1. Hochet disques liés Ateliers Montessori Oxybul, 2. Ensemble de 3 matériels d'emboîtement, 3. Boîte de notion de permanence de l'objet, 4. Banc à marteler Ateliers Montessori Oxybul, 5. Jeu trio de disques à encastrer Ateliers Montessori Oxybul, 6. 3 puzzles botaniques, 7. 3 puzzles d'animaux vertébrés, 8. Coffret Montessori Mes lettres et mes chiffres, 9. Mallette des lettres mobiles,10. Mes chiffres Montessori. I also love this Butterfly mobile with black and white art cards. You know I love Montessori materials - the way they are made, so purposeful and beautiful. While I don't feel it's necessary to have teal... Read more →

Montessori language materials are presented to the child in a carefully orchestrated sequence. Metal Insets (for hand control), Sandpaper Letters and the Movable Alphabet are all part of this sequence and the process cannot be hurried and stages cannot be skipped. Montessori sees the child as an active learner, a motivated doer and that children have the power to educate and teach themselves. Young children with good phonetic awareness are often ready (and wanting) to make words before their hand is ready for the pencil control required for writing. The Movable Alphabet is for the composition of words, the goal... Read more →

These are four of my favourite matching and sorting activities for toddlers! They don't need a lot of preparation and can be done alongside an adult - matching socks while the adult is doing laundry or sorting cutlery while the adult is doing the dishes. Sock Matching. This could also be done with mittens, gloves or shoes. Perhaps the child can match socks while the adult is folding laundry or tidy the mud room or shoe area. Sorting Cutlery. The child can help to wipe or put away the knives, forks and spoons (children's utensil set pictured here). Matching Lids... Read more →

1. theArtofType, 2. savethedate, 3. artfamilia, 4. Kokabella, 5. theArtofType, 6. JbeeDesign, 7. starshapedpress, 8. BesidesYarn and 9. NaturedNature. I love making my own Montessori prints (this is the last one I made). I'm always reading books and making note of interesting quotes. Etsy is a good source of Montessori prints too and these are a few that I love! Read more →

How we Montessori, The Full Montessori, The Montessori Motherload, Sew Liberated, Bread and Roses, The Prepared Environment at How we Montessori, Eltern vom Mars, Three Oaks, OPRF Life, Midwest Montessori. Using a potty isn't necessarily a part of the Montessori approach to toilet learning. It may work to make the toilet more accessible by using steps or other adaptions. If you are interested in toilet learning the Montessori way I recommend Toilet Awareness and Toilet Leaning - The Montessori Approach. I also recommend articles at Aid to Life and Michael Olaf. Read more →

There is so much focus in Montessori on fine motor skills I think at times we as parents overlook the importance of gross motor skills, the development and coordination of those large, gross motor muscles and movements. In the classroom gross motor movements would include movement around the room (moving tables and chairs, walking), lifting and pouring, practical life activities like window washing or table scrubbing, walking the line. Otis' class has a lovely playground but also free play equipment such as climbing frames and balancing boards. Maria Montessori knew how integral movement is to intellectual development. "Mental development must... Read more →

Montessori Today is written by Paula Polk Lillard who also the co-author of Montessori From The Start. Paula Polk Lillard has many years of experience in Montessori and is the Co-Founder of Forest Buff School. Although the book covers the child from birth the focus is on elementary aged children and is suitable for parents and teachers. It is suitable for new parents and with those with little or no prior knowledge of Montessori. I really enjoyed the tone of the book. It is really easy to read and it's just full of information. I would recommend this book to... Read more →

1. Leaf Polishing at Healthy Beginnings Montessori, 2. Care of a Plant at At Home With Montessori, 3. Cleaning Leaves at Montessori en Casa, 4. Practical Life at Two at How we Montessori, 5. Watering a Plant at Awake Parent, 6. Watering Plants Activity at Montessori Services, 7. Taking care of classroom plants at To the Lesson, 8. Care of Plant Work at Mission Montessori and 9. Care of Plant Work (love this basket and set of materials) via Filev Yuriy (3-6 Montessori). Looking after indoor plants is a great way to introduce care of the environment activities to small... Read more →

I recently found this really fun idea. I was looking around for Montessori, nature, sensory, play inspiration. What I love about this idea is that the child is working in a natural setting and using real items. It challenges the child to look closely at their natural environment, using all of their senses. This idea is something that will work in almost any natural setting, today we used it in our yard but would work just as well on a nature walk, in the woods, at the beach or park. This idea comes from The Sensory Trust which is fantastic... Read more →

How do I decide which activities to present to my children? How do I decide which activities and materials to put on their shelves or what toys to buy? There are so many things that I consider! What is the family currently working on? Are there any family projects such as gardening or baking that we can all get involved with. Are we choosing new plants for the garden? Are we planning a holiday? We can start to research and explore these areas. Do I have anything new or interesting that I would like to try - incorporating the children... Read more →

At a parent education session at the boys' (Montessori) school one of the teachers spoke at length how important it is to identify each child's preferred learning style. They spoke about how they identify this and how they adapt their teaching so that the information is presented in an optimal fashion and that the learning environment is also optimal for each child. Wow! For each child! Montessori (and many other) schools and environments are designed for not one specific learning type, with no bias but for all learning types, for all children - with the expectation that all children are... Read more →

I hope the pictures can do most of the talking in this post. You know there is no such thing as a Montessori playroom, it doesn't exist. For Montessori in the home there is no rule book, there is no manual. We are all doing it our own way in our own style. This is reassuring. There is no right or wrong way. There are Montessori principles we can use in our playrooms though and we can allow Montessori to guide and inspire us! In our home the playroom or work area is used very frequently, Otis is very busy... Read more →

One thing I love about Montessori is that it really has no limits. A young child even as young as four is encouraged to learn and to delve deeper into a topic until their thirst for knowledge has been temporarily satisfied. The resources aren't limited by age. The child can just keep on going. I also love that Montessori is so child led, interest based. While there are times when I completely independently introduce the children to a topic most of their activities, their interests just flow, they evolve from one step, from one area to another. Flowing from one... Read more →

It's been a long week here. It was our first full week back to school (after our summer break). Unfortunately Otis fell asleep in class twice this week so we are all looking forward to the weekend. Here are a few things we are loving this week! Otis is (still) loving Colour Code (the matching game pictured above). Caspar is loving and is slightly obsessed with 1001 Inventions that Changed the World. I am loving this awesome Animal Group Nouns Tee (and I've already ordered one for Caspar)! I am loving this cold press manual juicer (similar here) and hope... Read more →

When Otis was younger he collected sticks and stones. We had a pile of sticks just inside our front door where Otis would meticulously place each new find. When he would find something extra special perhaps a pinecone or seedpod he would carefully put them in a nature basket. Nature baskets some times over-flow. Some times we have specimens we want to set up in a display, a nature discovery area, a nature table! My boys love the beach and our nature table is now consumed with items from the ocean. A large conch shell, some star fish and a... Read more →