Room Under Construction

Dh and I have been working hard on our learning/craft/guest room. The room, as you can tell, has to serve many functions. All in a very small space. The rooms is only about 11x10.

The first thing we did was install an adjustable shelving system in the closet. That's were I'll store most of my crafting supplies, and any Montessori materials we're not using. Here you can see part of the closet shelving system

Next, and most important, is the shelves for the Montessori material. We decided to go with these bookcases from IKEA. The bottom 3 shelves will be for the Montessori materials and the top 3 I can use for picture frames, decorative boxes, etc. I plan on making it uncluttered as much as possible.

For the past few months this room had become a catch-all for all kinds of stuff.

Disaster!

dh taking apart some of the existing storage

We had to shove everything to one side of the room in order to get the bookshelves in there. I'll post more pics as we work on the room. I can almost see it. I think it will be real nice once it's done.

Intro to Montessori - Videos

Want to know more about Montessori education? Here are 3 very informative videos.

MONTESSORI: PLANTING THE SEEDS OF LEARNING



JOYFUL SCHOLARS: MONTESSORI FOR THE ELEMENTARY YEARS


WHAT CHILDREN REALLY GET OUT OF A MONTESSORI EDUCATION
This is a recording of a talk given by Montessori Foundation President, Tim Seldin, to Montessori educators on the outcomes of a Montessori education that we typically see in children by age twelve.

Moveable Alphabet

Also from Lakeshore, a Magnetic Letters Kit that could work really well as a moveable alphabet, and much cheaper.

Sandpaper Letters & Numbers

Montessori materials can be somewhat expensive. I ran across this set of sandpaper letters and numbers from Lakeshore. They are a less expensive alternative.