I work at one of the oldest Montessori schools in our area with little ones. After much research and thinking about several different things, we have decided to try a Montessori nursery with our first. Anyone else out here considered or has done a Montessori style nursery? If so, I'd love to see pictures 
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I honestly don't even know what that means! Could you enlighten me?
Thanks!!!
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@babyjmama: Guess I could have explained a little more!
Montessori nurseries are usually very child/baby friendly, simple, organized and use as much natural material as possible. Just about everything--art work, furniture, toys are at the child's level so that they may roam about and explore. There is also no crib. The child sleeps on a mattress directly on the floor once they're over 3 months old. The idea is you make the ENTIRE room baby proof/baby safe because the room essentially becomes the entire "crib." Here are a few great examples:
http://sewliberated.typepad.com/sew_liberated/2009/04/finnians-montessori-room.html
http://www.howwemontessori.com/how-we-montessori/otiss-montessori-room/
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I like the idea of floor level toys and artwork, but a floor bed isn't for us. I'd be more likely to do a Montessori style playroom.
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We didn't do a full montessori style nursery, but we did a floor bed for DS and he loved it. It made transitioning to his big boy bed super easy (we basically just plopped the floor mattress onto the bed frame). We have a few low ikea expedit bookcases where we put his toys and books. And a toddler sized coat rack so that he can put on his own jacket. I'm working on my daughter's room right now and am planning on doing a similar set up.
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I think @mrsjacks might have a Montessori style room for her LO's.
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@emg86: Thank you for explaining that! It looks really neat! It's not something we did in J's room (obviously, since I didn't know what it was before just now) but it looks really neat. I agree with the idea of a Montessori style play room though! Very cool! I love learning about new things
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Yes! I have a full on montessori nursery and house. Both my husband and I were montessori children, and it really shaped us as adults. We put my daughter into her floorbed full time at 8 months, and it was one of the best things we ever did for her.
Tomorrow I'll take a few pictures of our setup. We mostly just have a really childproofed house, and plenty of simple toys always available to her at her level. It's a really wonderful way to raise a child.
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@sarac: Awesome!! I've been collecting ideas, so I'm excited about pictures.
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@emg86: the links helped. I really like the idea of the mirror, toys and books being so accessible. @sarac: can't wait to see your daughter's space. What did she sleep in up until 8 months?
My most brilliant friend went to Montessori school, so setting up a Montessori baby space at home may pay off.
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@sarac: I'd love to see that!
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We are going to implement some of the principles into her nursery. Depending on how co-sleeping goes, we want to transition her onto a floor bed after she's out of our bed. We're playing it by ear, but she'll sleep with us for at least a few months, maybe up to month 6 or so, and then look at trying to transition her out of our bed and onto a floor bed in her room. The mirror can go next to the floor bed since there'll be no giant crib taking up space. We will be bolting all furniture to the walls and will make sure the toys are easily accessible--we also have those low Expedit shelving units. There is some artwork on the wall, but since the furniture takes up most of that low level viewing space, I don't think it'll matter to her. I like a lot of the principles that go along with wooden toys and high contrast mobiles changing frequently, so we'll implement those where we can. Every time we look at what to put in the nursery, the question of "is it babysafe" comes up.
I tried reading a book on Montessori for children and it was really dry and boring. I've slowly been working through it, but it's pretty brutal
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Here are a few pictures I took this morning. My daughter is 15 months old.
These are bookshelves with most of our books. I cleared out the bottom two rows, and now they have all of her books and some toys. I rotate toys to keep them interesting and developmentally appropriate. They're always accessible to her, and she can dump them out and make a huge mess and I can have it clean in just a few minutes.
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Here are more toys, always in baskets that can be either here, where we mostly hang out, or back in her room. She's lately been obsessed with stuffed animals, so I put them all in this box, which she loves.
Those blocks were hand made by her uncle, and they are maybe the coolest thing ever, though she isn't interested in them yet.
The rocking moose is awesome, as is this train set. The trains were really for my husband - she's a little young for them yet, but he loves to play with them. They sit there for hours building things and smashing them and just hanging out. One of the key principles of Montessori is that play is the absolutely most important thing for children to be doing. So, we look for ways to play with her and engage her in ways that we enjoy too. Like train sets.
Note - the large dog is not required. Her dog toys are all safe for the toddler, though, and kept where both child and dog can access them.
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Here is the bathroom - everything is either locked up (and I took out the toxics), except this drawer, which is full of bath toys. Easy for her to get at, easy to just throw back in.
In the hall I couldn't totally babyproof, so I put this wooden toy here, which usually distracts her.
This is where we hang out. I sit at this table with my laptop, she can sit in her high chair or play wherever through out the room. She tells me when she wants to play or just snuggle or nurse.
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Now, the nursery.
This mirror we decided not to put on her bed, because she loves it like this. Here's her other box of toys, which she doesn't get into that often.
We call this her 'moon chair' because she is totally obsessed with the moon and loves to stand her and look out the window looking for it. Really cute.
This little table is the perfect height. It was an awesome thrift store find. That wipes container has a hole cut out of the top because she was really into putting her colored pencils in and out of it for a while. Toys like that she enjoys way more than actual toys.
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This is her floorbed. It's just a futon on the floor. Snuggling and nursing to sleep are part of our routine, and we often nap with her on the weekends. She sleeps far better here where she can move around than she did in a crib.
Fun bird mobile and art.
Her jackets and shoes and hats are all hung up or set out where she can see them, and she gets a choice each day in what to wear. I've been meaning to set up a little place for her to pick her clothing, too.
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Last, the kitchen. The spice cabinet is right at her height, so I keep only plastic jars with very tight lids on that bottom level, and she loves to dump them out.
I have this little table here for her to stand at and snack while I cook.
This cabinet has unbreakable non sharp stuff for her to dump out and play with while I cook. She also loves to explore around the recycling. -
Whew, that turned into a novel. Clearly I should have just typed up that guest post for @MrBee like I said I would.
Basically everything is either allowed, or locked off. A 'house of yes' is pretty crucial to the Montessori philosophy, in my opinion. That doesn't mean that she never hears no (far from it), but that the house is set up so that I can by and large say yes to her. Things that aren't for her are locked up, out of her reach, or otherwise inaccessible to her. The house is meant to be totally welcoming for her. Nothing I've done is especially expensive, difficult, or disruptive to my decoration or lifestyle.
Montessori, and it's emphasis on freedom to explore and the real support of curiosity really made my husband and I who we are. I think it is an absolutely awesome way to raise a child. I'm not sure that we'll be sending our child/ren to montessori school, but we will for sure be raising them like this probably their entire lives.
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@sarac: Thanks so much for sharing!!! I love her little moon chair. I work with 18mos-3yr olds at one of the oldest Montessori schools in our area and I am always amazed by them. It's been a very neat experience which has changed our ideas of how we want to raise our children. We always have shocked visitors when they see how independent an 18 month old can be or how a 20 month old can get their own little lunch ready and sit at a table and eat with a fork and spoon and clean up after themselves. Now I'm always shocked when I'm somewhere else and a 2 year old won't clean up after themselves or parents don't give them a chance to try to be independent. Again, thanks for sharing. It definitely helped me gather some more ideas so we can start working on preparing our home over time.
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@blackbird: Is it Montessori from the Start? I've been reading through that one and besides a couple of chapters, I'm really not that interested in it. I've read other books though that are very Montessori friendly when it comes to parenting ideas. I usually end up reading several different Montessori blogs and gather ideas from there and read books based on some of their suggestions. I also work with 18mos-3yr olds at a very true Montessori school, so I've got some experience and ideas from there. I definitely recommend a short documentary called "Edison's Day" about a Montessori 20 month old at home and it follows him throughout the day with his parents explaining what they have done. We always show it to our parents at work who are very impressed and shocked by how much a little one can do if you prepare the environment for them and allow it.
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Subscribing! I LOVE what you have done @sarac: !
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My LO is only an infant, but I'm already thinking I will enroll her in the local Montessori school at age 2.
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@EMG86, yes it is! This was the one that i kept finding the internet referring me to and it is a snoozefest. I looked around at some blogs and was able to gather the ideas for the nursery but I was hoping to avoid some long winded explanations, and the book reallly gets into it! I'll check out that documentary, thanks! The philosophies all sound great but i'm just having a hard time pinning them down!
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Thank you! I think that fostering creative exploration and creativity and curiosity are basically my main roles as a mother, beyond keeper her safe and fed and loved.
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