Ideas for montessori style organization

Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home? Does this
work well? Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3357080

Thanks.

On 14 May 2006 18:50:51 -0700, "
wrote:

Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home? Does this
work well? Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3357080

Thanks.

My dil has one like that, but I can't say that my dgs or dgd take out
one toy at a time and put them back as kids in Montessori schools do.

We have drawers at our house and while it helps a bit with organizing,
it isn't always successful in terms of clean up with dgd. (dgs is two
and autistic and we haven't had him putting away toys yet).

You can also do this using bookshelves with baskets for each toy, btw.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

We have one. Not quite like this one but the same idea.
I can't say it helps my kids take one toy out at a time and then put it
away. I guess I don't see how that helps them learn much. We put the toys
away at the end of the day.
I can say that it helps *me* deal with the amount of small toys they have
and where to store them.
I don't mind if they mix it up when they play w/ toys .. but then again, I
don't mind mixing playdough


wrote in message
oups.com...
Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home? Does this
work well? Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3357080

Thanks.

" writes:
Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home?
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3357080

Not exactly. Our older son had assorted plastic boxes on bookshelves.
Our younger son now has one of these doohickeys from Ikea:
http://tinyurl.com/7t9pt

This photo shows all the boxes the same size, but in fact there are
three different sizes, and Robert has at least one of each.

Does this
work well?

Our systems have worked well. The Ikea piece looks neater, but from a
practical point of view both have worked pretty much the same.

Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it

Nope. Though they only take out what they're playing with. It's just
that sometimes, when you're six, you want to build (Lego box) a
restaurant (toy food and dishes box) and you need to make menus for it
(art box) and then you decide it's going to have a drive-through (car
box)...

And then when you're done with that, you get out your toy farm animals
before you remember to clean up the restaurant.

and put it back in place?

This part, they do. With prompting, of course. Okay, a bit more than
prompting some nights, but it does get done.

My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

In my experience, toyboxes are okay for a relatively small number of
relatively large toys. The "toybox" we have for the outdoor toys, for
instance, works very well. (It's actually one of those plastic chests
for storing patio furniture cushions in. Long enough for baseball
bats, deep enough for plastic backhoes, and weatherproof.) But when
you start talking about Lego bricks, or Matchbox cars, or Barbie
shoes, or plastic food, or whatever toy with 1000 nearly microscopic
pieces your kid is in love with this month, well, a big toybox just
doesn't cut it. Books, board games, and puzzles only crawl into toy
boxes to die. Shelves and smaller containers are much better, both
for getting out toys and cleaning them up.

One thing I notice about the toy storage shelves you linked to is that
the boxes are all the same size. Looking at your daughter's toys, do
you think that will work?

(Oh, and don't feel like a failure if your daughter doesn't bring her
good Montessori habits home with her. It never seems to work that
way! She'll just have to learn it at home, too.)

- Cindy Kandolf, mamma to Kenneth (12) and Robert (6)
****** Bærum, Norway
Bilingual Families Web Page:
http://www.nethelp.no/cindy/biling-fam.html

wrote:
Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home?

No. we have a mix of storage containers. Big rubbermaid containers to
hold legos, wooden blocks or train parts (one container for each). A
plastic three drawer unit for pencils and pens, blank paper and color
paper. Simple bookcase (or cabinet) that held playdoh, teacup set and
other little toys. I tried putting each of these on it own tray (ala
montessori) but then the kids wanted to play with the trays...

Does this
work well?

I think one reason why we didn't go with this was that all the
containers are small and things just didn't fit into them (paintbrushes,
bottles of paint, puzzles, paper).

Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

Very very few parents I know have been able to implement this system at
home. The only ones I know have been Montessori teachers. My SIL has
trays with toys on them which her son has to take one at a time and then
put it back before getting another one. The failure often comes when a
friend visits. But at least her son knows where to put the toys, so
even if he doesn't follow the "put it back before getting another one"
it's pretty easey to clean up afterwards.

wrote:
Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home? Does this
work well? Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

Before you invest, separate your toys into the
categories you'd use and verify that each pile of toys
will fit in the container you're thinking of buying.
Many people get the storage device first, only to find
that their stuff doesn't fit in it. If it doesn't
*really* hold your stuff, then you will find that it
is useless.
The other thing is that I tend to think it's
a *good* thing when kids engage in creative play where
they're "mixing" their toys. At school, especially
Montessori school, things tend to have a particular
purpose. At home, I'm not likely to have the energy
or inclination to insist that they play with each
toy separate from all the others.
That said, we tend to store toys in containers
just because I think big toyboxes are largely useless
for toys with little pieces. You can never find what
you're looking for, plus it makes it hard to rotate
toys or move a toy to a different location (e.g.,
Grandma's house) for play. I prefer containers with
lids, though.

Best wishes,
Ericka

wrote in message
oups.com...
Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home? Does this
work well? Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

I was going to get that kind for my 9-year-old, but I decided that it didn't
really fit everything that I needed it too. I prefer tupperware-type
containers with lids and then that way you can label the box. With beginner
readers, you can put a picture and then the words on the box. I also didn't
like that they don't hold the more larger, chunkier style toys. I prefer a
shelf with the box with lids on the shelf for easy access. My kids have
never really played with one toy at a time and then put it away. Most of the
times, the toys are incorporated into each other so I didn't kill myself
trying to get every toy into it's own box.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

wrote:
Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home? Does this
work well? Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=3357080

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure that storage system would only assist my 2yo in making
more of a mess, with each container conveniently at hand to dump, one
after the other, into a big pile... Or into the back of a dump truck to
drive to another part of the hosue and dump it there... no Montessori
activity around here...

-Karen, wading through a pretty deep pile by dinner time-

"Jeanne" wrote in message
...
wrote:
........

Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

Very very few parents I know have been able to implement this system at
home. The only ones I know have been Montessori teachers. My SIL has
trays with toys on them which her son has to take one at a time and then
put it back before getting another one. The failure often comes when a
friend visits. But at least her son knows where to put the toys, so
even if he doesn't follow the "put it back before getting another one"
it's pretty easey to clean up afterwards.

My problem with the "Getting out only one toy" method is that it tends to
stifle creative play to some degree. My daughter's care bears drive the
alphabet truck, swing on the fisher price little people swing and ride the
horses, and live in caves formed by putting board books on their edges
tent-style, and it's all unprompted play. As she gets older, she's not
dumping everything out anymore randomly-she knows where things are and how
to get them, but she definitely combines pieces. We have bookshelves with
baskets for small toys, and "parking places" for bigger ones, and everything
is labeled where it goes, and she's starting to get good at "Let's pick up
all the legos and put them in the lego box", although at 18 months she's not
good at LEAVING them away if she gets distracted while picking up.

In article ,
Jeanne wrote:

wrote:
Does any of you have a toy organizer like this at your home?

No. we have a mix of storage containers. Big rubbermaid containers to
hold legos, wooden blocks or train parts (one container for each). A
plastic three drawer unit for pencils and pens, blank paper and color
paper. Simple bookcase (or cabinet) that held playdoh, teacup set and
other little toys. I tried putting each of these on it own tray (ala
montessori) but then the kids wanted to play with the trays...

Does this
work well?

I think one reason why we didn't go with this was that all the
containers are small and things just didn't fit into them (paintbrushes,
bottles of paint, puzzles, paper).

Do your kids take one container at a time and play with it
and put it back in place? My kid does that at her montessori so I want
to implement the same kinda system at home (thereby getting rid of the
chaotic toybox).

Very very few parents I know have been able to implement this system at
home. The only ones I know have been Montessori teachers. My SIL has
trays with toys on them which her son has to take one at a time and then
put it back before getting another one. The failure often comes when a
friend visits. But at least her son knows where to put the toys, so
even if he doesn't follow the "put it back before getting another one"
it's pretty easey to clean up afterwards.

Personally, I enjoyed the creative play they got into with MORE than one
toy out: the big blocks to build roads, the smaller ones enclosures,
the farm and zoo sets to create a zoo, and the playmobile people to walk
around admiring the zoo, for example.
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care