Montessori Moments: 3 Year-Old & 10 Month-Old

These "Montessori Moments" posts are meant to highlight some of the ways we implement the Montessori method in our home. Many of the activities that are featured--cooking, cleaning together, going out into nature, etc.--overlap with other parenting philosophies or might seem like things that parents just do with their children intuitively. I've still chosen to highlight them here because they are integral to the Montessori approach to parenting and education and fit within a comprehensive continuum of activities that support children as they undergo the important work of forming themselves. For more information about incorporating Montessori into the home, I recommend How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way for a basic overview. For more insight into Montessori as an educational philosophy, I recommend Montessori Today. When trying to implement Montessori with infants and toddlers, I recommend Montessori from the Start and Joyful Child, as well as my favorite resource, which is a DVD documentary of Montessori at home with a 20 month old called Edison's Day.

It's amazing watching a baby play with a simple ball and box toy. Babies are just amazing. I never had this Object Permanence Box (featured above) with Henry (I tried using this one from Amazon instead by pulling out the rubber and putting away the mallet), but my friend lent this one to me for Tate, and I love it. He is so engaged with this work. I highly recommend it. 

I love that baby stage when they start pulling up on everything and trying to use everything and anything as a walker. Take has been using his walker wagon like crazy these days! Rather than lead a child by their hands to "walk" them, in a Montessori environment we teach them how to pull up on their own and direct the walker wagon to walk themselves. They start to build their confidence and their sense of self through their interactions with the environment. It's amazing to watch. We purchased this walker wagon for Henry (and will donate it to the Nido environment at my school when we're done with it), but in retrospect I wish we would have purchased the Radio Flyer Walker Wagon. It serves the same function of being super sturdy so the youngest ones can pull themselves up, but it has the added benefit of being able to (comfortably) fit older children, so its use is extended a lot longer.   

Henry and I have been doing a lot of puzzles these days. Our favorites are:

1. Farm puzzle
2. Firetruck puzzle
3. People of the world puzzle

I feel like Henry learns so many life lessons from such a simple activity. He learns persistence, patience, delayed gratification, the need to try different strategies when something isn't working, visual discrimination, hand-eye coordination, fine-motor skills--the list goes on! 

That's a little of what we've been up to around here! (And just hanging out outside.)

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Montessori Topponcino

I started this post a long time ago but never got around to finishing it during the newborn haze. Tate is now 10 months-old! Ten months ago, Henry was a toddler. He had the chubbiest cheeks and the sweetest toddler speak. Now he talks about astronauts and says things like "I'm up for the challenge" when I mention that he might want to switch his shoes to the proper feet. (As a side note I don't normally tell him to fix his shoes, but we were getting ready to do something that seemed safer with his shoes on the right way.)

But not too long ago, Tater was the tiniest infant (well, not so "tiny" at a whopping 10.3 pounds--but you get the point). During the first 6-8 weeks of his life, we used his Montessori topponcino all the time, and I meant to write a post to tell you about it. We never had one with Henry, but I definitely recommend it. The reason I decided to get it the second time around was that my Montessori-trained friend explained that it really helps younger children hold babies safely and comfortably. 

The idea behind the topponcino is that infants need to feel the most safe and secure during the first 6-8 weeks of their lives while they are first acclimating to the world outside the uterus. A topponcino helps provide that security as they get passed from person to person and get transferred from surface to surface. It always feels and smells the same. 

Although it has a relatively short lifespan in terms of "baby gear," it was immensely helpful during those first 6-8 weeks. I could breastfeed Tate on it and when he fell asleep I could transfer him to his bassinet more smoothly because he didn't experience any sort of change in temperature or texture. When it was play time, I would simply transfer it under his wooden arch. A friend of mine let me borrow several of her covers, so we would just change them out whenever he spit up (well, to be honest, we would first flip the spit up spot down toward his feet and then we would flip it over and do the same thing again, so that we could get four spit-ups out of one cover; we were tired parents acclimating to life with two--okay?).  

I purchased my topponcino from this Etsy shop.

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Montessori Bar and Mirror

At the six-month mark, Tate began trying to pull up on things, and we knew it was time to install the Montessori bar on our mirror. The bar is installed at chest-height for the baby, which I think is approximately 17 inches. The baby uses it to pull up into a standing position and later practice cruising. 

We had a neighborhood handyman install it the first time, but it pulled right out of the wall! The next time we asked our friend to do it. At our little New Year's Reflection and Resolution-setting party, my friend and I decided that her husband would install our white board and railing for Tate, if we taught her how to cook a soup and had her and her family over for dinner. 

He decided to install it into the wood frame of the mirror because the spacing of the studs was a little off. Installing it onto the frame of the mirror meant that he had to saw a little of the bar off, which seemed to be pretty simple for him. 

The bar is simply a curtain rod from IKEA. You could also think about using some hand railing material from a home improvement store like Home Depot or Lowe's. 

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An Infant Montessori Environment

When I was pregnant with Henry, I started getting his Montessori nursery ready several months in advance. This time around, we didn't create a nursery for Tate at all.

 

In this particular instance, it's not a case of busy-second-time-momness. Really, it was simply a function of the fact that we were scheduled to move into our new house two weeks after his birth.

 

And then the builders tacked on a few more weeks until our house was going to be finalized and two weeks at our rental house with baby Tate started to turn into a month or more. While he still didn't need a full-blown nursery for a single month (since he sleeps in our room), he definitely needed more space dedicated to his needs throughout the house.

 

So here's a quick tour of the ways in which we've made space for Baby Tate in our home:

 

In our office/guest room, I set up a large mirror against the wall and pushed a crib mattress against it. I screwed a hook into the ceiling, so that I could hang mobiles from it. This space is perfect for working on blog posts at the desk while Tate watches his mobiles. Right now, I have the Munari mobile set up in here, but when he tires of it, I can put up the whale mobile, the butterfly mobile, or an abstract mobile.

 

We have a portable set-up that can travel with us to any room, and we mainly use it in the family room. We have a mat for Tate to lie on or we simply use his topponcino. He can either lie on his back underneath this wooden arch (I made black and white cards for him to look at) or he can lie on his stomach and look at this black-and-white accordion book. I like that the mat and arch can be stowed in a closet when not in use. It helps keep the cluttered feeling at bay.

 

In our bedroom, we have a mobile hanging above our bed (that can be raised out of the way when not in use). We also have a Moses basket that we use for napping and nighttime sleeping.

Tate gets lots of cuddle time while breastfeeding and while being put to sleep in the Moby wrap (once he falls asleep, we transition him to his Moses basket). During his brief moments of awake time, we try to give him as much freedom of movement as possible. We try to keep him out of confining contraptions as much as possible (e.g., no swings, infant seats, etc.) and instead let him lie on his stomach or back on a flat surface to give him the greatest range of motion to move his arms, legs, and head.

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