Creative montessori spaces on the cheap

Before I read up on Montessori we would put the girls down for tummy time and then give them rattles and toys. We all but put items in their hands, so they never really had to reach for anything unless they threw items out of their reach. Once I started reading up on Montessori we stop doing this, pared back the toys and were more thoughtful in our toy selection.

As mentioned earlier my introduction to Montessori coincided with G learning to crawl, so I knew we would need to make some changes in the house. I loved the idea of having a few select items on low shelving, but we are renting at the moment whilst we look for a house plan to build. I couldn't justify buying new furniture that may or may not fit into our new house.

My solution was to remove the junk in the cupboard of our TV unit and placed some of the select items on the shelf. When the babies went to bed we would just close the door and hey presto a clean tidy room.

G loved it, she loved to pull everything out and climb inside it even better. Working on her spatial awareness. The novelty of climbing into the cupboard has worn off, she moved onto bigger and better things, which I'll cover in another post.

A, at first wasn't a big fan, remember we use to just give everything to her. We knew she was capable of rolling we never gave her the motivation to roll. Eventually she realised if there was something she wanted then she had to move herself (in this case rolling.) Also watching her sister having all the fun was a big motivator to move. Consequently, she also figured out how to sit up.

Eventually I had to remove the doors as G liked to sit by the doors and swing the doors open/close/open/close and it became a hazard once A was more mobile and rolling. So the TV unit looks like this now. The items change, except for two books they like, the Fisher Price Shake Rattle and Roll Ring sorter (a gift) and the nesting cups (another gift) remained as firm favorites. The activity centre remained for a while, but has made its way to the garage, where all baby bits and pieces end up.