'Montessori' was a term I was familiar with after my youngest sister going to a Montessori Nursery when she was little. I remember always being amazed at how capable she had been at such a young age - cutting her own banana, pouring her own water from a jug... and as the eldest child, I was in awe. I re-discovered Montessori before Isaac was born, after coming across it when researching about child development and parenting, in that mad panic of 'oh my goodness I'm going to have to raise this child and I don't know how to do that!'.
After reading more and more in those last few months of pregnancy, I was inspired by Montessori and encouraged my partner, J, to do a little reading with me too. Instantly we both took to the beautiful environments you see pictured so often, how minimal they can be, how functional they were. When setting up Isaac's first nursery, we decided to put low mirrors in, a wall bar, and we then created him a 'yes space' in our main living room so he had somewhere to play. Beyond that, I definitely just coped through the first 7 months of parenting. The lack of sleep, the relentlessness of being a mother, and the isolated and loneliness of being home alone with a small baby all day definitely got to me. Montessori was always at the back of my mind, especially in regards to 'setting up' Isaac's play space... but the depths of the method were put on hold I suppose whilst I managed each day. In some ways, I regret this. Looking back, I can see how the method of Montessori could have helped, supported and guided so many of those early parenting stages that I found so hard. However, I give myself grace, and know I did that best I could with the capacity that I had at the time.
Fast forward to Isaac hitting the big ONE year old, Instagram well and truly got me back on track with how I wanted to parent my child after following some incredible accounts - all also inspired by Montessori and practising it at home. In a whirlwind of a September, we moved house, I started back at work full time, and Isaac was enrolled in a Montessori Nursery, but I spent every night researching and reading and listening to Montessori podcasts in any spare minute.
It's fair to say I am HOOKED and can't imagine parenting without the Montessori values & roots at the core of what we do and how I act ever again. It's changed my perspective about education, about child development, the role of the adult.
Montessori needn't be an all or nothing. We here at The Know & Play Space believe in an all-rounded approach to parenting, education and learning, however, a large part of our life at home with Isaac is definitely modelled on the Montessori method and is something we'll continue to share more about.
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