My solution was to only work with him while she took a nap. That worked for us because she was a good, reliable napper. To make sure my son still had choices, rather than me just giving him work to do, I kept his materials on two sets of shelves that were small enough I could turn them around when she was up. When she napping I turned them to face us and he chose his work, working mostly on a rug but sometimes on a table.

I also had another shelving unit with doors on it, held together by a baby-proof latch. Again, I would take the latch off and open the doors when he and I worked together.

For her, I kept out only age-appropriate materials – puzzles, scooping, spooning, stringing beads, etc. and make sure she used them correctly (as much as possible). That might mean taking it away if she were misusing it, and then re-presenting it at another time. She also loved to color with crayons and markers and do work with clay and play-doh, so those were things we did frequently at that age.

I’ve blogged about working with multiple ages many times, especially with infant/toddler age children and older children, so here are some posts you might find helpful:

Montessori Homeschooling Q & A

Another Homeschooling Update

Balancing Mixed Ages

One more thought – it only gets better as the children get older, so if you can find some coping strategies for this stage in their lives, and get through it, it will get much easier!

I am enjoying reading your blog and learning a lot from it. I do have a problem since i found out about Montessori. I cannot help but look at everything and think I might use it one day for something. Especially that in our side of the world I cannot go to Target to the dollar section and find what i need, so instead of decluttering my house I feel I am doing the opposite. I have limited storage and it is filling up with things I wonder if I will ever use.

I made and bought some Montessori material for the three to six year age, but am still not able to decide how best to organize myself. It was fine with only one child and we had lovely toddler Montessori time, till the baby arrived, and started moving all over the place, I just lost control, the baby believes he is a twin brother to his sister, nothing on his shelf is interesting if he sees his sister working on something else.

So maybe I did something wrong – instead of training them to work together, I moved everything away, and just used the dining table for big sister work when baby brother is not around. But this way I am realizing not all the material is accessible, we are using it less, big sister is not the one choosing, it is me choosing for her.

I would really like to have a room with shelves assigned for each category but wonder how to keep 18 months old hands off the pink tower, and other Montessori material and misusing them. He is driving me crazy finding it fun to play with everything within his reach: pencil box, toys – it is probably his age but I don’t want him doing this with Montessori material. I hope in another six months he might be ready, but till then his big sister is missing on using those by keeping them away.

Any suggestions please?

Love,
Viv