Making Space for the Child

Fore-note: This is a draft post from when we were still living in our tiny apartment. Some interesting tidbits still in here ;)

I don't even remember ever having the maps in that location! Ha!

Oh! This article at Maria Montessori blog sums it up SO nicely!

The article (go read it!) briefly describes the difference between a home that welcomes children by making them part of the family dynamic and a home that separates child/adult spaces.

Is it good for a child to have a "children's space" to go to? Sure. It can be. But if that is coupled with "you don't belong where the adults are", it's not well-balanced.

My son's toys are in the living room. I want him to LIVE in the living room. Yes, he has school and Legos in his room - and a 3 year old tomato plant - and some personal effects.

Playing with the materials ;)
These were set up in the small bedroom for a long time. 

He wants to keep his clothing in my own walk-in closet - he has a lower clothing rack for hanging his clothes; and the bottom 3 dresser drawers. I only need 2 of the drawers anyway, so it works well to have 1 dresser and share it.

His food is my food - we don't have "mom's stash", though we might have certain foods that he likes that I don't and vice-versa (he has some peppermint extract that he uses in his own recipes that I don't care for, for example). When he was younger, he had his own pitchers for milk, juice and water with appropriate daily servings - yes, they were his "own" but he had free access to them in the main/only refrigerator in his house ---- I provided ways for him to access the family dynamic of the home without entirely separating him out.

Some of us have separate school spaces - classrooms in our homes. These are great for those who have the space! And when we have that well-balanced with the children still learning and exploring in all areas of life, and the family spending time with the "Montessori school" supplies together, having fun - then the children have a fantastic Montessori homeschool!

Setting up the bead cabinet in the hall of our new home. 

In our small apartment, we've had to take the very, very integrated approach - by necessity. I keep saying "I want a separate classroom" - and maybe part of me still does, especially for things like math supplies; and to have a dedicated science shelf again (had one; transitioned to co-op; transitioning back home with a full key-board in the science shelf's place doesn't work so hot! Time to get projects cleaned up in my room so we have more space in there ;) ).

Multi-purpose the bead cabinet ;) 

Montessori at Home: Infants and Toddlers

Cutie!

There have been SO MANY questions of late about what to do with infants; how to setup a Montessori environment for toddlers...

Legoboy, over a year ago, put together this list of then-current links to our infant Montessori and toddler Montessori experiences - I am copying/pasting its current version below.

I did find more old pictures that I want to get posted - but in the meantime, I thought I would highlight some of how we did Montessori at home, during a few moves (and a few months of no consistent home), and in small spaces (like the house we stayed in where we only had the bedroom!).

Enjoy!

(the following copy/paste is from the Infant-Toddler Page here on Montessori Trails - updated every so often, please visit for newer post links!)

Infant & Toddler
Montessori

Our Infant Toddler homeschooling Montessori Trails:

More to be posted as I get through our older photos :)

Infancy: 

Exercises of Practical Life in Infancy

Infancy: Home at Last

Infancy: Our Adaptations

Infants, Toddlers and Toothpicks

Toddler: 

Infants, Toddlers and Toothpicks

Toddler Montessori at Home

Infants and Toddlers at Home

Starting Montessori with a 2-Year -Old

Exercises of Practical Life in Our Home

Toddlerhood - Montessori Home Environment

Legoboy's First Dictionary


Last Updated: Legoboy
December 11, 2013

Small Home Montessori - Elementary - What we're doing

The space:
We have an 850 square foot apartment with a large bathroom and a tiny kitchen. Yeah, they could have shifted that space!

Legoboy has the smaller of the two bedrooms (less than 1/3 of less than 1/2 the apartment); I have the master bedroom (the full third end of the apartment (including the walk-in closet).

History:
We had primary set up in Legoboy's bedroom; his clothes went to my closet (on a lower rack on wheels; he has the bottom half of the dresser which is also in the closet). There was a small couch in his room for his bed. I removed the closet doors to extend the space, placing the map cabinet in the closet, with shelving above and behind it.

We even had the bells in there:

IKEA shelf (no longer sell that particular one :( ) on side
placed on top of a coffee table
Sensorial materials below.
The mess above is stuff I swapped up/down. 

My bedroom was/is the library (umpteen shelves), sewing room, and holds my bed. The tops of the bookcases and the shelves in the closet are "storage", which right now equates to empty boxes because we have been trying to move into a house for the last 6+ years.

The hallway had a rack with science supplies; the lower cupboards in the kitchen contained items for Legoboy's use (practical life, dishes, etc.). The bathroom has the art easel and 2 sets of drawers of art supplies.

As we entered elementary, we were slowing adding and replacing the primary materials, but then moved our whole set-up to the local school building to offer a Montessori homeschool co-op, which last some time. We brought materials back and forth as needed; not ideal, but allowed us to have some space at home to get through some other projects. Now we have had to move everything back home and, well, we've just not fully set up. We get out what we need, when we need it. Much less than ideal (less visual options as reminders) but now we are in upper elementary, we need the materials less and less anyway.


So what have we done for elementary?
The classroom sized charts and other large flat items are in the living room closet.

Side by side shelving in Legoboy's room allows us to store items while allowing him to keep his couch-bed, desk and plethora of bookcases.
I can't find the photo of this room off-hand. I will add it if I remember to do so before this posts goes live ;)


Science supplies are in a kitchen cupboard. The hallway has been replaced with the keyboard and our huge 5-gallon bucket of coconut oil. Looking closely you can see we have two maps on the wall (a world map and a US cloth map made by Legoboy with a print from Joann Fabric); two space posters; a globe; art/writing supplies in the far back corner. And this area connects his bedroom, my bedroom, the bathroom and kitchen; I am standing in the living room to take the photo. And the dictionary because he was "hiding" it from me - the whole thing about hiding stuff in plain sight. Yep.

I keep thinking it is all temporary as we look for a rental (you'd have to know the area to understand why this is taking forever), but reality is, he's 10 now. Yes I want to offer a co-op of sorts when we move into a house, but he himself is coming to the end of most of these materials anyway. My heart is breaking and joyful at the same time - that tug of not wanting him to grow up yet, but seeing the wonderful young man he is becoming. :)


But all these materials? 
I totally GET the folks who consider the multiplicity of materials compared to living a simple lifestyle. Not wanting our children to live an indulgenced lifestyle where they get all these expensive (or time-consuming materials) all to themselves. Or to have a tightly filled home when Montessori herself promoted simplicity, beauty in sparsity. My home right now is not the ideal. But it is not Montessori materials cluttering it up. It is all of my own unfinished projects. It continues to improve and I love every inch of free space and time we have as projects finish up; it is a long uphill battle from clingy to clutter-FREE. Montessori HELPED! ;)


My balance to those concerns that I also share?
The joy in sharing these materials with others in one fashion or another certainly goes a long way. We have these blessings, we share them. With local children via co-op and tutoring, with the blogging world, with other homeschool parents wanting to do Montessori at home.

Small Home Montessori: Impressionistic Charts Storage - UPDATE

The original post on the Impressionistic Chart Storage in our home.

Background: 
I have had this over-the-toilet unit since Legoboy was a baby:
Sample at Amazon (not an affiliate link) - I bought ours locally

haha! yeah right we have that much space around our toilet! 

At the time, I did not want to put baby locks on everything - I had a swing gate at the kitchen door and a variety of outlet covers (mostly ones that could allow things to be plugged in but still locked - child couldn't pull the cord from the wall either).

For daycare licensing purposes I did need a safety handle on the pantry door (because I had to keep the cleaning chemicals below the food - despite that most of the cleaning chemicals WERE food such as baking soda, vinegar and cornstarch... I digress).

When it comes to safety equipment, that is all we had. Our lower drawers/cupboards contained only child-safe items; lower cupboards in the bathroom held cloth diapers, mom's cloth items, towels and washcloths, cup of extra tooth brushes, and toilet paper. All else was stored in the cabinet or on the shelf shown above. It was high enough for daycare licensing, but I still kept "attractive and somewhat dangerous" in baskets on the shelves to minimize attention.


Times have changed. I now have few consistent young visitors to our home - and for them I can close the bathroom door, keep them in arms, or mom is with them.

And I needed the shelf somewhere else:

This shelf fit perfectly (I had to disassemble portions of it to get it to fit under the upper shelf in the closet, but once in, it fits perfectly) and is currently the only place I can safely store the long division with racks and tubes. The charts fit perfectly underneath it - almost like they were made for each other! The bonus is I can now use that space between the charts and the upper shelf much more efficiently. While I am still trying to be cautious what I bring home permanently (from our rented co-op) - to only bring home what we'll use - now I have found a bit more space I didn't know I had!

One bummer: our blue lamp we use for the sun still doesn't fit. I'll get it figured out.

In the bathroom, I was able to place a very low shelf in the corner that held all the things I thought I still needed this tall shelf for (and it has empty space! AND my bathroom looks so much more spacious now!!!). We're obviously far from cloth-diapering at this point and we've gone even more food-based and all-natural with our cleaners, etc. that we just don't have as much as "stuff" in the kitchen and bathroom anymore. Plus in this apartment we do have a small bathroom closet to hold towels and washcloths and art supplies.

I remember having every nook and cranny crammed in with nothing but STUFF. I wish I'd known then what I know now! But it's a journey, that's for sure! And we're not entirely where we want to be just yet.


Hm. Perhaps a photo of our bathroom is in order. Only because this bathroom is actually larger than most and it is the primary place to do artwork. Sounds strange? I'll get photos ;)

Small Home Montessori: Impressionistic Charts

I am asked from time to time how we store our charts. This has changed over the years - and the caveat is that I have the FULL-SIZE mat-board charts from AMI elementary training. These are intended for a full classroom and I would not have purchased from specifically for homeschooling; however, for what I purchased, they were much less expensive than any of the options available for purchase anywhere else (even now), they were a complete set that coordinated with the albums I was creating in training - and, well, they were required for training.

Thus I use what I have, though it is not ideal for a homeschool setting.


For a while, I had a Montessori co-op set up in a rented room at our local church school building, stored in a shelf purchased from a closing Joann Fabric. We just brought home the charts we needed. We were in the building enough times during the week to access the charts for follow-up work, but it still wasn't good to have them separate from us.

The shelf up top holds the smaller supplies.
Charts are organized in the two sections (left and right)
with some timelines rolled up in the front (a box on the bottom holds them in place)

Now, I have brought all the charts home. WHAT a relief!!!

Our living room closet looks so innocent:

The right-hand side is normal enough: coats, shoes....

The left-hand side though.... AH!!!!

   The hanging shelf on the left holds many of the supplies needed for the charts; other supplies are now stored with our regular science materials.
   The charts themselves are organized by their subjects with wooden boards - each board is labeled with the subject and the numbering system for the included charts. I didn't end up cutting enough boards and just wanted the project DONE, so I kept the U and GW charts with the first set of Geography charts (that tab is partially covered: it says 1a-28a - then lists the numbers for the U and GW charts); and I grouped geometry and mathematics.
   The blue binder in the lower left contains master copies of various copyable stuff - mostly from primary, but there are a few elementary. I use that less these days since I can print directly from the computer, but it was handy in the school-rented co-op.
    Notice the box? Yep. Straight from an Alison's Montessori order. Perfect!

top-down view

I added tabs for art and music - no impressionistic charts for those, but we can keep some of our poster-prints and the like in here as well; I also have a section in the back for blank posterboard, and I have the pegboards in here for now - that plastic lid in the back is just to hold things more securely in place for the time being.

You can see the geometry corkboard plane to the left in the image above - I made it too big to fit in the box and don't feel like cutting it down ;)

If ever needed, I'll find a narrower box for the rolled timelines, so that they fit in a row towards the front and provide more room for the charts themselves.


I use a similar idea for our Communal Prayer materials in our atrium - much smaller charts, but the same concept - so this file system applies to any size if you have stiffer charts. The available cloth charts would need to be mounted for this system to work; I would love to see storage ideas on those because it seems that rolling them all would take up so much more space. Maybe?