My Munchkin seems to be gaining more independence with each passing day. She pretty much eats by herself now, with me feeding her a few bites in between (if she lets me). She also gets involved while bathing and tries to soap herself. It is absolutely remarkable to watch the efforts she puts in and the level of independence she is gaining. In fact, she does things cheerfully when she can do them by herself – just the fact that she is able to do a thing she sees us do brings her joy.

Independence at this age does not mean they do not need you. They need you the most – nothing changes that! Independence means fulfilling their urge to be able to do things like we do. Independence means allowing them to be a part of day-to-day activities. Independence means giving them a chance to complete things without us doing it for them. Independence means many more things like these.

What is our role in their independence? Watching carefully and giving them opportunities to exercise their independence and develop their motor skills and concentration. We simply give them activities / opportunities and then take a step back and allow them to work independently.

How did My Munchkin exercise independence this month?

Art

Though art is regularly included in our activities, this time we took it to our balcony. It was a beautiful day and so we decided to do some painting. I quickly made some homemade paint and got out the art supplies and we were all set.

My Munchkin had a great time, painting her canvas and herself. We showed her how to use the paintbrush once and then stayed back and watched her explore the colours, holding the brush, dipping it in the paint, making strokes. The concentration was incredible too and we tried our level best to not break it when trying to get some candid moments!

Stacking Cups

This is a newbie on her shelf. I have shown her how to use it and she does work with it trying to understand how to get the activity done. I will let her be to figure this out by herself like she does for everything else.

Farm Animals

I added a small crochet basket (gifted by a friend) with Farm Animals and left it for her to explore. She removed each animal and looked at them closely. This, however, was replaced soon as I found farm animals in bigger sizes. I will cover more on that in the coming posts.

Outdoor Play

Walker Wagon

We purchased a Wagon for her this month (late but I’m glad we finally found it). She took for it immediately and used it to cruise around the entire house. I will give a full review on this soon.

Coin Box

This has been her favourite recently. She initially had a difficult time getting the coins in but soon figured her way out and since then regularly uses it. I get to see some good amount of concentration when My Munchkin is working with her coin box. What do I do? I try to not disturb her. Watch her in the video below.

What do you do to encourage independence in your Munchkin? Would love to have more ideas.

In my post on Month 12, I discussed about Object Permanence. You can read about it there.

For a long time, if something moves out of a babies’ sight they forget about it. For them, that thing stops existing. Around 10 to 12 months, they begin to develop an understanding that something exists even when it cannot be seen. This is called Object Permanence. One of the simplest signs is when you play Peekaboo with your Munchkin and they start enjoying it, looking for you and knowing you will reappear from somewhere.

Psychologist Jean Piaget studies show that one of an infant’s primary development milestones is the understanding of the concept of object permanence.

A Montessori Infant environment will have what is called an Object Permanence Box. A wooden box with a hole on the top and a tray attached to it. The munchkin puts a ball into the hole making it disappear for a moment, and then it reappears in a different place, i.e., on the tray. Playing with this over time makes the munchkin realize that the ball continues to exist even though he cannot see it. Furthermore, he understands that it till return to him eventually.

This is a classic Montessori activity for infants/toddlers and my munchkin loved working with it too. You get this beautiful material online however I did an easy DIY for the activity.

I took a tea leaves box, cut a hole on the top big enough for the ball to go in easily. I opened up one side of the flaps and taped it to the base so that it stayed stable. On testing, the ball went in fine but did not roll out easily so I added a layer of cardboard under the base of the box (about 1 inch on the side where the ball comes in). This helped raise one side so when the ball is put in, it rolls out easily.

I do not have step-by-step images but I included here an image of the end product. I did not cover it in any paper and left the box in its original form. After all, we are more concerned with the learning benefits from it.

Age: Generally around 10 to 12 months of age.

Purpose: To help develop the sense of object permanence. It also helps in developing concentration and gross motor skills.

This month included some traveling as we were in Bombay for a couple of days. We travel by road and she has a car seat, which we use at all times when she is in the car. She caught up on her sleep on the way as we started early morning.

In the post for Month 11, I mentioned about how my munchkin has started to enjoy playing Peekaboo. Peekaboo is a simple game that all babies love to play. Till about 6 to 8 months, when something is not in the babies’ sight, it does not exist to them – Out of sight, out of mind. But from 6 to 8 months, they begin to realize that things continue to exist even though they are out of sight.

Object Permanence Box

If you try hiding something under a blanket, they will try to lift it up to find the object. Similar is Peekaboo, when you hide your face; they look for it and get excited and happy on seeing it again. This is called Object Permanence – understanding that something exists even when it cannot be seen.

Accordingly to psychologist Jean Piaget, one of an infant’s primary development milestones is the understanding of the concept of object permanence.

This is a classic Montessori activity for infants/toddlers and my munchkin loved working with it too. You get this beautiful material online however I did an easy DIY for the activity (will post it soon).

My munchkin picked up the activity quite fast and it kept her occupied for long periods as well. I noticed some good amount of concentration when she worked with this.

Colour Sensory Bottles

She continues to enjoy exploring these colourful bottles and spends time looking at them and trying to eat them too!

Colouring

We started her with colouring this month. Gave her an art sheet and 1 colour crayon – we do not want to confuse them with choices yet and so 1 colour is enough. Try choosing one of the primary colours – red, blue or yellow. She did have fun doing this as she sees us writing things down a lot so she got her chance at it as well. After a point, she did try putting the crayon into her mouth so we stopped. I plan on buying her non-toxic edible crayons which will be safer for her to use.

Sound Sensory Bottles

Watching my munchkin enjoy the colour sensory bottles; I decided to make her some for sound. I used five bottles with grains that would produce different sounds. These actually replaced a lot of her rattles and she enjoyed playing with these more and listening to the different sounds. I will post the DIY for this soon.

Floor Bed

This was long due – a floor bed is highly recommended for children in Montessori. We used a crib for a year and she almost ended up breaking it, which is when we decided to transition her to the floor bed. I moved her crib into the next room, as I was a bit worried that she may not enjoy her new floor bed. She proved me wrong! She took an instant liking to it and was so happy that she could move in and out of her bed when she wanted (rather than waiting for one of us to pick her from the crib).

We simply have used a child-size mattress on the floor. I have put a wooden sheet (from the crib) under the mattress for better support. No pillows yet as she doesn’t need them nor use them.

What does your munchkin sleep on? Have you tried the Floor Bed yet?

“Where did she go? She was just here!” This is something you’ll ear quite often in our house these days. My Munchkin has mastered her crawling skills and moves fast. Apart from that, she pulls up to stand as well at most places she gets a grip. This is a time to be careful that they do not hurt themselves a lot. She is moving around the entre time she is awake and it’s quite difficult to get her to stop.

So we decided to finally setup her Montessori shelf. We put a shelf in her room with a few activities on them. She developed and instant interest in it and moved to explore what all was there. She now spends quite a bit of time throughout the day working with things on her shelf. Unfortunately, I do not have an image of her first shelf but below are the things we put out for her.

Bead Mover

The Bead Mover is a good toy for fine motor skills and developing concentration. My Munchkin seemed to enjoy working with it immediately and I must admit she had a fair amount of concentration while working with it.

There are various designs available in the market and online. I selected something that is not very complex and preferred the wooden ones. The one I am using is a Skillofun Bead Shuttle I purchased online.

Basket of balls

We continued with the same basket used earlier which was a basket with 5 to 6 balls of different sizes and textures.

She still has a lot of fun playing with these. It also develops gross motor movements.

Ring Stacker

This is another one she enjoyed. Although she was unable to put the rings initially, she would remove them and put 1 or 2 back. A few months later, she did the whole thing well.

A stacker with 5 to 7 colourful rings. In the beginning, give them only the large ring and maybe one smaller one. Slowly, keep adding in more rings. This activity is good for hand-eye coordination and also discrimination of sizes.

I purchased mine online. There are many options available online.

Books

She had four hardbound books on her shelf. Two were touch and feel ones and two were images of animals and birds.

We have been reading to her earlier as well and she has been looking at picture books so this was not new to her.

Music

We opted to put a Xylophone on her shelf for music.  This was purchased online too. Very simple to use and she picked up only with showing her how to use it once. We do supervise her when she uses this as she tends to put the stick into her mouth a lot.

There was a lot of fun and discoveries we had this month as well.

Bubbles

A very simple toy that most children loved and my Munchkin loved too.

We took out the bubble wand and kept blowing them into the air. Initially she was confused but two to three attempts later she got a huge smile on her face and started to try catching them (and eat them!).

Eating herself

We have been giving her a lot of finger food for the past few months but she now is eating better on her own. Most things dry, we let her eat by herself now.

She does use a highchair most of the time. Traditionally, in Montessori we would use a small table and chair for meal times but we have been more comfortable with the highchair so are using it.

Outdoor Play

We generally go for a stroll everyday and look at the plants, people, pets and most things around. This month we used the park for the first time. My Munchkin had her first go on the slide and the swing. Yes, you guessed it right she loved it! So now it is the beginning of using the park, which is a great way to develop their gross motor skills.

Peekaboo

There were a few times when my munchkin threw things down from her highchair and gasped, when she realized it had fallen down, and then on after she threw it, she would look for it. This was the time she started to enjoy playing ‘Peekaboo’ as well.

When something is gone from sight, it no longer exists for a child. Thus, with games like ‘Peekaboo’ a child begins to understand that things exist even when they are not seen.

I captured my munchkin playing ‘Peekaboo’ with her grandma which is when I thought this would be a good time to introduce her to the Imbucare Box.

My next article will have a great DIY for the Imbucare box – an extremely good developmental activity for your munchkin. Do come back next week and read it.

Till then, what is your Munchkin doing this month?

It’s already been 5 weeks since Siyana came into our lives and we love every moment of it. No matter how much to try to learn during your pregnancy and get all the information from people and by reading up, you will still come across so many new things.

Each child is different and special in its own way and so there is no fixed way of doing things. Observation is one of the ‘keys’ of Montessori – observe every movement of your child. It is through this observation that you understand what your baby enjoys doing and what skills she’s developing.

Follow the Child

“Follow the child, they will show you what they need to do, what they need to develop in themselves and what area they need to be challenged in. The aim of the children who persevere in their work with an object is certainly not to “learn”; they are drawn to it by the needs of their inner life, which must be recognized and developed by its means.” – Maria Montessori

You must wonder but my baby has just begun Month 2! From birth itself, we must observe our babies movements/follow their movement so that we understand what their preferences are, what makes them feel secure, what they are interested in for their development. Yes, observing them shows you each of these and more.

For Month 2, observing Siyana has shown me a few things:

        - I mostly need to feed her on demand (no 2 hour wait period as recommended).

        - Letting her stretch when she wakes up. Oh how she loves stretching! And she needs a good 5-7                         minutes to do that when she wakes up.

        - Carrying her and comforting her when she needs to. Contrary to beliefs, I carry her a lot and when she            needs and I did not have a problem later of her being habituated to me carrying her. In fact, she                      prefers being left down now and only wants me to carry her when she needs to be comforted.                      Children need to feel secure and loved at this age, we can discipline them later on as well.

         - Keeping her hands and legs free for movement. I swaddle her very rarely and avoid using mittens too.

         - Talking to her – she enjoys when we speak to her.

As you see, its very simple things at this stage but every child may have a different liking and that is what you should make a note of.

The Octahedron Mobile

After the Munari Mobile, we can introduce the Octahedron Mobile around 6-8 weeks (towards end of Month 2). You will notice that your baby now begins to follow a voice when he hears on, especially yours. Also, there is a lot more movement in them as well, so this becomes a good time to bring in the Octahedron.

The Octahedron Mobile is extremely simple. It is 3 Octahedron shapes in primary colours (red, blue and yellow). It is made with craft paper and so is light when allow it to move in the air. This mobile helps an infant in visual development, concentration skills and introduces them to colour as well.

Do you want to make an Octahedron Mobile for your baby? It is very simple to make yourself and you can follow this DIY link for it.

Did you make the Octaderon? How did your baby enjoy it? I would love to hear about it.