I am a mom, a teacher with 30 years experience including teaching in a Montessori school. I have incorporated Montessori principles in every classroom and in my home when rearing my own children.
The main Montessori concept I adopted is --- children of all ages need to learn to use all their senses--touch it, feel it, hear it, smell it, see it. Ultimate goal is to move a child from concrete to abstract. Seeing or touching a real butterfly is concrete. Seeing the word or a coloring book outline is abstract. Children who skip concrete stage will have learning problems in school. In a reader or coloring book, a butterfly may be the same size as an elephant, a child who has never seen an elephant will not know the difference. In my opinion, this is why so many inner city children start two or three years behind suburban children in a classroom.
Oh yes, infants are learning every day. Here are several suggested activities for those newborns:
1. Begin even before the baby is born organizing the baby's room. There should be a place for everything and everything in its place.
2. Set up a music center. Collect music, especially dvd/disk format so as child grows, he/she can choose what they want to hear. Play music during changing time, to gently wake a child from a nap, to calm a child before they fall asleep. Include all music genre from kid songs to classical to rock and roll, jazz, and country. Auditory learning is important even for infants.
3. Set up a dressing/changing center. As the infant becomes a toddler, he/she can choose shoes or shirt for the day or bring a busy parent a basket with changing supplies-diaper, powder.
4. People seem to love the sounds of wind chimes. I plan to purchase one that tinkles beautifully for my granddaughter.
5. Collect colorful books. Look for Caldecott winners or American Library Association winners. These are the best of the best. Children's poetry books have a rhythm and rhyme that children like. Read daily to your baby beginning at birth. Remember they are learning language long before they can speak words. I especially love the touch and feel books.
6. Have a colorful environment but not too busy. Focus décor on primary colors and an easily changeable theme. For example, one month could be zoo month featuring posters to look at and stuffed zoo animals to touch. Read to your child from books about zoo animals. The rhythm of poetry may be soothing. Add music that features zoo animals--The Lion Sleeps Tonight or music from The Lion King. While changing your baby's clothes or diaper, talk about and touch the different animals.
After a month, box up for use again later. Replace with posters and stuffed farm animals for month two.
Think about texture when purchasing or making stuffed toys--smooth, soft, rough, bumpy, slippery, cool, warm. Remember that a baby depends on their tactile (touching) sense in the beginning learning process.
7. Your new baby is discovering smells. How nice would it be if everyone could put fresh flowers in a new baby's room each day. Most of us can't afford this. But there are other ways to incorporate great smells. I love lavender and vanilla. Use essential oils an potpourri out of reach of any child to introduce pure smells in the baby's room. Teach your infant to smell and identify those scents as they grow. Please never use lit candles!! The fire hazard is too great!
Ideally, you might add potted plants out of reach for a child to smell--lemon grass, mint, even flowers. Eventually, as your child ages, the plants can be moved lower so that the child can learn to care for them.
8. Never place any aged infant in a walker. I learned in an early childhood class years ago that a part of the brain develops as a child learns to crawl. Fix a pallet on the floor and let your child develop free movement, building muscles naturally.
9. Child proof your home. Move those trinkets you don't want your child to touch or break. Instead, place knick knacks that a child can first discover visually and eventually reach for using their tactile sense. Encourage your child to move and discover. No child should learn the word NO, don't touch! unless it refers to something dangerous like an oven or dishwasher, etc.
Remember that everything will be put into an infant's mouth during their discovery process. Put away small items that can be easily swallowed.
10. I don't like swings and bouncers either. The floor, a play pen, a bed, soft grass, pallets--allows all muscles to develop as a child learns to roll over, sit up, get up on knees, crawl, pull up, stand, and finally walk.
FYI:
You do not have to be rich to incorporate Montessori into your baby's room.
Garage sales, resale shops, libraries--free and inexpensive!! Learn to sew your own stuffed toys--from old clothes stuffed with old t-shirts.
Skip those expensive plastic toys. Fisher price, Playskool, an ipod, and Ipads are not a baby's or toddler's best friend. Parents and family and friends are!
Labels: homeschooling, Montessori, Montessori for infants, Montessori for toddlers, Montessori in the home, new baby, newborns, the 5 senses
