Exploring Montessori Sensory Play with Babies

As a human being we experience this world through our 5 senses. Dr Maria Montessori went further to say we are learning much more, in fact she believed that sensorial experiences begins at birth. Through senses the child/baby is studying , learning about, and beginning to understand his environment. These are the most important years for brain developmental.  

Montessori While Traveling: What Works

"The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences." 

       ~Maria Montessori 

If I haven't mentioned it before, I'll say it again: we are a traveling family! I have posted before about keeping Montessori with us while we travel, but this time I want to focus a little on what we learned really works from the experiences my two kids (2.5 years and 1 year) and I had on our two week visit to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. I want to share how I used Montessori to plan and execute our trip to help my two little ones stay happy and distracted during a couple weeks away from home! 

Montessori Dressing: Button Snake

"The essence of independence is to be able to do something for one's self." 

       ~Maria Montessori 

Our lives have been a little topsy turvy because of our move, but since we have started to settle in our new place we are seeing Samuel's (2 years and 10 months) independence start to blossom. With that need for independence, I confess, we have had some friction. He is still learning to control his emotions and developing how to convey his needs in a constructive manner. Working through this period of life, along with the move, has been a challenge for us all. This is where we have found the Montessori method to be extremely helpful in our household. We have given him the skills to control his environment and have fostered an open relationship to allow him to ask us for help on activities he may not understand. I cannot tell you how wonderful this has been with all the chaos that currently surrounds us.

Since his potty training, Samuel has wanted to, understandably, button and unbutton his own pants in order to use the bathroom on his own. We decided it was time to give him some practice on buttons to help him grow even more independent. This seems to be a way for him to work on controlling the new environment we have set up at our new home. We have had some great help from our friends at the Montessori on a Budget Facebook page and came up with our own button snake! 

Top 10 things for a Montessori baby 6month - 1 year

Toys, Toys, Toys... The question is "what does baby really need," or "what are some of the best things for baby?" Here's what I have learned on this journey of motherhood, A few quality items, really do go a long way. When I had my first son at (ahem)18, I bought everything out there, everything he pointed to or played with. I didn't stop to think what he was actually going to get out of playing with it. Was he learning anything from this toy? Now, I have learned a lot over the years. I've learned that the more stuff the children have, the more they are bored. Does that make sense at all? It's true, think about it. There are to many choices and they have a hard time deciding. Plus the more stuff you have the more it makes for a cluttered space.

One of the reasons Dr Maria Montessori was so clear on a prepared environment, was so that everything the child came in contact with would facilitate and maximize independent learning and exploration.

 Doesn't that sound great? That is why I decided to put this list together, It is for the mom's that are budget conscience, but still want the best. So here are my Top 10 items for baby.


These wooden rattles and teether's are perfect for this age and they are organic.

Montessori Reading: Helping Children Read by Writing

"Our care of the child should be governed, not by the desire to make him learn things, but by the endeavor always to keep burning within him that light which is called intelligence." 
       ~Maria Montessori 

We LOVE to read in our house. We often read a couple stories in my bed before we start our day and always end the day with a bedtime story or two. Samuel loves to listen to Bible stories and anything to do with trains. Avalyn is fascinated with how pages turn and listens to our stories while exploring her own board books. We have book shelves in every room of our home! (Check out how we have set up our Montessori home.) 

With all this literary interest in our home, I wanted to move our reading to the next step. But is Samuel (at almost 3) ready? Should we really start looking at easy-to-read books? How can I continue to use the Montessori method in the "learning to read" phase of our homeschooling?

Here's what I found! 

Montessori Spring Cleaning: Cleaning Bird Feeders

Photo by Marie Mack 

"The unknown energy that can help humanity is that which lies hidden in the child." 

            ~ Maria Montessori 

The weather lately has not helped my spring cleaning mood, but I know it is right around the corner! I love having my kids help with the cleaning around the house and spring is just another opportunity to help them learn about all things that we can make look fresh and new with a little elbow grease.

While we visited my children's grandparents this week we noticed their hummingbird feeder needed a little love. We can't forget about our feathered friends during all our Montessori spring activities!

Vegetable Garden in a Box

My son and I are going to plant carrot seeds in a cat litter pail--which I washed out and filled with soil and sand (carrots like to grow in partial sand). I also drilled a few holes in the bottom, and placed in a layer of wood chips.

We use a basket (that is lined with a towel) and contains our packet of seeds--carrots, a salt shaker, and a Popsicle stick with the date of planting and the date of maturation (when to pick), as well as the name "carrot".

First, my son helps me make holes for the carrot seeds, about an inch apart. He's very focused on his task!