Washing a Table

Imagine that you are only 3 years old. What kind of things are you able to do at this young and tender age?

It has not been very long since you learned how to walk, perhaps it's been 2 years or maybe only a year and a half. Your gross motor movements still need a lot of refinement.

What about your fine motor skills? You still don't know how to hold a pencil correctly and you don't know how to read or write.

Your parents bring you to a Montessori school. After some preliminary exercises that will allow you to adapt to this new environment you are shown how to wash a table.

The adult in the classroom approaches you with a big smile. She tells you that she is going to show you something new. She seems so excited that it's contagious, so you accept her invitation and follow her.

The environment is so beautiful that every object you find there is attractive to your eyes. Suddenly you come to a stop before a table with nothing on it. However, you notice that its surface is not very clean. The directress (let's call the adult directress) tells you that she is going to show you how to wash a table; which makes sense to you since it is obvious it actually needs cleaning. You walk with her towards a shelf and she shows you a tray on which we find all of the materials that are necessary to perform this activity. The objects are neatly arranged on the tray. After putting on an apron (you don't want to get your clothes dirty or wet, tidiness is very important here) you walk back to the table. The directress arranges the objects on the floor by the side of the table and she starts cleaning the table as you quietly observe...

Parents often ask why their child should be learning how to wash a dirty table instead of spending more time doing language or math activities ("real work" as they say...). One thing that you may not notice right away is that when the child is shown how to wash a table, he is shown how to exercise his wrist - washing a table is in fact an indirect preparation for writing!

What do children do in a traditional classroom setting? They fill in workbooks and handouts to practice their hand-eye coordination; this will later allow them to write, they say.

Take a look at the picture below. It shows the sequence of movements to be shown to the child when washing a table.

The indirect purpose of this activity is to perform movements of the wrist from left to right and in a circular motion. And because children often love to play with water and soap, how attractive do you think such an activity will seem?! In fact, children LOVE to repeat the exercise over and over again without the need for assigned work that doesn't have any purpose that's obvious or logical to them, except that it takes time away from other activities that are actually fun and enjoyable.

Washing a Table is part of a series of activities called "Practical Life". The 3 to 6 (Primary) Montessori curriculum is made-up of 4 areas : Practical Life, Sensorial, Language and Mathematics; plus science, art, music and movement experiences that are integrated into daily life in an authentic Montessori school. 

When a child first comes to the school he will be introduced to the environment by way of Practical Life activities. 

These exercises are the simple daily acts we all carry out in order to embellish and restore the proper conditions in our surroundings, and that help us to maintain social relations with our self, our families and other people we interact with.

Other Practical Life activities that we perform in the classroom include polishing (glass, wood and silver), sewing buttons, caring for plants, cutting fruits and vegetables, cleaning a window, hanging clothes on a hanger, setting the table, making tea for a guest, and many more.

In a Montessori setting, these activities are an external incentive to the educational process. They provide a motive and urge the child on to organized movements. What's more, they develop a true social feeling, for the child is working in the environment of the community in which he lives. Through them, he can easily see for himself the consequences of his actions, which are never without an obvious and logical purpose.