As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about our toddler bedroom, we recently made changes around our home to support our new toddler. Today I’m showing our toddler living space. I described our infant shelf set ups in our living room in this post and this post. I discussed the changes Read more…
Because we are using the Montessori method, one that follows the child’s development, our environments change as the child changes. I showed our infant room and our living area for the infant stage. There were some tweaks along the way, but we made significant changes when he turned one. We Read more…
“It is necessary to prepare an active environment for the child , not only in the school but also in the home”- Maria Montessori At every stage, the child’s wish is that we would help him to do it himself. This wish is even stronger once the child can walk. Read more…
“The tiny child’s absorbent mind finds all its nutriment in its surrounding. Here it has to locate itself and build itself from what it takes in. Especially at the beginning of life must we therefore make the environment as interesting and attractive as we can. “ – Maria Montessori (The Absorbent Mind)
We set up Montessori spaces for our son from birth. He has also been given a lot of freedom of movement from birth and the result has been very good gross motor skills, body awareness, confidence and independence. He is very aware of his capabilities and doesn’t take uncalculated risks. I really believe these have been largely due to the environment. I have shown his spaces during the symbiotic period. Those spaces were temporary. Because we were not in our home for the first 7 weeks of his life, we created small but temporary spaces to meet his needs. Once home, he spent most of his time in his room, and because it was prepared for him, he had freedom to move. I just observed and made simple modifications to the room when needed but never really got in his way or tried to help him and he figured it out. So let me show you his room!
Welcome to our Montessori Infant room. I wanted to put a book shelf in the room but didnt want to take up space so I used this wall space behind the door. He is now able to reach the lowest shelf at 10 months.
” All he wants is to walk. And because his legs are shorter than ours, we must not try to make him keep up with us. It is we who must go at his pace… The child has his own laws of development and if we want to help him Read more…
I recently had a conversation with a friend about the importance of concentration. While I know so well the importance, I struggled with verbalizing it in a way that satisfied me so I decided to refresh my memory by writing a post. I have chosen to use the words of Read more…
Slithering out of his room to find me
Around this time, we started the weaning process and he was also sitting comfortably. We would put him in front of the shelf and let him play. There were usually two to three items in the cubbies. A treasure basket and another one or two items. The red ball stayed on top of the shelf.
New areas created in the living room. You can see the independence in these pictures. Moved from the blanket to the shelf and when he was done he came to us. These pictures were taken over 47 minutes.
Note: Once he started pulling up (same week) he never went back to the blanket and preferred to stay by his shelf so that area was removed.
Recently I have wondered why this item is not listed as a material to support gross motor development. It is also not on any lists of what to buy in preparation for baby. Yet, it has definitely been one of our top three most used and most important items in supporting his development of gross motor movement in the last 7 months. What am I talking about? Wait for it…
Please click on the pictures to enlarge and read the text. I would love to hear your comments, questions or contributions. Live a Good Life!
While reading a report for me today, my sister asked me “why does a non-mobile child need a movement area?” It was a great question and a reminder to continue my series on the symbiotic period. Calling a newborn a non-mobile child is actually a misnomer because from birth, a Read more…