whenever possible, it’s helpful to find little (and sometimes big!) ways for children to help with holiday preparations. Children’s active participation helps them develop important life skills and also helps them better adapt to changes in holiday rhythms and routines.
We would like to share some ideas on how to integrate the Montessori principles practiced at Wheaton Montessori School into your holiday celebrations and family time this festive season. Above all, we advocate for keeping the holiday season a time to enjoy togetherness! We offer this sprinkling of options during a time when we have a lot going on in our lives and with our families. If even one can help sweeten your time together, fabulous!
Children’s participation can take a variety of forms. Choosing meaningful activities that don’t cause more stress and strain is important. Here are a few of our favorites!
Holiday Decorating
If your family enjoys decorating, consider creating a child-sized decoration station, perhaps with a small tree or table at your child’s height. They can practice placing candles, arranging decorations, and generally having a hand in creating their own festive space. Of course, if it feels right, they can also add to the general household decorations!
Gift Wrapping
When preparing gifts for family and friends, consider setting up a simple wrapping station with materials appropriate to your child’s age and abilities. They can help tape, cut paper, add ribbon, decorate tags, or even add colorful scribbles to butcher or white paper. Child-decorated wrapping paper tends to be a family favorite! Plus, the skills involved with wrapping encourage fine motor development! Older children might appreciate step-by-step instructions on measuring the wrapping paper, folding it around a gift, and taping it securely. The youngest ones might appreciate a simple process of placing items into fabric gift bags and tightening the drawstrings.
Baking and Cooking
Allowing children to participate in creating, baking, and decorating treats often provides a huge sense of pride and accomplishment. There are all sorts of simple, manageable steps in this process, from pouring remeasured ingredients into a bowl, to kneading dough, to adding icing or sprinkles.
Setting the Table
Children can also help create or select a centerpiece for the table. If possible, they can even use natural or found items. A little collecting walk may uncover natural beauties, like pine branches or pinecones. Table-setting is a big part of the Montessori experience, so placing utensils, napkins, and dishes is a natural way to involve children in getting ready for guests or a meal! Children like learning the correct placement of each item (at neutral times), and table setting is a great opportunity to reinforce counting and one-to-one correspondence.
We recommend modeling for younger children how to carry one item at a time, for example, making multiple trips to get one fork and then the next. Once children learn this process, they can be quite independent and thus can stay focused and busy as they go back and forth. If time is of the essence, an adult can bring a tray of forks to the table for children to place at each setting. Older children prefer to find more efficient ways to manage the process.
Making Handmade Gifts or Donation Decisions
We can also support our children in making handmade gifts, which can foster their creativity and thoughtfulness. Depending upon the intricacy of the process, handmade gifts can include:
- beaded jewelry
- friendship bracelets
- hand-drawn cards
- framed artwork
- freezable meals
- baked goods
- baking kits
- homemade decorations created from clay or salt dough.
We can help our children learn our values of giving and gratitude by involving them in decisions about charitable giving and donations. They can help pick out toys or clothes or assist in preparing gift baskets for families in need.
Ultimately, the goal is to encourage generosity and thoughtfulness while including children in gift-giving.
Overall Goals
Children are especially sensitive to routines and changes to routines, so choose the exciting pieces that are important to you, remember fun traditions are built over time, maintain your key routines, and know that all meltdowns, and arguments are simply not avoidable.
Children appreciate hands-on experiences, real-world activities, and a sense of belonging. These three aspects are what they have within their classroom community. By involving children in preparations, we can create meaningful memories, independence, responsibility, and creativity and bring school experiences into our homes.
Current families with children of all ages and prospective families with children under 4.5 years of age are invited to attend our Open House on January 16, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. This event will offer comprehensive insights into our school, highlighting the benefits of completing our Primary, Elementary, and Adolescent Community programs, as well as providing a chance to interact with our dedicated teachers.
Current parents are also welcome to schedule a level-up observation to see what your next step is in our partnership.
In addition, prospective families, with young children can schedule a preschool tour and discover how from ages preschool to 9th grade engage in a lifelong journey of learning and discovery. Our waitlist is closed for students in kindergarten through 9th grade for prospective families unless your child is transferring from an AMI Montessori school with continuous Montessori experience.
