When Life Hands You Lemons...

….Make lemonade! In the Montessori studio, our learners experience many different cooking techniques. One of these is juicing. We have a bowl of halved lemons next to a tray containing a glass juicer, small bowl, pitcher (filled with sugar water), and stirrer. Our sugar water is premade by the guides in the morning and placed in a larger pitcher for each child to replenish independently for the next person.

After thoroughly juicing the lemon (and watching all the seeds and pulp that emerge), the learner picks out the seeds with a small pair of tongs before composting the lemon rind. Next up, the learner pours the fresh juice into a child-sized cup, adding double the amount of sweetener to lemon juice from the pre-poured pitcher. Finally, he mixes up this seasonal favorite with a spoon before drinking it down! 

This type of practical life activity gives the child a sense of how things in the world are made. This work builds a child’s self-esteem, making him feel value in purposeful activity while developing a strong sense of independence (“I made my own juice!”).