Applying Montessori to Every Day Life

When you decide to take the first step into Montessori style parenting, it can feel overwhelming. Is it time to completely change everything about how you’re raising your children? Should you get rid of all of their plastic toys? The short answer is no. Deciding to incorporate Montessori doesn’t mean throwing everything you know out the window. In fact, you’re probably already doing a lot of things already that can help you with this new outlook on raising your littles. Let’s talk about a few things you can do to apply Montessori to your every day life.

The first aspect you can incorporate is independence. In my opinion, this is the biggest step most parents need to take, but it can also be either the easiest or most difficult. As adults, we have a sense of time management and schedules that kids just don’t quite understand yet. They are on their own time. We’ve all had moments when we are just trying to leave the house to get to an event or even just go to the store and the toddler in our lives is insisting on putting on their own shoes. Your internal voice is screaming that you need to leave now. What we don’t tend to think about is how important it feels to your toddler that they are the one to put their shoes on. They want to be independent of you, and maybe even show you how big they are. Children have an intrinsic sense of self that they are in the stages of developing from birth. Allowing yourself to take a step back and not push your child to just let you do it for them shows them that you respect who they are as an individual.

With independence comes the need for patience. These two aspects go hand in hand. You need to remember that your child will make mistakes as they are learning, which usually includes breaking items, falling down, or spilling liquids. Natural consequences are a part of the Montessori learning process, which is why you’ll see glass containers and real items in Montessori learning environments. When I was a toddler teacher, I allowed my students to make mistakes, and show them how to deal with those natural consequences. If they spilled water while doing a pouring activity, they were given a cloth to wipe it up. If they broke a container, my co-teacher and I would demonstrate how to sweep it up. Of course, the safety of the children in the environment was the number one priority. We never asked a toddler to sweep up broken glass. We would discuss why it broke, and how they could prevent it next time. The same practice can be applied in your home. If your child drops something, don’t get upset with them. Instead, guide them and show them how to clean it up. Treat each “mistake” as a learning opportunity. Maria Montessori believed that children can learn so much from their natural environment.

My last piece of advice for applying Montessori to your every day life is to simply observe your child. Observation allows you to learn so much about who your child is and what they like to do. While they play independently, sit back and watch them. By doing this, you can see what their natural interests are and what they need extra help with. It’s a beautiful thing to see a child play without interruption. If you want to, take notes on what they do, and use them to plan activities. For instance, if your child keeps picking up their book about trucks, perhaps look into different activities that can build upon their interest in vehicles. You can extend the normal play by setting up a car wash for the toy vehicles after taking them outside to get dirty. Talk about what each truck’s job is to expand your little one’s vocabulary. Even if they aren’t talking yet, still narrate every part of the activity.

I hope you found this ideas helpful! If you need some more advice on how to get started, fill out my contact form and we can set up a free call to begin your Montessori journey!