Emil is officially 4 months old and he is less interested in staring at a wall, instead he wants to move and feel. It means he is ready for exploring. At first he is ready to explore using his hands and soon after his mouth, legs and belly. My job to set up his Montessori friendly environment suddenly gets more interesting. He is slowest gross motor baby compering to his sister.
It can be very confusing to know where to start in preparing Montessori friendly environment. Dr. Montessori says, that babies absorb their environment visually before and as they develop movement. With this in mind, I aim to create a prepared environment that is visually appealing and stimulating to my children though not so stimulating as to overwhelm them. When Emil was about 8 weeks I’ve started using Gobbi mobile (black and white) which I’ve made myself. He has daily exposure to the mobiles and he enjoys it. There are number of Montessori mobile sellers on Etsy some you can download and set up yourself, some you simply order ready to use.
Together with Montessori mobiles I’ve started with reading. You should begin reading to your newborn child as soon as possible. It may feel a bit strange at first because they don’t seem to be paying much attention or to even care at all. However, this is the very foundation of learning. The simple acts of looking at them, talking to them, touching them, and interacting with them will make a world of difference in their social, verbal, and reading skills as they grow.
Board books are the best to start. The first board books to choose are the black and white ones. Why? Because babies can see from birth; however, their vision is not very clear yet so they need simple, high-contrast images to look at. A simple black and white image will be more interesting and stimulating to them than a complicated one. As their eye muscles strengthen and their brain develops, you can move on to books with more colorful and intricate pictures. At 4 months I’m already using whole range of board books.
You can also make some black and white flash cards. I’ve got mine from here it is free printable and they are perfect!
Mirror! Well, I’ve got this from Amazon. It serves the purpose but if you would like real Montessori mirror with a bar than check this one but really any child safe mirror will work. You might already have one at home.
And finally here are Montessori friendly toys at 4 to 6 month we love. While here are many, I offer only two at the time and rotate them as his interests change. Remember babies really don’t need many extras with a mobiles, books and tummy time they already have enough.
Emil’s Montessori friendly toys at 4 months old include:
Baby Wooden Teething Bear Head Rattle
Triangle Instrument – I love sound of triangle so very calming.
Baby Rattle – Crochet Black &White Jingle Bells
Wrist Bell Toy – those are so much fun for my son.
And that’s it!
Happy reading!
L xxx
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