Author’s practical guidance
The bag they pack and the bag you pack
Source named in the book: Montessori
Packing is a real task with a beginning and an end, and it is exactly the kind of work Montessori describes small children doing well when the materials are within reach and the adult is not hovering.
Say this now
“Your job is the four things on the card.”
A defined task with a visible end.
“I pack the clothes. You pack your four things.”
Two jobs, clearly divided.
Do this
- Make a picture list of four items and tape it to the bag.
- Pack at the same time each week, not in the last ten minutes.
- Check it silently afterward and add what is missing without commentary.
- Keep the bag somewhere they can reach rather than on top of the closet.
- Let them carry it to the door.
Avoid this
- Packing after they are asleep. Efficient, and it removes them from their own week.
- "You forgot it, so that's that." A consequence for a task they are still learning.
- Redoing their bag in front of them. Says the job was never really theirs.
If it repeats
If packing keeps becoming a fight, it has probably been scheduled into the worst hour of the week. Move it to the morning, or to the day before, and it usually stops being about the bag at all.
Why the book suggests this
Packing is a real task with a beginning and an end, and it is exactly the kind of work Montessori describes small children doing well when the materials are within reach and the adult is not hovering. A four-year-old can pack four items from a picture list.
It also hands them something to do with a departure they otherwise only have feelings about, which counts for a lot on a Friday afternoon.
Related prepared situations
What happened next?
From this collection
Same Words: Two Homes
45 prepared situations in this family area.