6-12 months

The Pleasure of Eating

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011 8:13 am | By Stephanie Woo

Today, I met a 1-yr-old who has only been allowed to feed herself cheerios. She is spoonfed the rest of the time. Her mom tells me she doesn’t like to eat, I told her it’s bc she hasn’t experienced the pleasure of food. When M&B eats, they grab it with their fingers, smear it on their face, some ends up on their chin, cheeks, legs and up their nose. They feel the cold wetness of watermelon, the warmth and slipperiness of farfalle pasta, and they love to squeeze their fingers through bananas! Brooke’s first word was, “Yummy.”

The “aftermath”

Connecting the child

Thursday, July 14th, 2011 8:37 am | By Stephanie Woo

I took B and M to my Montessori training center. Brooke was fussy and I was at a loss. My Montessori trainer, Judi, held her for a bit and noticed that B kept touching her shirt and watch band. She asked someone bring over 4-5 toys with different TEXTURES. B was enthralled! She touched everything over and over for a LONG time. When you can observe and connect a child to the thing they are interested in, magic happens.

So much is possible for a 7-month old

Sunday, July 10th, 2011 8:00 am | By Stephanie Woo

My children show me what’s possible: a 7-month child old can get their own toys off the shelf to play, help feed themselves anything you put in their hand, help bring a bottle or cup to their mouth to drink, put themselves to sleep and sleep through the night. A 7 month old child can be SO capable, when given the right environment. Grateful for the wisdom of my mother, my siblings and Montessori.