For the last nine months it has been fairly simple to keep Hazel out of mischief. I would just stick her on the floor, and clear the general area of hazards, and go about my business while keeping a close eye on her. Then she slowly began to roll and scoot, and I had to be a little more diligent about the safety of her surroundings, but it was easy enough. Well suddenly she isn't just scooting around, she is motoring! She is climbing. She is fearless. I turn around and she is halfway across a room. She has the ability to find the one thing in the room that is a potential choking hazard, and shove it into her mouth. Boy does she bite when you try to get things out of her mouth. Needless to say my old methods of keeping her out of harms way have just not been working out. I have been putting her down for naps on our bed, with pillows piled on the edges and she generally cries as soon as she wakes up and I'm not there. This last week though, I came down to check on her and she was up and crawling around our bed which is not at all a short distance from the ground. I looked around the room and decided that I could make my life a whole lot easier if I would just deep clean and baby-proof the room, and move Hazel's mattress to the floor, much like the floor-beds in these Montessori inspired bedrooms:
Here is the Idea behind Montessori floor beds:
"In the Montessori tradition, we avoid using devices that limit the
child's independence and natural movement. For example, instead of using
a crib to safely confine the baby, we turn the whole room into a "crib"
(by completely child-proofing the room and closing off the entrance to
the rest of the house)"
The wall mirror provides the child:
- the opportunity to see and study their own reflection, study their
own movements and connect their movements with that of the reflection,
this also helps the child (over time) to control their own movements
- another way of seeing the room
- encouragement to lift their head especially during tummy time,
"controlling the head is the beginning of his mastering of the
environment."
more about setting up a Montessori environment for infants here
We have had the mirror up for a while, and Hazel has used that corner as her play space. She has always loved to watch herself in the mirror, and it has been fun to see her little mind working as she played in front of it. The whole idea behind a Montessori bedroom is for the child to be able to play independently, without distraction, because that is when they learn and focus on a task. Ideally I would set Hazel up in her own bedroom for this, but that isn't really an option in our home. The loft which will be her bedroom in the future is inherently dangerous, and is really the only other space available in the house currently. Instead I am trying to make our own bedroom suitable. I am even considering removing our own bed frame and box spring to accommodate a baby-proof bedroom where I do not have to worry about Hazel's safety.
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| H sleeping on her floor bed |
While I am working on getting Hazel to nap on her floor bed, she still spends nights with us in our bed and it would work better if she could climb off on her own in the mornings if she wakes up while I am still sleeping. When she wakes she is ready to play, but if I set her on the ground she is suddenly aware that I am not playing with her. I think if she could crawl off on her own she would not be distracted by my presence and would continue her independent play in the mornings (meaning more rest for me, yay!)
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| some other important montessori principals are to have everything in the room on the child's level, or child-sized, only a few toys out at a time (which you rotate every few weeks or so) and for everything to have a special place that it goes. All of this facilitates learning and focus. |
In my reading about this method many of the parents who do it mention that they reach a point where their child no longer cries for them in the middle of the night, so the parent wakes up in the morning to check on the child and can tell that sometime during the night the child has gotten up and played with some toys and then either crawled back to bed, or just fallen asleep on the floor. Can you imagine that? How amazing would it be to know that your child could wake up and safely play in a good environment, and then put themselves back to sleep. it sounds like the healthiest sleep situation I have heard of for young children (yeah I'm no expert on the subject). The more I have read about it, the more I realize why a child would cry when they wake up in a crib. By waking up in a room where they can move freely they can explore and play until they need you and at some point they will probably cry.
Anyways, I have now made the room safe enough that I am confident about running upstairs for a few moments to do whatever it is I need to, or put her down for a nap and not worry about what happens when she wakes up. That meant quite a bit of decluttering, and with how nice and open it is beginning to feel in our room I can't wait to tackle the rest of the house. There are so many things we need to just let go and get rid of that have been clogging up this small space. Slowly but surely, I'll get there.
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