Toddler Environment

After surviving the toddlerhood of three other children, one might think that I'd have been prepared for the twins to start walking.  However, this is not so.  None of my other children were quite capable of wreaking the havoc that my twins are capable of.  Part of the reason for this is, I'm sure, because I could stop the culprit when there was only one of them.  Stop the one dismantling your kitchen cabinets, you've stopped the casserole dishes from being dragged onto the floor, and you can redirect to the Tupperware and grumble to yourself about how you should put in more cabinet locks.  But when you have twins, you can stop one from creating chaos... and the other one is still hard at work.  You put the first one down to get the second one, and the first one goes right back to what he was doing.  The result is a completely emptied kitchen in ten minutes or less. 

Anyway, the twins have been an extreme lesson in the Montessori principle of providing a few materials at one time. (And cabinet locks.)  For some reason, it's taken me this long to realize that all those toys I thought they needed -- but were totally ignored -- are not actually necessary. 

A note about our toddler "environment": it's our family and living room, and not strictly Montessori.  Farmerboy's "stuff" is in this space, too.  You'll also notice the absence of puzzles and stacking cups.  There's a good reason for that: I still haven't solved the dilemma of puzzle pieces being scattered all over the place, and for some reason, we are constantly losing stacking cups, too.  I'll bring out the puzzles when they're a little older, but I'm not sure what to do about the stacking cups.

One more note: I took these pictures very early in the morning.  Which is why everything is still somewhat neat!

Xylophone, basket of musical instruments, music cube (in need of batteries) and empty tray on top shelf; farm blocks and basket of balls and other smallish toys (a very few Little People mostly) on bottom shelf.  The small toys are mainly to provide something for the babies to put into baskets.  (They also like putting blocks in baskets and carrying them around.)

This is the bookcase next to the more Montessori-looking shelves.  The blue canvas bin is actually for Farmerboy's books; the navy blue basket is for board books.  The babies can haul this out themselves.

Our bin of wooden blocks is in the (attached) living room...

The push-around cart is a favorite, as is the toy kitchen.  (Toy food is stored in a basket inside.)

A view of our sort-of cluttered family room.  (It's a very small space.)  The entertainment center holds preschool-age toys and bins of videos and CDs.  The babies can get to the big trucks and dolls on the bottom shelves, but Farmerboy's Star Wars action figures and Playmobil guys are up out of the way.  (Theoretically.)

I think I should probably put the drum away, because all they do is flip it upside down and use it as a container.  The TV cart next to the drum used to be "the music cart," but then the babies started walking and could get into the instruments I'd placed in bins on the top.  Since the recorders were being used as weapons, I put them away.  Now the babies just like to push the cart around -- it's light enough for them to manage it, but big enough to be pretty satisfying.  Today we had a troubling development, though... Pip (who's always the ringleader in these things) pushed the cart over to the kitchen counter, where he used it as a stool so he could reach the phone. He apparently then handed the phone to his brother, who took off running down the hall with it, pushing buttons frantically.  We also have to keep the high chairs turned over, because Pip scoots them over to the art cabinet and uses them to plunder the top shelves. 

The stools you can see in the background are supposed to be at the kitchen island, but the babies like to push them around as well.  The baskets they enjoy carrying aren't in these pictures either, but they're just baskets with handles.  I think they came as part of some floral arrangements, probably received at the birth of various children... but I can't really remember.

Here's another bit of apparatus, currently occupying the space beside the computer desk.  I got it at a garage sale for about $20 when Farmerboy was a toddler, to help him pull up.  Farmerboy didn't walk until he was 18 months old, and at that point, I was just looking for anything that might entice him onto his feet.  The babies have played with it more, though.  It's nearing the end of its usefulness, however, as now the babies just want to stand on stools beside it and shake the rods. 

And that's about it.  Now that I look at it, most of these are gross-motor toys.  They don't have small parts, because we all got really tired of picking them up the small stuff constantly, and the babies weren't actually playing with the small stuff.  When I give the babies things like pouring trays, crayons, and felt objects, it's generally at the dining room table when we're all gathered there, and I don't keep those things in reach.  I'm not sure how toddler Montessori classrooms are set up, but in our house having those activities out all the time is a recipe for disaster.

Comments

[Cheryl]

I really liked this post. You have a great toddler environment.

[ShawnaB]

Oh Angela, what a joy to read this post! You have certainly been busy creating a Toddler friendly space! It looks great. I can relate entirely to your account of what your boys do throughout the day...pushing furniture around and climbing it to reach forbidden items...and filling anything and everything with smaller anythings and everythings. We have many of the same toys...the same wooden kitchen, the music cube, and many others. I TOTALLY agree with your conclusion about the need to modify the environment more when you have two. I didn't baby proof much with my first two, but you are exactly right, you just cannot keep up with both of them fast enough when they are going is opposite directions! Great posts!

[Meredith]

Great set-up and very toddler friendly!! Thanks for sharing all the wonderful pics, and the cuties!!

[Andrea]

Great pictures! I think you are very wise not to put out anything with lots of little pieces. Thanks for sharing!