There is something new in Otis's room. At six weeks it was time to introduce the Octahedron mobile. "The octahedrons are designed to lay the foundations for future understandings of geometric proportion, relationships and patterns. They are named for the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato" At Home with Montessori. I hope that you are interested in mobiles, because I intend on showing you each one that we use. Yes, I may indeed have a liking for these Montessori mobiles! Edited 21 May. A new video (taken on iPhone) showing the Octahedron in action. Read more →

Thank you for your suggestions to add some black and white images to Otis's room. I thought it was a great idea. We went to work straight away. Caspar and I experimented with lots of different images and materials. Then we tested the images on Otis. He liked them all! We decided on some cut out shapes. We finished off the look with black and white frames. What do you think? He has responded to them really well and we like them a lot. Read more →

Dr Montanaro writes that at around 6-8 weeks old (at the end of the symbiotic period) the child starts on our solar pattern and begins to sleep longer at night. "The newborn simply does not have any experience of night and day and takes a certain time to enter this solar routine. The child must experience this difference for a certain amount of time before the problem is naturally corrected." At a month old I want to encourage Otis to observe our solar pattern and sleep longer at night (he currently sleeps for longer periods and more soundly during the... Read more →

Want to take a peek inside Otis's room? Come on in... For this room I wanted to achieve an atmosphere of calm a sense of order an environment to facilitate a child's movement an environment to engage the child a balance between challenge and support for the child separate sleep, play and change areas a room a child would want to be in The main features of this room include A movement area consisting of a large soft blanket, wall mirror and mobile. Otis is a month old so we are using the Munari mobile. I have written about the... Read more →

Otis is nearly four weeks old and I feel like I need a refresher... it's too easy to forget or get distracted by the busyness of everyday life. My key points for talking to a newborn: Do speak to your child from the start, slowly and calmly use good grammar and clear pronunciation look into the child's eyes when speaking let the child see you speak, speak face to face expose the child to adult (and sibling) language and conversation recognise that tone conveys a message and emotion to a child talk about what you are doing, name body parts... Read more →

As Otis is now two weeks old we put up our Munari mobile. The mobile is hung over his movement area. We were thrilled as he focused on it straight away. He has been spending a lot of his awake time in his movement area looking at the wall mirror and having tummy time. Adding the mobile gives him another area of interest. We chose the Munari mobile because it is the first in the Montessori Visual Mobile series is black and white to provide the greatest contrast suitable for the infant's developing vision is developmentally appropriate not overstimulating or... Read more →

It wasn't until recently that I became aware of Montessori's work regarding infants. Previously I thought Montessori was only about activities for preschoolers and the Montessori Method of education. Certainly this is where a lot of her work is but she also had so much to say about newborn and infant children. In setting up our home environment for our second child I have really tried to follow and understand her work in this area. In his bedroom we have installed a low wall mirror. Underneath the mirror is a soft blanket to create his movement area. This is where... Read more →

This week we were blessed by the birth of Otis. He is beautiful and healthy. We couldn't be happier and it feels like we are living a dream. I am constantly trying to bring myself back to reality but it may take some time. The birth went smoothly and although not the family event that I had planned it was really empowering. It feels like Otis has been with us forever, he has settled in at home easily. Caspar has adjusted well and has remained really relaxed and not fussed. I am actually feeling some guilt about how well things... Read more →