The challenge to doing Montessori at home is – wait for it – SPACE. The materials don’t exactly have a light footprint, and Montessori beads are famous for taking up space. But, I love how Montessori math materials make the abstract concrete, and in comparison to some of the new math shenanigans, I knew I wanted to do as much Montessori math at home as possible. That’s why I’m so thrilled to share this DIY Montessori bead cabinet that I created by repurposing our Elfa shelving.
Being successful with Montessori at home begins with presentation
To encourage kids to use materials and toys, things need to look inviting. Presentation is half the battle in keeping kids’ invested. I knew that without a storage solution for our beads, there was no way we would be able to use them.
This is how a typical bead cabinet looks like. Needless to say, it is a non-starter in an NYC apartment.
I stumbled upon this idea for a Montessori bead cabinet and was impressed not only with the design, but also with the fact that she is the only blogger who has a post up on how to make a compact, space saving bead cabinet. This post was published more than 10 years ago, and I didn’t see anything more recent. Hats off to Cherine!
I inquired around to see if any craftsperson would build Cherine’s shelf for me.
The answer? A cool $600 that would have violated all my fiscal stewardship rules.
Macgyvering my way forward
My ah-ha moment came after I sold off a substantial portion of Mr. 5’s toddler toys. I realized that our Elfa shelving which had originally been 5 rows of boxes could be consolidated to just two shelves of boxes.
I then purchased the following items:
- 1 peg board
- 6 12′ shelves for the peg board
- 7 packs of slim white hooks (6/pack, needed 40 of the 42 hooks)
Our left side of the Elfa unit is 25″, so even though I would have loved for the pegboard to be on the left-hand side, it didn’t work out because the pegboards only come in 24″ or 30″ widths.
Elfa components typically go on sale at least twice a year, and there was one in June (divine timing, truly), so I was able to put together the Elfa style Montessori bead cabinet for just over $100.
What’s the big deal anyway?
Mr. 5 LOVES his new desk area AND the Montessori math beads. These are great for:
- Skip counting
- Multiplication
- Understanding squaring and cubing of numbers
Combining manipulatives, conceptual understanding, and mastery is the holy grail in getting math to stick. It’s true that it takes longer for kids to reason something out on their own, so I wouldn’t let kids sit there unattended when working with the beads – at least not in the beginning. I’d also make sure they at least knew how to count to 100.
And psssttt, you don’t need Montessori certification to teach your child Montessori math!
