Friday 19 August 2011

Care of self - the Montessori way, the end of the series

Well, yes, I had to close on that topic first and foremost.

Before taking a break for the vacations, I talked extensively on toileting.
During vacations, I have to admit that it is a little harder being consistant with this.  But I tried to keep E in trainers as much as I could, and it really paied off, as once we got back, we took off exactly where we had left.

So what else to talk about to close this topic?  Care of self.  This is a very important topic in Montessori, and I think this is one of the thing that set Montessori aside, from other educational philosophy.

I have never, over the years, set a care of the self activity up (at the exception of the care of hair activity a few months ago), I totally rather have what they need at the place they need it, and most of it have it accessible to them all the time.  I feel it is easier for them and more logical most of all.

I have showed you before my kid's bathroom here.  This one is located in the basement, between their rooms.  It is very convinient to have one there, and it is entirely dedicated to them.  Not much has changed since then.

What has is that while having a bathroom downstairs is perfect during the night time routine, it is less then ideal for the morning one.  Too many time, I have send the kids to crush their teeth only to find them engaged in a totally different activity...
I knew we had to find a solution to this, and so came the reorganization of the littlest bathroom of the house, that is just near the door...(how convinient!)





















This time, let's focus on the sink area

It was a hard place to organize, since, as you can see, I have basically nothing to work with.  No storage, no space.
So I had to apply the concept: if you cannot bring it down to the child, bring the child up to it.

I used the bench that we used to have in the kitchen.  IN this new house, it just didn't fit anymore, but the height was just perfect in the bathroom.  Granted, it eats up most of the free space in there, but since the kids are the only one using this place (aside from the occasional guests) it is not a problem.  And it does exactly what we wanted it to do: give entire and safe access to the sink for the kids (and they see themselves in the mirror, which is really important in the care of self activities IMO)

Not having a counter on the side of the sink really made things more challenging.  So I bought a shower rack


and 2 ceramic holders to put the toothbrushes and tooth paste.  We secured it to the wall with a nail behind the big white dot.  There is an empty space for E's tootbrush when we get to that point.

On the shelve that is higher on the wall, we put the rest of the things we felt the kids needed:

Brushes, clothes to wash their faces, and a drinking glass.  The soap is the only thing near the sink.

To make folding laundry easier, we bought a set of cloth especially for this bathroom that is different from the cloths we have in our bathroom, and also different then the ones in the kids's bathroom (they are white with colored hook cloths).  SO when we fold the laundry, it is easy to know what cloth goes in what bathroom.  

A note on the candles we have in there. We have had quite a lot of thunderstorms this year, and lots of electricity cut... thus the need to alternate light when they go down.  Normally, they are not there ;)

So there it is, the loop is closed


Avant de partir en vacances, j'ai fait une série sur la propreté (en anglais, je tente de traduire sous peu).  Mais un sujet était encore à discuter: la propreté de la personne...
Alors voilà.  J'ai déjà montré en image la salle de bain qui est entre les chambre des enfants. 
Peu de choses y ont changé depuis.  Mais des changements se sont effectué dans une autre salle de bain, qui est située près de la porte, et qui facilite drôlement les routines du matin.


(Voir image de la salle de bain)


Elle est très petite, elle ne contient aucun rangement, et donc l'arranger pour les besoins de mes enfants était tout un contrat.  Mais ça semble avoir fonctionner.
J'avais besoin d'un endroit pour facilité les tâches du matin: brosser les dents, se nettoyer les mains et le visage avant de partir, sans que les enfant aillent à l'autre bout de la maison, et se perdent en chemin à faire autre chose...


J'ai donc utilisé un banc pour permettre au enfant d'avoir accès au robinet.  Il prend beaucoup de place, mais il est stable et haut, et donc les enfants sont même en mesure de se voir dans le miroir. (ce qui est important selon mon avis, ils peuvent juger de leur état avant de partir)
Puisqu'il n'y a pas d'espace comptoir, j'ai acheté un panier de douche pour y mettre les brosses a dent et pâte à dent tout près de l'évier.  Celui-ci est clouer au mur.


Sur la seule tablette de la pièce, nous y avons mis, à disposition des enfants, des débarbouillettes, les brosses à cheveux, et un verre pour se rincer la bouche.  


Une note sur les chandelles: Nous avons eu beaucoup de pannes courant cet été, et donc nous avons du les laisser là dans le but d'être toujours prêt en cas de panne.


Alors, voilà, j'espère que ça pourra vous donner des idées  ou des solutions d'organisation!

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