In Montessori, you often hear about the "prepared environment", but what does it actually mean and how a parent can “prepare” it? We will talk about different rooms and areas of a house in a series of posts. Today, let’s have a look at how you can arrange a play area for your Child the Montessori way.
In a traditional set up, a Child usually has all of Her toys stored in a large box or container. In order to find a certain toy She will need to dig through all of them, often getting distracted by other toys, jumping from one activity to another and making a mess in the play area. This can be quite overwhelming for a developing brain of the young Child who naturally loves things to be in order.
In Montessori, we take a different approach to how toys and activities are presented to the Child:
- First, only a limited number of materials are available to the Child at any given time (typically around 8-10), the rest of the toys are stored in a place that the Child does not have access to. This allows the Child to be more focused and less distracted.
- The materials are presented on a low open shelf, with some space between them, so that the Child can see them all and independently choose the one that She is interested in.
- The parent rotates the the toys every now and then, there is no strict schedule, just observe your Child, and once you notice that She has not been touching the toy for a while, replace it with another one from the storage. You can start with weekly rotation as a guideline.
- A space for your Child to play/work on activities. This can be a play mat, a rug or a child size table and chair depending on your Child’s age.
- You can complete your Child’s play area with a live plant (remember about the safety though) and a work of art (this can be a reproduction of a classic painting mounted on the wall at a Child’s eye level).
- A selection of books should be available to the Child. If you have enough space, you can add a reading nook to the play area - a cozy little chair and a shelf with books with their covers facing the Child. Don’t worry if you can’t fit it in, a box/basket with books will work too as long as the Child has free access to it.