Montessori in the home for young toddlers (14 month old twins)

[Theresa787]

I'm a first time, stay at home mom, of girl/boy 14-month old twins.  I have been trying to incorporate Montessori-like activities into our daily lives.  So far, while at home, we switched from sippy cups to small drinking glasses, glass desert plates, glass bowls, toddler-sized flatware.  We work with the shape sorter, ring sorter, blocks, created a coin bank, taking out and replacing tennis balls from it's container, practicing dry-mopping (woo hoo), taking out and replacing colorful scarves from an empty cube-tissue box, reading, water play, moving objects (silverware and large popsicle sticks from one container to another)...  

We also started practicing EC part time at home (wearing cotton training pants for one baby and being diaper-less for the other) - it's not going so well.  They don't seem to mind being in a wet/soiled cotton training pant.

I've been researching what more we can do with toddlers under the age of three.  There doesn't seem to be a lot out there.  I read Montessori from the Start, it gave some ideas- which we are incorporating.  I feel like I should be doing more though.

Should we be learning words, should I be already making three part cards, what should I be  working on?

[Rose-Roget]

I think for young toddlers, the focus is on teaching/allowing independence, so that they can guide their own learning.  Pretty sure it's things like small tables and chairs their height, learning to drink from a cup, learn to pour from a pitcher (maybe in a few months?), keeping toys organized and accessible and rotated...

With young children, we are naturally working on language development, modeling words, expanding utterances, etc., so that's not uniquely Montessori.  I think it's too early for the 3 part cards.  Babies are working on just understanding very basic concepts/words and understanding of the world. They may know "dog" but also think that all four legged furry animals are dogs.  As their vocabulary expands, they're making those connections to distinguish the difference between a dog, cow, cat...  Looking at books and going on walks to talk about what you see is probably the best way to work on the language.

[carmel23]

Exploring nature!  Observing the natural world.... I can spend hours, *hours* outside with my toddler.  Observing bugs, gardening!  My little one loves to dig in the garden and look at the trees flowering, etc.

I think you would get a lot of bang for your buck by adding that to the list, no?

[lovepickles]

We go on safe walks in the park where I just follow. Also we are in the process of creating a handwashing station in the bathroom. We get a lot of stuff from this place: https://www.montessorioutlet.com/

But she also has a bucket collection. We just cruise Target for fun (safe) buckets and she is always stacking them or putting things in them that make great sounds. We got the awesome ribbed metal bright colored ones and she can't stop dropping her blocks in to them and rubbing them up against things. If the paint chips they are going to be tossed but for now they are simply delightful for her to play with.

We fold laundry together. She loves laundry time. We used to just sit her on the bed while we folded but then she started throwing the clothes around and putting them in and out of the basket. Now she has her own basket. I think next we will give her accessible drawers to put her own clothes away. We are very loose about her clothing drawer and just let her take her clothes in and out as she pleases but the drawer is too heavy for her now.

So I think at this age it is all about increasing her zone. Maybe work on making more and more of the previously off limit areas available to your toddler. But at a safe pace.