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marianne
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 1:49pm | IP Logged
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My shelves are taking shape and they are a wonderful sight! Many of my materials are homemade but I've made some purchases, too, like the dressing frames and the maps and stand. My 2yo and 4yo are doing great with picking up and putting away after each activity - I'm so pleased with how they are forming that habit.
My problem is that my almost 8 mo is crawling and starting to pull up on the shelves. I've been able to keep her out of everything so far, but she is only warming up! I just had a vision of how our next school year is going go, with her heading into the toddler stage and me with my sorting bead activities and puzzles and rods and blocks, ect....I want those activities out and available, but something's going to have to give.
What all have you done with a young toddler/mobile baby hanging around during school time with the littles? I suppose I can put the small parts on the higher shelves, but that will only hold her for so long. These shelves are begging to be climbed! What did I do here? I'll have to post a picture when I get everything set up.
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 2:03pm | IP Logged
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Oh this is such a precious age for her, and yet, she's only a shelf reach away from disaster for you  I SO know what you are gearing up for. My recommendation would be to put the small parts up higher, and perhaps try and have a basket of special things just for her in her area, you may have to gate off the learning room or a portion of it for a while which can be hard for everyone 
What's your inclination? We'd love to see a picture. Clear bins with snap closures are also an option as the other kiddos will still be able to see what's inside and choose their activities accordingly, just food for thought...
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Meredith
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Angel
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 3:06pm | IP Logged
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I'd try putting smaller objects up high first. If you've got anything that can be containerized, put it in a container. And make sure there's nothing that can be used as a stool in the vicinity.
Having some things for her to do on the lower shelves is also a good idea. They have to be at eye level, though, in my experience. My guys totally ignored everything on the very bottom shelves when they were cruising around in favor of what they could get at when they stood up.
Sometimes, however, what I think might really be necessary is a cage... ok, you didn't hear me say that. But it's mighty tempting at the moment!!!
--Angela
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: July 26 2007 at 4:07pm | IP Logged
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When my grandson was that age the thing that worked best was having LOTS of things for him to do in every room, low and accessible to him, and he really didn't bother the older kids stuff very much. Re-direction worked pretty well. If I saw him heading for something he shouldn't, I could scoop him up and get him interested in something else. Also having some special toys for him that he only was allowed to play with at certain times helped a lot. These were kept up on a high shelf and I pulled them out when I really needed a distraction for him.
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JoJo
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| Posted: July 27 2007 at 3:03am | IP Logged
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We have a 10 month old who can now reach yet another Montessori shelf. Everything has slowly moved up another shelf, but in the process things got quite cluttered up high, so over the July school holidays (mid-year for us) we've totally cleared things up to minimise the amount of things getting thrown about (inspired of course by another thread here  ).
And we have put a gate on one of the living areas, so that the older two can spread their work out on a mat. This has worked very well so far, and as they have not been able to do mat work for a while (except at nap times), so the novelty of it is working in our favour now.
As an aside, funnily enough, my 6yo has actually enjoyed working on her own in this living area (compared to our recent struggles to get her to work more independently).
Theresa, you are so right about having lots of things to do for the little ones - I definitely must work on that.
Jo
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happymama
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| Posted: July 27 2007 at 11:24pm | IP Logged
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my kids are 4,2, and a very mobile 9 mo! From my perspective, safety is the first and formost concern. We have all materials in one room, and a baby gate in the doorway to the room. Baby just simply isn't allowed in there - too many things to choke on, scissors, etc. etc.
In fact my 2 1/2 year old still needs supervision and guidance to make sure he's putting things away. Too many temptations to misuse materials, draw on things he shouldn't, etc.
Definitely i try to keep the infant distracted with wonderful things to explore and touch and move around. Just not in the classroom.
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marianne
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| Posted: July 28 2007 at 8:17am | IP Logged
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Thank you for all the replies.
I really like the clear plastic container idea - I already have some of those in use, but I think I'll buy more. I think I'm going to have to store the activities with small pieces in the closet and only bring those out at certain times. Certain things she can just play with, so those I'll leave on the bottom (like the Melissa and Doug lock/latch puzzle).
I have a niche under the stairway that I may use for our geography area. I will block off the area with a baby gate. Not ideal, but I don't want maps getting pulled out and dumped, pieces getting lost, ect.... My 2yo might be tempted by those also.
I will post pictures once I'm set up.
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montessori_lori
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When my daughter was this age, she still napped twice a day. My son and I only worked during her naptimes, and when she was up, I turned the shelves around to face the wall. Otherwise, it was just too hard to keep her away from everything - and dangerous, even, since many of the works had small pieces. It worked for us!
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 28 2007 at 9:45am | IP Logged
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Oh Lori, Never thought of turning the shelves around  Oh how I LONG for a double napper day
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montessori_lori
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I know - once she moved to one nap, it was so much harder to fit in our worktime. For awhile, I'd put her in her crib with books and toys for "quiet time" during what had been her naptime. =)
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Angel
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| Posted: July 28 2007 at 1:30pm | IP Logged
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Meredith wrote:
| Oh how I LONG for a double napper day |
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Some days I find myself wishing for a *single* nap day!
I had forgotten about mentioning gates. Gates are something I have been wishing for a long time, but we have some really odd openings in our house and it's tough to find gates that will work. Therefore, I haven't actually shown anyone the use of mats. Anyone working on the floor would just be mobbed. 
After taking a good long look at our dining room, though... I think I might be able to fit a map cabinet inside the hearth gate (which is quite large). DH and I are still talking finances, but our first consideration was whether we could even do a map cabinet in the first place without losing all the puzzle pieces.
I will mention that we're storing a lot of our stuff behind closed and toddler-locked cabinet doors. This is not Montessori at all, but otherwise the twins will have everything to the 4 corners of the earth. I have tried to find cabinet locks that the older kids can open themselves. The biggest problem with closed doors, however, is probably "out of sight out of mind"... although I think that one of our problems lately with the stuff I do have set out is that there is no regular time and routine for *using* it yet.
--Angela
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montessori_lori
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Angela, we totally did that too. I bought cabinets with doors from Target and we put baby locks on them. It worked really well until dd learned how to open the baby locks.
Things like turning shelves around or using cabinets with locks are not really anti-Montessori. In fact, it's using the principle of controlling the environment rather than controlling the child.
The ideal, of course, would be to have carefully prepared age-appropriate environments for each age group, but we really can't do that at home. But no Montessori school would take the infant class and bring them to the elementary classroom just to make sure their choices weren't limited. Their choices are limited in both home and school, just in different ways.
The child should be free to explore, but they can't if the environment has dangerous or inappropriate work. If the dangerous or inappropriate work is hidden away, the child doesn't have the ability to make the wrong choices, and it's easier for everyone.
I agree with the "out-of-sight-out-of-mind" thing - we tried to keep the cabinet doors open during work time when the baby was sleeping or playing in her room, so that the work was still visible.
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 29 2007 at 9:57am | IP Logged
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montessori_lori wrote:
Things like turning shelves around or using cabinets with locks are not really anti-Montessori. In fact, it's using the principle of controlling the environment rather than controlling the child....
The child should be free to explore, but they can't if the environment has dangerous or inappropriate work. If the dangerous or inappropriate work is hidden away, the child doesn't have the ability to make the wrong choices, and it's easier for everyone.
I agree with the "out-of-sight-out-of-mind" thing - we tried to keep the cabinet doors open during work time when the baby was sleeping or playing in her room, so that the work was still visible. |
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I really appreciate your insight here Lori and this is initially what we will have to do with my 2 yo. I have all my shelved set up in cabinets, mainly cause I haven't been able to find open shelving that I am happy with as of yet but this way he will have his materials out and available at his work area, and everyone else will be able to choose from the cabinet and then the door will be closed. Except of course during nap and then it will be a free-for-all Just kidding, thanks for adding your thoughts here!
Blessings!
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Meredith
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4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder
Topic: Beautiful M. shelves vs. mobile baby
