Help me make the ultimate "Montessori" home enviro!

[craft_media_hero]

Yay! We're moving! Bleh, it's the middle of December!

But we're finally going to have more space (notably, a small yard and nature area behind us). We have enough room in the house to set up more play areas and "station" for independent exploration.

I really feel strongly that my dd needs to be growing in the "self-help" department, and want our house to be set up for her to more easily advocate for her own needs/desires.

My dd is 6, and we will have a 3yo boy living with us part-time.

I want our house to be AWESOME for them!

Money is a consideration, so homemade materials/ready made stuff we can find is best.

Help me think of how we can set the place up!
Garden area, child-sized tools
Outdoor hammering, nuts/bolts, boards?
Indoor play kitchen in kid room (dd got it for xmas! yay, she doesn't know yet)
Low table in the kitchen prep area with snacks the kids can make
Feel table (old farmhouse, so no grains out, just sand? what else could go in it?) how does one make this? If you buy the two tub kind, it's really expensive
Music area in common room w/ dd's toy piano, box of sm instruments?
I have some black and colored felt so maybe a felt wall area?
doll house hopefully

What else ?

Inspire me.

We also have a mud room and sun room. So tucking a little shelf in here and there should be pretty easy.

[Bird Girl]

My children have a small broom and dust pan, but my son is OBSESSED with our carpet sweeper--I made it shorter for him simply by taking one of the handle segments out. Similarly, one could improve the ergonomics of rakes and shovels by cutting down the handles. I bought my children small bamboo rakes at the local asian dollar-type store--they were much less expensive than the rakes sold especially for children. If you drill a small hole in the end of the handle, you can string them with a loop of twine and hang them on a nail on the wall or in the shed.

I have seen parents who set up a sand table with a plastic under-the-bed type of container, the kind made by sterilite or rubbermaid.

We have low coat hooks and shoe bins and sweater bins in our front porch/mud room. Everyone hangs up their coat and puts away their shoes before they even come inside.

Notice where items get left--then place a basket, or a hook or a small shelf in that spot, to contain the item. The hardware store might sell shaker pegs, and I use empty wine crates, the wooden kind, to make book baskets and art supply bins.

Here's my tip for dollhouses--my kids play much more with the dollhouse people and the dollhouse furniture than they do with the doll house. So turn a few empty wine crates on their sides to make "rooms," or get a coffee table at the thrift store and "carpet" it with fabric scraps or felt pieces, and save your money for beds and tables and tiny lamps and teeny plates, and the flexible kind of dollhouse people (or my DD's favorite, Calico Critters) and skip the $200 wooden dollhouse. This article shows my favorite idea for setting up a kids play table.

[AngelBee]

[WhaleinGaloshes]

For Small Hands has a little book, almost a thick pamphlet really, that is a nice look at one's home from a Montessori perspective. It has a lot of questions to ask yourself and general/philosophical guidance (rather than bulleted 'tips' or something), which I found very helpful.

http://www.forsmallhands.com/store/i...h=84_1261_1808

[karemore]

We went with a bean table instead of having sand in the house and kids LOVE it. I used a play table with sides that I found at a yard sale for $5.

Dd likes to use the beans in her play kitchen too.

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by WhaleinGaloshes

For Small Hands has a little book, almost a thick pamphlet really, that is a nice look at one's home from a Montessori perspective. It has a lot of questions to ask yourself and general/philosophical guidance (rather than bulleted 'tips' or something), which I found very helpful.

http://www.forsmallhands.com/store/i...h=84_1261_1808

I was going to post this. AWESOME book. Extremely short but it changed how we live. Seriously.