Setting up the Home

Creating a home environment that supports learning

Your home is a completely separate environment to nursery. Let's keep it simple and look at the basics:

Assess your home environment and make adjustments to allow your child to be more hands on in all rooms.

For example: set up a low table / stool / shelf /learning tower in the kitchen; low table and chairs in the living room; accessible chair in the dining room.

Slow everything down. Relax, you have the whole day available. Children imitate our attitudes and behaviours. The calmer you are, the calmer your children will be.

Explain we will do our best to tidy away after every activity. Children are happy to do things when they seem fun! If you view tidying as a lovely collaborative activity, your children will also view it as a positive activity!

Communicate clearly and be consistent with logical limits. Avoid putting too much pressure on yourself. Stick to what is absolutely necessary only. For example: we use gentle hands, we walk indoors, we tidy away when we finish an activity, we wash our hands before we eat and after using the toilet, we use a spoon / fork / knife to eat.

Create a gentle daily routine

Think about what kind of routine will suit your individual family's needs?

We find that a variety of active and passive activities works well. Start with something outdoors or involving large movements to use up some of the children's natural energy! Then they will be more able to sit down and concentrate on passive activities. Switch between active and passive activities as you see your children need them.

• Toilet / nappy change

• Wash hands

• Breakfast

• Get washed and dressed

• Play outdoors or other large movement activities

• Wash hands

• Books

• Singing

• Language

• Art and craft

• Practical life around the home

• Nature

• Snack preparation, eating, tidying away and washing up

• Large movements

• Games

• Toilet visits in between

• Wash hands

• Lunch preparation, eating, tidying away and washing up

• Sleep / Quiet time

• Outdoor play

• Wash hands

• Afternoon snack preparation, eating, tidying away and washing up

• Art

• Language

• Nature

• Games

• Dinner preparation, eating, tidying away and washing up

• Bath time - involve your child in preparations

• Story time

• Bedtime

Daily routines kindly shared by a parent Link

Useful insight written by an AMI Montessori Elementary teacher

Children who do real things - in collaboration with others - learn real skills and grow up to be independent humans who know how to cooperate and collaborate and contribute to society.

Think and play and move and work and create and laugh together.

This is a time to connect, not correct.

Have compassion for one another in this new time.

Everyone is generally doing the best they can under the most unusual circumstances.

Be together. There is enough time.

Do real things

The routines we all practice at nursery

Here is the basic routine for babies in Nido. You'll see there are a mixture of active and passive activities with lots of hand washing or wiping in between as needed!

• breakfast

• wash / wipe hands

• free play indoors

• songs and stories

• nappy change

• wash / wipe hands

• free play indoors

• art activities

• wash / wipe hands

• wash fruit for snack and share together

• wash / wipe hands

• outdoor activities in the garden

• wash / wipe hands

• songs and stories indoors

• wash / wipe hands

• lunch prep and sharing

• wash / wipe hands

• nappy change

• sleep

• free play in the garden

• wash / wipe hands

• prep and share snack (pour milk from small jug to cup)

• wash / wipe hands

• free play indoors

• songs and stories

• wash / wipe hands

• tea prep and sharing

• wash / wipe hands

• free play outdoors

• wash / wipe hands

• free play indoors

• art activities

• wash / wipe hands

• free play

Observation and encouraging focused attention

“It’s from this recognition that so many of the core practices of Montessori emerge. We do not interrupt children when they are at work, not merely because we want them to concentrate.

Sure, concentration is a good thing. But there’s a mystery at work when a child is deeply engaged in their own activity.

There is a development and a sense-making, a wonderment that we are not privy to, that we cannot understand just by observing it, and that is nonetheless essential to the child.

We don’t interrupt children because their concentration reflects their fascination, and their fascination will drive their purpose. “

Link

Links

Aid to Life - Supporting natural development of children Link

I can do it Montessori Link

The Montessori Notebook Link

Daily Montessori Link