Our Montessori shelves at 13 months. This month we are loving posting activities and our ball run. We are also working on shape sorters and bigger puzzles.

Here is a variety of floor bed options including ones with bars/sides, ones without, and cribs that convert into floor beds easily. I also discuss some considerations when deciding which floor bed to get.

We have been loving puzzles around here lately. Now that I have introduced all of our Montessori single-piece puzzles and we are moving on to multiple pieces I thought I would do a post on how we introduced them. As with all materials in Montessori we started with it in its simplest form.

Our Montessori shelf at 12 months old! This month we are doing more complicated object permanence boxes, ring stackers, and a lot of one-piece puzzles.

For this segment of Ask the Expert I speak with Caley of Learn with Chatterboxes about how to encourage communication from birth as well as at the stage Yitzchak is now.

Caley is a speech-language pathologist. She has a Bachelors in Early Childhood Education and a Masters in speech-language pathology.

With my newly minted one-year-old I have found myself reflecting a lot on the last year and where we started with Montessori a year ago. I love talking about Montessori for newborns because it is so simple but also something people really don’t think of when they think of Montessori. I thought I would share some ways to practice Montessori with your newborn.

Which is better for a one year old? We tried both the Jooki and the Toniebox for our one year old. Read about the pros and cons of each!

If you have been here for a bit you know I’m a huge proponent of getting babies outside. I have been bringing Yitzchak outside since he was first born. Most of my best memories of his infancy happened outside. I thought I would share some of the benefits of the outdoors with babies.

Read about our wild one birthday party and our healthy first birthday cake. Sugar-free and full of nuts and vegetables it is healthy, delicious, and perfect for baby-led weaning.

What is the number one thing you can do to help your child’s gross motor development? I had a pretty good guess and speaking with Jena, a Pediatric Doctor of Physical Therapy confirmed it.

In this installment of the Ask the Expert series I speak with Jena of @drivingdevelopment about gross motor development and how to set your little one up for success!

How we hacked our Ikea play kitchen into a Montessori functional kitchen for our one-year-old! He loves the running water!

The Montessori birthday celebration known as the Montessori birthday walk is a great way to make the abstract concept of birthdays more concrete for children. At one year Yitzchak is a bit young to understand that but it was still a meaningful way to celebrate his birthday.

The reality is the best first birthday gift is your time and attention. That’s really all they actually want. Knowing that though doesn’t mean I was going to skip out on birthday gifts for Yitzchak. I took this as an opportunity to get some of the items I have been wanting to get him anyway. Below I am sharing our Montessori-aligned first birthday gifts.

Interest in shelf work has really taken off this month. At 10 months Yitzchak was almost exclusively interested in gross motor work and being held. This month he began ball posting in his object permanence box, stacking things, and putting the rings on the ring stacker.

To answer some of the questions I get frequently about baby-led weaning I spoke with Christiana of Real Food Littles. Christiana has a background as a health-focused personal chef and Nutritional Therapy Practitioner. She recently launched a course with everything you need to know for starting solids and how to raise an adventurous eater.

I love the Montessori floor bed, but what does a sleep consultant think? Will it lead to a sleep-deprived toddler. Here I speak with Lucy Bagwell of Second Star to the Right Sleep.

One question I get a lot is about the difference between open-ended and close-ended toys. I often mention them as toys that are not our Montessori materials. I have gotten a lot of requests to dig deeper into the question than a comment reply on a reel allows.

In this post I am going to do a full breakdown of what Montessori floor beds are, why we switched to one, our process of switching, and why we love our Montessori floor bed.

We believe there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing. Since we get outside in all weather, quality outdoor gear is essential I get a lot of questions about where we get the gear Yitzchak is wearing. I am linking everything below to have an easy way to get to it all!

It is totally normal that your baby is dependent on you. In fact, it is necessary your baby is dependent on you.

Children are born completely dependent on caregivers. That dependence is why parenting is necessary. That dependence also lasts a really long time, longer than any other species. Children are in need of not only food and shelter, but guidance, direction, support, approval, and a sense of belonging.