Behind the Scenes: Our Learning Environment

I think that a good environment for a preschooler should be one that naturally encourages exploration and playful learning.   So I have tried to set up our house to do exactly that.  A Montessorian would call this a prepared environment, and unschooler would call this strewing...I just call it our home.  And here is a behind the scenes look at how we have it set up. 

If you notice we tend to have an area for the kids in almost every room of the house.    I do this for several reasons:
-The first and most important is that it keeps kids busy, and a busy kid is a good thing in my book.  A bored kid often tends to get into things that they shouldn't.  A bored kid often tends to fight with their sister or brother.  And a bored kid is also usually "high maintenance" and makes it so it is hard to get anything done around the house.
-The second reason is that I don't spend all day in one room.  My kids naturally tend to follow me around wherever I go, and this gives them something to do as they move from room to room.
-The third reason I do this is because I feel strongly that this is our kid's house too!  Just like my husband and I have something of "ours" in every room, so do our kids.  It doesn't seem natural to us to confine them to one room or area. 


Our listening Center:
Our listening center is in our family room next to the couch where we usually read together.  The kids have several audio books and musical CDs that they can listen to here.  The listening center has a comfy ottoman for laying on while reading, a CD player that is easy for a toddler to work, and plenty of floor space for dancing!

Sophia listening to a Nursery Rhyme CD while following along.

Our Favorite Listening Center Products:
-Themes To Remember, Volume 1,
- Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies,
- Poetry Speaks to Children (Book & CD) (Read & Hear) 
- Various Audio Books for Children (Purchased or record your own)



Our Library:
Near our listening center, we have our home library.  This is several bookshelves that hold all of our families books.  We try to keep these organized by subject.  My husband and my books are on the higher shelves, the kids books are on the lower shelf. 



Water Serving Station:
I try to encourage the kids to help themselves to their own snacks and drinks.  We have a little water serving station sent up for them.  You can see the blog post about it here. 

Help yourself to a glass of water

Update:  Since that post was published, the water station has now now been moved to the kitchen on the linoleum floors due to too many spills on the carpet!  :)   We also keep everything on a small table.  Other than that, the setup and equipment remains much the same. 


Our "Classroom":
This is what I affectionately call our classroom.  Although it is really our dining room.  This picture was taken in early February, so as you can see we have it all decked out for Valentine's day.  This has a small child sized table that we use for painting and other activities that are best done sitting.  

Our "Classroom"

Here we have two little "learning shelves" set up.  You can see them next to either side of our hutch.  One we call our "Language Arts shelf" and the other we call our "Montessori Shelf". 


We use the tops of these shelves to house all of our theme books for the month. This particular month, we were reading and talking about John James Audubon and Groundhogs.  (The groundhogs are because of groundhog's day.) Interesting combination...wouldn't you say? 

Our "Language Arts" Shelf - It has a lot of our Handwriting Without Tears (HWOT) Curriculum

On the "Language Arts" Shelves:
On top of the bookcase:

Our "theme" books for the month.   (This month we are studying Groundhogs, Weather, Shadows, and Hibernation in honor of Groundhog's day.)

Top Shelf (left to right):
Blue Basket - Mat Man Building Supplies
Wooden Box - Wooden Pieces for Capital Letters
Workbooks (Let's Cut Paper! (Kumon First Steps Workbooks), Let's Sticker & Paste! (Kumon First Steps Workbooks), and HWOT Get set for School Workbook)

Middle Shelf (left to right):
Wooden Box for HWOT Wet, Dry, Try Technique Tools (Slate , Little Chalk Bits, Tiny Sponge Cubes)
Sandpaper Letters from Polliwog Learning on Etsy.com
Tub of Tiny Crayon Pieces (The tiny pieces help force the child to grip them correctly)
HWOT Stamp-n-See Screens

Bottom Shelf (left to right):
Green Basket - HWOT Roll-a-Dough Screens, Homemade Playdough (recipe here)
Larger Green Basket - HWOT Capital Letter Cards and Blue Mats

Montessori Shelf

On the Montessori Shelves:
 On top of the bookcase:

Our Art books for the month.   (This month we are studying John James Audubon.)

Top Shelf (left to right):
- Yellow Basket -Melissa & Doug See & Spell
- Sandpaper Numbers from Polliwog Learning Products
- Clear Zipper Pouch - Melissa & Doug Beginner Pattern Blocks

Middle Shelf (left to right):
- Wooden Box-Melissa & Doug Bead Sequencing Set
- Second Wooden Box - Various Magnet exploration items (Magnetic Balls, Magnetic Wands, Stack and Match Magnet Rings)
- Red, Yellow, Blue and Green Wooden Boxes -Montessori Knobless Cylinders

Bottom Shelf (left to right):
- Various Beading Activities (Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden 27-Piece Lacing Beads in a Box)
- Plan Toys Cone Sorting
-
- Twist & Turn Sorter




This side of the room has our calendar and "weather" tracking stuff.  We also have an easel out for the kids to write on when ever they want. 

Our Calendar Center

Kitchen:
In the kitchen, the kids have their own little broom center where they can easily reach their tools when it comes to clean up time.  We use got this broom set here for the kids and have been very happy with it.  The vacuum cleaners are called Super Vac Toy Vacuums.  They really suck up small bits of dirt!  (Very small, but every little bit helps!)  We bought ours through Amazon, however I see that they are currently unavailable.  When it comes to clean up time, the kids also have some spray bottles (with vinegar and water) and some rags/sponges.  They help me wipe down the table and winters in addition to helping me clean the floor.

Kid's Cleaning Supplies

 We also have an area for the kids to hang their aprons up next to mama's aprons. 

Hang up your apron please!

Our Nature Study Basket (Has the kids Nature Notebooks, my Nature Journal, some field guides, and Handbook of Nature Study)

Our Basement / Playroom:
The basement is where we keep most of our toys.  Although we try to have a "play area" on every floor of our house.  (It keeps the kids busy and out of trouble!)  Here are some photos of our main play area. 

Play Kitchen Center

Another Picture of Kitchen and Grocery Store Center  (We have a kitchen, a baby bed/high chair, grocery carts, and a cash register to encourage dramatic play)

Shelf Near Kitchen (This holds the Puzzles, Melissa and Doug Latches Board, Larger Wooden Food Pieces, matryoshka dolls, etc.)

Train Table:  We switch this out from time to time and rotate new activities

Playroom Wall

Bookcases full of toys  We have our block center here near the bottom right.

Close up of the "Building Center"  (Design and Drill, Pound and Roll Tower, Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Pound-A-Peg, Various Pretend tools)

Chalk Board Magnetic Wall, Building Center and Small Table

Dress Up Clothes and Props- I Still need a mirror for this area so the kids can check themselves out

Links to Become Attached To:
-Don't waste your Homemaking
-Homemaking Link-Up
-Tot Tuesday
- Tot School
-We Play
- Montessori Monday
- Preschool Corner

Montessori Monday: Water Serving

One of the things I appreciate the most about the Montessori method is the idea of setting up a child's environment so that they can have a certain level of independence.  I think that too often we under estimate the abilities of children.  I also think that allowing children a certain level of independence helps boost their self esteem.


If you visit any Montessori classroom you will probably see some type of pouring activity in their practical life section.  Students typically start our pouring with beans or other dry material and eventually move up to pouring with water.  I decided to put all of this pouring practice to use in our house by setting up a drink station for the kids.

How this station came about:
For awhile, I felt like I was filling up sippy cups all day long.  The kids would usually take a drink, set their cup down somewhere, lose it, and then ask for another sippy cup full of water.  Between the two of them I was filling up cups every 20 minutes all day long---and then going through the house and collecting all of the lost cups so I could wash them.  It was insanity.  I decided that a big part of the problem was our whole sippy cup set up.  Sippy cups don't require care.  You can just throw them down anywhere without having to worry about them spilling.  They almost invite the child to be careless with them.  Another part of the problem was that we simply had too many cups.  Lots of cups = lots of dishes! And finally, a huge part of the problem was that the children currently had no way of getting a drink for themselves. 

So I set off to think of a way to make this possible for them to do.  Some would call this neglectful parenting, I call it Montessori!  ;)

Here is where the kids are able to pour themselves a glass of water whenever they want.  Every morning I set out clean glasses, fresh ice, and fresh water.  The rest is up to them.   So far they have loved it! 

Here is a close up of the little side table I added to our sink.

 

It took some tweaking to find a setup that allowed the kids to do this independently. 
At first I tried storing all of this stuff next to the sink, but it was too hard for Sophia to reach around things without knocking over a cup.  She needed more room, so I used a clear plastic bin as a side cart to give them some counter space.   Even though it is just a plastic bin, I tried my best to dress it up and make everything look "pretty" and nice for the kids.  That way they would know that these glasses are something to be taken care of.  Not something you just throw on the floor.

One the side cart we have a glass for each child.  (Marcus gets the blue glass, Sophia gets the green.)   They also have an ice bucket, ice tongs, a coaster, and a napkin to store the tongs on. 

On the sink I am storing the pitcher of water that way they won't have to carry it anywhere. 

 It took a little tweaking to find a process that they were able to do independently.  What we finally found worked the best was to have the child fill their cup full of ice.  (They LOVE using ice tongs by the way!!)  Then place their glass in the metal sink and pour water using both hands on the pitcher.  (The metal sink is able to catch any spills.)  Then when they are finished, they know how to wipe up any spills and rehang the towel. 

To see what other Montessori inspired activities we have gotten into this past week, check our our weekly wrap up post here.

Tips for Setting up a Block Center in your Home

Blocks are a timeless toy that can last a child a life time. Recently, I have been doing a lot of reading on the importance of setting up a block center in your home.

My Dream Block Center:

The blog Preschool Playbook has an excellent article on the importance of block centers. In it, she says,

"Here is a center that involves the whole child. There is physical attributes because of the actual process of picking up, carrying, and building of the blocks. There is the intellectual aspect because of the thought process going into the creation of the architecture. Then there is the social aspect of conversing with neighbors, working around and with others, and building what they know. Finally, the emotional aspect of creating something unique and beautiful."

Here are some tips in setting up a block center in your house:

1) Out of the Way: Find a place for the block area that is out of the way of main traffic such as a corner away from a doorway.

2) Give kids some space: As a mother of two young toddlers I know that most fights seem to start when another chid invades someone's personal space. So when planning your block center make sure there is plenty of room for several children to play side by side at the same time.

3) Make sure they can see and reach the blocks: Use shelves no taller than the children to store the various blocks and toys used to play with the blocks. This will encourage them to use and get out the blocks. Make sure and put the heavier items on the lower shelves so that toddlers can get them out without hurting themselves.

4) Label your Blocks: Label each place on the shelf with a picture of what goes there. Put the picture right on the shelf and show the block with the long side to the front. If you do this the children will easily see how to clean up.

5) Provide Toys which Support Block Play: Provide small toys which will help children think of creative things to do with the toys. Some ideas are small people, animals, little trucks, airplanes, small barns, houses and parking garage. Keep the small toys in separate boxes each sorted and labeled with a picture of the toy that goes there.

6) Provide a Visual Border: Put out a flat rug that provides a solid, stable base for block building. The block will also serve as a visual reminder for where the kids can play with the blocks.

7) Provide different kinds of blocks: large cardboard blocks, unit blocks, dublos, small cubes, etc. Each organized in their own spaces. You don't have to bring all of these blocks out at once. As small children can become easily overwhelmed by too many choices. But it can be fun to rotate out different blocks from time to time to inspire new creative play.

8) Encourage children to help you clean up the blocks after play: This will teach them sorting skills as they learn to put the various toys back in their proper places.

The block center in my home could use a lot of work. Above is a picture of my dream block center. Do you have a block center? And if so, how does it rate? Feel free to post a link to a picture of your block center in the comments section of this post. I would love to see them to gain some inspiration.

Stay tuned for pictures of my new block center.