This is a guest post by Kylie of How We Montessori.
Maria Montessori believed that from birth children have a strong sense of order. She wrote that children need to see and experience order in the world so they can create order in their own minds.
What that means for us as parents is that we need to create orderly home environments. Most importantly for an infant this means orderly play and rest areas.
Before a child can crawl it is recommended that toys be placed within their line of sight. Low shelves are perfect for this. An infant can see their toys and start to creep towards them. Later the child will begin to pull up and reach for items on higher shelves. It is important to ensure the shelves are stable or secured to the wall.
To maintain a sense of order it’s important that all of the child’s toys have a specific place and are returned to that place after being used. As the saying goes “a place for everything and everything in its place.” It’s much easier for a child to learn to put away their toys when they know exactly where they go.
In Montessori environments you won’t find any toy boxes. Toys are stored on low shelves often in baskets or on trays. Baskets and trays help to contain toys with multiple pieces and are easy for a child to carry.
In our home we store most of our children’s toys and materials on low shelves. We store larger play items such as cars, blocks and train sets in baskets and tubs on the floor. While Otis will often pull all of his toys off his shelves it is quick and easy to clean up. Because he can see all of his toys it’s easier for him to select which one to play with and it’s easy for us to see if something is damaged or lost.
How do you organize your toys?
Montessori part 3 of 5
1. Kylie of How We Montessori by Kylie @ How We Montessori2. What is a Discovery Basket and How to Make One by Kylie @ How We Montessori
3. Storing Toys the Montessori Way by Kylie @ How We Montessori
4. 5 Quick and Easy Montessori Activities for Toddlers by Kylie @ How We Montessori
5. Toddler Activities: Art by Kylie @ How We Montessori
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
What a nice complement to the post I wrote earlier this week about our Montessori bedroom!
For us, we do most everything in line of sight shelves. We do have a toy box, but as I said the other day, it’s used more as a bench than as storage for toys.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
Mrs. Jacks post about Montessori living was the first that I’ve ever heard about it. I’m discussing it with Mr. Polish now. I love this idea!
nectarine / 2085 posts
I really enjoy this series! I try to make our home more child-accessible, but it is hard in a small apartment. I put activities on the floor and rotate them because we don’t have room for small shelves.
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
I love this so much. We will be babyproofing soon and I think I am going to do this– securing montessori shelves is much easier than finding a way to anchor very large/heavy pieces of furniture! It will also help to cut down on clutter and ensure that all toys are played with.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
We have a coffee table that has 6 cubbies in it. We used to have 12 baskets in it (6 on each side) but now we have the side facing the room open for M’s toys. The side facing the couch still has our stuff in it, but he’s been very into pulling out the baskets lately so they may have to become his too.
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
This makes a lot of sense! We have some storage ottomans in Liam’s room where I store extra books and toys, but I would like to replace them with some open shelves. We have a tall shelving unit in the living room and once Liam was rolling we “gave” him the bottom shelf. After he started pulling himself up, we let him have the second to last one as well. We have baskets on the bottom for books and small toys and the other shelf has larger toys displayed. He loves crawling over there and choosing something to play with! This is also why I wanted to have picture ledges for bookshelves – he can see all of his books and loves standing there pulling them off and putting them back on.
cantaloupe / 6146 posts
I don’t store our toys well. I love this idea of things on shelves and I love how pretty it is.
We have too many toys (oh, boo hoo!) compared to our storage space so most toys are in hiding.
Right now our toys are randomly in boxes–and I change the contents of his 2 “in use” boxes regularly so it doesn’t get boring.
Hmm.
cantaloupe / 6923 posts
WOw, love this! It looks so much cleaner and not babyish.
cherry / 226 posts
I so need to do this! I used to work in a Montessori preschool and now that I have my own, I just haven’t had the time to get organized.
Where do you recommend purchasing low stable wooden shelves?
guest
just a comment on this idea – it is very helpful for kids if you take a photo of the toy that goes on the shelf and tape that photo to the shelf where it belongs. Then it is pretty obvious where things go when everything gets pulled down at once. I owned an art school for kids and had all the supplies photographed and taped to the shelf and it made clean up about a million times easier.
guest
Where is the low shelf from? I’m looking for something like this, made of natural-stained hardwood. I would add it to the list of projects for my baby’s nursery, but then he wouldn’t have a low shelf until he’s a teenager.
guest
Where is that shelf from? I love it, and it would be perfect in our home!
guest
Just stumbled on your blog, it’s been really helpful! Love the low shelf in the bedroom. Would you mind sharing who makes that shelf?