Category: Uncategorized

A quick search for “Montessori toys” will lead you to a plethora of children’s toys. Many of these have reviews explaining why this lovely toy is not a Montessori toy. Typically, these reviews are not wrong! One of the biggest conflicts I’ve noticed is open-ended toys being labeled “Montessori” when Montessori materials are typically designed to be closed-ended.

Why is Montessori closed-ended?

When Maria Montessori designed materials for her classrooms, she worked hard to create something that isolated the topic for the child. While many materials have multiple ways to present lessons, there is still a prescribed method of using the material and educational goal. Color tablets teach children color recognition. Moveable alphabet helps children spell. The tower of cubs (also known as the pink tower) helps children explore size differentiation.

Maria Montessori saw the value of play and incorporated it into her classrooms. She also saw how much children enjoyed doing meaningful work. I think a great example is a toy kitchen. Many children will spend hours copying their parents and pretending to pour, measure, stir, and slice in a play kitchen. But when given the opportunity to pour real water, slice a real cucumber, or bake a real cake, children are often far more interested. It may not be play the way adults think of playing, but the child is having fun and learning.

Why we used open-ended toys

When it comes to bringing toys into my home, I much prefer open-ended toys over closed-ended. Why? Because free play is separate from our school. While the line is often blurred with homeschooling,

**This is an affiliate post.**

It’s that time of year again! Many families are heading back to school (whatever that may mean for your family). Back to school might mean heading into a school building, organized homeschool groups, or more educational, family outings.

Whatever the case may be, children seem adept at misplacing belongings! The solution I have found to this issue is Name Bubbles. I’ve tried several types of name stickers over the years, as a teacher and a parent, and these are my favorite!

Why Name Bubbles?

My favorite thing about name bubbles is that they last! Other labels I’ve tried either fade away or peel off. Even my oldest Name Bubbles stickers look new- after being on items like backpacks that get beat up, after going through the dishwasher, or going through a washer and dryer. Seriously, they look like I placed the sticker yesterday. When you’re looking to make sure your kids’ (or your!) belongings are properly labeled, this is probably the more important feature.

I also love how customizable the stickers are. Name Bubbles offers different shapes, sizes, and designs. Most of these are available in multiple colors and multiple fonts. My kids like this, too, since they’ve gotten to customize their own stickers.

A Solution for Anything

Name Bubbles offers different types of clothing labels as well as everyday labels, contact information labels, medical labels, write on labels, and even stickers! And really, they’re not just for kids. Because they are so customizable, I have stickers I am not embarrassed to put on my own belongings.

A great option for many families is Value Packs. While the everyday labels may be enough for some situations, I highly recommend a Value Pack. Name Bubbles offers many different types of value packs, each with its own set of labels. The Custom School Labels pack, for example, comes with clothing labels, shoe labels, and everyday labels in a variety of sizes.

Lost Items

My children have definitely misplaced items, like many children. However, we have not actually lost any of the belongings with the Name Bubbles sticker on them. While I assume there is no actual magic working with these stickers, I am sure it has been helpful to the people finding these items to see a name clearly printed on a bright sticker.

*This post contains affiliate links*

Something I love in Montessori classrooms is how “real” snacks and meals are for children. Young children- even toddlers!- are setting tables, sitting at the table, and eating nicely. In some schools, a community meal is even shared and passed along the table. Watching a 2-year-old politely ask for the milk pitcher is precious.

The Benefits of Shared Meals

While I understand the challenges of sharing a meal as a family, it is something we strive for. When everyone is sitting at the table together, one of the first things a child can learn is table manners. Children see how to sit at the table, how to use utensils, and hold polite conversations. The expectations I have of my children vary with developmental ability, but we are always modeling the behaviors we want to see at the table.

In our house, breakfast and lunch is left up to individual choice. Dinner, though, we share the meal. When my children were very young, I prepared the meal, served it on plates, and put the plates on the table. This worked well for us most of the time, but I have since changed to putting serving platters and bowls right on the table.

Setting the Table

To start, each child should have a placemat. There are many placemats available for Montessori homes. These in particular are silicone, so they will hold up a long time and can even go in the dishwasher. Look for a placemat that has outlines for dishes, silverware, and the napkin.

Serving bowls! I love my matching set of serving bowls. It makes it easy for me to grab exactly what I’m looking for every night. For some families, it might make more sense to use a food storage container for easy clean up, but love how nice these white bowls look on the table.

Like many Montessori teachers, I prefer breakable dishware. This often comes as a shock to parents, as we have been conditioned to believe we need durable, plastic dishware. Observations in schools and at home has led me to believe this only causes children to be more careless. After all, if you know it won’t break, why bother being careful? Breakable dishes, however, need to be treated with care and children often take that responsibility seriously. While breaks do happen occasionally, I have found that there are fewer drops and spills overall. That said, when there is a break, I ask them to let an adult clean up the mess.

I like the Corelle brand of dishware in my own home. It is fairly sturdy and holds up to everyday bumps. These white plates and these white bowls are a perfect size for young children and will complement most dishware you have for the adults in the house.

Drinkware

Expecting a 3-year-old to pour a glass of milk from a gallon jug is setting the child up for failure. Instead, I keep small, glass pitchers on hand for the children. During meal times, I can put these on the table for the children to use. At other times, they are kept on a low shelf in the fridge. This small, glass pitcher from For Small Hands (not an affiliate link) is one of my favorites! Here you will find a similar pitcher from Amazon.

For drinking glasses, I look for glasses with a heavy base. This makes them more stable when a child is pouring and drinking. The ideal size for a preschool child and older, in my opinion, is a “juice glass”. These are often around 5 or 6 ounces. These Libbey Heavy Base Juice Glasses are perfect. I use them myself frequently!

As the school year is winding down, the anticipation of summer is palpable. Finally, the children don’t need a jacket to play outside, there are flowers growing, and on particularly warm days, a sprinkler is welcome. If the space allows, children may even bring their work outdoors to enjoy the fresh air. It seems everyone is feeling a little happier, a little excited, and ready for summer.

When the school year ends, parents often wonder how to structure the summer. Should they be working on new skills, reviewing old skills, or practicing in a workbook? Should they have a reading log or not worry too much about it? How much time should be allotted for educational activities, free play, and structured actives?

Free Play

Unstructured play is extremely beneficial for children. Wherever children find themselves over the summer- day camp, a summer nanny, or at home- there are often more opportunities for free play than usual. As an educator, I have always encouraged parents to allow this to happen as much as possible, especially when it means outdoor play. Trips to the parks, playgrounds, bike rides, and walks around the neighborhood are often a little easier in summer. A game of catch or soccer with family or friends can be a fun way to spend the afternoon. Aside from the health benefits of outdoor play, children may see their motor skills, confidence, and social skills improve with unstructured, outdoor play.

Traditional Academic Work

During the summer, many schools do not require students to do much traditional academic work. While there are many opportunities for learning during the summer, reading is one area I like to encourage during the summer. For some children, a reading log is a great way to keep track. Other children find it is a helpful reminder to read. For others, it is a visual for their reading accomplishments.

As for other academic needs, I prefer to use every day life and games to practice skills learned. There are many ways, with some suggestions below, families can support both academic and developmental needs of children in the summer without the pressure of a normal school day.

Supporting Academics in Summer

One of the easiest things for me to do as a parent is adding little conversations, tasks, and questions into our day. A child who has been learning about fractions might be interested in helping bake cookies, where he can read and add fractions. A child just learning to count can choose seven strawberries to put into a bowl and one learning to recognize numbers or letters can play a fun game of “I Spy.” For children learning money or decimals, they can help figure out the grocery bill or the tip at a restaurant.

Additionally, there are so many games that are fun and help develop math and language skills. A childhood favorite of mine was the game Parcheesi. Children can practice addition with an emphasis on figuring out doubles. Monopoly is another classic to practice math skills. Scrabble or Boggle are fun games for the family to practice spelling skills. The Uncle Wiggly game is another favorite to practice both reading skills and number work, plus the game play is fairly simple.

Nature Learning

There is so much learning to be done with nature! In addition to playful activities, children also enjoy learning about the natural world around them. An easy activity may be gardening. Whether you have several acres or a sunny window, there is some form of gardening that can work for your home.

An activity I have enjoyed with students is taking the Montessori leaf shape materials and looking for real life examples of leaves. Leaves are easy to find on a hike or walk where we live. Many children love to do leaf rubbings on paper or in a journal of the leaves they found. As an extension, they can label the leaf shape, the type of leave, or also get a bark rubbing from the tree.

My own children love reading non-fiction books about the natural world. When we read things about our local environment, we make a point to look for those things in real life. At my children’s suggestion, we have gone for walk during times when we might be more likely to see deer- and it worked! It was a thrilling experience to stumble upon deer while going on a walk, and something they still talk about often.

The Montessori Silence Game is always a great game to practice our listening skills and becoming more observant. Sometimes while we are out and about in nature, we sit and practice the Silence Game, quietly listening to the sounds of nature. It has helped all of us be more peaceful even when watching nature. We have found a mole, painted turtles, tadpoles, bullfrogs, snakes, salamanders, and a variety of other wildlife simple because we’ve been practicing observations.

Don’t Stress!

At the end of the day, I don’t want to be adding any extra stress to my own life or my children’s lives in the name of education. One of the most important thing for children to do is to play. Play, while fun, also has its own educational benefits and helps children learn and develop even better. Sometimes the perfect summer day for my children is sitting in their playroom playing with dolls. Other days, they’re out in the sprinkler all day. There are many ways to support children’s education, social-emotional development, and motor development beyond the classroom. I try to put most of my focus on simply enjoying summer, following my children’s lead, and exposing them to things that maybe I like a bit more than them- sometimes sparking joy for a new activity.

In a scientific environment, observation is very important. Scientists learn a lot through what they can objectively observe and use the data for further research. As Maria Montessori was a scientist herself, it is not surprising that she utilized this tool when working with children.

Observations can be very enlightening. Often when we are interacting with our children, we are too involved to see the whole picture. When we sit back and observe without interacting, it is easier to see things that are happening. Sometimes we need only sit and watch for a few minutes, other times we can sit and watch for a longer period of time. One of the best times to sit back and observe is when we see that our child is struggling with something or something does not seem to be working for my child or our routine.

Fixing a Problem

In my own house, we typically enter and exit through the kitchen. We have a coat rack for adults and low hooks for children’s coats. We do not typically remove shoes when we come in, so shoe storage is in the bedrooms. This has always been my routine and I find it works well. However, it was clearly not working for my children. Most days I had to chase after my children to remind them to hang their coats or else who knows where they would end up. Shoes typically went back into the shoe bins, but retrieving them when it was time to wear shoes was a challenge.

This is when observation became helpful. I found a solution to our problem because I took some time to pause and watch what was happening. What I saw was my children coming inside and continuing to walk through the kitchen before even attempting to remove their jacket. It made sense; there is more room in the living room and there are lots of times when we are also bringing things in from the car or playing. Stopping to remove jackets in the middle of the hustle and bustle did not make sense.

I saw that we needed a better location for hanging coats and storing shoes. Near our front door, we had a small unused space – perfect for hanging a few hooks! The hooks are just the right height for my children to hang their coats independently. Under the hooks, I got a small shoe shelf. It is nice and low with space for both shoe bins and a few extra things, such as lunch boxes. Because the storage is in a more convenient place for my children, I rarely see coats on the floor, I rarely have to remind about putting coats and shoes away, and everyone is able to get ready to go out quickly.

What to Look for When Observing

When we are observing, whether it is so we can solve an issue or just to see how things are working, there are a few things we want to make note of. I find it helps to observe what is happening with some questions in mind. These are a few things I consider:

1. What is causing frustration for your child?
2. If you are feeling frustrated by a part of a routine or something that is happening, what can you see that is happening?
3. What location or material is your child drawn to?
4. Where or which material is your child avoiding?
5. What attributes do the things have that your child is either drawn to or avoiding?

Using This Information

After the observation, I go over my notes. With some things, multiple observations are necessary to get a good picture of what is happening and who the child is. Today he may play with wooden blocks all day and not touch anything else. It may not because anything is wrong with the other materials or setup; the blocks are simply where he wants to be that day. When a child is routinely avoiding a certain area or certain materials, it will be more telling. In a classroom, for example, there are days when a child will avoid the math area completely and other days when she spends the entire day doing various math activities. If you notice a trend that the child is never choosing math materials over a longer period of time, it is time to problem-solve. Are the concepts confusing? Is she not confident in her abilities? Is she unsure of what is an appropriate choice?

When you are already aware of an issue, sometimes it only takes one or two observations to figure things out. With the example from my home, I observed once and saw what was happening. Because I had witnessed it before, without giving it much thought, I realized the same things had been happening daily.

Getting a second opinion can also be very helpful. Sometimes I will go to my husband in the evenings and tell him things I have observed in our children. After explaining what I have seen, he might tell me something from his perspective that is eye-opening for me.

Noticing Interests

A child’s interests will often become apparent through observation, which will allow us to bring in more activities that will benefit. When my oldest daughter was a toddler, she became an expert at scooping dog food. This was great, when the dog needed to be fed, but most of the time it was problematic. Following her interests, I set up a little scooping work. I found some decorative pebbles, low dishes, and a small scoop that fit right in the palm of her hand. She scooped pebbles to her hearts content (the dog was quite disappointed by this!). Perhaps your child looks at books about the African savanna; try bringing in more activities to explore the savanna such as animal figures or work about the ecosystem.

Your Challenge

I challenge you to make a point to observe your children a few times in the next week. Write down what you see and think about it. What is working well for you and your children? What is a challenge? How can you help them? Let me know in the comments!

Asking if something is “Montessori” or telling other parents, “That’s not Montessori!” has become a common theme of Montessori groups on social media. I like to believe everyone is well meaning, though I know it can feel otherwise. There seems to be a lot of anxiety tied to making our homes wonderfully “Montessori.” Especially when we see beautiful setups with large, open shelves and large windows overlooking a beautiful outdoor play area. And of course there is never an out of play toy or activity!

After seeing some lovely photos and reading about some great activities, you decide to try something new yourself. Looking for confidence, you post a photo to the Montessori group you belong to and some kind person informs you that, “This is not Montessori.”

I’ve been there – and I was teaching in Montessori classrooms well before I had children! It is disheartening. And if we are looking at strict Montessori, that person may be right.

Montessori Home vs. Montessori School

Something I try to keep in mind for myself and when speaking with other parents, there is a big different between my home expectations and the expectations I have in my classroom. This is true whether we are talking about a Montessori aligned home environment or a Montessori based homeschool.

The materials are the biggest difference in home versus classroom. In a classroom, I want to have high quality materials, as I know many, many children will be using them through the years. Any materials we have in the classroom, if not specifically Montessori, still need to be close-ended and have other key features of a Montessori material. I will also prepare many extra activities to accommodate different interests of many children, such as a yoga corner or available sewing materials.

At home is different. For one, we have a mix of open- and close-ended materials available for our children. (See my post on the differences and benefits of each here!) We also use non-Montessori materials or printed versions of certain materials. They may not be as nice as the beautiful wooden ones, but they still help my kids learn things.

How did we get here?

When you go through Montessori training, you learn there are very specific ways of acting, using materials, and arranging the classroom. The materials were built to certain specifications. Maria Montessori found specific ways to do many things in the classroom- and they work! While no two Montessori classrooms will look the same, and different teachers will still teach a little differently, there are many similarities. Often a child transitioning from one Montessori school to another can easily transition due to so many familiarities.

As more and more people learn about the Montessori method, more people are incorporating it into their homes. This makes us Montessorians so happy! The philosophy behind Montessori – respect of the child, kind and firm discipline, encouraging independence, following and supporting a child’s interests- are the best ways to incorporate Montessori at home.

At Home

When we make our own activities or buy materials, they do not have to replicate Montessori materials! That beautiful nesting, stacking rainbow you bought is not a Montessori material or toy. I am sure a well meaning person has informed you of this while you showed it off on your Montessori shelf. And the recommendations of only photos on the wall, rather than artwork, I would not say is Montessori aligned. (That may be a post for another day!) I am sure it’s tempting to inform people of their “mistakes” because many of us know how strict about things Montessori can be.

At home, let’s try to lighten up a bit, take a deep breath. Rather than worry about whether or not something is “Montessori,” or feel badly, think about why you have that activity for your child. Is is because…

• Your children are learning something new or interesting from it?
• Your child can practice a needed skill?
• You want to expose your child to something new?
• Your child has expressed or shown an interest in the material/toy/subject area?
• Something else?
  

Final Thoughts…

You don’t need to have only wooden materials and toys for your child, nor do you need genuine Montessori materials. Open ended toys and materials are not Montessori, but they are wonderful additions to your home and homeschool environments. Themed shelves are not traditionally Montessori, but I have found they work well for home especially. Your family and child may had different needs, interests, and abilities and this should all be accounted for when designing your home.