Montessori Mondays - Transitions

Transitions are tough for everyone, but especially for young children because often they have no control or foresight of what event will be coming next. Yet transitions are everywhere and some are just plain unavoidable. Here are a few tips to make transitions less of a main event and easier for your little one to process. If you have any tips of your own, please feel free to leave a comment for other readers.

• if you have a regular schedule throughout the week such as snack, outside time, lunch, nap, snack you can create a picture sequence book of your child doing these activities and then look at them before the day starts in the morning so you child knows exactly what will be coming next and a change in activities will be less of a surprise
  
• in addition to a sequence book it is important to give your child some verbal "warning" before a transition; most toddlers don't understand the concept of time as we do so instead of saying "1 more minute" you can say "once I get done putting these dishes away it will be time to pick up your materials and get ready to go to school"
• it is important to try and plan out transitions as much as possible, especially if they are regular happenings, so that big transitions become an activity in and of themselves for your toddler
  
• if the transition is out of your control, for example waiting for food to be served at a restaurant, have a few small, consistent back-up activities planned ahead of time - crayons and paper, i spy activities, small fingerplays - just remember to give your child a cue again so that once the food does arrive he will know it is time to stop the activity and eat