April 12, 2007 10:28 PM
Kid-friendly home decor
I ran this way back when. If you've been reading here less than a couple years, you might like it:
One of the things I've enjoyed as a mother is considering my children when it comes to furnishing our house. I thought I'd share some examples of choices I've made to add more meaning and interest to their lives.
This is our dinnerware. It's breakable, not plastic, in keeping with the Montessori philosophy (which I've followed for 36 years through 12 children): if you want children to learn to be careful with things, you must give them things they need to be careful with. To teach your children to be careful, simply slow down and exaggerate the care with which you handle things. Show them how to add a plate to the top of a stack with as little sound as possible - the sound is feedback, so teach them to notice. I keep my dishes in the bottom cabinets so the kids are able to empty the dishwasher and put things away starting around 2 1/2. Then setting table at 4 or 5.
This is a loveseat in my office. Yes, I am blessed with my very own office because my hubby no longer needs one. One of the ways I manage to be so productive is that I've earned to write in snatches between Maddy's lessons and loads of laundry, learned to focus and let go quickly. The loveseat is supposed to attract my children to come in and sit and read or talk to me while I write. I originally had two in our family room, but have passed one onto Jasmine, so my grandchildren can enjoy it too.
This is a table with some interesting legs at kid-eye level. It would help us a lot if we could take a "walk" around our houses on our knees to see things the way our kids do. I like to think they've been intrigued and stimulated by they see way down there!
I found this great picture on sale at Marshall's or Ross or some other discount store - thought its simplicity and animal theme made it perfect to have at baby/toddler level - just when they are learning the names and sounds of animals. So while I'm cooking or cleaning up, I can be asking "Where is the dog? What does the dog say?" and teaching a child to engage with the picture, practice vocabulary, notice her surroundings.
I recommend a mirror at kid-level. Very entertaining, and can encourage them to take responsibility for combing their own hair, etc. For kids who need a little extra help with speech and pronunciation, this is where mom, dad, or older siblings can get down on their level and look in the mirror together to practice forming sounds. Ot to just be silly and make faces. You could put a mirror in a corner with a basket or kid-size coat rack of a few costume items, including hats, scarves, Daddy's tie, old necklaces (keep on the lookout at garage sales and thrift stores for these things). Your child will thrive from having special places to hang out and amuse himself. The more independent he can become in choosing his own activities, the better for all!
This is just another small mirror - this time a funny fish-eye type to capture someone's attention while I'm working at my computer.
I have a low table with computer right next to my desk for my kids to work on. This picture is just to show how I took two greeting cards with Dr. Seuss titles, framed them in inexpensive frames from Target and hung them where they would amuse my kids.
You can see why Ezzo never resonated with me. His program really seemed based on the idea that your children should cause as little disruption of your life as possible. My own feeling is that these are human beings with a different set of needs that should be taken into account and provided for. And God places that responsibility on us.
In Matthew 18:5, Jesus says "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." I know when I welcome adults I take their needs into consideration and try to make them feel comfortable and - well, welcomed. So I think it's just logical - and very much the Golden Rule in operation - to make our children feel welcome in their own homes.
Posted in Homeschooling, Montessori, Mothering, Preschoolers, Toddlers | Permalink
Comments
Thanks for the inspiration. Sometimes moms like me that have been at it a while (over sixteen years) need some new ideas to bring a fresh breeze into our homes.
Posted by: Jennifer | April 13, 2007 12:03 AM
Great post. Great idea for a post. Great ideas. YOU'RE great! :-) Really.
My kitchen window curtain and placemats are made from the same material as your loveseat.
Posted by: Carol | April 13, 2007 7:18 AM
These are such great ideas!!!
How come I never think of things like that? I count it a blessing that you share yours!
Posted by: whimsy | April 13, 2007 8:56 AM
Great ideas. I like to let my daughter(4) have (almost) full control of decorating her room, so it's quite the mishmash of child sized furniture, and animal/disney/dance pictures hung low where she can enjoy them. :)
Posted by: Briana | April 13, 2007 9:58 AM
Great ideas! I'm fairly new to the site and love to explore it for gems like this. I know that my 2 year old son would love the low mirror and picture ideas, though he is past the basic animal names and noises stage.
One thing about your passing comment on the Ezzos. I don't know a whole lot about their parenting philosophy beyond the first 6 months of life, but we used the parent directed feeding idea for our son after recommendations from both my sister and sister-in-law. It was fabulous! Everyone said that my son was the happiest baby they knew. Goes to show that even a good idea should never be taken to the extreme. :)
Posted by: Elizabeth | April 13, 2007 10:09 AM
I see what I'm missing is how to teach the children to handle fragile things without breaking them. We use breakable things, but we break a lot of them. In fact, I can hear the plates clinking right now. I guess I need to plan a lesson on how to handle plates!
Posted by: Danielle | April 13, 2007 10:26 AM
i like your philosophy and practice the same. our home decor is basically comfortable with a good mix of toys and treasures throughout. my inspiration for leaving the special, potentially breakable things out was my mother in law. she had a room filled with beautiful, potentially breakable things. her grandchildren seemed to have a certain awe and respect for grandmom's beautiful treasures. nothing was ever broken and nothing was ever moved or put away when the munchkins were around.
ps and off topic: my daniel got the taking off and putting on jacket thing down! woot!
Posted by: laura | April 13, 2007 12:54 PM
Dishes in the bottom cabinets! Why this is never occurred to me, I truly don't know! We use glasses and "real" plates, too. The girls empty the dish washer, but hand high storing items to me. Thanks for that idea! Oh, and I love the mirror in the corner idea, too! I already have just the corner in our home to put it in! Thank you!
I don't mind the break from Mommy world from time to time! It is nice to hear another's opinion about the world in which we live! Thank you for those comments, too!
Posted by: Sara | April 13, 2007 1:07 PM
Barbara, I love the idea for things as eye-level! I wish they would have taught us concepts like that at "regular" teacher training schools! *wink*
Thinking about re-painting out kitchen cabinets. Once they are done, would you have thoughts/suggestions about putting one thing per lower cabinet (I have 8.) A theme of some sort? Ideas? I have a 1 and 3 year old.
Posted by: Beth/Mom2TwoVikings | April 13, 2007 1:52 PM
Great ideas!
Posted by: lauren | April 13, 2007 2:44 PM
i love this post! i loved it last year the first time i read it and i loved it this year too!! such great great ideas and i can say for certain, my kiddos love the results in "their" house now! i have bright colored posters at thier eye level, mirrors at thier level, two different stepstools they can access now, and i am constantly on the look out for other decor (such as reprints of van goghs..etc as notecards that i can frame and hang at thier level...another suggestion i remember hearing from you!) love love love this article! one of my all time fav's and "most eye opening" for me!
thanks!
kristy in England
Posted by: kristy | April 13, 2007 4:25 PM
I love these ideas. Sadly, I have a 2 1/2 year old boy who is very resistant to being careful with things. I'm trying to teach him, but it's time-consuming and a very long road. Any suggestions on dealing with children who are particularly resistant to this? It shows up both in how he treats breakable things and in how he acts when we're cleaning up -- he'd far rather dump the toys out in a big pile on the floor (and then ignore them or push them around the room to make an even bigger mess) than put them away.
Newt
Posted by: Newt Sherwin | April 13, 2007 8:44 PM
Great ideas! I also have always used breakables (people told me I was crazy) but never though of putting them down low. My children loved mirrors when they were small. We still have one low for my youngest (she is five). I am going to let my oldest know about these ideas. She will love them! She has one child (five years old) who is autistic. He would love the mirrors. Thanks for your wonderful blogs. Also speaking of people saying I was crazy they also never understood why we always took the children out to eat with us. The children were fine when we took them out because they were taught young. Seems to be the way to teach them,while they are young
God bless you Barbara
Posted by: momoffour | April 14, 2007 1:03 AM
Newt, just wanted to say how much I like your name. Cool.
Posted by: Amy K. | April 14, 2007 4:21 AM
What a great set of ideas.
Since little new walkers/crawlers love faces, and especially baby faces, when I have a baby in the family, I tear out baby pics from catalogs such as hanna andersson and such, and tape them to the walls all around the house at baby level. This used to especially work well when we used a baby walker, they loved to scoot themselves from pic to pic. We have stairs now, so don't do walkers, but the current baby still loves crawling from one "friend" to another!
Posted by: Mama H | April 14, 2007 9:44 PM
I love your ideas Barbara. I took Interior Design in college and never once was this discussed. One always assumes that child-friendly decor is an adult's decorating sensibilities swathed in primary colours. Your examples are real-world treasures presented grown-up style at a childs environmental level.
Lovely.
Posted by: Kelly | April 15, 2007 10:05 AM
Ah, just the other day my daughter reminded me that I never hung our maps back up after we moved. I think I will hang them at child-eye level now.
However, I'm another that can't figure out how to keep kids from breaking things. Glasses are constantly being dropped, drinks spilled on or near computer equipment. Especially my oldest daughter (9). I don't have a coffee table in the living room, yet, so the other day I had my iced tea sitting on the floor right by the couch. My daughter walked right into it, kicked the glass over, and never even noticed! I swear, one day that girl is going to put an eye out, and I'll have to inform her she's done so!
Posted by: Michelle Potter | April 16, 2007 8:25 PM
