The Montessori Way

When it became clear that Archer was becoming too big and too active for his cradle, I began to think seriously about how we should move forward with his room, play space, and sleeping arrangement. Rather than shift to a crib, we decided Archer would transition straight to a floor bed, which is essentially the full size futon that he has been using as his play mat for the past few months. This is just one of the "counter-culture" moves that we've decided to go with for the boy, and it has not come without some resistance and skepticism from family, friends, as well as ourselves.

A bit of background: our good friend Karin is a Montessori teacher for infants and toddlers in Santa Cruz, and the last time she was in Bellingham I was about 6 months pregnant. We (Phil, Karin, Jill, Archer) spent some time together, waxing philosophical about child development over mojitos and club sodas at the Callaloo Caribbean Bar. She explained some of the basic tenants of Maria Montessori's theory and pointed me in the direction of some good resources for further research. We stayed on into the night as Karin and Phil chattered excitedly about integral psychology and developmental stages. I decided to follow the general ideas associated with the Montessori model, as they seemed to be in line with the things that Phil and I value as people and as budding parents.

So, at this point in Archer's development, I see the following concepts being particularly important. After reading a bunch of information about Montessori philosophy, I've paraphrased and grouped in and way that makes sense to me:

Healthy learning environments: play with toys made from natural materials, limit number of toys at one time, model a sense of order, don't forget to be outdoors.

Freedom for exploration: establish and monitor safety, foster independence, encourage uninhibited movement, imagine the child saying, "help me to do it myself," wear clothing built for movement.

The baby's "work": defined as "an activity that involves both the mind and the body and has some purpose which fulfills the individual." These might include self feeding, drinking water from cup, practicing standing with a pull up bar, observing parents "work," or any other activity that allows baby to go about the "work" of developing in a healthy way.

As I read the items above, I suddenly realize that at first glance it may all seem dogmatically anti-fun. On the contrary, I think that these practices emphasize the joyful experience of learning and playing as the most important thing that a baby does. It has been a real delight to watch Archer test out his new abilities (and challenges) each day - his confidence keeps growing steadily. Of course Montessori is not "the one true way." And there is a decent chance that he will grow up just exactly the same no matter what "philosophy" we adopted. But if he does develop and internalize some of values emphasized in this particular way of being in the world, well, then, that is just super.