MomMieMei: Jashley's little corner

Because of the recent holiday vacation I was finally able to set up a dedicated space for Jashley's activities at home. I have been meaning to do this ever since I have learned about Montessori style of teaching.

When Jashley was still a baby we set up a play area in her room upstair, but when I started working again and my parent in laws were the one who's taking care of her during daytime, they opted to just bring some of Jashley's toys downstairs and let her play at the living area, in that case they can also do other household chores while Jashley is playing. She was also started crawling that

time so we think that letting her play downstairs is much safer. We just kept on changing the toys that we were bringing downstairs according to what we think she likes to play. When she gets a little older and was able to move on her own and able to demand what toy she wants to play, we decided to give her an easy access of her toys in our living instead of frequently asking us to get a toy for her. We just stuff it in a box every after play. Until one box became insufficient for all her toys which led us to provide her, her own space at the living area. Having read some articles about Montessori Education is also another factor that led me to push through with this plan.

According to Dr. Maria Montessori, MD, the founder of the Montessoi Method of education, "To assist a child we must provide him with an environment which will enable him to develop freely".

This is what Jashley's little corner looks like now. We already got rid the old wooden sofa that was here before to give way to this play area of my Li'l lady bug.

I wanted Jashley to have a freedom in choosing what toys she wants to play or what activity she wants to do.In that way she will become more independent.It is more than a month already since we create this area for her and I already notice a little improvement on her independence. Unlike before when her toys was all stuffed in a box, she's still need a minimal assistance from us in opening it and finding where are the toys she wants. Her playing time alone is now longer compare before because she have now an easy access on her stuffs. Currently we were teaching her to put away one toy/material after she finished using it, and before getting another.

Some Montessorian suggest to have a different area designated for different activities, but of course it won't work if you have a limited space like ours. I just need to find a way how will I organized it to make it more clean and beautiful because I notice that sometimes she gets overwhelmed with too many toys/materials around her and ended up doing another activity without completing the first one. We also put up an activity table for her so she will not end up doing her activity anywhere, as we used to do most of our activity before on floor.

See how my Li'l Lady bug loves her own place so much, as she was always there most of the time.