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?

My Munchkin as you are aware started crawling last month. She loves the fact that she can move around all by herself. She moves a lot quicker as well now.  She has in fact started pulling to stand as well. 

Achieving a new step towards independence, she has a great urge to fulfill her needs of movement and so is on and about at all times. We try our best to help her with this by giving her the freedom to move on her own and also providing her with different opportunities.

Environment to Support Movement

It is very important to have your environment (house) setup in a way to support the movements of your Munchkin. Childproofing, as we commonly know it, is required in every household. However, when I say childproofing, I mean it in a slightly different manner.

Typically, in childproofing we lock away doors, cabinets, refrigerators, put barriers/fences and a lot more. In Montessori, we want to try and give the child access to most things (as long as they are not dangerous), hence, we suggest moving things away that are not child friendly. Our home has a very simple set up, and our Munchkin has the freedom to explore every corner without any restrictions. Things that are not safe for her are put away and everything in her reach are safe things.

For example, in the kitchen, I do not keep the knives in the draw anymore and they are kept up where she cannot access them. I have just 1 draw locked that has cleaning products, which are not safe for her. Apart from this she has full access to all the drawers that include the glassware as well. I overlook her when she is exploring the drawers with glass but I do not stop her from doing it. To answer your concern, she has not broken anything so far, they are actually very careful when they handle things.

Low Heavy Table

When your Munchkin is crawling, try and have a low heavy table around. Alternately, you can have an ottoman, low sofa, even dining chairs (sturdy). This is to give them access to objects they can use to help pull themselves up to stand.  My Munchkin used to use our sofa, her highchair, dining chairs and the Montessori shelves to pull herself up. When we used to take her out on the balcony, she would use the ledge there as well to pull herself up (as shown in the image above).

“There is really no need to buy objects but only a need to understand the value of free movement and how important it is for children always to feel their bodies free to move and work in a space.” - Understanding the Human Being by Silvana Quattrocchi Montanaro

Stairs

Once they start crawling, they want to practice their gross motor movements. They really enjoy climbing up and down the stairs. There are products you can have at home for your Munchkin to use. The most common in Montessori is the Pickler’s Triangle, which allows the baby to climb up and down. We were not able to arrange for this and used the building common staircase for this. My Munchkin would love climbing up the stairs and did this practically everyday (sometimes she climbed 2 floors at a stretch!). The only drawback here was that because there were always more steps to go up, she would not really climb down.

Tunnel

We used our Caterpillar Tunnel for her and she loved it. She kept crawling through the tunnel and enjoyed herself. we had to make sure we held the tunnel firm from outside so that it did not overturn as she is still too small to balance it yet.

How have you planned to support your Munchkin’s movements?