A Car Wash: Montessori Style

So, this past week we went to "Sights and Sounds on Thursday Nights" in Chelsea, Michigan where my parents live.  We have gone to this event on a few other occasions over the Summer -- Froggy Boots enjoys dancing to the music of the street performers (especially rock and roll or country music).

On this occasion, however, there was also a Boy Scout yard sale going on at the old train depot!  Well, I couldn't exactly pass that up, now could I?  So, after we ate dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, we headed over to the yard sale.  Along the way we passed a few of the street performers.  But, for whatever reason, Froggy Boots didn't seem as interested in them.

At the yard sale we found a few treasures for Froggy Boots.  The two most important were one of those red and yellow Little Tikes cars and a Thomas t-shirt.  She was thrilled with both!  In fact, she insisted on wearing the Thomas t-shirt right away and began removing her shirt right there in the parking lot!  Thankfully, I am not scared of a little dirt and germs, so the fact that the t-shirt had obviously been in storage in someones' garage didn't bother me.



I took a couple pictures of Froggy Boots in her new Thomas t-shirt.  But, unfortunately, when I went in to upgrade to a new phone this weekend, the pictures on my old phone magically disappeared after they transferred my contacts from the old phone to the new phone.

The Little Tikes car was also a little (or a lot) on the dirty side.  But, I saw that as a great opportunity to have some fun with a practical life activity -- a car wash!  The next morning, that was our project, washing Froggy  Boots new car.

Here are some pictures:

Froggy Boots chose to use the scrub brush most of the time instead of the wash cloths.

Getting some more water and bubbles on the sponge.  She wasn't to sure about the bubbles at first -- she is quite afraid of bubbles for some reason -- but, this was a great opportunity to see that bubbles are fun!

Later, after the car was pretty close to clean, Froggy Boots decided that the "wormies" (millipedes) on the sidewalk needed a bath as well.  Needless to say, they did get clean, but I'm not sure whether they appreciated the bath or not.

Just after we finished the car wash, Grandma Shelley stopped by for a visit.  She happened to be in Ann Arbor that day and so decided to stop by and see us!  She got to see Froggy Boots try out her new, clean car for the first time since we brought it home.

Froggy Boots kept trying to steer the car with the steering wheel.  But, as those of you who have owned the little tikes car know, the steering wheel does not actually control the wheels.  So, she kept going off the sidewalk into the grass.  She'll get the hang of it eventually!