{"id":239819,"date":"2023-06-15T02:05:45","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T02:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buoyantbloomer.com\/?p=239819"},"modified":"2023-06-15T02:12:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T02:12:03","slug":"montessori-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buoyantbloomer.com\/montessori-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"A Creative Way to Montessori At Home & Expand Storage with Elfa Shelving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/a>, 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being successful with Montessori at home begins with presentation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is how a typical bead cabinet looks like. Needless to say, it is a non-starter in an NYC apartment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"montessori<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I stumbled upon this idea <\/a>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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I inquired around to see if any craftsperson would build Cherine’s shelf for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer? A cool $600 that would have violated all my fiscal stewardship rules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Macgyvering my way forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then purchased the following items:<\/p>\n\n\n\n