Remember Clay from last week. He is almost two now but I really wanted to give you some insight into his infant environment. One of his mums Charlene is trained in Montessori (3-6 years) so she had a pretty good idea what she was doing. 

What you can see in these photographs is that Charlene experimented a little with the floor bed. She said that she tried three different beds and found this aspect quite tricky. 

Charlene tells us more.

He actually had a little basket/bassinette for the first 6 weeks, then moved onto a cot sized mattress but I found him falling off this a lot. So I then made a square shaped mattress using a thick piece of foam. This worked well as far as him not rolling off it and in the summer but I think when it got colder it was too close to the floor. So I switched up to our final one, a king size single when he was 10 months.

I think with our next baby I will just use a king single straight up. And perhaps put the foam on the ground when he/she is rolling a lot, to lessen and soften the fall!

Ah sleeping and babies, it's probably the biggest issue for every parent of a new baby, we Montessorians just like to add challenges! But the benefits for the babies are amazing. I can totally see in Clay his sense of spatial awareness, sense of direction and the caution with which he moves about in his world are all down to having slept on a floor bed. And that's just what I can observe. The full extent of the benefits on his whole development probably pass unknown to me!

Clay also loved his mobiles and his movement mat. I especially loved it (and he too) when he discovered he could touch himself in the mirror! 

Once again, thank you so much Charlene for sharing with us. 

What I love most about these photographs is looking closely at detail, the beautiful pictures on the wall and the wonderful items on the shelves. So, so sweet. 

Tomorrow I will post some photographs of Clay and his infant mobiles.