montessori home Archives - Page 2 of 2

toy storage – my montessori corners

Sorry for that longer then planned absence, but hi and I’m back! During this unplanned break I did a complete sort through of Imogen’s toys and I firmly established our toy library area.

First, I highly recommend the book Simplicity Parenting, by Kim John Payne. There is an entire chapter that deals with toys, it can be summed up by this one quote from the book:

“A smaller, more manageable quantity of toys invites deeper play and engagement. An avalanche of toys invites emotional disconnect and a sense of overwhelming.” pg. 65

That being said, we still have way too much. But, here is how I try to contain and organize the seemingly endless stuff.

This is our main living area and her main play space. She was in a funny place where she rarely played with her trains anymore, but was HIGHLY resistant to any mention of packing them up and putting them in the toy library (more on this whole situation later in the post). Continue reading “toy storage – my montessori corners”

many mini book nooks – my montessori corners

The books, oh the books. They’re everywhere – tucked into shelves, under beds, in baskets and bins. I love the variety and the options, but when there are too many choices and no organizational framework, the options are no longer fun but rather overwhelming – for both me and the children.

In a Montessori classroom the space should be thoughtfully organized and beautifully maintained (just don’t check how dusty my moveable alphabet might be okay?). This external organization should make the materials (in this case books) easily accessible to the child, be simple to maintain and be somewhat intuitive, it makes sense to both the child and the adult. While all areas of the home do not have to live up to these same standards, there are some basic ways we can implement the same ideas throughout our homes and spaces. This is my approach to finding a system to both showcase and wrangle all the wonderful books that were overflowing in our house.

What made the most sense to me was to gather up ALL the children’s books in the house – and I mean all of them. I then found some deeply discounted storage bins, I bought six and I just used five. I labeled each bin, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Winter Holidays. And then I started sorting. I had been rotating books by season for a while, but I never really had a system, it was more of a grab and go situation.Continue reading “many mini book nooks – my montessori corners”