montessori – calivintage

a toddler room sneak peek with framebridge x penguin books

April 10, 2018 6 Comments

i know i’ve shared the kids’ room a couple of times before, but the fun part about their room is that it’s constantly growing and changing right alongside them. the last time you saw this space, edie still had a crib and a changing table. but can you believe that she’s about to be two years old? and that adam has a big boy bed now? it happens so fast ugh!

so as you can imagine, we’ve made a lot of changes over the past many months, and i’m gearing up to do a big reveal of how their shared space has changed. but today, i wanted to give you a little sneak peek courtesy of our friends at framebridge. they recently launched the penguin print house collection featuring a selection of limited edition prints from some of their most beloved books. we picked this beautiful last stop on market street print, illustrated by matt de la peÁ±a. it’s one of only 200 prints made, and comes with a certificate of authenticity. but of course, if this print isn’t your cup of tea, they have a ton more to choose from, so you should really check it out. and stay tuned because i’ll be sharing photos of the rest of the room so soon. and i’ll be talking about the ways that i was inspired by the montessori method, too!

lifestyle

des enfantillages

September 30, 2016 No Comments

even though today is only the last day of september, it really is that time of year when we’re switching gears and preparing for the holiday season. i always let it creep up on me, but with two babies to tend after, it’s become very important for me to prepare well in advance if i want to accomplish even half of the things on my to-do list for the holidays. that means i already have their halloween costumes picked out and almost complete, and i’m already thinking ahead to christmas gifts and birthday parties (adam’s birthday is at the very beginning of january, i can’t forget)! this year, we seem to have lots more babies and small children around us than in years past, so i’ve been on the hunt for nice gifts. which is how i came across the montreal-based children’s brand, des enfantillages. they make the most simple and charming little toys for children that i have come across in a while.

as i’ve mentioned before, we practice the montessori method both at school and at home for the kids. if you search around online, you’ll notice that a lot of the toys are very plain and simple. part of the ideology is that you don’t want things that are overly stimulating or distracting while they are engaging in imaginative play. and while i do tend to follow that to a certain extent, i do still enjoy a bit of color and whimsy. so these toys really do hit all the right notes for us. not that we don’t also have tonka monster trucks for good measure, but i do like to have a balance of toys around the house that will be both entertaining and educational for the kids. plus these make especially good gifts!

lifestyle, home

a nursery tour on apartment therapy!

September 12, 2016 1 Comment

i’ve got some really exciting news to share today! first off, i recently started writing for apartment therapy! i’ve been a huge fan of the site for years, so i’m incredibly honored to be a part of the team even in a small way. and it comes at the perfect time because i’ve really become obsessed with pulling our little house together, so this is a really great outlet for all of the energy i’ve been pouring into all of our upcoming renovation projects.

which brings me to the title of this post: i was so excited when my editor asked me if i would like to share a before and after of adam and edie’s shared nursery/toddler room! i’ve been sharing more and more glimpses into the space over the past several months and while i do still plan to make some changes, this is pretty much the big reveal. i do plan to share a few more detailed posts that talk a lot more about why i chose everything in the space, but for now, you can get a look at what we’ve done. it’s funny, too, because even though i’ve been there for the whole transformation, it’s still kinda blows my mind to see the before and after shots.

lifestyle

montessori at home

August 4, 2016 5 Comments

i haven’t written an official post about it here on the blog, but if you follow me on instagram, then you may have seen me talking a bit about how we’ve adopted the montessori method at home. before adam was born, i was vaguely familiar with the philosophies behind it, in large part because my mom was a reggio educator and had a lot of experience with early childhood education. but that was pretty much the extent of it. in fact, to this day, i’ve never read a parenting book or how-to. so when it came time for me to pull together his nursery, i kinda just did the traditional thing: crib, dresser with a changing table, shelves filled with brightly colored toys, a rocking chair. i hadn’t even considered that there might be alternative ways to set up a room that might be more “kid friendly.” and it totally worked for the baby stage. but they’re really only immobile for about 6 months before they begin to start crawling around, ready to explore the word around them. and it was around that time that my little mister decided to start reaching up for toys sitting high above his head on the shelf in his room or at the dinner table, a recipe for disaster.

my first instinct was to buy a baby gate to restrict his access to dangerous parts of the house (which is a really good idea, by the way). but he was so interested in playing in the kitchen, pulling out utensils and things, touching, exploring. it seemed more natural to give him a safe way to access those or similar items to fuel his curiosity. i didn’t realize it at the time, but this post i pulled together about “what’s in adam’s bag” was totally my first experiment with what you might consider montessori. i tried to think like a baby and essentially shrunk down the adult version of my own purse into a bag full of developmentally appropriate toys for a curious baby.

fast forward a couple of years and adam is now enrolled in a local montessori school, and we’ve gone full-fledged montessori at home. we aren’t militant about it or anything, but whenever i see a way that i can adapt my home that allows adam to do things independently, then i certainly try to do it! his room is probably the best example, with a low shelf filled with baskets, each one containing a different activity. the same goes for his book shelf, clothes rack, and floor bed. the idea being that if i shrink down everything to his level, then he can do practically everything he needs without having to ask for help. it’s a bit harder in the kitchen, but he has a step stool that he can move around the room so he can climb up to the counters and help us with food prep. and he has a little set-up under the work bench with a few canisters of snacks, a tiny cup and pitcher so he can serve himself water, and wooden bowls and utensils that he can get for himself.

like everything with parenting, it’s just a work in progress. we don’t think we’re perfect, and we’re not trying to be, but it’s something that we’ve found has worked really well for our family. so as i pull together the house, i hope to share more about the why and how when it comes to adopting montessori at home. so stay tuned for more of my little “montessori series” here on the blog!