Looking for ways to incorporate Montessori principles into your home?

 

Simply adding these items to your home will give it a Montessori feel

 

Let’s face it, incorporating Montessori in your home can be down right intimidating if you have no idea where to start. There are many things that you should add to create an inviting, engaging, child led Montessori environment; and there are definitely things you should not add to your space as well. Items that do not provide for natural exploration, promote independence or are child directed are not normally found in a Montessori environment. The Montessori environment should be comfortable, inviting and specifically designed with young children in mind.

 

 

The Prepared Environment

Maria Montessori termed the space in a Montessori environment, The Prepared Environment, in which the environment is designed to facilitate the maximum amount of independent learning and exploration of the children.

 

Keeping in mind the goal of creating a great Montessori environment, will allow you to select appropriate items and products for your space. I have many items that I have incorporated into my classroom that contribute to the overall development and enhancement of the children utilizing the classroom. These items build upon their independence and self help skills, encourages the child’s natural ability to learn; as well as aid in the development of fine & gross motor skills. These are all a huge part of the Montessori philosophy, practices and teachings.

 

One thing I’ve learned over the many years of teaching is that incorporating Montessori thoughts and ideas does not always have to be expensive or time consuming. There are many basic, every day items that you can use to make Montessori exercises and to make your home environment “Montessori friendly”. This list of inexpensive IKEA items that you can incorporate easily into your home environment will for sure set you on the right path of creating a true Montessori home for your child. These are all items that I have in my current classroom; so you can rest assure that they are tried and true products that I love and use on a daily basis. These are some of my favorite products from my classroom. I hope you enjoy them and find some (or all) of them as great as I think they are!

 

5 must have IKEA products for incorporating Montessori into your home environment

 

1. POÄNG Children’s armchair, birch veneer, Almås natural

These chairs are comfortable and great to use in a reading area or library. I have two of these chairs, along with a small decorative rug and a book display. Create a quiet space for your child or children to relax, explore and develop& practice language skills. Also foster a LOVE of reading!

 

2. FLISAT Book display

This book display is perfect for any library! It is a visually appealing to children and displays some of their favorite books with ease. It is also very durable. I normally put anywhere from ten to fifteen books out at once for my classroom of twenty-four young children. I try to rotate and change the books out once a month; depending on the interest levels of the children. When using this in your home, I suggest you put out five to twelve books, and rotate them out one to two times a month, since there are less children.

 

3. POKAL Glass, clear glass

These are my absolute FAVORITE!!! They are the perfect sized for tiny hands, and are perfectly priced. So now for the shocking part…YES, they are glass, and NO I’m not crazy for letting children use glass cups. Using glass has its pros and cons, but trust me on this one, there are more positive results than negative ones!. I must admit though, they do break fairly easily if dropped, but for the prices, it is not a big deal! You get a pack of six, so just replace it!  HAHA!!! But seriously, I have used these cups for YEARS, and I swear by them.

 

4. LÄTT Children’s table and chairs

A sturdy, child sized table and chairs perfect for doing activities; such as eating snack, art projects, lessons and more!

5. RÅSKOG Utility cart

This cart can be used for almost ANYTHING! I use it to house extra paper towels, towels and mini brooms with dustpans. It is our “clean-up station” if someone spills on the table, drops anything on the floor or something needs to be swept up. It is there responsibility to make the effort to clean up their messes, and the other children and I are there to “help”, not to clean it for them. It teaches them responsibility and care of the environment; which are both major ideals in Montessori. You can use this for just about anything, plus it comes with wheels!!! Score!

 

 

 

The bottom line

The bottom line is that there are a number of items that you can add to an environment to make it Montessori. As long as the items selected are child appropriate, child led and child sized, they can be termed “Montessori”. These items are very easy to incorporate and add to your home area. They are fairly inexpensive and durable…with the exception of those cups!

 

I’m interested…do you have any favorite IKEA products that you use in your classroom or Home school? Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear about them!!

 

Are you interested in learning more ways to incorporate Montessori into your home environment?

There are many different options for adding Montessori to your home. If interested, feel free to sign up for my FREE course Add Montessori to Your Home school. I look forward to hearing from you!

 

Anitra J.