Welcome to our new home

Welcome! Do come in...

With so little time to write (I've hardly packed a thing!), I'll let the pictures do the talking for this post. Painting is taking much longer than we expected and we're hoping it'll all be finished before moving the furniture on Friday... fingers crossed!

Let me take you on the tour:

Our lounge and dining areas, ready for their transformations...

Finlay, already busy exploring the deck area...

Hard at work...

And a fond farewell from Finlay in his favorite place in the world. This is our front window at the 'old' house. He spends so much time standing here, looking out at the world and watching the cars and people go by. I like to think of it as 'Fin's window'.

A little inspiration...

And it begins!

Driving to our new house on Friday to officially receive our keys, we wondered, 'Will it be as lovely as we remember from the inspection??'. I was a little bit scared that the rooms I remembered to be large and airy would in fact be tiny and ugly... Happily, it was even better than we expected. What joy!

We took this house on the condition that we could paint the living spaces since the walls are looking quite dull and patchy. I also wanted to make sure that this space will be as healthy as possible for the little people in our care (and us), so repainting with BioPaints was no.1 on my list of things to do. Yesterday we prepped the walls and today we'll go in to finish the job.

I'll post our first photos tonight.

Meanwhile, I was freshly inspired by this video this morning, and thought I'd share it. Enjoy!

Changes...

I have sat down a number of times in the past few weeks to write this post, but never seem to get past the first few words before being distracted and putting it off for another day... I'm determined that today will be the day.

The reason for my absence? House hunting. Yes, it's finally time for us to pack up and move to that 'dream home' I have been longing for... space, sunlight, garden - this one has it all, plus chickens! We searched long and hard for this one and I'm so pleased to have finally signed the lease so we don't have to hunt any longer. We're getting the keys tomorrow and will spend a week painting and gardening before moving in next week. Exciting times!

Another exciting announcement is that along with this new home will come my new business - I'll be setting up a home-based Montessori daycare for 1-3 year olds. This is something I've been planning for a very long time and I'm so happy it is finally coming to fruition. It feels so good to have my brain working overtime, imagining, planning and determining every detail of the environment I'm about to create. I look forward to sharing the journey here at 'A Montessori Home'.

Meanwhile, Finlay powers on perfecting the art of standing, cruising, balancing and exploring every corner of the house. He's 8 months now... time is going by so fast. It seems like yesterday that we were celebrating how he could pull himself up to stand. Now he can balance by leaning against the furniture, climb onto our bed and get down safely (this took lots of practice to perfect!). One of my favorite new developments is that he is mimicking our vocal sounds now. Such a treat! Here's a video of Fin 'buzzing' with Daddy. Brent is a trumpet player, so he is thrilled that Fin has started buzzing his lips. Like daddy, like Fin :)

We're realising now that there is a reason Montessori floor-beds are recommended as single size ('twin' in the US). Finlay's cot-sized bed just isn't big enough to contain his tossing and turning and sleep-crawling. Many nights we find him like this:

Mostly though, being out of bed wakes him up which has resulted in many sleepless nights for him and us. Thank goodness he'll have his own bedroom in our new house so we can fit in a bigger bed for him.

So now we just need to get in this house and get started. I've ordered our Montessori materials from the US, collected tables, chairs and shelves from all over Auckland and now I'm ready to run with it. What fun!

On his own two feet

Wasn't it just the other day I was marveling at how Finlay had finally gotten himself up on hands and knees?... Well, in all his excitement at being able to move around he joyfully discovered a new trick - standing up! And now that's all he wants to do. Anywhere, any time. Everywhere, all the time. Wherever there is something to pull himself up on, he's up.

It all started in the kitchen. For months now I had been wondering whether to invest in one of these pull-up bars, but alas I never got around to it (and I'm not sure where we would have put it anyway!). Last week while I was cooking in the kitchen, Fin followed me in there by himself for the first time. Being on the floor, he noticed the handle to the drawer under the oven. He experimented with getting one hand off the floor to reach for the handle... and then the other hand pulled him up to kneeling! Very pleased with himself indeed. From now on I'll have to be very careful to keep him out of the kitchen while the oven is on.

The very next morning I woke to Fin's face grinning at me from the side of the bed - he had pulled himself up to stand!

Since then he has been unstoppable, even while he's had a bad cold and must have been feeling quite miserable. The poor thing has been all snuffly, snot running down his face, and yet he's still determined to pull himself up on anything within reach. Most recently he's experimenting with letting go of one hand or lifting one foot at a time. Cruising is on it's way!

Now, if only he could figure out how to get back down again....

What is truly thrilling to watch is the intense concentration and repetition that is going on. In my 3-6 classroom I regularly observed children absorbed in their work, repeating again and again until they had perfected a new skill, but this is different. It seems that the younger a child is, the more forcefully their inner guide drives them forward and the more intensely they experience the joy that comes with that work. I hope that by refraining to interrupt his efforts and by patiently helping him up each time he tumbles down (only to get up and try again), he might be able to carry some of this joy and energy into his adulthood to come.

"A child who has become master of his acts through long and repeated exercises, and who has been encouraged by the pleasant and interesting activities in which he has been engaged, is a child filled with health and joy and remarkable for his calmness and discipline."

(Dr. Maria Montessori, 'The Discovery of the Child', Clio Press Ltd, 92)

Look out world...

here comes Finlay!

Seven months

A three week trip home to Melbourne turns into five weeks.... plus a few weeks procrastination... and I now have a seven-month-old on my hands! What a different little boy to the one I last wrote about. My rolling, wriggling baby has positively turned to dynamite, crawling, exploring all over the house and loving every thrilling moment. How divine.

My Montessori sensibilities feared that such a long holiday away from home would disrupt Finlay's deep need for order and familiarity. It turns out he adapted far better than I could ever have hoped (and, possibly, better than I coped with the upheaval to our routine). He was certainly entertained by my friends and family and was showered with love and attention - what more could a baby want?!

What he did achieve while away from home was quite spectacular. That transition from tummy-time-push-ups to full planks occurred at Oma's house. The following week he figured out how to put his knees down for some pre-crawl rocking at Auntie Deb's. No 'prepared environment' there. Just space. And time. Oh, and cats - they're a great incentive to get mobile!

That was precisely the reminder I needed that the most important environment surrounding a child is the emotional one. Given the space and time, every baby will get up on their knees and move whenever they're ready.

However, now that we are home in our 'prepared environment' Finlay is visibly joyous to be able to explore freely all the spaces we had meticulously arranged many months ago. Most thrilling is his new ability to get out of bed all by himself. Thrilling for Finlay. Not so much for Brent and I... though I'm sure all will be easier when he figures out how to put himself back into bed all by himself. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes :)

This was one of Fin's early attempts at getting out of bed. He has now explored every possible way of getting out - head-first, backwards, sideways, diagonally - and is so fast that when I put him down in bed I barely have time to stand up before he's on the floor, squealing with delight.

Lots of adjustments have had to be made to child-proof the house in a hurry. Suddenly our magazines are being eaten and the power cords seem to have a strange power of attraction. Why oh why didn't I do this earlier?

One of the new developments I am really thrilled about is Fin's ability to move to his shelves and pull off his baskets and objects. It's as if he's been looking at those shelves his whole life, just waiting to finally get his hands on those things. My Montessori-heart sings.

The Tour - Part 2

And now for Part 2 of our tour...

Last week I focused on the bedroom, and though I have big plans for the kitchen and bathroom for when Finlay gets a little older, right now the lounge is where he spends most of his waking hours so I'll now focus here.

The Lounge Room

This photo shows half of our lounge, where Fin spends most of his time (for now, anyway!). On the floor we have a sheepskin and rug which I often cover with a towel to give Fin nappy-free time. Having a designated place for him on the floor allows him to develop his movements without the restraints of a bouncer or jolly-jumper. I was really happy to read Marianne Hermsen-Van Wanrooy's recommendation in Baby Moves (I've mentioned this book before - love it!) that babies should spend as much time on the floor as possible in order to develop muscle balance. It's always nice to read modern scientific publications which back up what Maria Montessori said 100 years ago - that children need freedom of movement from birth and that we do the child a huge disservice by restraining them in contraptions for our convenience. This wasn't meant to be a rant about freedom.... I'll move on!

The wooden toy hanger was inspired by this teepee from the Michael Olaf Company. I love it's simplicity - such a lovely antidote to the fluorescent plastic baby gyms that you see everywhere. I didn't fancy spending around $150NZD (plus shipping) on one of these. Luckily, Brent's handy dad took one look at the photo and said, "I could make one of those...", disappeared into the shed and came back with this! At first we used it to hang mobiles on while Finlay was learning to focus and track objects, and later we hung items on elastic for him to bat, reach and grasp. By hanging one (beautiful) item at a time, we avoided overstimulating him, and allowed him the time and space to develop his grasping skills. Just this week we have taken the hanger away because he seems quite happy exploring objects while on his stomach, and can now roll to grasp something on the floor next to him. I was reluctant to take it away because I love it so much, but I just had to concede that it was not serving his needs anymore. We'll just have to put it in storage until the next baby comes along :)

Tucked under our daybed is a little potty and a basket with spare underpants and cloths. We've been practicing Elimination Communication (EC) with Finlay since he was a few weeks old. Here is a great video explaining the hows and whys of EC. I haven't read any Montessori texts which recommend this practice, but it seems to fit in perfectly with the philosophy. I'll go into more depth about how it has worked for us in a later post. The reason for having the potty here is simply that it's practical for us, and I'm hoping that when he starts crawling, Fin will actually move toward the potty when he needs to use it. In time, I will gradually move the potty into the bathroom where it belongs and hopefully have a smooth transition to the toilet.

Before he arrived, we cleared the bottom two shelves on our bookshelf for Finlay's things. A few baskets with his current grasping objects, a flower in a vase (when we have fresh flowers in the house) and a teddy bear are at home on the bottom shelf. We have been given some really beautiful soft toys since Finlay was born, and it has been hard to reconcile the reality-based Montessori ideology with these traditional toys. My compromise has been to have one soft toy out at a time, rotating every few weeks, and to place it in a wooden tray so it has a 'home'. On the next shelf are Fin's books and a music box. When he starts exploring these shelves I'll store the books somewhere else, just leaving two or three out at a time so he is not overwhelmed, and so it is easy to restore order to the shelf. The music box might have to find a higher home as well.

Lastly, we have Finlay's infant-sized chair and table. It took many months of searching to find a company in New Zealand who would make furniture at this size. Naturally Wood made this beautiful set and I couldn't be happier with the quality. When Finlay is sitting up comfortably he will eat his meals at this table, unless we are sitting down to a whole-family meal, in which case he will join us in his highchair at the dining table. I have a little white stool tucked under the table for me to sit on. Again, the purpose of the little table is to encourage independence and allow freedom of movement. As a bonus, it's absolutely adorable and a great talking point!

Needless to say, Finlay's things do take up a large percentage of this living space, but I do feel that it is important to include him in our family life from the very beginning. The fact that all the items are carefully chosen and beautiful (not plastic or ugly like many baby toys these days), means that rather than being an imposition on our space, Fin's objects blend in and actually add to the beauty of the room. Of course, I take great pleasure in arranging things 'just so'... the next challenge will be to maintain this beauty when Fin really gets moving.