The Montessori Bedroom

I have a wonderful guest post today from Michelle Bachman of Jill of Trades about her toddler son's Montessori bedroom. Enjoy!

My name is Michelle Bachman and I am a Work at Home Mom with two boys Jason (3) and Andrew (1). I am currently working from home through a business my cousin and I started Jill of Trades, a personal and small business planning services boutique. 

I met Stephanie in 2007 when I was pregnant with my first son and taking prenatal yoga in her studio. That is when I began my discovery about the world of natural and attachment parenting and so I hold a special place in my heart for her.

I have truly fallen in love with Montessori's philosophy and attitudes towards young children. I have chosen Jason’s Montessori School that he will start in the New Year and have recently adapted our nursery into a Montessori bedroom. 

One of the most intriguing ideas about the Montessori bedroom in particular, is the use of a floor bed rather than a crib. The idea is that a low mattress on the floor provides the child with a better view of his room and surroundings and more freedom to move about, which in turn makes for a calmer and happier child. 

It is of course important that the entire room be completely safe for the child to crawl around in, essentially turning it into a giant playpen for him. 

Below is a peak at my transformation of the nursery into a Montessori bedroom. I removed the crib (radical I know!) and replaced it with a mattress low to the floor.

I also removed the standard changing table/dresser combo and replaced it with a small dresser out of the way hidden in the closet.  The last big change was simply turning a shelf that was tall and out of his reach on its side so that it was also easily accessible to him. Having the art work and accent lighting low and visible to him is brilliant.  

We are a few months into the transformation and LOVE it! We have a sort of make shift co-sleeping arrangement in the evening: When he wakes in the night I lay in his bed and nurse him and if he falls asleep first I can slip away to my bed and am not sore from being contorted all night. 

Sometimes I just grab him and bring him to my bed still because I know how fast he will grow up. The most amazing note is that for the first time he isn’t falling asleep on the breast 100% of the time. I lay and nurse him and when he is done I get to watch him sleep train himself (Uhmazing!). Tossing and turning. Rolling around. Cooing at me. Tracing my face with his little fingers and his eyes closed.  He still falls asleep on the breast but maybe a dozen times now he has successfully put himself to sleep after and has tried dozens more.


There is still more I would like to do to Andrew’s room. The Montessori Foundation has some great information on designing a Montessori home. Our playroom has adopted some principles but is a work in progress. Jason’s room is next on my list.

“Never do for a child what he can successfully fail at doing himself” –Maria Montessori

Thanks for having me Stephanie!

XOXO
Michelle

Thanks Michelle!  It looks awesome!  We now have a mattress on the floor in Penelope's room and it has also worked very well for us, thanks again for sharing and inspiring!


What do you guys think?  Mattress on the floor crazy or genius?

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Canvas Rainbow Playroom DIY

I had so much fun doing this project. It was time consuming, because I had to do several layers for each canvas.  But like the ABC wall art, I did it a little bit a time and went slowly, doing a bit when I could. I found this is the best way to do projects in my post-baby life.


Leave it all out and work on it when you can.  But of course, if you go this route, you have to be ok with a little bit of mess for awhile.  Which is hard for me, because I like a tidy house, with everything in its place.


My original inspiration came from the photo below.  You can see my full board here.  I loved this picture so much and wanted to do something as big as the picture.  But there was so much going on in Penelope's new playroom that I need to scale it down to make it work. And to make it more cost effective.  Big canvases like that are expensive!

I used plan old acrylic paint.  I had about half the bottles and bought the other half.  These bottles can be kind of expensive, almost $3 a bottle, but you will use them for a long time.

If I had bought all the bottles, I probably would have used different paint colors, but I am still pretty pleased with the color palate.

These mini canvases came in a pack of three.  So I bought 5 packs for a total of 15.  A friend of mine had the great idea, of using felt instead!

Once they were all painted and dried, I had fun rearranging them on the floor to figure out what configuration I liked best.

Almost there!

Finally, the final configuration!

Then I put them up on the wall with velcro.  I put them right over her art table. So she likes to get up on her table and then pull them down. Which honestly, makes my skin crawl, because its just one more thing to clean up. But it is so beautiful to look at it, and we use it as a learning tool to learn her colors, that it is so worth it!


What do you think?

By Best Kids Health Blog

Ft. Walton and Destin Beach Trip

Last week, we went to go visit my husband Peter.  He has been living at a condo on the beach for three weeks.  It sounds luxurious, but he hasn't been able to go to the beach, pretty much, at all. He has been busting his butt, working 12 to 15 hours a day, digging through trash.  Yes, trash.  He is a engineer, and his firm is doing a pilot study (fancy word for experiment) in an attempt to make methane from bacteria in food trash (sort of like how fermentation works to grow good bacteria and enzymes).  It's a pretty cool experiment, if you can over look the whole digging-in-trash-all-day part.

Anyway, so we went to visit him and had some local fun. We, of course, spent lots of time at the beach.

We stayed at Destin West.  I was pretty impressed with how family friendly it was.  There was a lazy river and a family spa at the pool.  Almost everyone there was families with young children, so whenever we went to the pool, there was always a little tot for Penelope to make friends with.  Staying in Ft. Walton Beach, is way more affordable than staying in Destin, but the beach looks exactly the same!  And Destin is a short drive away, so you still have access to all the restaurants, shops and amenities.

We went to the Gulfarium.  And I pretty much felt like an asshole the whole time.  Ever since seeing the movie The Cove when I was pregnant, I swore I would never go to Sea World or anywhere that had captive dolphins again.    Penelope loved it, of course, and is now obsessed with dolphins even more than she already was. I am obsessed with dolphins too.  I spent many weekends of my childhood swimming with dolphins in Key Largo. When I was pregnant, I went to go feed and play with dolphins at the same place in Key Largo. I wanted to swim with them, but they don't allow pregnant women to do it (apparently the dolphins know that their is a baby inside and they are worried the dolphins will get too excited and head-butt you in the belly).  While there, we bought her a book about dolphins giving birth and nursing, and because of that book, she loves dolphins.  We also bought her a stuffed Mama and Baby dolphin that she adores.  In the gift shop, at the Gulfarium, I bought her a little plastic dolphin.  She calls him dolfy, and she clutches him in one hand and Mickey in the other.   She tells anyone who will listen about the "dolfies jumping in the wate."

Anyway, I once read, in a Doreen Virtue book, that dolphins like interacting with humans.  They see it as a higher calling, to be like earth angels and aid humans in their spiritual journey and help them remember their connection to Spirit.  And to the credit of the Gulfarium, the three dolphins that they had there, two were born there; a brother and sister and the mother was 28 years old, so they must be treating them well.  That is what I am going to keep repeating to myself, so I can sleep at night.

She also really loved the fish tank.

We went to the Air Force Armament Museum.  Penelope really liked looking at the airplanes and helicopters (panes and ah-ca-ca, as she calls them).  We couldn't really spend time reading or looking at the exhibits in depth, such is life with an almost 2 year old,  but she really got a kick out of getting into one of the cock pits and trying on pilot, bomber jackets. My Dad is a retired Air Force pilot, so it was cool to pay homage to all the past men and women who served in the Air Force.

There is a large area outside of planes and then regular museum exhibits inside.

And I can't go visit that area, without doing a little shopping at the outlet mall.  I didn't really need anything, but I got a cute long sleeve t-shirt for Penelope at Crew Cuts and some Micheal Kors sunglasses for me.

Have you ever vacationed in the area?  What is your favorite thing to do there?

By Best Kids Health Blog

ABC Playroom Wall Art

I was so inspired by Penelope loving learning her ABC's that I wanted to do something to keep that fire going.

I had a ton of fun making Penelope's ABC art for her newly redesigned playroom.  It was a little time consuming, and a tad logistically difficult, since the painted ones needed 2 to 4 coats of paint.  So I would have to paint a coat right at the beginning of nap time and then put everything away until bed time and had to repeat the process over several days, till everything was done.

I bought all these letters at Michael's.  I spent about $35 on everything. They have several different shapes and fonts, but it is not the same as my original inspiration where all the letters were larger and more different from each other.  But for the price, I am really happy with the way it came out.  I also like that it is smaller, so that with Rainbow Canvas Art, it is not too much for one wall.

When I was at Micheal's, I set up the letters on the floor, right in the middle of the isle.  I am a very visual learner and I needed to see exactly what it would like, with the different letters next to each other.  Somehow, I managed to forget the M and X.  Oh, I know how, her name is Penelope and she was having a princess sticker meltdown and I needed to get the hell out of the store before I bought her anything else to keep her quiet.

I used tape to mark off the lines of the Z, but I didn't measure.  If ya'll remember, I do things the Good Enough Stephanie Way.

I loved the button letters.  Penelope really likes them too.  She keeps asking to pull them off.

I wrapped the O, in scrap ribbon, did glitter on the T, wrapped the U in yarn (like my wreath) and wrapped the V in fabric from Penelope's 1st Birthday.

I got the inspiration for the letter B here.  I did all my crayons in the same direction, but she did hers going the opposite direction, I like hers better.  More wrapping scrap ribbon for C.  I am sure its obvious, but I used a hot glue gun for any letters that had things attached to it.

I attached them to the wall with velcro.  My original intention was do them lower so that Penelope could easily pull them off the wall and play with them.  But with the shelves, tent, and rainbow art, it needed to be higher up to make it all fit.  She can stand on her art table and reach several on the bottom row and she loves to do that.

She also likes to stand on her carpet and look at it and point to and shout out whichever letter.  I had my Goddaughter Ella, and her sister Ava over to last week.  Ava, who just turned 6, got inspired to make each letter with her body from looking at them.  It was really cute.  This is an X!  This is T! She would shout with excitement,  while her T looked like a drunken person trying to get into the back seat of a two-door car.  But it spurred some natural learning so I was pumped!

Have you done any ABC's in your kids' nursery or playroom?  I also like these from my Playroom Makeover board on Pinterest.   A full ABC's of these would be super cute!

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By Best Kids Health Blog

Toddler Play: Dance Class

I swore up and down that I would not start Penelope in dance so young.  I started dance class at the exact age she is now, and I thought it wasn't the best idea.  I was burnt out on dance by the time I got to high school and was distracted from my training with cheer leading and hanging out with friends.

But I guess there are some things you just can't change and are bound to do, exactly the same way you were raised.   And so, dance classes have begun for Miss P. 

She LOVES it!  It was worth the mental anguish deciding whether to sign her up or not.  I also really like the teacher.  She does yoga like stretches in the beginning and ends with story time, just like in a Tyke yoga class.

Penelope is learning so much each week.  Learning her right from her left side of her body, (which is one of the things that help with early reading), to wait for her turn, to listen to directions, etc.  So even if she decides she doensn't want to do dance class in a few years, what she is learning in these first early years will benefit her, her whole life.  Body coordination, balance, rhythm, these are all things are going to help later in learning.

For more simple ideas on how to use play as a learning experience for your little one, check out this book I love:



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By Best Kids Health Blog

Playroom Makeover Reveal!

Drum roll please...Penelope's new playroom!

Here are my before photos, in case you missed them.

This project came together fairly quickly.  I made the ABC wall art, the Canvas Rainbow wall art, the bean bag chairs in the tent ( I will show you tutorials for all, in the coming weeks), and painted the hallway wall with chalkboard paint.  My Dad put up the shelves, raised the light fixture, and drilled the drip pan to the wall.  I spent a little over $100 on craft supplies, paint, drip pan and filler for the bean bag chairs.  My parents spent a little over $100 (thank you!) on the rug, the two red chairs and the three white shelves. All from IKEA.

I wanted the room to be very playful (duh) but also inspiring and educational.  If I do end up homeschooling, I imagine this room evolving into our little classroom.   I wanted to brighten it up and make it special for her.  It's kind of odd, but between this room and her swing set outside, I finally feel like this is a family home.

The HABA tent!  Penelope loves this thing.  It is a hand me down, from Penelope's Godmother.

Her kitchen and push toys area.  That's a KidCraft kitchen, I got it for less than $30 at Tuesday Morning, a Pottery Barn stroller and HABA walker wagon.

This table is a used art table from Land of Nod.  It is still a little big for Penelope, but she will grow into it soon. I use this black bin under the table for all her art supplies

Her toy storage area.  I would have liked to repaint these white, but I got burnt out. Maybe I will later.  I got these bookcases while I was in college from Target. They have stayed in good shape, surprisingly.  I got the bins from Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Her bookshelves. I think they are my most favorite part.  It makes the room just feel like a little school room.   I think I may add one more at the bottom.  That's a HABA click clack track, another great toy.

The drip pan!  So much fun.  $9.99 from AutoZone.  My Dad drilled it to the wall, but another reader used heavy duty velcro.

The chalkboard wall.  I am so glad I defied my husband on this one.  I painted it late at night, after Penelope had gone to bed, and the first thing in the morning, Penelope went over to it to draw.  I love being able to write my to-do lists at the top as well. I had to do two coats, but it was such a small area that I was totally done in less than 45 minutes.  This was regular latex paint, but it does not contain lead.

Coppa (Grandpa) installing the shelves, and little Miss, in her princess panties (more on those in another post!).  BIG thank you to my Dad for doing all the manual labor (while hubby was away) in the playroom, not to mention all the other house work he did too!  And BIG thank you to my mom for braving the craziness that is IKEA to get all the finishing touches.

Sooooooo...what do you think?!?  Penelope loves it, her independent play has been taken to the next level, she loves exploring everything and going from activity to activity.  I can't wait to have get together with friends and see lots of kids playing in there at once!

By Best Kids Health Blog

Learning ABC's

First off, let me take a moment to admire my photography skills here.  This was NOT taken in Auto. I have started taking private lessons from a local photographer, Christy Baldwin.  I have a long way to go, but finally, finally it is all starting to come together.  I have read books, taken two different group classes, I have a fancy ass camera, and still I relied on Auto.  But things are a changing!

Ok, so now that we have that out of the way, let me tell you about Penelope and her ABC's.  I know I am partial, but the girl is a genius.  I am hoping that she got the best of both worlds, from her father and I.  I am emotionally and creatively very smart, I read fast and write well. Her Papa is an engineer, the kind that can do ridiculous math equations.  In his head.  I am not sure if she is ahead of the curve to be honest, but it sure feels like it.  She talks up a storm and knows every single letter of the Alphabet.  She can pick any letter out of a pile and say, P!  And then puts it the correct spot.  When they are all in, we will sing the alphabet song and I point to each letter as I sing.  She also likes me to make words with the letters.

We got this ABC puzzle at a garage sale for $1 and it is one of her favorite toys.  She will mimic how we played together by herself.  She will put them all in their spots and then line them up and pretend to make words.

We also have an Elmo Etch-a-Sketch and she loves to tell me what words to write. So we go down a long list of three and four letter words (Cat, Mama, etc) and I write them on the board.  Then I will pick a word to write and she will tell me what it says.  Basically reading.  She also likes to play this game when we are painting.

I am thinking about revamping her playroom and I would like to do this on one of the walls.  I would like to attach them to the wall via velcro or something else that is easily removable/attachable.  I would like her to start using the letters to making her own words.  I don't want to be a psycho tiger mom forcing her 2 year old to learn how to read, but she really enjoys letter play, so I want to go along with it and encourage it.

How did you teach your little one's their ABC's?   And p.s. thanks for letting me brag for a moment. :)





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By Best Kids Health Blog