Have you ever heard of the “Montessori Method”? Part of the Montessori Method states that “We must teach our children to be free so that they may live in a free society,” or something along those lines (I’m paraphrasing here). I’ve just ordered my first book on how to incorporate this Method into our home life, so I should be able to share more once I’ve delved into it. For now, I’m starting with this simple concept. I’m trying to create “smaller” spaces in the home, scaled to Baby O. For instance, we’ve just started feeding her at a tiny table, with a pint-sized chair, giving her her own utensils and dishes.
She has the ability to get up and walk around if she wants, before coming back for another bite. Some people might say that teaches bad manners, but I think it must be empowering for her to have the freedom to choose.
For a toddler who hasn’t been eating a lot the first 1.5 years of life, I’ve already noticed that she ends up eating much more, and trying more of my healthy foods, than she did before (she is quite possibly the pickiest eater EVER).She has the freedom to stand in her chair…
…and wander around…
…But she’s certainly eating well, and I’m happy!
In our ongoing effort to make the house toddler-friendly, we painted our wooden fridge doors with a layer of magnetic paint, followed by chalkboard paint. It’s super rough and grainy (unfortunately…my fault for not truly mixing the magnetic paint for ten full minutes!), but I’m so happy that this is another pint-sized feature for her use. She seems to enjoy scribbling, sometimes while eating, sometimes after…
For all the parents of toddlers out there…I would love to hear other ideas you might have for making a happy home life for Baby. Seriously, I would LOVE more ideas.
If you subscribe by email, you may have noticed my absence this past week…Oops! We had some sick days here in the Foster Household, and between that and photo editing, I decided I’d better stay focused on those tasks first. But, I sure do love this blog and am happy to be back!
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I love Baby O’s little space! So cute! Baby T loved it today too! When I observed a Montessori school recently, I saw tots working on things like “planting” plastic flowers in little pots with coffee beans for soil. They were using tot-sized gardening tools, which are always cute! Also washing dishes in small sinks (maybe a large bucket on the ground – outside! – would work). Big Brother W always loved washing dishes!
Oh my goodness, that’s a good idea…I would love to have her “help” wash dishes! She always wants my yellow cleaning gloves. Maybe they make a kid version for pretend-play.
Funny, we were just having a discussion about Montessori over dinner.