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Montessori Inspired Second Birthday Gift Guide

I can hardly believe my son is turning 2! With limited space in our small apartment and so many of the basics already covered I definitely struggled a bit to decide what to get him this year. I ended up finding a set of gifts I think he will really enjoy though. In this guide, I share Montessori-inspired gifts for two-year-olds along with the gifts we are getting my son at the end of the post.

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Cooking with Toddlers: Steps to Making it Work

If you’ve been here before you know I love cooking with my toddler. Throughout the past year or so we have figured out so much that has made the experience way smoother and easier. It goes very smoothly now but it was absolutely messy when we started! On this post I am doing a walkthrough of what doing a recipe looks like from preparing the space to actually making it with lots of tips along the way.

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Cooking with Toddlers: Learning Tower Options

My number one recommendation to purchase for cooking with toddlers is a learning tower or sous chef tower. These are a classic in the Montessori world because they allow toddlers to become more active participants in cooking. This item is, without question, our most loved baby item behind possibly the baby wrap.

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Cooking with Toddlers: Where to Start

Where do you start? This is quite possibly my most asked question when it comes to cooking with toddlers or even our Montessori home more generally. It is also a question I struggle a bit with because I don’t have a straightforward answer. But, I will do my best to share our experience along with some of my tips here. This will be the first in a series I will share about introducing different aspects of cooking.

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Babywearing and Montessori

Is babywearing Montessori? This is a question I have gotten many times about Montessori. Many know that Montessori prioritizes freedom of movement and are concerned that babywearing goes counter to that. They may also see Montessori as being about independence and babywearing as hindering that.

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Two Weeks as a Mom of Two (Under 2)

Two weeks is not a particularly long amount of time, I acknowledge that. However, I feel we have settled in a bit in the past two weeks and I want to record some of my reflections on this time. The first weeks with a newborn are intense and I know the details of these days will someday be forgotten. I will transition, I hope, someday to three and then more than that, but the transition to two is unique in many ways.

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Our Montessori Shelf at 19 and 20 Months

We spent a full month traveling from 19.5-20.5 months so this month is a combined shelf post from the past two months! Come see our Montessori shelf at 19 and 20 months.

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Preparing for a New Sibling

The second pregnancy flew by and here we are at the end preparing my son to welcome his little sister in a few weeks. This will be a BIG change for him; frankly, parts of it make me nervous. A lot also makes me excited: he loves babies and I think he will be a wonderful big brother. Here is what we are doing to prepare him for this huge change.

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Our Montessori Shelf at 18 Months

A look at our Montessori shelf at 18-months-old, I share what my son has been playing with this past month and some developmental toy recommendations for around this age.

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Montessori-Inspired Gift Guide

Montessori is not about the “stuff” but since many of us are looking for gifts for our little ones this holiday season I am sharing what we love and what we are getting our son for Chanukah.

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Our Montessori Shelf at 17 Months

I want to preface by saying our Montessori shelf was not the focus of the month at all. My son is far more interested in practical life activities so that is where we spend most of our time. I went through several iterations to get to this shelf at the end of the month. I should have taken photos during the process but I didn’t. Suffice to say this shelf included a lot of trial and error after multiple materials went completely untouched.

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Toilet Learning the Montessori Way

Somewhere around the second year of their child’s life the words “potty training” start to enter the thoughts of parents, often with a sense of imminent dread. The Montessori approach to toilet learning, however, is quite different than traditional potty training. It is not a process you do in a weekend or even a week.

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Our Montessori Shelf at 16 Months

This month there has been intense interest in the shelf and in mastering some materials that have been out for a while. The multi-piece puzzle, for example, has been mastered this month and while still interesting to him will likely be rotated out for a more challenging one soon. I find there is still interest in toys that have been on the shelf for a while.

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Clean-up in Montessori Spaces

How do you get him to clean up after playing with things? How do you keep him from just taking out everything? I get asked this all the time so I thought I’d share a few of my tips. This is a question I see asked about Montessori environments a lot in general. In Montessori classrooms children generally return their materials to a shelf after using with them. We do the same at home, though of course it is far more flexible at home.

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Our Montessori Shelf at 15 Months Old

Our Montessori shelf and activities at 15 months old. We have been loving shelfwork this month and have seen a huge increase in fine motor skills. Come check out what we have been playing with this month!

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Routines, Rhythms, and Rituals

Recently on Instagram I shared about the importance of routine for toddlers. The next day I shared that we do not have a schedule but instead follow a daily “rhythm” in our Montessori home. This raised some questions: what does it mean to have routines without a schedule? This post should shed some light on how I see these all fitting together.

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Wanderlust Family Retreats: The Mother-Child Retreat of my Dreams

When I first signed up for Wanderlust Family Retreats it felt like it was an alternate reality where I would be attending. A mother-child retreat? The most gorgeous location? THOSE CABINS? All of this after nearly two years of COVID isolation. It felt unreal.

The experience itself was magical.

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Our Montessori Shelf at 14 Months

One thing you might notice about our shelf this month if you also read my blog post from 13 months is very little has changed.. We have been very interested in practical life and in being outdoors. All in all, we didn’t do a ton of shelfwork and that reflects in our shelf looking basically the same.

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Montessori Activities 3-6 Months

Our favorite Montessori and Montessori-inspired activities at 3-6 months old. Activities remain incredibly simple during this age as your little one really is still just discovering their world.

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