Montessori bedroom ?
thetwinkies&Vivi
member
New to this board but figured it would be the best place to ask.
DH and I have recently decided we would like to transition DD1's bedroom to be more like a Montessori style bedroom with her mattress on the floor. We are also setting up her learning room to be Montessori style as well.
My concern is the transition from crib to the floor mattress. She is a very good sleeper but I'm concerned about her transitioning to this new sleep arrangement concept. Her bedroom is on the third floor so I will be putting a gate at her door for safety. She knows how to use the stairs safely but I do not want her doing that during the night. We also have a monitor in her room so I'm not concerned about that.
I'm curious if anyone has made this transition before and if you have any tips to make it smoother.
Re: Montessori bedroom ?
We put a gate across the door at night. We put the outlet covers in (both the plugs, and the covers for things like lamps and his sound machine). Tall furniture is secured to the wall. That's about all we did, but we aren't crazy about tons of baby proofing anyways...
Have you checked out the book "How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way" by Tim Seldin? It's a beautiful book on implementing Montessori in the home, starting at birth.
big brother 5/30/10 * cp 4/27/12 * little sister 2/25/13
Thanks so much for that book rec! Off to order it now.
How did your son do with the floor bed?
The first time we tried he was only about 8 months, and it worked quite well for a while. He was still nursing to sleep at that age, so it wasn't a big deal. After a month or two though, he started getting off the mattress and was waking disoriented and crying. So we switched back to his crib until he turned two, and learned how to climb out. He is solely on the floor bed now. I love the concept, and will definitely try it with our next LO once she gets older.
big brother 5/30/10 * cp 4/27/12 * little sister 2/25/13
From a Montessori viewpoint, it allows the child independence and freedom to explore their space, rather than confining them to a crib.
big brother 5/30/10 * cp 4/27/12 * little sister 2/25/13
This is exactly the reasoning we are interested in it.
What just happened in my diaper?!
Nice. I like it.:)
Well, we plan to transition her to a toddler bed soon so either way something's going to change. Hopefully it doesn't backfire, because sleep really is sacred in this house.
ETA: for clarity - meant to say she's moving out of the crib soon regardless.
We don't have a floor bed but his room is set up to allow independence. He has a low twin bed from IKEA. He can easily climb on and off. We have a storage unit with drawers also from IKEA. I group his toys similarly so that each drawer has a theme - soft toys, play food, stacking toys, blocks, etc. It makes it easier for him to find and clean up his toys. We put socket covers on all of the outlets except the one right next to his bed, which we covered with a blank plate. We secure the dresser and bookshelf to the wall. We mounted a coat rack low on the wall so that he can hang up his own coats.
That's pretty much it! We put a door stopper on the door during the day so he can open and close the door without breaking his fingers or locking himself in his room, and we put up a gate at night so that he can't explore the house. The transition went very well. It took a night of me sleeping in the bed with him and he was sleeping just fine the next night. He gets up in the morning and plays by himself for up to an hour each day, which I love because I get to lounge in bed that much longer.
We switched DD to a mattress on the floor at 13 months. She's never tried to get off it unless I'm in the room putting clothes away or something. We started with naps (we were also switching to a new room) then a week or so later totally switched.
Montessori from the start is another great book!
We've only started putting our son to bed on his floor bed the last couple weeks (and prior to that, he has been in our bed). But it is going so well so far. Our house is set up so that we can close two pocket doors, the guestroom door, and the bathroom door, and he can literally get out of bed and toddle down one straight hallway into our room - no opportunity for a wrong turn or to end up in any other room, etc. The other day, he fell asleep in a carrier on our walk so when we got home, I laid him on his floor bed and left his door open. I went into my room to put laundry away and about 15 minutes later, I see him come toddling down the hallway, messy hair and a huge smile on his face. I am SO sold. A month ago, I would've laid him in our bed to finish the nap and he would've woken up, looked around, crawled to the edge of our bed, and whimpered/cried/yelled for me to come get him (unless I caught his wake up soon enough on the video monitor, which was what I always attempted). Anyway, I love that he just got up all happy and came to find me, and he clearly loved it too.
For nighttime, he does still wake frequently (he always has, as he has always bedshared so this is a big transition for him right now), and it is taking some adjusting for him to understand that he can come to us without crying, etc...but with the help of the video monitor, nightlights, and the ease of how our house is set up, it's getting easier every night. Also awesome is that my H has also just gone in there to tend to him a couple nights, and he just laid down with him and I had a restful full night sleep in a King size bed, woohoo!