CREATING A SMALL MONTESSORI TODDLER ROOM

 

This is an example of the Montessori-style room created especially for 19 months old boy in quite tight space. Also, it is not a standard square-shaped room.

On the Internet, there are a lot of information and articles about main principals of how to make a proper Montessori-style room for a child.

This is how we have tried to apply these ideas in our son's Montessori toddler room:

• Low bed

Well, our convertible crib is quite low to the floor and it is very easy for our son to get into and off the bed. Though, we still have to use a protection crib rail, because he sleeps in a very chaotical manner and moves all over the bed during the night. At the same time, still, sometimes he can wake up in the middle of the night, climb off the crib and get into our (parents') bed. I guess he already needs a bigger bed than just a crib. We are thinking to get low twin bed or mattress in the near future.

• Play/activity rug

We have covered the kid's area floor with the soft washable foam tiles (there is a cold tile floor in the room/no carpet). I do not see any sense in putting any extra rug onto it as you can see rugs on the carpets in some Montessori toddler room photos on the Internet.

• Kids table and chairs

I have read that the table area has to be next to the window so that the child can look outside, see nature and get inspiration while he is creating or drawing something etc. I also think that the table with chairs (the child's "workplace") has to be well-lit. What are the difficulties with it? We have experienced that our toddler from time to time getting up on the chair, then on the table and then...yes, on the windowsill! Of course, if a window in your nursery is high enough it is not a problem, but in our case, we always have to keep an eye on what our kid does in his room.

• Low open shelf for toys and books

Every Montessori toddler room should have a low open shelf. We've bought our shelf for just about $30 or so and it is totally fine for a nursery. There is only one problem. As in the case with the table, our son, sometimes, tries to climb on it, so you have to be sure it is well-mounted to the wall for your kid's safety. Later I have also purchased 3 cube-shaped boxes that fit perfectly into these shelves. These boxes are great for storing small wooden toys, building blocks, etc.

• Reading corner

There is a cute elephant armchair - the place which is meant to be a "reading corner". The only problem with this kind of seat is that it is quite lightweight and, if it is not placed next to the wall or something steady, a child can fall back while sitting in it and fooling around, but it is not that serious. We still love it!

• Wall art

For the wall art at the moment we have a fun designed map of the World. As per Montessori, all wall art has to be placed low, at the toddler height level, so that he could see it well, BUT right after placing it on the wall our son started happily peeling it off the wall and tearing it ( you can even see in the photo that it is already torn and taped back together in one place). That's why we have decided temporarily to place it higher. I am also planning to buy some more pictures later. I am just wondering what will be their destiny!

• Decorative bunting

We have a cute decorative personalized name garland.

• Toy storage

There are a couple of extra toy storage boxes in the room. From time to time our son likes to turn it upside down and shake out all the toys on the floor.

• Natural toys

I personally love wooden toys and think these kind of toys are much nicer than plastic ones. We do have some plastic toys as well, but I try to buy more natural toys for our son. From now on I try to buy plastic toys only if there is something really special about them.

Overall we love how our Montessori toddler room looks now. Of course, we understand that all the difficulties will disappear in several months as our boy will grow up a little and understand that he shouldn't climb on the windows, shelves or tear wall decorations.