Our preparations for weaning continue. Above is the gorgeous weaning set from At Home with Montessori. I always knew that a real spoon (over plastic) was preferred and I knew a small spoon was best. But really, I thought a tea spoon would be small enough. Have a look at this comparision as it shows how small the weaning spoon really is.
I recently purchased the coffee spoon at Wheel and Barrow. I think this would be a good substitute if you cannot get your hands on a weaning spoon, it is still a lot smaller than the tea spoon. The weaning spoon is working perfect for Otis. Although he is showing little interest in feeding himself. Perhaps in time. I hope he isn't enjoying being spoon fed by me too much.
Thank you Carrie for the shelf-liner idea, it works a treat. Along with a couple more weeks of development and Otis can now sit at his table. Still for short amounts of time. The shelf-liner does a great job of keeping him from slipping around. I would have never thought of doing this myself!
Thank you so much to Aine for lending me her copy of Understanding the Human Being (Silvana Montanaro), it was much needed and very timely. I really needed to revisit the section on weaning. This is in my view the very best book on Montessori for this infant stage. The section on weaning is adequately detailed too.
At the moment Otis is enjoying sampling food twice a day. I say sampling because he is only tasting it. He does however move the food around in his mouth, swallows and opens his mouth as to ask for more. He is also enjoying drinking the tiniest amount from his glass. At this age drinking from the glass and eating from the spoon is as much about the experience as anything else.
"Once again, simple things in everyday life turn out to be powerful tools and can be used to achieve great physical and psychological results." - S.Montanaro. Understanding the Human Being.
As Montessori recommends and Montanaro writes - we are about to introduce Otis to bread. Large, hard pieces for the child to hold and chew on. I want it to be our own home baked bread. Perhaps this weekend. The intent is to introduce food in it's solid state. I know Otis will enjoy holding and playing with it while we eat and even teething on it. He will be six months old next week and already has four, FOUR teeth!
