In our previous post we wrote about the movement area setup for a 6 month old baby. Now that our little one is on the move and more mobile, there are a few changes we have made to the area. In this post I’ll share with you how we have setup the movement area for our 8 month old baby.
What is a Montessori ?
The Montessori Method is a form of education which is focused on self directed, self paced learning. An important concept in this education method is The Absorbent Mind, which refers to the child’s ability to absorb information in a sponge like manner.
What is a movement area?
Our movement area is a space in our house where our little one can safely play, learn and freely move around without obstruction.
The space is setup in a way that encourages movement with interesting materials / toys / activities setup, encouraging our little one to move towards those things, so that they can learn, and explore their curiosity. This method is called the Prepared Environment.
The Prepared Environment
A prepared environment is one where a community of children learns social and academic skills while developing into independent beings. Maria Montessori realised the unique way in which children learn and understood the notion of a child’s absorbent mind. “Realizing the absorbent nature of the child’s mind, she has prepared for him a special environment; and then, placing the child within it, has given him freedom to live in it, absorbing what he finds there” (Standing, 1998, p. 265).
There are Six Principles of the Prepared Environment:
- Freedom.
- Structure and Order.
- Beauty.
- Nature and Reality.
- Social Environment.
- Intellectual Environment.
In layman’s terms, it is that we have setup the movement area in our home in a way that is bright, beautiful, inviting, safe, age appropriate and stimulating for our little one, with freedom to move around without obstacles that may limit these principles.
Montessori Movement Area Setup for 8 Month Old
Here’s how we have setup our babies’ movement play area Montessori Style:
- Montessori style shelves – you can purchase special “Montessori” shelves but we’ve made do with what we had. Which works perfectly fine as you can see in the pictures below. We’ve used a cube storage and placed it sideways, and filled each cubicle with 1 activity. This way the child learns that each thing/toy has its place, and at the same time the activities are neatly organised, without too much overload/stimuli. At a later age, this teaches the child to choose from a few options (versus just a basket full of toys which is hard to see). This neat organised shelf gives structure and order to the room.
- Muscle Mat movement mat – we previously had two rugs on top of each other but now we have a dedicated, soft and thick movement mat which is easy to clean and perfect for our movement area. This mat is the foundation of our area.
- Home Made Butterfly Mobile – I found this wonderful website which offers a free printable to make your very own Montessori butterfly mobile. This mobile has realistic images which another principle we LOVE about Montessori. This way the child gets to learn and relate to real life images.
- Mirror – since the very early months we have incorporated the mirror in the movement area, giving our baby the opportunity to look at themselves.
- Nomenclature Cards – In our home we speak two languages, using the OPOL Method (One Parent, One Language) and therefore we have incorporated Dutch Nomenclature cards. These are learning card with images and words. You can easily make your own cards using a printer and laminator (you can buy my Dutch and English Colours and Fruit and Vegetable Cards here)
- Forward facing book shelf – having books facing forward makes it easy for the child to view the front of the book, and in turn making it easier to understand what the book is about (versus when you only see the spine it is a very small area to read and does not really give the child many clues as to what the book is about, especially at a young age when they don’t understand the words yet). So we made do with what we already had, which is a ratan hanging bookshelf from Kmart. We use this to display a small number of books, which allows the child to pick and choose what they want to read. This in turn teaches the child the choose / make decisions.
How is the 8 month old setup different from the 6 month old setup?
In our 6 month old setup we had:
- Larger shelves
- Different location for our shelves
- Mat was in a different orientation
In our 8 month old setup we have:
- Ensured all power points are covered as little one is now on the move
- Smaller and more sturdy Montessori style shelves covered with foam on the corners so baby is less likely to hurt themselves when they start to pull themselves up on furniture.
Tips for creating your movement area
- Work with what you have, you really don’t need to go and buy “Montessori furniture”. Simply use what you have and either alter what you have or just make do. For example our Montessori style shelves is actually a cube storage from my office.
- Follow the child’s lead and observe them to see what sparks their curiosity. Our little one isn’t very interested in certain colourful loud musical toys so we have replaced them with Montessori age appropriate puzzles which she loves to bang together. Our little one also LOVES to move around freely, hence the big movement space where she can roll and roll and roll around.
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