Montessori Home Tour: Playroom Homeschool Room
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When we moved into our new house one of the aspects I was really looking forward to with more space was a dedicated Montessori playroom. In our old apartment toys were mostly in my son’s room with a few in the living room. Here we have the sunroom off the living room as a dedicated Montessori playroom and homeschool room. It is a small room but filled with light and just perfect for our needs. We also have open-ended toys in the living room (which I will share later), but this room holds mostly our Montessori close-ended materials in addition to some books, art supplies, and musical instruments.
The prepared environment is a central part of Montessori learning. This room is prepared with my children’s needs in mind. You will notice art supplies are accessible to my toddler as well as toys, musical instruments, and books. My children are 10 months and 2.5 years old. They both access developmentally-appropriate materials and I try to keep accessibility and safety in mind as I choose where to put each item.
The first item as you enter our Montessori playroom is an umbrella stand with our Montessori work mats. My son takes one as he enters and puts his toys on it. We love using a work mat as a way to delineate a working space, contain mess, and separate sibling workspaces. It is like using a desk or a table but allows the child to work on the floor with the same organization.
Our shelves are the Luce shelves from Sprout Kids (code OnTheWay10 for a discount). We mixed a la carte shelves with a shelf we found on Facebook Marketplace, giving us our current configuration. The first shelf is the one we found on Facebook Marketplace and is a 60-40 (the top is 40 inches). The other two are 60 inches. Each shelf has one that is 8 inches tall and one that is 12 inches tall. I mixed which height is on the bottom to balance giving space for both my children (my infant can access the 8-inch shelves but not the 12-inch ones).
The shelf to your right as you enter is mostly our music shelf though my daughter also has a few of her infant Montessori materials there. I use the part of the bottom shelf with no top shelf for the drum. We also have bells, an accordion, and a basket of maracas and rattles. For the most part, I do not rotate this shelf, but I may at times do things like switch the bells out for a xylophone. We opt for real instruments instead of toy versions when possible.
The other two shelves have our Montessori materials. The lower shelves have our infant materials and the higher ones have our toddler materials. There is one shelf where they share the space but I make sure to put infant-safe toddler materials there so my daughter can explore that as well. Sometimes my son uses some of the infant materials such as the hammer balls and I don’t mind that. I make sure anything that is unsafe for my daughter is on a shelf she cannot reach. At this age, she is never in here unsupervised but this is all part of preparing the environment to let her explore.
Next to the shelves, we have our ball run. Both children love this ball run. Behind the ball run is a mirror at infant height. My daughter loves mirrors and this is also the space I will prepare for a new baby when we eventually have a newborn again.
Next to the mirror, we have a reading nook. My son is in a fort era and loves this tent for reading. I got a cushion from Target to put underneath. Next to it, we have our front-facing bookshelf. Though my son does have access to a lot more books in our living room bookshelf, these are front-facing making it easier for him to choose a book. I put seasonal books here or books connected to what we are currently learning. Right now it is Chanukah books.
On the other side is our art station. This post will not go into all the details of what is inside the art station (stay tuned for that!), but this allows a spot for my toddler to access art supplies independently. We have the Makerwall from Sprout. It was his birthday gift for his second birthday from my husband’s parents and we love it for organizing art. We have a shorter table that is more accessible to my infant in our kitchen. Here the table is too tall for her to access which is in itself a prepared environment. Unlike the table in the kitchen, she cannot climb up on her own. This means the art materials my son has access to stay out of her reach. He has access to a number of materials at all times such as crayons and paint sticks. Other materials such as paint and googly eyes are kept out of reach but he can get them if requested.
Our rug is Ruggable.
Any questions about our Montessori playroom? Stay tuned because I will be sharing more Montessori spaces in our home as well!
