It’s so good to look outside and perceive that SPRING IS ALREADY HERE! In fact, every year on March 14, Albanians celebrate the country’s largest pagan festival and one of the most important holidays in Albania, “Dita e Veres’ – in English, “Summer Day”, even if it is celebrated in the first days of spring.
I’ve just realized that there are only 3 months left for the end of the school year. The time flies…3 months and another school year will be over!
Spring is a great time to do some spring purging and cleaning as we prepare to finish out the school year. When I take time to organize our school closet, I find book and resource treasures that inspire new learning.
Having a carefully laid out learning area is one important step to make learning easy for our children. Even when we don’t have a dedicated room for each child, we can take steps to organize our home to be an ideal learning environment. With a bit of planning it is completely possible to have a space that makes independent learning happen naturally.
A few simple principles can help us organize our space to be this ideal learning environment.
1. Structure and Order – When we carefully instruct our children in basic routines, we set learning and civility in motion. In an ideal learning environment, even young children are carefully taught how to do things. Children are taught how to make their bed, get dressed, brush their teeth and wash their hands as basic, preliminary lessons. And Montessori can help us in it so much!
Children, from a young age, may be allowed to get their own snack and drinks but they are taught how to do it and how to clean up after themselves as well.
A minimum amount of clothes are kept in drawers low enough for children to reach, and toys are also kept to a minimum so that children can easily pick up after themselves.
Read more about ORDER AND PREPARED HOME ENVIRONMENT (click).
In the kid’s learning area, supplies are kept in well-organized containers, and children are taught to replace their supplies after use. A trash can should be kept in an easily accessible place so that children can clean up after themselves.
Bookshelves are organized so that students can quickly find research materials, and maps or globes are available for geography research.
In the home, the book selection could be as minimal as a basket for science research books and a separate one for history and geography materials, or it could involve rooms full of books.
Read about HOW WE ORGANIZE THE BOOK CORNER IN OUR CHILDRENS’ ROOM (click).
2. Beauty – An ideal learning environment should be beautiful. Beauty doesn’t have to require a lot of money. It can involve simple things such as getting rid of broken toys and excess furniture. It might involve hanging a beautiful map or natural history poster on the wall, or clearing a shelf for displays of children’s artwork or nature finds.
It can involve putting fresh paint on a tired and chipped work table or finding a basket to keep blankets and toys in, instead of strewing them across the floor.
Life with children involves lots of messes but putting in the effort to keep your home an inspiring place to learn does have a big impact. Also, keeping the T.V. off and instead of having a variety of lovely books, and music to musical instruments will make a major difference in the atmosphere of your area.
Read more here on HOW PUT IN ORDER YOUR HOME WITH CHILDREN (click).
3. Nature – When children have an opportunity to interact with nature it can be both inspiring and calming for them. This is why it is important to keep your learning environment as natural as possible.
Allowing fresh air to circulate or using an essential oil diffuser to create fresh air, as well as allowing plenty of natural light in, will create the kind of calm atmosphere that keeps meltdowns to a minimum.
Bringing in a plant or small pet for your child to care for, as well as some field guides for identifying creation finds, will nicely round out your natural history shelf. If you have outdoor space, let your children have recess time daily to enjoy it.
Although, these are some examples of basic things we have done to create an environment that accommodates learning, it is all grace if things go as hoped for. There are mornings where I fail to follow through on good habits and my kitchen ends up a disaster because the children have all freely helped themselves to breakfast (good), using up all the sugar, and smearing jam across the counter in the process(bad)!
However, it is better to put in the effort to create a learning environment that makes it easier for children to learn than to not even try.
I would like to see your home’s taking a new look for Spring. If you would like to share it with me, just send me a DM on @amotherjoy Instagram account.
Happy Spring (Summer) Day. Enjoy Dita e Veres!
Sending you love,
Joanna
xxx
