Handwashing and nose-blowing: self-care lessons for home

In a Montessori classroom, washing hands and blowing your nose are lessons. The guide shows each one slowly, step by step, with very few words, and then the child practices it many times. These are part of practical life, the area of the classroom where children learn to care for themselves and their surroundings. You can teach the same three lessons at home, with the same setup and the same slow presentation: handwashing, nose-blowing, and coughing or sneezing into an elbow.

How a Montessori guide presents a self-care lesson

The method is the same for all three lessons.

1. Prepare first. Set up everything the child needs, at their height, before you start.
2. Invite the child. "I'd like to show you how to blow your nose. Would you like to watch?"
3. Show, then talk. Do each step slowly, without speaking, so the child can watch your hands. Save the words for before or after the movement.
4. Exaggerate the important movements. Make the small parts big and slow so they're easy to see.
5. Hand it over. "Now you try." Step back.
6. Leave mistakes alone during practice. If a step goes wrong, show the lesson again on another day. Avoid correcting the child in the middle of their turn.

Choose a calm moment for the lesson, when nobody is sick or rushed. A child learns to blow their nose more easily on a quiet afternoon than with a streaming cold at bedtime.

Handwashing

Set up: a sturdy step stool at the sink, soap the child can pump or reach, and a towel on a low hook. Check the water temperature so the child can't get a hot-water surprise.

Present it in this order, one movement at a time:

1. Push up your sleeves.
2. Turn on the water and wet both hands.
3. Turn off the tap or slow it to a trickle.
4. Take one pump of soap.
5. Rub palms together.
6. Rub the back of each hand.
7. Lace your fingers and rub between them.
8. Rub each thumb.
9. Rub your fingertips in the other palm.
10. Turn on the water and rinse until the soap is gone.
11. Turn off the tap.
12. Dry your hands on the towel, front and back, and hang it up.

To help the child scrub long enough, sing a short song together while rubbing. Pick one and keep it the same every time.

Then let the child wash at the moments it matters at home: before eating, after the toilet, after playing outside, and after blowing their nose.

Nose-blowing

Nose-blowing is hard for young children, because they have to breathe out through the nose with the mouth closed. Practice that part first, with no tissue at all.

Practice the breath. Put a small feather or a cotton ball on the table. Show your child how to close your mouth and blow it across the table with air from your nose. Take turns. Children can practice this many times before you add a tissue.

Set up: a box of tissues at child height, a small mirror nearby, and a small bin with a lid next to them.

Present it:

1. Take one tissue.
2. Unfold it and hold it over your nose with both hands.
3. Close your mouth.
4. Blow gently out through your nose.
5. Wipe from the top of the nose down.
6. Fold the tissue in half and wipe again.
7. Look in the mirror to check.
8. Put the tissue in the bin.
9. Wash your hands.

Coughing and sneezing into an elbow

This one needs speed, so practice it as a game. Show the movement: turn your head and bring your face into the inside of your bent elbow. Say "achoo" into your sleeve. Then let your child try it.

Play "Pretend sneeze": you say "Ready, set, sneeze!" and both of you bring your faces to your elbows. Do it a few times a day for a week. When the movement becomes automatic, your child will use it when a real cough or sneeze comes.

If a cough or sneeze ends up on their hands, show them to wash their hands right afterward.

Keeping it going

Leave the stool, soap, towel, tissues and bin set up all the time, so your child can use them without asking. Tell your child's guide which lessons you've been practicing at home, and ask which words and steps the classroom uses.

If your child skips a step, wait for a calm time and present the lesson again. Let your child watch it as many times as they ask.