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Showing posts from May, 2019

Practical Life - Process vs. Result

Each of our Children's House classrooms has an area devoted to Practical Life works -- which are simple, everyday activities we routinely perform as adults to "maintain and control our environment."  I bet you don't think about washing dishes, watering your plants, setting the table, dusting the cabinet or washing your hands as "controlling your environment" but that is exactly what you're doing!  These activities are more or less completely utilitarian, and for us adults, the satisfaction is in the end result versus the process.  Your child has watched you complete these sorts of activities from an early age, and has a strong desire to copy them as a way of adapting to the world around them.  The big difference for your child versus you is that he or she is much more interested in the process  of the activity versus the result.  It is not to say that the completion of a task for a child isn't important -- far from it!  Successful completion of tas