Apr 25 , 2023
Making A Montessori Play Area At Home In Any Size Of House
The First Step Toward Making A Montessori Play Area at Home
I advise beginning with a little careful thought to design an exciting play environment that matches both your house and your family. Consider what you want from the area and what would work best for your family before browsing home magazines or, more likely, Pinterest to see what others have done with their play spaces. Nobody on Pinterest is as familiar with your house and family as you are. It can significantly impact how well your family uses the space if you take a moment to create your "expert" judgment.
For instance, my family spends the majority of its time reading, building, and sketching in our home playroom. As a result, we require a comfortable reading nook, a place where we may erect buildings, and a surface on which we can draw. Each family will have distinct needs. It's fantastic to start searching for the objects and thinking of ways to organize them after determining which items are the most crucial for the room. Making the room fit exactly what you want it to is easier when you start with your family's objectives.
Creating a Montessori-inspired play area in your home
It's possible to play practically everywhere. It's possible that the main play.An excellent Montessori at home play place can also be found in a child's bedroom, a versatile bonus room, a basement, or a family room.
In our house, a bedroom serves as the playroom. The living room is where the action actually takes place most of the time. Although I'd prefer for my kids to keep their "mess" contained in the playroom, they prefer to play close to the rest of the family. We have everything we need in the living room, so we can make this work. Along with literature, there are resources for construction and drawing. The playroom contains additional toys and games close by. When we can all play together, we use the playroom. area won't be a separate playroom. .The most-used objects are kept close by and within easy reach thanks to this arrangement.
Guidelines for Creating a Montessori Play Area at Home
For her students' benefit, Maria Montessori developed a stimulating environment. Numerous of these ideas also apply to Montessori play areas at home. Of course, parents are free to apply the values that best suit their households and ignore the rest. Several fundamental Montessori ideas are:
- Create open space in your play area to give children room to construct, create, and move around. By moving pieces of furniture around until you reach the ideal configuration, you may use this approach in smaller spaces.
- Reduce the number of items in a play area to simplify. Fewer toys avoid kids from being overwhelmed and make cleaning easier. One way to keep things in a room fresh and have less toys at once is to rotate the toys.
- Display things that kids can reach: Play can be stimulated by making objects available and visible to kids. One method to do this is to use open shelving that is low to the ground.
- Pick toys of superior quality: Open-ended toys can be played with in a variety of ways and can encourage more meaningful, in-depth play. The list of Montessori toys for use at home in this article is excellent.
- Give natural materials first priority: Natural materials were urged to be used in play areas by Maria Montessori. Wooden, ceramic, or even sea sponge-made toys stimulate the senses and are lovely.
-Include furniture made for children: Kids' furniture can encourage independence and autonomy by making them feel at home in their environment. Child-sized furniture might make children feel at home in the room and as though it were "made for them."
- Give opportunities for gross-motor activity Kids frequently have a strong urge to move, and facilitating opportunities for powerful motions can help satisfy this need. You can encourage gross-motor mobility by using climbing frames and triangles.
Any Size Area Can Have A Montessori Play Area
These building blocks for a Montessori-style play area at home can be used in play areas of all sizes. Families can use vertical storage and have less possessions to provide more open space in compact spaces. It may not be possible to fit kid-sized furniture in smaller spaces, but parents may still encourage autonomy and independence by placing low-hanging hooks and stools in the Montessori play area so that children can get to the things they need. Smaller rooms might also benefit from toy and activity storage that is low and accessible. Children can develop their gross motor abilities by leaping and crawling without any special equipment, even though smaller rooms might not have room for climbing devices.
Montessori By Mom Toolboxes make excellent complements to tiny play areas because to their adaptability. Children can utilize the materials for a countless number of activities, yet they only take up as much space as a small shipping box.
Although larger places naturally have more free space, it might also be simpler to collect lots of toys and activities in larger spaces. It may be necessary to regularly assess what items are entering the area and reduce them so that only the most important ones remain in order to maintain simplicity. A desire to include large furniture items to fill up a larger space may also exist, but kid-sized furniture can be a lovely complement.
My family has lived in a variety of sized houses, and we have managed to design functional play areas in both bigger and smaller houses. Because there is less place for unnecessary goods, it is easier for us to own fewer possessions. In smaller spaces, I also observe that individuals are more likely to pitch in and clean up after themselves. To live and work there, the area must remain organized. My family accumulated unneeded goods much more easily in larger places, yet the open layout is pleasant.
Putting Your Priorities Into Practice
I advise parents to consider their children's play areas carefully and imaginatively. In my experience, most areas present some kind of difficulty or restriction. Reminding myself of my family's priorities and not being scared to make those priorities a reality has been beneficial for me. Designing a lovely location for your family might be aided by Maria Montessori's guiding principles for Montessori play areas at home!
