5 New Year Habits for the Montessori Parent
The start of a New Year makes it a perfect time to think about the new habits you want to adopt to improve your life. I have 5 New Year habits you can implement in your home to become the Montessori parent you always dreamed of.
Prepare Yourself
One aspect of Montessori that is not visible when you see beautifully prepared classrooms and home environments is the work on the adults’ part to prepare themselves to meet their children’s needs. Here are two new habits you can adopt to help prepare yourself for your important work as a Montessori parent! If you want more Montessori parenting reading materials, check out my top Montessori book recommendations for parents!
#1: Understand Your Child’s Needs
One of the best things we can do to prepare ourselves is to prepare our minds to have a clear understanding and expectations about what our child’s needs are. I’m not speaking of those basic needs like food, water, clothing, and shelter. Those go without saying. I’m speaking of the unique characteristics and developmental milestones children have at different ages.
Your child has more specific needs based on what plane of development they are in. For example, a young child, 0 to 6 years old will have various sensitive periods for different things. One of these is a sensitivity to order. When we can be aware of and understand these sensitive periods and developmental characteristics, we can see the magic of child development at work. Learn more about sensitive periods here.
#2: Understand Your Own Needs and Advocate for Them
As a parent, it is also important to be aware of our own needs. Parenting is sacrificial work. We work so hard to learn what our child needs and then help to meet those needs in the best way possible.
As they say when you are getting ready to take off on an airplane, put your oxygen mask on before helping someone else. We can forget to look at our own needs at times. When we can work to meet our needs, we are better equipped to meet the needs of others.
Prepare your Home
There is wonderful energy at the start of a new year! Everyone wants to read more books, get in shape, and organize their home. Preparing our homes can help to prepare us for all of the needs that we encounter during the day. Personally, when I have a messy home and things feel chaotic, my brain feels chaotic and the whole home economy struggles. Here are two practical ways you can prepare your home as a Montessori parent in the new year.
#3: Prepare an Orderly Home
Before we can maintain an orderly home, we need to prepare an orderly home. We need to take time to do this preparation, it doesn’t just happen magically. First start by simplifying what you have available. We do this by rotating out toys and books. This means everything isn’t available all of the time. Instead, we have monthly or so rotations. This keeps interest high and messes managable!
In addition to toy rotations, we can work towards giving everything a place and having everything in its place. This is hard and deliberate work we need to take to ensure an orderly home. The goal is to have clear places where things belong. Then, other members of the family can help keep the home orderly. Without this clarity, it makes it hard for people to know where everything goes because it could be random and haphazard.
#4: Restore Your Environment Daily
Once you have intentionally prepared your home and given things a place, you can practice restoring your environment. Restoring your environment means putting things back into their place. We can teach our children how to do this as well. The key to this being successful is when everything has been given a place. When we know where things belong, we are that much more successful in returning it to its’ place!
Restoring order doesn’t need to happen just at the end of the day. It is an important part of the work cycle in Montessori environments. You take something out to use, you use it, and then you restore it to its place. I can see my twins as new 2-year-olds capable of doing this becuase there is a clear place where things belong. This makes it almost effortless for them.
Observe
As human beings, we learn from watching and observing others. We may acquire a skill by watching someone do something we are trying to learn or we can gather information about someone by observing their action and tendencies. As a Montessori parent, one of our roles is to observe. I’m going to share a few tips on how to implement observation into your parenting to help both you and your child!
#5: Observe Your Child
Children are fascinating to observe. Especially when they are communicating with others or working on something challenging. Observation is so important in a Montessori environment becuase there is so much that happens that we are not actively involved in. It is through observation that we can learn and understand what a child is capable of, what they may need more support with and what they are proficient in.
In the new year, take 2 minutes a day to observe your child. This can be done at a different time each day. Try to observe during playtime, mealtime, or at a playdate with another friend. When you observe, you should be quiet and not interrupt the child. You may become aware of times when you would typically step in to “help” and you realize now by observing that your child is capable of doing it on their own. And then after they do it on their own, they are proud of what they accomplished all by themselves.
Observations help us to see things for what they are rather than how we perceive things to be going. It is a powerful parenting tool. I have noticed that when I feel overstimulated or overwhelmed, I try to use observation. Taking a moment or two to pause and observe what is happening in my environment helps me to reconnect to my world productively. Implement observation as one of your New Year habits!
