More with Less

"This was a Montessori lesson for me! Children thrive with less choice and they will be creative and engage themselves with less!" - Wildflower Ramblings

About a month before we moved, I started sorting Raccoon's toys. At first I just weeded out the ones I knew he wouldn't miss. Next, I took out the ones he only played with occasionally. Finally I packed up, sold, or gave away all of his toys except for his costumes, weapons, and his plastic animals. I was amazed that he didn't miss nor ask for any of his other toys. There was one day towards the end when he did want something, but when I told him it was packed, that was that (very unusual for my tenacious son!). I told my husband that we should have gotten rid of the extra toys much sooner. Our house was cleaner and Raccoon's creative play was just as vivid as ever. I never would have imagined that the above statement was true unless I had seen it for myself.

Books

I am reading a Parents' Guide to Raising a Gifted Toddler: Recognizing and Developing the Potential of Your Child from Birth to Five Years by James Alvino. Despite the title and perhaps the first few chapters, I think it's applicable to parenting toddlers in general. It is a bit out-dated, with references to phonographs and cleaning blackboard erasers, but it has made me reflect on some issues I hadn't yet considered with Raccoon, like gender stereotyping in the arts. For me, most of the good stuff started in Chapter 9, "The Enriched Environment."

I'm also reading How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way by Tim Seldin. It makes me want to run right out and put Raccoon in a Montessori preschool, if I could find an excellent one where I live, and if he and I were different people. Ha. But I do love the ideas on organizing spaces, the need for beauty and reality, independence and involving the child in the family.