The Montessori approach to assisting a child in their ‘standing work’ as we call it in my home, is to hang a low bar on the wall, usually with a mirror behind it. This setup is a simple and engaging way to support your child’s drive to stand – an important step in their journey… Continue reading Montessori Pull-Up Bar
The most iconic Montessori toy for infants is probably the imbucare (that’s ‘mail’ in Italian) box and ball. The toy consists of a small box attached to a slightly larger tray. The box has a hole in the top, a hole in one of the sides, and a bottom that slopes toward the side hole.… Continue reading Boxes and Balls
A huge component of Montessori education is preparing children’s environments to meet their developmental needs. The goal is to create spaces within which children can thrive with relative independence. To create such a child-friendly space, it’s necessary to: Remove opportunities for children to behave in unpreferred ways by, for example, Keeping adult-only items out-of-reach Moving… Continue reading Organizing Baby Toys
As you might recall from my posts Family Photo Book and Jars of Treasures, my niece N loves cutting, glueing, and collecting small treasures. For her fourth birthday I made her a box-making kit where she can use her cutting and glueing skills to create containers for her treasures. The kit contains: Large box bottoms… Continue reading Simple Box Making
My 3.5-year-old niece N and I share a love of small treasures. Unfortunately, small treasures are no good for baby B. To remedy the choking hazard concern, we turned our treasures into baby toys by… putting them in jars! Our first jar of treasures was a mason jar filled with various small presents that N… Continue reading Jars of Treasures
Around six months baby B was starting to concentrate on parts of the images in his baby books. He’d stare at just one detail while giving it a slow pet with his fingers. At this stage, I decided to make him a baby photo book to help him: Learn to recognize images Learn the names… Continue reading Family Photo Book
When my baby, B, was first born, I was a bit dumbfounded as to how exactly to get his hands clean. At first I settled for wiping them down with a warm wet washcloth or, when that was too difficult, a disposable wet wipe. He’d still have crud stuck between his chubby fingers, so I… Continue reading Baby Hand Washing
