Ever since I decided to do Montessori inspired homeschool with my daughter I have been in the process of setting up our home to be a little more Montessori friendly. With my background in Occupational Therapy, setting things up for increased independence for my daughter was already something I had planned on doing. So today I am sharing how we have set up our Montessori home and also some more ideas for setting up your own Montessori home for toddlers.
The easiest part for me to set up our Montessori inspired home was our living room. We took out our TV stand and mounted the TV to wall to give us more floor space. We purchased our shelves and table/chair set from IKEA. We also have a make shift tower that is made from tough cardboard. I plan on switching it out for the pink tower once we save up a little more money for things.
I tend to set up themed activities, but this is kind of a transition week for us. Last week we did a really fun apple theme week. I like to add in some sensory bin activities from my Occupational Therapy background, so the two bottom left bin and baskets are those. We do a mixture of Montessori inspired and Occupational Therapy related activities in our home.
She loves using her little table and chair set and will often take her little activities over to it to play with. She also will eat her breakfast and snacks there.
In our dining room I have set up two storage areas, more for myself than anything. The shelf with the green bins is also from IKEA. This is a place for our markers and crayons, paper, laminating items, play dough play items, and any other activity storage I need. We also have the shelves with the baskets. One basket holds all of our Montessori trays and containers. She will also go over and pull things out from time to time if she wants to play with something.
She also has a drawer in here with a couple of Duplo sets.
Another has miscellaneous items that I need from time to time when setting up her activities. There is also a drawer for baby proofing items. I also put some toys that are plastic and are noise makers that she got for gifts in here. They are a little more out of sight and she doesn’t really play with them.
In our kitchen she has a little broom and sweeping set that we got from Melissa & Doug. I also have a drawer that she is able to reach with all her plates and cups. We had to move the silverware to inside the pantry because she would go in and take the silverware out and play with it constantly and I was having to wash things all the time. But when it is meal time, I open it and let her go in and get her things so she can set the table.
She also helps put away silverware from the dishwasher for me and hands me other items so that I can put them away if they are too high.
Since we found out about Montessori after my daughter was born, her bedroom still has the typical baby and toddler furniture and feel. But since it is upstairs and we are only up there to sleep there at night, I have not focused on changing it yet. Once we move her to another bedroom, I plan on switching things out.
So for some bedroom ideas, check out these amazing posts from some of my fellow Montessori blogger friends.
When I first saw this Montessori bedroom, I seriously wanted to live here myself. So neat and orderly. From Nicole at The Kavanaugh Report.
Deb at Living Montessori Now has this amazing set up on her blog. I absolutely love this one as well.
And if you have more than one child in a bedroom, here is a great idea on how you can set things up for both children. This is from our very own Marie over at Child Led Life.
More Montessori Home Set-Up Inspiration
Looking for more Montessori home set-up inspiration? I have gathered some links and ideas from some other Montessori bloggers for you. Thanks for my friends at the Montessori Blogger Network for sharing these posts with us.
- Our New Montessori Set-Up – Vibrant Wanderings
- Homeschooling Room Tour – Natural Beach Living
- Our Toddler Living Room Space – NDUOMA
- Our Toddler Bedroom Space – NDUOMA
- Our Montessori Home – When Hippos Talk
- Personal Care in a Montessori Home – Vibrant Wanderings
- Seriously Montessori – Rising Joyfulness
- Toilet Learning & Set Up – Rising Joyfulness
- Montessori inspired Toddler Environment – Montessori Nature
And be sure to follow us on Pinterest for even more Montessori inspiration!
Visit Heather G. | Golden Reflections Blog ‘s profile on Pinterest.
So inspiring and beautifully organized! Thank you for sharing:) Pinning to our Early Life Skills & Learning Board! http://www.pinterest.com/cherinexa/early-life-skills-and-learning/
Thanks so much for sharing Cherine!
Such inspiration! Thanks so much for sharing these great posts. I love getting a peek into other families’ homes. I’m honored to have my post linked among the other great ones you shared, too 🙂
I love seeing what other people do in their homes too. Thanks for allowing us to share yours! 🙂
This is such a timely post for my family right now! One question though, how do you keep your kid from tossing the things in the baskets about? My kid is like a bull in a china shop. More search & destroy than exploratory. Perhaps this setup just isn’t for us?
CeeBee, I actually had to move the the silverware basket because she was carrying silverware around and throwing it around. As for the book shelves and baskets, she learned pretty quickly to take the items to the table to use them. If she started throwing things around, I took them away. So we personally have not had much trouble with that. But I think it definitely depends on the child.
I really want a Montessori home, however I have two toddlers (a 1 1/2 yr and a 2 1/2 yr) and we just got them (adopting) so everything is dumped on the floor and kinda chaos. Any suggestions?
Hi Kia,
Congrats on the adoptions! I am sure all the changes for your little ones will take some time. I would just start small and gradually work your way up to a completely organized home. Mine is definitely still chaotic at time, I think that is just the nature of children. However, I would definitely set up a small Montessori work space and if toys or objects are not played with appropriately than they get put away. They will quickly catch on if they want to play with something, they need to use it properly or it disappears. Good luck! ~ Heather
Montessori environments are prepared using only a handful of ‘works’ per area, this allows the child to easily maneuver through the materials without being overloaded with too many selections . The materials are first presented to the child so he/she can learn how to properly use them. This limits the probability of large messes.
-Montessorian of 32 years
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and input Lilly!
it is amazing how smoothly things start to run when a child is given their own well prepared spaces in the home. We use the same shelves in our home and they have worked well since infancy. What a great post.
Great Post! I love the cleaning set.
Thank you for linking to my posts about our toddler spaces.
Oh I really need to be more organised like this! Thanks so much for sharing with the Monday #pinitparty. Have pinned.