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?