How Apple Helps Children Navigate Cold and Flu Season

For young children, learning to care for themselves happens one small step at a time. Getting a tissue, blowing their nose, washing their hands, and helping clean up are everyday tasks—but each takes practice.

During cold and flu season, these skills become especially useful. At Apple Montessori Schools, practical life lessons and classroom routines give children opportunities to build independence, care for their surroundings, and contribute to their classroom community. Families can reinforce those same skills at home with simple demonstrations and gentle encouragement.

“Blow your nose” may sound like a straightforward instruction. For a young child, however, it involves several steps: holding a tissue, breathing through the nose, blowing gently, and knowing what to do afterward.

Apple’s nose-blowing lesson breaks this process into manageable parts. An educator demonstrates how to hold a tissue over the nose, gently close one nostril, and blow softly through the other. A mirror can help children see what they are doing as they practice.

Children then have an opportunity to try with guidance. The lesson also includes disposing of the used tissue and washing their hands afterward, helping children understand that cleanup is part of caring for themselves.

The emphasis is on patient practice. Some children will need several demonstrations before the movement makes sense, and encouragement helps them keep trying.

Try it at home: Choose a calm moment to demonstrate, rather than waiting until your child is frustrated by a stuffy nose. Keep tissues and a wastebasket within easy reach, model the steps slowly, and offer help as needed. A simple reminder—“Tissue, trash, wash”—can help your child remember what comes next.

At Apple, children wash their hands at the sink as part of their daily routines in the classroom. These everyday opportunities allow them to practice a skill families can reinforce at home.

The CDC recommends washing hands with soap and clean, running water, scrubbing for at least 20 seconds, rinsing, and drying. Key times include before and after eating, after using the bathroom, and after blowing the nose, coughing, or sneezing. Handwashing helps reduce the spread of germs that can cause respiratory and other infections, especially at peak times of year.

For children, consistency can make the sequence easier to remember. Adults can demonstrate each step and offer reminders until children become more confident doing it themselves.

Try it at home: Use a stable step stool if your child needs help reaching the sink, and make sure soap and a towel are accessible. Practice washing together, paying attention to the backs of hands, between fingers, and under nails. Singing “Happy Birthday” twice can help children spend enough time scrubbing.

Care of the environment is another part of Apple’s practical life approach. Kindergarten children help wash classroom tables with soap and water after lunch and straighten materials after the work cycle.

These tasks give children an active role in caring for a space they share with others. They practice following a sequence, completing a job, and leaving an area ready for the next person.

Straightening materials is a lesson in order and responsibility, while washing tables adds an opportunity to participate in everyday cleaning. Together, these routines help children see themselves as capable contributors to their classroom community.

Try it at home: Invite your child to help wipe the table after a meal with a damp cloth and a small amount of soap and water. Demonstrate where to start and how to finish, and keep the task manageable. Note that adults should handle disinfectants and other cleaning chemicals.

Montessori practical life experiences also include care-of-self activities, such as dressing frames that help children practice fastenings.

While these activities are not specifically hygiene lessons, they share a useful approach: demonstrate a skill, break it into steps, and give children time to practice. Families can use that same approach when introducing healthy habits.

Instead of giving several instructions at once, begin with one clear action. Show your child what to do, allow time for an attempt, and step in when help is needed. Specific encouragement—“You remembered to throw away your tissue!”—helps children recognize their progress.

Try it at home: Give your child a small, achievable role in a daily routine. They might get their own tissue, place a used towel in the laundry, or help put supplies away. Independence grows through repeated opportunities, with adult support along the way.

Diana Becker, Apple’s Senior Director of Training and Instructional Development, also suggests pairing the classic folktale Stone Soup with a family cooking activity.

In the story, people contribute ingredients to create a meal they can share. Reading it together offers an opportunity to talk about cooperation, generosity, and caring for others.

Afterward, make a simple vegetable soup as a family. Depending on their age and abilities, children can help rinse vegetables, count ingredients, or add prepared ingredients to a cool pot before cooking. Adults should manage sharp tools, the stove, and hot food. There’s no need for an actual stone—vegetables and imagination will do!

Try it at home: Ask, “What could each person contribute to our soup?” Give your child an appropriate task, wash hands before preparing food, and enjoy making something together.

Cold and flu season gives families a reason to revisit everyday habits, but these skills have value throughout the year.

At Apple, a nose-blowing lesson, a handwashing routine, or an opportunity to help care for the classroom can become a meaningful step toward independence. At home, familiar routines and patient practice help children continue that progress.

Every time a child remembers a tissue, completes a handwashing routine, or helps clean up, they are practicing how to care for themselves and contribute to the people and places around them.