Doing Montessori at home with your baby (newborn – 3 mo)

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“The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth.”

Montessori The Absorbent Mind.

Becoming a parent is one of the most challenging and satisfying aspects of life. Children are given to us as the most precious gift. There is not that much that is in our control, however, we need to give ourselves some credit for accepting this challenge and taking responsibility for their development, safety, intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical well-being. I would love to share some thoughts on doing Montessori with babies from newborn to 3 months of age. First, three months of a child’s life can be extremely intense, especially for the first time mums and dads. Learning to soothe young baby, differentiate tones of their crying, give yourself selflessly 24 hours a day to be with your beautiful, precious, demanding undivided attention and all your strength newborn child.

 “It begins with a knowledge of his surroundings. How does the child assimilate his environment? He does it solely in virtue of one of those characteristics that we now know him to have. This is an intense and specialized sensitiveness in consequence of which the things about him awaken so much interest and so much enthusiasm that they become incorporated in his very existence . The child absorbs these impressions not with his mind but with his life itself.”

 “The child has a different relation to his environment from ours… the child absorbs it. The things he sees are not just remembered; they form part of his soul. He incarnates in himself all in the world about him that his eyes see and his ears hear.” Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori emphasised the importance of the environment. It needs to be appropriately organised to meet the child’s ability and desire to explore the world around them from birth.

Main characteristics of Montessori Nursery:

•  attractive and pleasant to an eye
•  uncluttered
•  not overly stimulating
•  interesting
•  allows the child to move freely

Often you will find:

•  floor bed
•  mobile
•  mirror attached to a wall
•  soft rug next to the mirror
•  art picture on a wall (where a child can see it)
•  baby care area
•  books
•  nursing chair
• rattles

Floor Bed.
Montessori floor bed – usually just mattress on the floor – is there for babies to allow them to move freely. The child is encouraged to choose when to go to sleep and when to wake up. Transition to the floor bed from Moses basket normally happens when a baby turns two months. It can be a convenient option for those who choose to co-sleep.

There are different floor bed styles to choose from:

• crib, single or double size mattress
• floor bed frame
• wooden frame for bed with legs of the bed removed
• infant bed

James Sprott, OBE, a New Zealand scientist and chemist, states that crib death is caused by toxic gases, which can be generated from a baby’s mattress. He says chemical compounds containing phosphorus, arsenic and antimony have been added to mattresses as fire retardants and for other purposes since the early 1950’s. A fungus that commonly grows in bedding can interact with these chemicals to create poisonous gases (Richardson 1994). These heavier-than-air gases are concentrated in a thin layer on the baby’s mattress or are diffused away and dissipated into the surrounding atmosphere. If a baby breathes or absorbs a lethal dose of the gases, the central nervous system shuts down, stopping breathing and then heart function. These gases can fatally poison a baby, without waking the sleeping baby and without any struggle by the baby. A normal autopsy would not reveal any sign that the baby was poisoned (Sprott 1996).

read more about it here.

New Zealand company seems to have an answer to the problem. Aside from buying a toxic-free organic mattress for your child – which can be very costly – they suggest wrapping baby’s mattress to avoid contact with toxins. Incredible, but according to this article, they had 100% success. If you are interested to buy one – here is where you can find it: Toxin Shield Mattress Cover.
I personally strongly believe in the great benefits of co-sleeping. In our case, we found a mattress wrap that fits a large mattress and protects our baby from toxic infusions. If you are skeptical about it, I suggest to read this book: “The Cot Death Cover-Up” This information is for educational purposes only. It does not provide medical advice. Information shared here is meant to encourage you to make your own decisions based on your own research.

Paintings and pictures. Place them where your baby will see them – above the changing table, in front of their car seat, attach to mobile. At the beginning babies are able to see only about 20 to 30.5 centimeters and cannot differentiate tones of colors, hence, ONE-month-old infants are able to focus on the black, white and red colored pictures. At the month of TWO, they can focus on primary colors and more complicated shapes.

Check out these gorgeous baby watercolor art printables

Mobiles. These play a very significant role in the Montessori approach as an educational tool for infant’s learning to develop their eye focus and concentration. Appropriate mobiles can be used from the very start. Mobiles assist infants in developing concentration, a visual focus at different distances, development of cognitive order and comparisons, size differentiation, detection of changes in light, distance perception, hand-eye coordination, motor control, the distinction of shape and line, distinction of color.

You can purchase a set of Montessori mobiles or create your own.
If you have older siblings it’s a great opportunity for them to make a mobile for their younger brother or sister:

• paint small branches
• let the paint dry,
• make a cross by tying branches together,
• ask your child to cut out some colourful shapes, for example, butterflies
• hang them off the mobile
• attach mobile safely for your little treasure to enjoy.