Fun with Water!

In How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way, Tom Seldin suggests providing children with a water activity for fun. He suggests setting up the water station in an area where spills can easily be cleaned up. It was a beautiful day outside, so Daddy took Q-ball out to explore the water!

He filled a large bowl (we used an upside down cake cover, so that it would provide a large, flat, stable surface) with water and placed it in front of Q-ball. He placed 2 plastic cups and 2 silicon prep cups within arm's reach and let her figure out how to use the materials.

Now, Seldin also recommends, "[establishing] and [enforcing] some basic ground rules such as no splashing," but some activities are just more fun with less emphasis on practical life and more emphasis on exploration.

Q-ball loved splashing, dipping the different sized cups into the water, and, of course, tasting!  As Seldin states elsewhere in his book, "As long as objects are clean and safe, you don't need to limit this experience- your baby will decide what tastes good and what doesn't."  This has pretty much become my mantra, and Q-ball has certainly tested its limits! For this activity, I deemed grass and leaves as "clean..."