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saintanneshs
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 2:19pm | IP Logged
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If you could do one thing differently from the beginning with your Montessori materials (involving organization, rotation, purchasing, etc) what would it be?
AND...how would you set things up as far as placement of different Montessori materials for different age groups in your learning environment?
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I ask because this summer we are moving our learning space into my newly-painted sunflower yellow basement and I've got a clean slate! 
I've technically never done "Montessori" but I've definitely got the fever and am thinking I'll spend some time doing the early presentations with all 4 of my little learners (7,5,4 and 2) and then let the older ones move on more quickly while giving the preschooler and 2yo extra time for mastery. This means some items will be rotating faster than others and I'm not sure how to keep control of what goes where and for whom. Do share your secrets! (Side note: I'm "going back" to do things with my older two -who can both read- because I'm amazed at how well Montessori builds/enables conceptualization from a concrete level and I'm thinking it will only strengthen their skills...am I right? As I've been printing out the online presentation albums at MWEI and all of your FANTASTIC blog photos of homemade and purchased supplies for the earliest years, I can just hear the older two asking, "Mommy, why can't we do that too?"  ...both very tactile, artsy-craftsy kids)
Right now dh is building shelves inside of three giant closets (adjacent to our learning space) for the things we'll need to store and I'm absolutely giddy with so much space on my hands for organizing everything! ...All this because I have been feeling overwhelmed even by "organized" clutter lately. So much stuff can be so distracting, don't ya' think? ...even when it's in nice little labeled tubs and baskets... Anyway, I plan to stick as little in our immediate environment as possible (I'm thinking we might want doors on the closets to limit distraction? or is an open "pantry-style" more practical?)
Once the laminate flooring goes in it'll be time to purchase non-closeted shelves, specifically for placement of the children's current materials that they're working on.
Soooooo...I'd love to hear ideas, suggestions, advice on whether each child should have his/her own SHELF or SHELVES (and how many) for current presentations and independent work, or if you do "Sensory" shelves, "Math" shelves, etc. ...and anything else you'd be willing to share on what you wish you'd done as you were entering the world of Montessori for the first time. 
Thank you!
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Kristine
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 2:26pm | IP Logged
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Oooh! How exciting for you!
I am eagerly looking forward to reading replies here! I am always ready for new organizational ideas!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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saintanneshs
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 2:33pm | IP Logged
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lapazfarm wrote:
Oooh! How exciting for you!
I am eagerly looking forward to reading replies here! I am always ready for new organizational ideas! |
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No, no, no! I want YOUR ideas!
I just love your homemade materials on your blog, Theresa. I spent all weekend trying to think of a way to save money by making the bead rods (I don't even know if I'm calling them by the right name!), that is, until I stumbled through a thread that linked to the photos of some lovely rods made by you!
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Kristine
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Mackfam
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How exciting! Brand new spaces! Luscious, empty shelves! Can there be anything more delicious?  You are going to have fun the rest of the summer aren't you?!
I don't have enough experience to offer much wisdom here. So...with that disclaimer...
What would I do differently? Start slower with an intro to the environment and mat rolling presentation. My space evolved as we started and learned. Your space is already going to be pretty!  I've only just made my big purchases, really just learning right alongside everyone else here. I'm pleased though. I put a lot of thought into what my dc would benefit from, researched A LOT online, printed what I could, and then searched from several different sites to find the best prices. I think I did ok - I don't feel I made any spontaneous purchases, and I'm sooooooo excited waiting for things to come in.
The other question you asked was about placement and organization. Now, I'm all about organization - to me things need to make sense visually, they need to be ordered. And I'm really still thinking this through. I have one area in our learning room with shelves set up for Montessori, and practically speaking, I think that is what we will have to work with for the most part. But, I'll tell you, more and more I think in terms of zones... areas...I think Theresa calls them centers. Especially for the older children and the more involved subjects. Ideally, and in my dream space, there would be an area for each subject. One of these areas would be a preschool area with a lot of sensorial objects, but I probably wouldn't organize by age or child - rather by subject - science, nature study, art, music, sensorial, geography, math, grammar, writing. That's my ideal - what will happen in reality will more than likely translate into a combination of baskets and shelves for our learning zones. I'll be doing some creative carving out of spaces here in the next few weeks. That's my ideal though - books up, Montessori down. There are so many others here with more wisdom and experience. Think I'll watch this closely to get more ideas! Thanks for starting this Kristine. What an exciting space you will have - a blank canvas - I'm giddy for you!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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saintanneshs
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Mackfam wrote:
| Ideally, and in my dream space, there would be an area for each subject. One of these areas would be a preschool area with a lot of sensorial objects, but I probably wouldn't organize by age or child - rather by subject - science, nature study, art, music, sensorial, geography, math, grammar, writing. That's my ideal - what will happen in reality will more than likely translate into a combination of baskets and shelves for our learning zones. |
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Jennifer, how would you, in your ideal, lay out those "zones" within a room?
Would you have more than one shelf for each subject area? So say a set of bookcases with 4 lower shelves would be split for (2)geography and (2)nature study, with everything for each child's level on them, open to usage by whomever?
Mackfam wrote:
| I'll be doing some creative carving out of spaces here in the next few weeks. |
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Please, please share! 
And thanks for the suggestion of mat training. Oh, wisdom! I hadn't thought about that either...guess I have more reading to do! I don't wanna put the cart before the horse!
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Kristine
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Angel
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 3:40pm | IP Logged
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Oh, I'm looking forward to reading this thread (and I do have a few ideas, too.) But right now I have to finish writing up our quarterly reports for the school district. Then I can totally focus on NEXT year. 
--Angela
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 5:31pm | IP Logged
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I'd love to have a shelf or two for each subject! Probably keep the math up higher - out of reach of littler hands.
Maybe while your dh is finishing up your room you could spend a little time making a list of the materials you have and those you want to make/purchase over the summer. Then, break your list down by subject. That should give you a fairly good idea of what you will have on hand for the beginning of the year and the materials you will need space for. The items should be accessible, but remember Montessori is all about freedom within limits, so don't be afraid to limit materials by rotating them on and off of your shelves. You may not need (or want) to set everything out at once.
Can't wait to see how your room turns out!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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AndreaG
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Kristine,
Nice to meet you! Another montessori homeschooler to get ideas from
I really like the idea of a shelf or zone for each subject, perhaps you could put materials for the younger kids on the lower shelves and older kid's works on the higher shelves. It sounds like you have a lot of space to work with, a blank slate, and many possibilities! I don't have that much space so rather than divide by subject, my shelves are divided by age group (though I try to keep subjects together on the shelves as much as possible. My baby (soon to be toddler) has his own shelf FAR AWAY (seperated by a desk) from my main montessori bookcase in an attempt to keep materials out of his mouth. I had the same set-up since my daughter who is now 3 was a baby and it worked great to keep her occupied and out of the dumpable things. Of course she is a girl- we'll see how my little boy does now that he is almost crawling- I read about Angela's twins and have a feeling he will be taking a page from them My montessori utopia is about to come crashing down literally!
For inspiration on creating a montessori home classroom check out Lori's Montessori For Everyone blog. http://montessoriforeveryone.blogspot.com/ She has some great photos of her set-up.
And I agree with Jennifer about the importance of mat training! I wish I would have taken more time in the beginning to present proper use of the materials and the complete work cycle (taking off the shelf, working, then returning to its place).
Another thing I wish I had done differently is focus on fewer materials, or maybe started with practical life, then gone to sensorial, then math and language. I felt so frenzied when I first started montessori with all the printing, making things, more printing, putting album pages in binders, trying to figure it all out, more printing. I had a closet full of materials I didn't really know what to do with or have space to display. Taking Karen Tyler's training class(which goes through the subjects one at a time over 18 months) and really just taking time to learn the presentations and create space and system for it all has been a big help.
I can't wait to hear how you set up your space!
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Andrea
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Meredith
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 10:22pm | IP Logged
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Oh man, just returning from the weekend, mulling this one over, and getting back on here tomorrow....
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Meredith
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SuzanneG
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| Posted: June 11 2007 at 11:40pm | IP Logged
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This is a great topic to ask Lori about tomorrow.
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Suzanne in ID
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Angel
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If I could do one thing differently... I think I would have started working with the little ones first, and then progressed to the older. I think would have concentrated more just on trying to make some kind of a work a habit for everyone before I worried about math/language. I would have attempted to entice the kids to the work by providing them with more activities geared to their interests.
You don't have this problem, but I also would have tried very hard to have all the materials in one room. (Our space in this house is laid out... a little weird. Blame it on the 50's.) Then instead of being on them constantly to choose something, I would have just said: "We're in this room from x time to y time. You can choose to work with anything in this room, but you can't leave it." Then if they needed to look out the window for a while in order to figure out what to do next, I wouldn't have fretted so much, and they wouldn't have run back to their rooms to play dragons or horses.
I also would have started out with fewer materials and kept fewer materials on the shelves.
And I would not have expected so much at the very beginning (particularly since we have a lot of attention issues in my house!)
As far as organization goes... I would not have baby-proofed in the beginning -- I would have *toddler-proofed*. The babies have always been one step ahead of me. I would put things up out of reach when they were crawling and immediately they began pulling up so they could reach those things. As soon as they started to walk, they learned to climb. To be honest, now nothing is really safe unless it's in a toddler proof container or behind a locked door. I do have some math stuff out up high which they have apparently overlooked , but I am just kind of holding my breath about that.
If you have enough space, I really like the idea of zones or centers because I think it helps the kids know where to put things back. Even if they don't know *exactly* where something is supposed to go, they can figure it out through context. We do this with our bookshelves, but we don't have enough space (and since the most important thing is to keep the older kids' things safe from the Dynamic Duo) to do this with the materials so much. Since I'm redoing our environment (again), I am trying to think of how I can group subjects together as much as possible. But I doubt that I will be able to keep *everything* together.
--Angela
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lapazfarm
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I am re-organizing my space, too. Like Angela I don't have one room for everything. Having older children, I don't think I would want that, though. In my case I like having the work areas spread through the house because it allows me to go on with my life (cooking, cleaning, etc) all day without being away from the kids.It also lends itself to the children working in separate spaces, which helps their concentration a bit. The downside is that they do tend to wander off!
I definitely like to have my materials grouped by subject. It helps me organize not only materials, but also my thinking. Then I work from the bottom up:toddler stuff on bottom shelves, preschool above that, elementary above that, books above that. I also have some separate areas reserved just for my older ds. I am not sure I will have a toddler or pre-schooler next year, so I am planning flexibly.
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Jordan
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I'm so glad you asked this question, Kristine. I've been on and off the Montessori wagon for a few years now and I'm just now feeling like I really want to get started. I am so glad to hear people say that starting with less and moving slowly is a good move. That seems so much simpler and less overwhelming.
I am eager to read others' responses.
How exciting for you that you have a big new learning space to start fresh with!
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Jordan
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Meredith
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lapazfarm wrote:
I am re-organizing my space, too. Like Angela I don't have one room for everything. Having older children, I don't think I would want that, though. In my case I like having the work areas spread through the house because it allows me to go on with my life (cooking, cleaning, etc) all day without being away from the kids.It also lends itself to the children working in separate spaces, which helps their concentration a bit. The downside is that they do tend to wander off!
I definitely like to have my materials grouped by subject. It helps me organize not only materials, but also my thinking. Then I work from the bottom up:toddler stuff on bottom shelves, preschool above that, elementary above that, books above that. I also have some separate areas reserved just for my older ds. I am not sure I will have a toddler or pre-schooler next year, so I am planning flexibly. |
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This is where I am at as well. I REALLY like the idea of having the subjects together in centers or zones. I will probably have my littlest's items on two lower shelves in our library that he can access any time. The other items will have their own shelves inside cabinets that are off our learning area/kitchen nook location. It's all really a work in progress and like everyone else, waiting patiently (NOT) for my truckload of items ....And I do think we should have Lori pop in on this thread if she's able
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Meredith
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saintanneshs
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Wow, thank you all for sharing such wonderful ideas and suggestions. As I was reading through them I kept saying out loud, "That's a really good idea...I like that one... I think I could do that..." (as if you were all right here beside me! )
I think Lori's point (in the guest speaker thread) about the value of actually observing a Montessori classroom has hit home. I'd love to check out the room set-up and how the teacher manages her presentations among different groups of students. I wonder if there's a Montessori school anywhere nearby that would let a curious homeschooling mom drop in for a visit??
Thank you all again for sharing. I'm going to print this out and highlight your suggestions for reference as I start pulling things together over the summer. Thank you especially for allowing me to listen in and learn from you. It's so good to belong here.
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Kristine
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saintanneshs
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Oh and one more thing to give you a smile... This afternoon I was mentioning my desire to have a Montessori learning environment (& albums to use with my kiddos) to my mom who is an excellent public school elementary teacher (yeah, I'm biased ) and she said,
"Wow! Montessori? That's wonderful. She's created the standard that the best school systems aspire to. She's the one that we emulate."
...such a nice surprise from Mom...
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Kristine
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Mackfam
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saintanneshs wrote:
| Wow, thank you all for sharing such wonderful ideas and suggestions. As I was reading through them I kept saying out loud, "That's a really good idea...I like that one... I think I could do that..." (as if you were all right here beside me! ) |
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You are so welcome! This has been a great thread for me too!
saintanneshs wrote:
| It's so good to belong here. |
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I totally agree. Today has just been awesome!!! Where else do you get such awesome opportunities? You ladies are all so affirming and uplifting. This has been such a fun discussion lately, and I have learned so much!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Montessori for the first time?
