Today I want to share with you some wonderful personalised Montessori inspired materials for the home, and perhaps some for the classroom from Benedykt and Sylvester. Personalised materials with the child's name on them are fantastic for letter and name recognition, and for making the child feel extra special! Some of my favourite products include: Personalised Solid Acacia Wood Children's Place Mat - we have this and love it, it's durable and easy to wipe clean. Personalised Set of 6 Wooden Children’s Paint Brushes - perfect stocking stuffers or as gifts to friends and family. (I've just ordered these for... Read more →
The most amazing Montessori homes I've seen don't belong to bloggers or influencers. They belong to busy parents who create lovely spaces without any fanfare. Today I'm sharing some of these spaces. I find all of these rooms really refreshing, I'm not going to add much commentary other than to say I hope you enjoy these and feel somewhat inspired to bring a little Montessori into your home! This is such a sweet space. There is a lot in this small area - floor bed, toys and a few books. This space is really calm and serene. Valentina does such... Read more →
If you have more than one child creating a safe and enticing art area can be difficult. While I have three children only my eight and two year old use this area. Previously I've set up this area just for my toddler and I had six or so activities on trays. Now we have a combination of loose materials and a few trays out. This area is in our playroom and often my toddler is here being supervised by my (super relaxed) husband and sometimes by my twelve-year-old son. So for safety and to reduce scribbling on walls, I have... Read more →
I've recently stopped correcting my child. Previously I would hold back for as long I could before correcting him. But I've found that my simple word prompts or suggestions are not helping him in the long term. I've also found that my child needs much more time than I thought to self correct. I was recently watching Otto pour a drink of orange juice. I could tell that he was going to overfill and spill the drink. I was about to give him a simple prompt "it's almost full", or as I've done before "stop! it's full!", but I decided... Read more →
Once your child knows the names of many animals, many foods, many objects, how about introducing anatomy or "parts of" work? My toddler has loved learning new words like "thorax", "antenna", "abdomen", "mandibles" and "proboscis"!! This is excellent work for the child in the sensitive period for language. We do this work together. These cards are not designed for toddlers, I use them as prompts and my toddler also points to them while naming the parts. The models are really important to this work. Insects are fascinating to young toddlers. Model insects are useful as they allow the child to... Read more →
The days are getting shorter and colder and with the holidays just around the corner I've been looking for educational toys and games that my children can play with together. I've found a couple of gems! Our number one favourite right now is this giant road. It is versatile and toddler friendly! Perfect for my puzzle lovers. All of these games can be adapted to how your child or toddler like to play them. So we can use a lotto game as a simple matching game. We often don't take turns and it's not competitive. We can also store and... Read more →
Even in the cooler weather we are aiming to spend a minimum of three hours a day outdoors. We do this by exploring our backyard, our neighbourhood, our local park and forest areas and the nature reserve. Taking learning outdoors is important and learning in situ is important. There is no better place to learn about nature, about tree and flowers, about wind and rain, than outdoors. While I am very much in favour of free play and roaming around outdoors, it's nice to have a few tools and materials for the children to use too. Here are a few... Read more →
Do your children like to water indoor plants? A Plant Care Basket is a great way of developing the child's interest in plant care and it can also help develop a whole range of skills including coordination and fine motor skills. What is in our Toddler Plant Care Basket? small watering can - we use larger watering cans outside, the smaller size here prevents spills and overwatering. small scissors - for trimming plants, removing dead leaves and for harvesting herbs or flowers. Ours are little toddler scissors and good for small hands, they also have blunt tip for safety. small... Read more →
How we talk to our children is so important. But it's also difficult because often we are rushed, pushed, tired, under pressure and we don't always have a moment to pause before we react. This is true for me and on many occasions I've used negative language around toilet learning like "oh no...", "accident", and "mess". There is some feeling that negative language and possibly shaming about toilet learning behaviour can result in anxiety, constipation and toileting regression (like "holding on"). While we don't need to be thrilled about their behaviour, we can use a positive or neutral tone, and... Read more →
Today I'm sharing some real Montessori bedrooms. You can see they have been put together with care and respect. While this style of bedroom is the norm for families like mine, they are very different from your typical nursery or toddler bedroom. It's nice to highlight them and share them with other interested families. This room has been designed for a 10 month old. I love that the picture has been taken from an infant's perspective. A crawling and sitting child can reach the toys, materials and books! This space now has a floor bed too which you can see... Read more →
Puzzles are a big part of my toddler's work right now. Yes, he likes to play outside or tear around the house on his wheely bug or trike but he also has moments of concentrated work and a lot of that time is spent doing puzzles. He loves wooden peg puzzles but also the two and four piece jigsaw puzzles. These are the puzzles that he is using at 26 months, that we are rotating. Some of these he has been using for a few months and has mastered, while others are newish and are more of a challenge. Some... Read more →
You can see Montessori in almost every area of our home. I want to provide, as much as I can, an overall picture of what our home looks like room by room. Every space changes, it develops as the children get older however most of these spaces are the same from when our toddler was around 18 months to present at 26 months. Our home is far from perfect but it is a process of observing our children and making changes to meet their needs. Kitchen (above) - kitchen helper so that my toddler can reach the kitchen sink and... Read more →
You can teach toddlers to do almost anything. Can they use tongs? Yes, they can! From toddlerhood many children are able to wrap their little fingers around the tongs and squeeze them just enough to pickup their desired item and transfer it to a bowl or other location. Using mini tongs is a great way to add some fine motor skill work to an activity. Mini tongs are fantastic for developing: fine motor skills coordination concentration finger and hand strength. You can add mini tongs to almost any food preparation activity. While many toddlers will just ignore them and use... Read more →
Last week my husband was away and I had to take Otto with me to a couple of my classes and also to his brothers sports training. While it is undesirable to have a toddler in tow, Otto (at 25 months) is capable of quietly sitting and playing for 30-40 minutes with a couple of small toys. These toys are also useful for when we are in waiting rooms, when eating out, when I need to make an important telephone call and they are good to have just in case I need them when visiting friends. Which toys we take... Read more →
I recently wrote about how to winterise your children's shoes when I realised this is a process I could get my children involve in. While shoe polishing is generally an activity for those aged 3yrs + I wanted to have a shoe polish that was completely safe for my toddler to use too. I knew the best option was to find a good homemade DIY shoe polish/conditioner. Due to the minimal nature of the ingredients I decided to try the recipe at Montessori Services. All Natural Beeswax-Based Shoe Polish 2 tablespoons beeswax 1 cup food-grade linseed oil (or flax seed... Read more →