As I discussed in my post on Organizing Baby Toys, children (even babies!) can start to meet there own needs when their toys are easily visible and accessible. Implementing this design philosophy in my own home, I had chosen a couch side table to be the place for one on my child’s favorite toys, a… Continue reading Toy Coasters
At 11 months and a few days, I declared my kid a walker. Having never crawled and only very reluctantly pulled himself up to stand, I reflected on his somewhat unusual developmental path. Particularly, I wondered, how much did my parenting style, shape his developmental path versus how much of it was simply him doing… Continue reading Walking to Mama
A newborn’s vision is blurry beyond ten inches and their perception of color is hazy, so the very first Montessori material is a black and white mobile with crisp lines and simple shapes. The Munari mobile, as it’s called, is simple yet interesting, making it intriguing and stimulating to a newborn while not being overstimulating.… Continue reading Making Newborn Danglies
The theory on Montessori floor beds and my experience birth to eleven months One of the key components of a Montessori nursery is the floor bed. The idea is simple: in lieu of a crib, let your baby sleep on a mattress on the floor. Often parents use a bassinet with their newborn and then… Continue reading Baby on a Floor Bed
As an enthusiastic expecting parent in Brooklyn, I was looking forward to trying to go diaper-free with my baby B. I like the simplicity and the lack of waste. Before B was born we bought some disposable diapers ‘just to get him through the first week or two.’ But after B was born, we were… Continue reading Baby Toileting
Instead of always asking our baby to join us for meals at an adult-sized table, when we’re feeling up for it we eat dinner all together at the kid-sized table. My husband and I sit on the floor or a pouf and our babe sits in his Montessori cube chair. I splurged on this beautiful… Continue reading Eating with a Baby
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
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
