Coin Polishing for President's Day

Wheels is 2.5, so he really has no idea what a president even is, but I thought we would "celebrate" anyway.  I added a coin polishing work to his Valentine's shelf activities.  It involved both water and q-tips, so he liked it.

I apparently cut his hand and the pitcher out of this photo, but he is pouring the water into the containers.

He then dipped the coins in soapy water and polished with a q-tip.

Rinsed them in the non-soapy water and then laid them out to dry.

Although I really don't care whether or not our coins are clean, and it's definitely not something I would spend my time doing, I think it's a good practical life activity because of the clearly defined steps/sequence of the procedure, which Wheels talked about the whole time, "first soapy water, then q-tip, next other water, and set to dry."  He did this activity until he ran out of q-tips.  I told him he could use the same q-tips again because they weren't really dirty.  He didn't believe me.  (At breakfast, he usually eats two bowls of cereal (different kinds) and he insists that he needs two spoons for this.  I guess he is worried about cross-contamination :)

For an older child, you could of course talk about the value of the coins, practice counting money, and talk about the presidents that are on them.  We did this a little bit, but he was very intent on what he was doing and not very interested in anything else I had to say.....

See what other kids are doing at Montessori Monday