Early Childhood Montessori at Home – Flower Arranging

Flower arranging is a classroom Practical Life activity that can be easily completed in the home environment, and there is much more to this activity than meets the eye. The clean-up at the end provides even more Practical Life experiences for your child.

The process of flower arranging is predictably sequenced with precision and care,  as are all of the Practical Life activities, to best support the development of coordination, concentration, order, and independence. 

The flower arranging work has a more important indirect aim than simply admiring nature’s work of art. It is an opportunity for little hands to contribute to the beautification of the environment. It is a tender moment when a young heart lays down a symbol of friendship, love, and peace on a table for someone else to enjoy. It is a brief, yet integral step outside of oneself and one’s own needs.

Each step of this flower arranging Montessori Practical Life activity for kids (picking flowers, pouring water, cutting flowers, arranging flowers) is a practical life skill that paves the way to real learning. It seems like a fairly simply task: get some flowers, place them in a vase, right?! Not exactly…

Children exercise their fine and gross motor skills as they carry a tray, a vase, a pitcher of water, all slowly and carefully. They practice concentration as they admire the beautiful materials available and choose just the right vase and flowers, and as they select the perfect place for their arrangement, perhaps including a doily as an additional touch. They pour water through a funnel, using their skills of estimation to determine when it’s time to stop. They practice their cutting skills while again estimating, determining just how much of the stem they need to trim off to make the flower fit into the vase of their choice. Their attention to detail alerts them to any spills or drips, which they carefully wipe up with a sponge or a towel, and they practice following through with a sequence of steps. The whole activity is so engaging, so calming, so centering for the child, and it provides a rich opportunity for the adult to observe the many skills the child has perfected.