Tweezing
Tweezing beads onto a soap dish is one of the Montessori activities children thoroughly enjoy. Teaching children how to use tweezers should only be done once the child has mastered tongs. This is because tweezing is almost an extension of tonging, but learning to use tweezers is essentially more difficult, as tweezers are much smaller than tongs. The type of soap dish is important and you should find one where the holes in the soap dish are slightly smaller than the beads. This way, the children will place the beads onto the holes using the tweezers.
Tweezing beans in Practical Life
How does learning to use tweezers help children?
Learning to use tweezers teaches the children concentration, improves dexterity, and increases fine motor development. Tweezing also teaches children to be patient, as it may take a while to balance all of the beads onto a soap dish. This elementary exercise is also indirect preparation for reading and writing from left to right, as there will be a little bowl with all of the beads inside it on the left-hand side and the soap dish on the right-hand side. Children use child-sized tweezers, tweezing the beads from left to right.
Looking for more Montessori activities?
Here is the full list of the Montessori tasks, including preliminary, elementary, applied exercises, and grace and courtesy. Just click on the activity you want to learn about to go there.