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The Importance of Letting Children Struggle
A few weeks ago, Henry and I were at a party, and a woman was talking to us. She noticed that Henry was looking at her bracelet, so she held it up for him to get a better look at it. Once she did that, Henry started reaching out to touch it. At the time, his reach and grasp were still pretty shaky, but you could tell he was working hard to learn how to reach toward something and grab it. He was so focused on getting his hand to that bracelet. It was an amazing thing to watch! I love seeing children work so hard at something that is… Read More -
Montessori Floor Bed Update
The floor bed is one of the things about the Montessori approach to educating children that tends to shock people the most. “What? You don’t have a crib? Your baby sleeps on a mattress on the floor?”… Read MoreThe idea is to set up the child’s environment in a way that helps him/her develop movement. The more freedom children have to move, the more they move. The more they move, the more they strengthen their muscles and develop themselves.
Along these lines, we also try not to use common baby contraptions that limit movement, such as swings (since the movement is done onto the child) or infant seats (since the child’s
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Children’s Clothing: Function, Then Fashion
Henry dressed in a functional kimono-style outfit on his Montessori movement matI’m reading more of Montessori from the Start, and I particularly enjoyed the section about clothing.… Read MoreThe authors assert that the main principles around selecting clothing should be:
- freedom of movement
- ease of dressing
- appropriate dress for the occasion
Although the principles seem simple, the implementation of them is pretty radical. For example, Montessorians do not select dresses for everyday use because they can inhibit a crawling child’s movement (since the dress will hang down and is likely to get kneed). They also try to keep the feet and legs as bare as possible to facilitate movement
