Montessori At Home Mondays with Marie Mack
Montessori Setup in a Small Space
Thank you, Seemi, for having me back for part two of our Montessori At Home Monday’s series. If you missed part one, check it out here!
I would love to show you around our living room next. We used this space for EVERYTHING! Our living room is the classroom, playroom, community room, and reading room all in one.
It is a great space for a lot of wonderful family time without having to clean up an entire house at the end of the day. As a busy mom, there are big perks to living in a small home.
The first item in our living space is a tall bookshelf. This shelf was headed to the dumpster at my husband’s work. Solid wood and very sturdy. (I love it!)
On the bottom two shelves I have practical life trays. The bottom shelf is intended for my youngest and the next shelf up for my oldest. Although they both work with the materials, I wanted to be sure there was enough challenge for my oldest.
The upper shelves, even the very top, is storage for activities and toys I rotate. I asked my children not to take those items down without asking me. This is an organizational decision that worked well and helped them focus on the work I already had out. I used clear bins to easily identify the materials inside and stacked as high as I could on the top shelf to get the most out of my vertical space.
The rest of our common living space looked like this. The white shelf has some math and language work, a couple things for each child. The lower shelves for the younger child and upper shelves for the older. The green pillows and basket served as our reading space and where we did our circle time activities. The chalk board against the wall became an art space. The black shelves were also a find before they headed to the dumpster. This set of shelves I reserved for play items. Puzzles, play-dough, and special books on the topic we were discussing that week. There is also set of drawers there, that is hard to see in the picture. This stored my extra materials for helping Samuel with beginning learning and drawing materials.
You can see my bed behind a little divider. My husband and I chose to sleep in the open living space to give our children the room in our one bedroom apartment. Let’s tour there next Monday.
Check back next Monday where we will go over how we setup our children’s room to include a Montessori learning space.
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.
Related Products
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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.