MONTESSORI AT HOME: How to Start (in 5 Steps!)

hi guys my name is Ashley and I'm a mom of two little girls I have a two and a half year old toddler named Kylie and I also have a 9 month old baby named Mia so you may have heard about this whole month story thing recently and that's how you ended up here on this video and you're interested in learning how do you get started because I know at first it can seem very overwhelming and daunting like there's so many little details to it you're not sure exactly where to start so from one baby parent to another today I'm going to be sharing with you 5 really simple steps for getting started implementing Montessori in your home with your little ones step number one is to prepare yourself it's incredibly important that you start here because if you just try to jump into some of the things that you see and a lot of videos or on Instagram without really understanding why you're doing some of those things then you might end up kind of leading yourself astray from what the real reasoning is behind why things are set up the way they're set up or why children are participating in certain types of activities or playing with certain kinds of toys so again it's really important that you go out there and educate yourself first and I would urge you to explore two different areas where you really want to focus on preparing yourself the first one is actually learning about the Montessori method itself one of the easiest things that you can do first is to explore some of the video content that's available right here on YouTube I actually have an entire Montessori at home playlist that explores a lot of the different topics that I'm about to discuss in this video today in depth and at links another option to explore is reading there are a bunch of Montessori books at home specifically designed for parents and if you go on the description box at the bottom of this video I do have a recommended reading list that's filled with books that I personally have read cover to cover and I think they're fabulous and I would highly recommend that you choose one or two of those as a place to start too and finally this is a less known but definitely awesome way to educate yourself about Montessori and that is through online courses now I'm not talking like something that is through an accredited place that costs a whole bunch of money I'm talking about something that has been too by Montessori teachers that's intended for parents and is very affordable so there's actually one in particular that I myself took when I first began my Montessori journey it is from mom to sori life.com and I will be sure to leave a link to her e-courses down below for you the other aspect of preparing yourself that you really want to explore is what is your style of discipline at home it's really important to realize that Montessori is a very child centered approach and your role as the parent is more so of a guide or a coach and not a top-down authoritarian so it's really important that you assess your personal discipline style and see if there are any tweaks or changes that need to be made in order to make sure that your discipline and what ultimately ends up becoming your parenting style really falls in sync with those Montessori values of keeping the child at the center of it and guiding them or coaching them as opposed to trying to manipulate behavior through rewards and consequences instead the primary style of discipline used in high quality Montessori schools and homes is that of positive discipline and I do have a video that talks exactly about how to implement positive discipline at home and gives you a whole bunch of tips and strategies for how to do that effectively so if you're interested in watching that after this video is over then I will put a link down in the description box for you guys to check out and that's not to say that if you use a different style of discipline that Montessori is not going to work but what I am saying is that because of the nature of the way Montessori is kind of set up and what your mindset should be as the parent it's really important that you adopt at least some elements of positive discipline if not the whole thing in order to achieve maximum benefits of using Montessori at home and your children alright so the second step is to assess your space now in this step you're not doing anything yet you're just assessing you're just kind of looking around observing and planning ahead for the very near future the primary question that you should be asking yourself in this step is how can you set up your home to make it more accessible for your child so that they can be independent as much as possible so you want to start by assessing what rooms of your house you even have available to make little changes to to make this possible and also how much space do you have in each room to make changes because everybody has a different living situation so if you do have several different areas of the house you might want to look at the kitchen for example and say okay is there a small space where I can store my child's cooking utensils that they might use to help you cook or bake with is there a place for their silverware is there a place for their plates and are these places low enough to the ground that your child can get to them on their own or in a bedroom is your child sleeping in a low floor bed that they can easily get into and out of themselves from the earliest age is their clothing accessible to them so that they can actually get into their clothing and choose what it is that they want to wear each day in the bathroom do you have a small step stool available so that your child can get up to the counter to be able to reach the sink and the mirror you could consider adding a low hook in the bathroom for them to be able to hang their own towel on when it comes to potty training you might consider investing in a small step stool and a little potty seat so that your child can learn to use the toilet independently without feeling fearful that they're going to fall in or fall off and if you don't have all of these spaces available in your living area perhaps you are living in a much smaller space that doesn't mean you can't do any of these things you just have to find different little changes that are gonna make it work for the space that you do have available and I do have an entire video on making Montessori work in small spaces if you haven't seen that yet then I will link that down below for you as well step number three and arguably one of the most important steps on this list is to observe your child one of the most popular phrases that you will hear in a Montessori environment is to follow the child and that means that you're observing your child almost like a scientist at times you are removing yourself in the situation stepping back trying not to inject any of your personal thoughts or emotions or subjectivity into the situation that you're observing whether that be your child eating or playing or the process of how they fall asleep whatever the situation is you are strictly observing every little D till how they move their hands what they're doing with their fingers how they walk across the ground or crawl if they're still at a crawling stage what exactly they're doing with their utensils while they're eating how they're communicating with you every single day you're observing every single little thing to try to gain as much information as you can about where your child is at developmentally speaking now age is a great estimation for kind of where to start when you're trying to figure out where your child is however we all know that kids are unique they all develop at their own unique pace and it's really impossible to compare your child to other children or even other siblings because they are all so individual there are just so many little small differences between kids that you really need to spend that time observing your child to really understand where they're at and not just lump them into one group based on their age and the reason for that is you want to set your child up for success you don't want to provide them with an activity or a toy that is said to be appropriate for an 18 month old because you read it somewhere when in reality your child is not ready for it because then your child is just going to ultimately end up being frustrated and then you're going to be frustrated thinking that your child can't do it or that they did something wrong or that you did something wrong and it's just not a good place to be for anyone you also want to take into consideration things like sensitive periods which are these little windows of time that children have where they are most receptive to learning a certain skill like a sensitive period for language which starts at Birth sensitive period for order there are all of these different little sensitive periods and I will link an article down below if you want to learn a little bit more about when these sensitive periods typically tend to occur so that you can be on the lookout for them you also want to look at what motivates your child like what are they interested in are they interested in animals are they interested in trucks or dolls or are they really into cooking and helping you around the house children have all different types of interests and if you can hone in on what it is that really motivates your child and gets them excited you're going to be one step closer to finding toys and activities for them that are really going to engage them one other thing you want to think about is whether not your child seems to be in any particular schema and a schema is just a pattern of behavior that a child feels a very strong urge to do and it's natural it's totally developmental and all children go through them sometimes they're in multiple schemas at once sometimes they're only in one at a time sometimes they'll rotate through and come back to a schema that they were previously in before but there are all different types of schemas like if you've seen your child constantly throwing things or if you see your child covering themselves up with blankets constantly or if they're lining things up in a row constantly all around the house these are all different types of schemas and they all have special names and honestly I could do an entire video on schemas but for now I will go ahead and link a really good article down below to give you guys a little bit of an overview if you're interested in figuring out if maybe your child is in one of these schemas and then you can use that to your advantage by creating activities and toys for them that kind of play to these particular urges that your child is experiencing step number four is to prepare the environment this is where your child's needs an interest that you have been so keenly observing and your assessment of your space are now going to intersect this is your time to declutter and start setting up the environment exactly the way you want it now a lot of people I think just because of everything they see on Instagram or even watching videos like this on YouTube they tend to get kind of hung up on all of the shelf activities and toys that they see and they jump in headlong attempting to do all of that first when they begin implementing Montessori at home and I would argue that that is not where your priority should be your first priority in implementing Montessori should be setting up your space so that your child can be independent like we were talking about earlier because that is really the essence of Montessori at home is helping your child to achieve this sense of confidence and happiness and self sufficiency from as early as they are interested in getting to that point it's not until you've actually set up the environment for that that you should begin to then look at all of the toys and activities that you have available though some easy things that you can do to create a cleaner simpler aesthetic in your home that really helps to achieve some of these Montessori ideals is to ditch the toy box altogether and if your budget allows invest in some low open shelving that you can display all of your child's toys and activities on as I mentioned earlier if your budget does not allow for this right now it is totally possible to utilize the spaces that you do have there are lots of creative ways to do that and my making Montessori work in small spaces video is the one that you want to check out for ideas on how to do that once you've got the furniture in place or you figured out what spaces you're going to use then it is the time to create a place for everything and have everything in its place remember that young children are in a sensitive period for order so everything having a place is really important to them because then they can remember oh yes that's right these are where my blocks go or this is where the bin of dolls and doll accessories go this also helps them to learn how to help you clean up as you go forward and they get a little bit older and do not have every single toy that you have available out on the shelves at once you really want to choose just a small handful of toys and activities that your child is either working to master or they're really engaged with it's a favorite and have those things out and that's it everything else should be stored away in some sort of a rotation storage system be that a closet or a space in your basement if you have a basement whatever works for your family but store everything else away and then every so often there's not really a particular schedule for it but every so often whenever it looks like your child is losing interest in a particular item take that item off the shelf store it away and bring out something old or if you have procured something new and you can pull out that new item and put that in its place instead this way it's more like a recycling of activities and toys you're not spending quite so much money on constantly buying new things and your child suddenly has a renewed interest in something that maybe they didn't have the skills for before but now they have that can help them master it fully or on a different level than they did in the past and if you are interested in looking at what a potential storage solution looks like and get some ideas for that I also have a video on Montessori storage and organization which I will link for you guys below and of course if you need ideas for different types of toys and activities for various age levels beginning from newborn all the way up through older toddlers and preschoolers I have an entire series of various videos in the Montessori at-home playlist for you guys to check out and as I have said probably about a hundred times already I will link all those videos down below for you guys the fifth and final step to getting started using Montessori at home is to begin involving your child in your everyday life if you haven't already done so this is the area that is referred to as practical life in a Montessori environment and it is truly one of the most important because this is what allows your child to feel like a valued contributing member of your family now practical life is going to look different depending on how old your child is but it is possible to begin doing some form of practical life from babies as early as the newborn age and what that looks like is basically just talking to your child about every single little thing that you're doing so when you're changing their diaper or you're getting them dressed or you're nursing them or you're doing bedtime routines maybe reading some stories whatever it is that you're doing with your child you are constantly talking to them about what it is that you're doing you're explaining things that your child is observing and looking at so for example if you're standing at a window that is facing out in front of your house I'm actually using a real-life example that I've done and the garbage truck happens to roll by you can just explain what it is that your child is seeing oh look there's the garbage truck oh he's picking up the garbage can and dumping our trash oh there goes the garbage truck my garbage truck little things like that really help to not only expand your child's vocabulary from as early an age as possible but it also gives them the foundation for everyday life things that they need to know and that they're eventually going to learn another thing you can do is to ask your questions and even though your baby is not going to respond yet because they don't have language yet that doesn't mean that they're not listening and they're not absorbing everything so for example if you happen to be outside on a stroller ride and you see an animal in the bushes let's say it's a squirrel you can lean down to your baby and stop and get down at their level and actually point at the squirrel and say look there's a squirrel what color is it that's a gray squirrel and you can provide answers kind of in that way for your child because they're not going to respond to you but again it's incredibly important for their language development and just for that one-on-one interaction that they crave once your child reaches 12 months and again I'm not using that age as like a strict demarcation line it's just kind of a rough estimate but usually around 12 months is when you can begin involving your child and what would be considered more formal practical life activities so you can actually show them depending on whether or not they're walking or crawling yet you might have to tweak some of these things but you can show them how to wipe a table after they're done eating you can teach them how to push in their chair at the end of the meal they can assist you with laundry either pulling things out of the washer and dryer or maybe starting to learn how to sort socks and things that match many young toddlers love to help unload the dishwasher that is a perennial favorite that I hear from lots of parents they can learn how to prepare their own snacks like spreading little bits of peanut butter and jam or cream cheese onto crackers or slicing a banana they can learn how to help care for plants by using a small child sized watering can to water plants if you give them a small water bottle and a little rag or a squeegee they can even wash windows basically whatever it is that your child is expressing an interest in helping you do because they see you doing it I encourage you to let them allow them encourage it and revite them anytime they show an interest do not shoot them away and tell them to go play and most importantly when they're done be sure to thank them they are little human beings just like the rest of us they're just smaller so thank them for helping you and even if it took a little bit longer than it would have if you had done the task by yourself which it is very likely it is going to take a lot longer still thank them for doing it because they want to feel helpful one thing that you do have to make sure of though is that you don't force it you don't want practical life activities to suddenly feel like chores to your child because once they feel like chores that they're being forced to do they will most certainly not want to do them anymore and you do not want to squash that innate interest that they have it's also very important to remember that for toddlers doing all these little tasks is about the process it's not about the end product they don't care about having a nice clean empty dishwasher they are just incredibly fascinated with pulling the forks out of the little container that holds all the silverware or pulling out a plate very carefully and handing it to you or even putting it away if it's one of their own dishes and they can do that on their own and for older toddlers and preschoolers you're going to be doing a lot of these same practical life activities but what's cool is now that they're a little bit older they are capable of doing more of the steps of a particular task all on their own so just as an example when my toddler Kylie was very little she used to like to help me feed the dogs with my supervision of course and she would like to help pour the dog kibbles into the bowl out of the little scoop that we use and that was basically the only part of it that she ever really helped with because that's all she could do now as an almost three year old she can do the entire thing from beginning to end with my supervision still but on her own she can open up the cabinet she can unscrew the little container that we use to keep the dog that food in she gets the scoop and scoops approximately what she thinks is the right amount and then she pours it in the dog's bowl and closes it back up all by herself and she loves helping us do this one thing you might notice with older toddlers and preschoolers though is that as they do get older they might become less interested in helping with some of the practical life stuff because they are exploring their own interests at this point and they are capable of much longer periods of an independent play so if your child doesn't really seem interested in doing some of these things after a little while that's okay don't stress out over it and again do not force them to do it just continually invite them every now and again and you might be pleasantly surprised that on occasion they do come back and want to help you still so those are my five tips for getting started implementing Montessori in your home with your little ones if you have any of your own tips that you'd like to share then please be sure to leave them in the comments down below for everybody else to read as well if you liked today's video then please be sure to give it a big thumbs up and just in case you are new to my channel I did want to let you know that this video is part of a much larger series called Montessori at home which is aimed at providing practical tips and advice for busy parents like you and I for implementing Montessori philosophies at home with your children so if that sounds like something that you're interested in learning more about you might consider subscribing to my channel this way you don't miss a new video because I do upload a new one just like this one every single week thanks so much for watching today and I'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Hapa Family

Views: 287,912

Keywords: montessori at home, montessori how to start, montessori parenting, montessori for parents, montessori for babies at home, montessori for toddlers, montessori for 1, montessori for 1 year old, montessori for 15 month old, montessori for 2 year olds, montessori for 2-3 year olds, how to do montessori at home, how to do montessori course, what is montessori

Id: pp7iH4qhPtM

Length: 20min 33sec (1233 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 09 2020