I’m excited to introduce you today to my friend Marie. Marie has a passion for incorporating Montessori principles into day to day life with her two adorable children. She has graciously agreed to write a series of articles for us, focusing on setting up your home in a Montessori friendly way when you live in a small space. Check back every Monday in September for “Montessori at Home Mondays”!
-Seemi
Montessori At Home Mondays with Marie Mack
Montessori Setup in a Small Space
The Montessori Method is versatile in so many beautiful ways. The world is the classroom and even a small space can be used to engage young learners. I would love to show you some of the ways we have our small space Montessori setup with Montessori At Home Mondays five part series. Check back each Monday in the month of September where I will give you a tour of our small space Montessori setup.
I am grateful to be here at Trillium Montessori. Thank you, Seemi, for this opportunity!
We have lived in all sized homes after traveling the country for many years as a military family. Through it all, I have noticed one thing. Young children want to be wherever you are! No matter how big or small your living space is, more than likely they will be within arm’s reach. With this in mind, we found ourselves living in smaller and smaller homes. The smallest home our family of four lived in was a one bedroom apartment without a balcony, in the city.
Our family is an outdoor family so having a small space Montessori setup in the city was a bit of a challenge, but we found some of our most rewarding lessons from this space.
I found the secret to Montessori homeschooling in small spaces is to use the vertical space for storage and to leave only a select amount of activities out at one time. Rotating activities often throughout the house can keep your child’s interest when there is not a lot of space to run around.
Samuel was 3 years old when we lived in this space and Avalyn was 18 months. Much of our Montessori work around the house focuses on practical life work since these are appropriate lessons for their age group.
Let me show you around our small space setup!
The Entryway
The common space in a small home is used very often. This is the classroom, playroom, community room, and reading room all in one. I divided the living room in our one bedroom apartment into different free flowing areas.
We start with our entry way. We have a small mat for shoes and a child size bench. Our routine was to sit on the bench to put shoes on before we left and then again to take them off when we got home. My children did this without prompting since this was a consistent routine of our practical life work.
Check back next Monday where we will go over how we use free shelves in our living room to create a budget friendly Montessori space for our children.
About Marie Mack
Marie is a work-at-home mother of two. After much self-study and with a background in education, she chose to follow her own children in their education and created the blog Child Led Life. She would love to hear from you on Facebook and Pinterest.
Where to Find Supplies
Many of the things you will need to make your home more Montessori and child friendly can be found easily at places like the Dollar Store, Target, and Walmart. You can also find a great selection of tools at For Small Hands, a company founded by a Montessori teacher.
Seemi holds a Master's degree in education, and an AMS Early Childhood credential. She has twenty years of experience in Montessori as a teacher, school administrator, and school owner. Seemi is the founder of TrilliumMontessori.org.