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Category: Motherhood
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
When most people hear the term “Montessori” they automatically think we are all hippie dippies (and I kind of am, but you can read about what the heck Montessori is.) You might wonder what Mac as a Montessori kid has for toys at home. So here is a peek into what she has available to her during the day. I switch out her toys weekly. All of these things are toys that Mac and I both love. Just keep in mind two things:
- She is 15 months old as I write this. I have a large range of things available, from more “baby” toys that are favorites of hers and things that are well above her age range because I like to challenge her, even in areas where she may already be ahead.
- I believe in moderation. While I follow many of the Montessori ideals (like simple, non-electronic, wooden toys), I do allow some that don’t follow those guidelines. I have a general rule about no electronic toys, but I do have a few that I let slide. I also strive to provide Mac with toys mostly made of wood and other natural materials, but there are exceptions. I’ll show those and more to you below.
Toys can be so overwhelming sometimes. Everyone and their brother wants to give your kids a toy until one day you turn around and every square inch of your living room is covered in toys. But why do you need so many? The kids only play with a few at a time anyway. That is where toy rotation comes in.
What is a Toy Rotation?
It is pretty straight forward. You take the majority of your child’s toys and you put them away, only leaving out a select few toys for them to play with. Ideally, the toys have a very specific place in the house and once there, you rotate them often. I talked about where Mac’s toys are when I made my living room Montessori.
After having Mac help me with some household chores the last few days, I just wanted to quickly remind everyone that a toddler helping you isn’t helpful. What I mean is that asking a toddler to help you do a chore isn’t going to speed it along and get the job done. You have a toddler help for three reasons: future practice, interest and getting things done. If you need a few ideas, read my post about Four Simple Ways Toddlers Can Help Clean Up.
Future Practice
Now, obviously we all want children who pitch in and help keep the house running. You live here, you take care of it. But parents tend to make the mistake of requiring children to do chores when they are older, instead of right away. Having toddlers help (or “help” as it should maybe be phrased) sets them up to doing more in the future. If you expect them to carry their dishes to the sink as a toddler, it becomes a habit. As long as you start small, you can build up as their skills increase.
In the picture above, Mac was taking the clean socks and putting them in that box. Did I really need socks in a box? No, I did not need socks in a box. (Whoa there Dr. Seuss.) But did she enjoy helping? Yes, and she even put the socks in the basket when I was filling it back up with folded laundry. As Mac grows, I’ll have her start with something easy like stacking washcloths and we will work up from there.
By the time May rolls around, everyone has pretty much checked out of school. It is (usually) warm and everyone is busy making summer plans. So busy, in fact, that sometimes they forget about giving out teacher gifts until the last-minute. Panic!
Here are two important things to remember: 1) You don’t have to give a teacher gift. As a teacher, I can say I don’t think badly of families who don’t give me a gift. It is just an added bonus. 2) Teachers are people too. Just like you wouldn’t want 12 coffee mugs with cutesy lawyer sayings on the, we don’t need 12 coffee mugs with cutesy teacher sayings on them. But when we get them, we do appreciate them because it is the thought that counts. But here is a list of three gifts teachers will love.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
I am working towards being a minimalist in my entire life. It might be a struggle, but I am definitely a minimalist when it comes to raising a child. There were plenty of things that were “must-haves” that we didn’t buy and haven’t missed. One thing we did accumulate, however, was cloth diapers. Now, I have been good and I don’t have a ginormous stash (although it is hard not to buy every single cute cloth diaper I find), but I have found three cloth diaper accessories that we couldn’t live without. One can even be used with disposable diapers too. (Make sure you take a listen to my cloth diapering 101 podcast.)
It is so important for toddlers to spend time outside. Not only is the fresh air and even the dirt important to keep them healthy, there are many things outside that they can’t do inside. Walking on uneven, outdoor ground helps with gross motor skills and simply having more room to move is great! But sometimes it is hard to know what to do with a toddler outside. So, I have a list of simple and cheap things to do outside with toddlers. These aren’t revolutionary ideas, but are ideas that have much more merit than just being playtime.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
When Mac was too old for a co-sleeper bassinet (read about where she slept as a newborn here), she moved into a Montessori floor bed. I already explained what a floor bed is and why we chose it (read about that here), but today I wanted to talk about where we set up the floor bed to start with.
Once Mac grew out of the bassinet, I already knew I wanted to have her in the floor bed. The problem was our two bedroom townhouse had our bedroom and another “bedroom” masquerading as a storage unit. I also wasn’t ready to have Mac move so far away from me. So I started to search the internet, looking for inspiration to share a room with Mac and her Montessori floor bed. But I couldn’t find anyone who had a floor bed in their own bedroom. Well, we went on to successfully share a room with Mac’s bed for six months, so I thought I would talk about how we did it.
Update: If you’d like to see her floor bed after she moved into her own room, you can read about it here. Make sure you also check out why she bed shares with us part time.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
I used to think that when I had a baby, s/he would sleep in a crib, just like every other baby. But when I began working at a Montessori school, I learned about floor beds and never looked back. I have found so many benefits and it has been so easy to use, that I just had to talk about what a floor bed is.
So, here is a quick progression on how we got Mac into her floor bed. When Mac was a baby, she slept in a bedside bassinet. Once she was a bit older, she moved into a floor bed in our room. Eventually Mac and her floor bed moved into her own room. Now we bed share part time with her as a toddler.
Toddlers can help clean. I know it seems unlikely, but toddlers love to clean! At first, they won’t exactly be helpful, but it will be good in the long run. Not only are you teaching them how to help out around the house, but you are also getting a little extra help around the house. Win-win for everyone!
There are a few things to keep in mind. It will take extra time. It won’t actually be clean when they are done. If the toddler hasn’t gone through the sensitive period for order, they may not exactly understand the process of cleaning for a while. It may be frustrating. But toddlers will love feeling included and helpful. And the more they feel that way, the more motivated they will be to continue helping you out. So here is a list of four simple ways toddlers can help clean.
Dusting
Mac loves to take a wet washcloth and wipe down surfaces in our house, like bookshelves, the coffee table, or her own little table. Sometimes I will direct her to another place, which also helps her learn how to listen and follow directions. She has her own spray bottle of water, but isn’t quite able work it yet. So for now I will spray the table and she wipes it up.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
When I found out I was pregnant with my first child, there were so many decisions to make. Many things I always assumed I would do, I wasn’t so sure about anymore. One of those things was having my baby sleep in a crib. There isn’t anything wrong with a crib, but after working at a Montessori school I was intrigued by the idea of a floor bed.
But before we started my daughter in a floor bed, I needed to figure out where to have her sleep until she was old enough. I knew that I wanted her nearby, but I had some anxiety about bed sharing with her. So after some research, I decided to try a co-sleeper bassinet. (We bought an Arm’s Reach Euro Mini Co-Sleeper Bassinet. That exact style is no longer available, but the Arm’s Reach Mini Ezee 2-in-1 seems like almost the same thing!)
(If you are more intrigued by the floor bed, you can read about what a floor bed is, how we shared a room with a floor bed, and how Mac has her own floor bed room now. We do bed share part-time now that she is a toddler.)
At first, I was going to try to make a sidecar crib. There are plenty of DIY instructions on Pinterest and Google to describe the process, but I just wasn’t certain we were handy enough to make it work. So instead, I found the Arm’s Reach Co-Sleeper Bedside Bassinet. We ended up using it for both of our children so far. (Make sure you check out this co-sleeper bassinet by the same company. It looks almost identical!) Here are a few reasons why we love it.
