Montessori Inspired Learning Space

A few years ago, my dear friend, Carolina introduce me to Montessori. I like the education concept and philosophy a lot. Some of them are:

• Help the kids to do things themselves: Encourage independence
• Establish orderly environment and keep clutter at minimum. Teach them to do one things at a time.
• Patiently teach children new skills in simple ways they can understand.
• Let them practice without interruption or correction
• Encourage children to appreciate and explore nature
• Do Practical Life at home: involved him/ her in everything you do: baking, cooking, cleaning, fixing things and so on to encourage him to be helpful.
• Respect their choice and encourage interest in learning
• Create a loving climate: use encouragement, model kindness, courtesy, and compassion

Montessori classroom is different from other schools because the children are engaged in self-initiated activities with a degree of autonomy and independence that is unique to an educational setting..



I keep those things in mind as I organize our home, which continuously evolves as our family grows.
Today, I'm giving you a tour of our family room/ living room/ learning space/ playroom.
We got this big oh-so-useful shelves from Ikea. The upper part hold our stuffs: pictures, reference books, books that I currently read, camera; anything that we don't want the kids to touch.

The bottom shelves hold the kids' materials. Didi insisted to be in the picture when he saw me holding the camera.

 I organize each according to the subjecst: math, language, drawing, music, books, kitchen stuff and so on.

I rotate the book often. We also have shelves of books up stair in the bedroom

The bottom boxes hold the kids' clothes that way they can get their own clothes whenever they need to change.  

The far right box hold stuff animals and misc toys, the next drawer hold Didi's cloth diapers.

Next to the big shelves we got a smaller shelves. We put tower cubes, art supplies, puzzle, board games, Max's small animals toys, Didi books, and lego. I put some puzzles and board games in the storage and rotate them as necessary so the kids don't get overwhelmed with too many choices.




At the other part of the room. Chris and I made a playhouse from leftover wood and fabric.

 

We bought a used piano a few months ago from our dear friend.

Next to the piano is a Leap Frog World Map, a gift from Max's uncle & auntie


And next to the map is Max's borrowed book from the library and his animal's books.

"Education is the atmosphere we breathe, the envelope of wonder that surrounds us, held by the gravity of our daily habits." 

Charlotte Mason

To learn more about Montessori you can read these books: