Our Montessori Closet and the Importance of Order

    About two weeks ago, I introduced Q-ball to her own Montessori closet.  I had been waiting for the right time to do this, and it seemed to have presented itself.  I had noticed that she was starting to be much more forceful in sharing her opinions- where to sit when we read, what diaper she wanted to wear (she really likes the cow design), what clothes she wanted to wear, and even what she wanted me to wear.  Additionally, she regularly cleans up after herself and enjoys helping me with household chores.  

  The design is simple- one I've seen on several other Montessori blogs.  I just placed a shower row at her level in her closet and use child size hangers for her clothes.  We hang everything but her shorts which are in a basket on the closet floor.   It took her a few minutes to figure out how to hang up the hangers and how to make sure that all of the hangers face the same direction, but now she's got it!

   Her closet has allowed me to reflect upon the two main principles of Dr. Montessori's approach that drew our family to it in the first place: 1) a child's freedom of choice and 2) a child's amazing ability to master (and enjoy!) practical life skills.  
   Q-ball has loved selecting her own clothing. It's true- sometimes we change clothes once or twice in a day because it's so exciting.  And, sometimes it takes much longer than if I just grabbed a shirt and put it on her. (In cases when we are in a hurry, I help by offering her two choices or quickly closing the closet door after she has selected one shirt.)  But, she really enjoys the process and has even started telling me stories about the different shirts or works to describe them with sign language.

   As for practical life skills, Q-ball is by my side when it is time to put up laundry.  She happily hangs up all of her clothes- very deliberately making sure all of the hangers are in the correct position.  This is important as she starts to enter what Dr. Montessori has identified as the sensitive period for order.  During this time, children between 2 and 4 love routines, consistency, and repetition.  Additionally, they are learning to respect their environment by maintaining a neat, orderly appearance.  I especially like how Lillard and Jessen explain the importance of order in their book Montessori from the Start, "...the reward of giving order is ordered thought.  Ordered thought can lead to simplifying what may appear at first to be an overwhelming task and transforming it into a manageable, even enjoyable, one."

Source:
Lillard, P.P. & Jessen, L.L. (2003). Montessori from the start: The child at home, from birth to age three. Random House: NY.
Linking up with 

Watch Her Grow...

This Week's Focus: Language and Critical Thinking

More pictures from our hike.

Interactions with Materials

• Q-ball loves balls.  She sees pictures of buttons, smiley faces, any circles and immediately gets very excited about the "ball."  She also loves when her fun Daddy comes home and will play ball with her.
• She is starting to start pretend play more- just small things like "drinking" out of an empty cup. 

Interactions with Others

• Last week at church Q-ball started pointing toward the nursery, so Daddy took her to try the nursery expereince again.  But, it pretty much resembled the previous experiences in the nursery filled with tears and instances of separation anxiety despite the fact that Daddy is sitting in the corner.  Over the past few months, I have been saying "bye-bye" to items when we have to clean up or if Q-ball has gotten into something that is probably better left alone.  Well, she has really started to catch on.  At the nursery, if she happened to make eye contact with the caregiver, she was scream, "BAH!  Bye-bye! Bye-bye!" in what seemed to be attempt to make the caregiver disappear. 

Critical Thinking

• Q-ball is starting to expand her two-word phrases using different methods of communication. For example, at our park day, she saw some older girls playing with a toy horse.  We headed for the other side of the park as the toys were just too tempting for a toddler passerby and she looked at me and communicated "play (using sign language) horse (saying neigh)."

Interactions with Life 

• I haven't mentioned much with potty learning as I am considering doing a post writing about our whole journey.  But, as that may never happen, I'll share some info here.  Q-ball has become obsessed with potties. She instructs me to go "potty" using sign language and the verbal cue "psss..." frequently throughout the day.  She, of course, does not want to go potty herself- she just watches me and helps me get toilet paper and then tells me to wash my hands and then to dry them.  Also, she is now on the lookout for potential potties in public places we visit.  If she locates one, she tells me to go potty there.  At last weeks LLL meeting, she dragged me to the potty 3 times in about an hour.  And, she dragged me to every other closed door that she suspected to be a potty.  Luckily, I drink lots of water...

 We are linking up with Vibrant Wanderings.  See what the other kiddos are up to here! 
To see the rational and purpose for the Watch Her Grow series, please check out this post!