Storage, Organisation And Other Battlegrounds
www.fridayschildmontessori.com
OK, anyone who says that getting children to tidy up after themselves is easy is being somewhat economical with the truth.
Yes, one of the things that your children will learn by attending a Montessori early childhood centre is that equipment should be put away properly and it should be put away as soon as you’ve finished dealing with it.
However, a Montessori centre, like other kindergartens and early childhood centres, is set up to make this easy for children.
They’re child-centred and so they should be. Family homes, however, are different. We all know that children grow up very quickly and homes can’t be exclusively designed around them – what suits them t oday won’t suit them in four years time.
So what’s a parent to do?
One thing you should certainly do is to insist that the Montessori principle of putting it away straight away and putting it away properly is continued at home –
it’ll make things easier for you and it will be easier for all of us here at the Montessori centre. And it would also make sense to have systems in place to help your children be organised.
This may or may not mean having child-sized equipment, depending on your budget.
One trap that many parents fall into is having too many toys for their children.
Not only does this have a tendency to degenerate into muddle but it also means that your children become blasĂŠ about everything they own more quickly.
One way of cutting the clutter and ensuring that your children don’t get bored with what they have is to rotate toys and sets.
Basics that are played with frequently, craft activities and special cuddly toys should stay out all the time – but put away in place! But other things can be used to create a DIY toy library.
For example, this month, you have the doll’s tea sets out for use, while the dressing-up clothes, the Lego, the paddling pool and the pavement chalk are tucked away in the garage/attic/cupboard under the stairs.
Next month, the tea set goes away and your child picks out a new set to use.
And don’t think that all your storage items for children have to be bought new. You don’t even have to use second hand ones.
Ice cream containers, cardboard boxes of all sizes (cardboard wineboxes with the top cut off on a slant is one solution used by many schools and early childhood centres and they’re as tough as they come), yoghurt containers, bottles and margarine tubs are all excellent storage solutions.
www.fridayschildmontessori.com