Fostering Independence: Montessori around the house part 2

Hello Readers,


About 18 months ago my Husband and I had the interior fit out of our wardrobes updated. At the time we did them so we could help our then just 2 year old foster her own independence but at the time it was just too early and a few times I came into her bedroom with all the clothes strewn all over the floor and many fashion parades later and too many times I had to refold the clothes again and again. I just ended up putting the clothes up high where she could not reach them.

I know I'm a baaad Montessori mother, when I had the opportunity to teach her but in my defence I was about 34 weeks pregnant at the time and too huge and tired to repeat myself.

So now that my youngest is 16 months and my eldest is 3.5 years old it is time to help the eldest take a little more responsibility and to help her grow as a person. As I keep making the changes I can't believe how much she has rised to the occasion and surprised me at how happy she is to be a responsible young girl.


So here is what I have done....

I have taken photographs of the clothes in each draw and stuck them (with blue tack) to each picture so she knows where each article of clothing belongs to put it away and where to get it out when she wants to get dressed. I have also put the clothes she access the most on the bottom two draws and clothes she accesses the least at the top. This is because of her height and I want to make the process of getting dressed  and putting clothes away as easy as possible.

My husband added a door handle at her height so she can open and close the wardrobe by her self

More pictures so she knows where her coats/jackets and shoes belong

A low hanger has been added so she can reach to hang up her jackets and dresses by herself as  well as put them away.

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Do I still have issues with her putting things away? Yes I do she still is 3 and will still throw things in the wardrobe,but now I just bring her back and make her do it. She is getting to a stage where you can talk to her about doing the right thing and taking care of her possessions and more importantly she wants to be a big girl as when she was two while she wanted to do things for herself the ability to reason with her was just not there.

Happy teaching.

Kimba