The Prepared Environment.

Along with preparing yourself to be a Montessori adult, is the necessary action of preparing the environment. If you want to have easier days with your children, set up spaces in your home that are for them. Children want to feel like they have choices and that they’re good at completing tasks. You don’t need to dedicate an entire room for their activities (though I have), and don’t think that every opportunity for autonomy is found on a shelf (it’s not) or that you need to invest an enormous amount of money in prepping your home (which I have not.) 

But I do recommend thinking about your daily rhythm and taking a few moments to move about your home as if you were your child. Children at this age, under 6, want to do things for themselves and want to feel that they are competent or good at doing those things. Many meltdowns occur over power struggles or because of a situation that could have been avoided with a little bit of prep! So, what are some small changes you can make that will strengthen and encourage your child’s independence and autonomy? 

Try these:

• Storing their clothing in low, easy to open and gentle to close dressers
• Offering only clothes that are seasonally appropriate and easy to put on inside their dressers
• Installing light switch extenders onto light switches so children can turn on and off lights as they move through the house
• Installing faucet extenders in our bathrooms, and adding step stools in front of the bathroom sinks so children can independently wash their hands (100x a day!)
• Keeping a small “help yourself” breakfast and snack station, supplied all day with healthy food and snack offerings, plates, bowls, silverware, and more
• Keeping water easily accessible for children to get themselves a drink, or to fill a cup so they can do a painting project
• Keeping their belongings (toys, works, books, supplies) on low, easy to access shelves where everything has a place and nothing is stacked
• Storing outer gear and shoes in individual cubbies near the door
• Offering only shoes that are seasonally appropriate and easy to put on (no tie shoes, yet!)
• Offering work choices throughout the day

I know what you’re thinking… woah, work choices — for children? And, yes! Only for adults does the word work carry a negative feeling. But the idea of work can actually mean succeeding at something you’re striving to accomplish. What a positive feeling! So, a child’s work could be rocking a baby doll, or sorting objects by colors, or sweeping the floor. It could be digging in the dirt, having a conversation around the breakfast table, or counting to 100. 

I think of my entire home as our prepared environment and I offer a space for my children to do their work which is where they spend the most time. It is a shared multi-age space for learning activities and for favorite toys (baby dolls and legos, for example). I observe my children “at work” and watch to see what they interact with, enjoy or ignore and I rotate out the items that are not used, or that are misused. All the supplies they’ll need to complete the activities on the shelves are available to them so that they do not need to ask for my help or permission. My role during their work cycles is an observer, interacting and engaging only when they invite me to do so and avoiding offering too much help unless I’m asked. 

The first step is to set up one or two low shelves with a few simple activities, offer a vast array of books, and then a child-sized table and chair. In our space, there’s also a chair for me to sit comfortably. Most importantly, while I’m sitting there in that space, I wait. I sit on my hands and remember to keep my mouth closed! Seriously.

Will water spill? Yes, but they know where the towels are.

Will someone struggle over a puzzle piece? Yes, but they’ll figure it out when the puzzle doesn’t fit together properly.

Will they argue over the crayons? Yes, and we’ll address that when they approach me.