Researching the Montessori thing for my infant...help?

[ihugtrees]

My daughter is 5 months, and she hates her crib. She is happy to sleep on the floor, in the swing, on the bed, the couch(before she started rolling), and anywhere except the crib or pack and play. I think she feels closed in. I've read a little casually on Montessori, and now I'm thinking a Montessori room may be exactly what she needs.

Any links to items that aren't super expensive that I could use in her Montessori room? Is there a need to use certain colors, shapes, etc? We are moving in 3 months, and I'd hoped to decorate her room in pink and brown elephants :-D As for furniture, I don't mind getting rid of the crib, but I don't like to change her on the floor because of her rolling all over the place and trying to get away from me, so was hoping to still be able to use a changing table (for some reason she's still up there? and very happy. I don't know why!)...although it's possible to use it somewhere else in the house so her room will be safer. But wanted to hear if there was a specific reason, related to the philosophy, that sew liberated's Montessori room had the changing pad on the floor.

Where can I read about the general principles of Montessori online? I've seen various books listed on here, but have a hard time finishing any books these days with a little one...so if there is somewhere that I could learn the basics, that would be so helpful. It would also be nice for my husband to be able to read a summary, as he falls asleep when he reads anything

Anyone have pictures of their infant Montessori rooms to share? I am a visual person and would love to *see* what others are doing

[Lillianna]

Have you seen "The Joyful Child"?
http://www.michaelolaf.com/JCcontents.html
Also, http://casakaede.blogspot.com/2009/0...nttoddler.html

[lach]

I definitely recommend How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way, by Tim Seldin. It's a great introduction to Montessori, and includes plenty about infants and young toddlers.

[chekhovgirl]

I always recommend this book because it's beautiful to look at and isn't wordy at all. It's like a Montessori picture book. Your husband should be able to get through it without falling asleep

http://www.amazon.com/How-Raise-Amaz.../dp/075662505X

Just go really simple. I've seen the "sew liberated" room and honestly I wouldn't put that much stuff in my baby's room- more stuff, more of a risk he'd do something to himself! And I wanted to feel 100% safe with him in his room.

DS has a small room. To start off with, we just put a mattress on the floor on a rug (we have hardwood floors), a small basket next to it with some books and a few toys. We had a radiator cover made for his radiator and moved all of his clothes and everything into his closet.

In the beginning we did have a changing table, because my back couldn't stand the idea of changing on the floor, but when we moved him to the floor bed we took it out. Now that we have two kids, #2 gets changed pretty much anywhere- we keep diapers in the living room in a basket, but I don't see why you couldn't just change on the baby's bed if you put something underneath her. I guess maybe if you think it's Montessori to have a separate or specific area for changing, you could set up a changing area, but in our small house, it isn't worth it for me to use the space.

We also had a baby monitor in his room, but it had a special cover so the baby couldn't get to the plug, and we made the cord really short- he never touched it, but they do have wireless monitors- I'm going to pick one up today for DS2- $30 at Babies R Us!

I also put up a shatterproof mirror that was half of our mirror and pull up bar set- he was one when we took him out of the crib, so he was past the pull up stage. I put a suction cup basket on the mirror with a brush so he could brush his hair after getting out of the bath, and I also made a felt board on the wall with some felt shapes I cut out. Michael's sells sticky back felt that you can just put up on the wall. The only other thing we did was put up nice looking flash cards (believe it or not, made by Baby Einstein) for him to look at with some of that soft tacky stuff. That's all. As he got older we added more things- something to keep his clothes in, a bed off of the floor, etc.

We have a 5 month old, too, who sleeps in an Amby Hammock and when he's ready we'll move him on the floor. I was just about to post for suggestions for types of mattresses or things to do when baby is sleeping on a floor bed in the winter, because our house is cold at night. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

Good luck.