Lucy’s Library

I guess this week is Montessori week. I finally got around to taking pictures but when I started writing, I realized I had a bunch to say so I’m spreading it out – blogger willing of course :-)

Maria Montessori put quite a bit of emphasis on order and harmony. The child’s learning should take place in a “prepared environment.” This environment should allow the child to access appropriate materials freely while still being orderly and beautiful.
High shelves of pretty toys that the child can’t access on her own to work (play) with aren’t good but neither is a bucket full of random toys jumbled together without rhyme or reason. Organizing her books/toys/activites like this does require some space but not as much as I thought it would and it is another incentive to keep her “stuff” at controllable levels.
One of Lucy’s favorite areas of our house is her “library.” Serious, this girl loves books. I started counting how many books I read one day but gave up by lunchtime at a count of 32! (This is counting repeats, we read probably 7-8 books over and over and over again :-)
Here is my “famous” rainbow bookcase. It resides in our living room. Lucy’s books and toys used to be the bottom shelf but her book collection kept growing so her toys are elsewhere and she has two shelves now.

I rotate the books on the top shelf. These are the most often read so while I am nice and put one or two of Lucy’s favorites up there, I make sure I have at least one I like too.

The bottom shelf holds the rest of the living room books* in two baskets (Target). I’ve divided them up into Fiction and Non-fiction. I used to keep the books on the shelf but Lucy was always pulling them off and I felt like I was spending half my time picking up books.
I was worried the baskets would make it difficult to look through but as long as I keep them only half full, Lucy can easily find the ones she wants – and yes, she will flip through looking for just the one she wants!
The colors around the labels match up with stickers I’ve put on the side of the books so they can easily be put back into the right basket. An added bonus to the dots is that they cover up the library sticker that remains when I buy books from library sales (one of my favorite ways to buy books). Without that, I’d be in danger of returning books to the library that I shouldn’t.
 
      
Maria Montessori thought it was important that during the First Plane of development (up to age 6), children read books grounded in reality and not fantasy and fairytales. This is a good, albeit long, paper written explaining more of the why behind that.
To be honest, I can agree that it is probably best to do that, but I  still don’t. We read Lucy a book about a llama in red pajamas before bedtime every night (although I’m still waiting for her to release a book about how sometimes mama needs to potty!) and I have no plans to give up our Boynton collection.
But lately, I’ve noticed that I am naturally drawn towards more realistic books. Both because Lucy really likes books with real photographs and I find it easier to talk to Lucy about what is going on when the situations are real life. And when I’m “reading” a book for the 3rd, 4th, or 18th time, I have to throw out the real words and just talk about the pictures or I’ll go crazy. So instead of talking animals, we’ve been picking up books about babies, animals, trucks, gardens and little girls who love their stuffed animals.
And don’t rule out grown-up books too. My mom has a bunch of nice art books that Lucy enjoys looking at when we are visiting. She seems to especially enjoy the Mary Cassette one, it must be all those mama/baby pictures. I plan on getting some books on chicken next time we are at the library, for me not for Lucy, but I’m curious as to whether she will like them or not. 
*This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Lucy’s book collection. Her current library books are kept on the bay window seat in a stack but I want to get a basket for them. She also has a stack in our room for bedtime, a bunch in her bedroom that I’ve put aside (I’ll be rotating them in with the other living room ones), several in the car for keeping her entertained and even a few in the bathroom for potty time. Now you know why I have to buy books at library sales, I would be in debt if I bought them all new!