by Iris Williams, Toddler Teacher

The enclosed space can be compared to a seed box or an egg: a place specially created with the purpose of assisting development. Dr. Montessori – Her Life and Work, E.M. Standing

It is important for the natural development of our children to provide a Prepared Environment at home. The space for them needs to be beautiful, calm, and clean, and to nurture their growth, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Dr. Maria Montessori believed in concrete approaches. A major expression of your feeling for the child is demonstrated through the kind of home you make for her – not only from the point of view of facilitating her independence but also in communicating your awareness of her smaller but nevertheless important self. B. Kahn

We tend to create a special setting for our guests who come for conversation and a meal by setting a table, cooking carefully selected foods, maybe lighting candles and playing our favorite music. The same loving care and attention is asked for when our children arrive. Since children are keen observers, who take in the whole of their environment, it is a noble task to prepare our home for their optimal growth.

What inner resources can we call on for creating a cozy nest for our children?

Awareness! Willingness! Patience! Playfulness! Flexibility! Love and Joy!

A little attention makes all the difference. The secret of beginning a life of awareness and sensitivity lies in our willingness to pay attention. Our growth as conscious human beings is marked not so much by grand gestures as by extending loving attention to the minutest particulars of our lives. Every relationship, every thought, every gesture is blessed with meaning through the wholehearted attention we bring to it. Soul Food, Kornfield, Feldmann

What outer resources can we call on for creating enchanted space for our children?

Before we start changing/rearranging anything, it's helpful to do some "unencumbering." Give away or throw away. Ideally the space we prepare is simple, organized, bright, calm and clean. A low shelf with a few attractive materials for hand work and books and a place to place clothing for independent dressing is a good start for children to feel a sense of independence, ownership and responsibility. Keep it simple! Fewer items are easier to place in the appropriate basket on a shelf and easier to keep clean. A place for everything and everything in its place.

There are many who hold, as I do, that the most important period of life is not the age of university studies, but the first one, the period from birth to the age of six. Dr. Maria Montessori, The Absorbent Mind

An organized and calm home contributes to an organized and calm brain necessary to engage in lifelong learning.

Aidan Montessori Teachers are here to support you in setting up your most perfect prepared home environment. Feel free to reach out.