Well, the kid's 1 now, so we told him to buck up and stop being such a baby. (So what that he still can't walk?) To nudge him in that direction, we got rid of the crib in his room and put his mattress on the floor, giving him a modified toddler bed.
I'm kidding, of course, about the 'hurry up and grow up' part. But not the bed part. Some people think we're nuts, but Maria Montessori would disagree. The Montessori philosophy of child development is one that stresses freedom of movement and independence, fostering what the child CAN do instead of focusing on all the things he CAN'T do and, therefore, keeping him restrained from much of the adult world.
Getting rid of the crib and allowing Kostyn to move freely around his room (after a careful, exhaustive and thorough process of childproofing his room while at the same time making it much more "Kostyn-friendly") is our way of acknowledging that Kostyn lives here too, this is his room, and he's far more apt to explore his toys and learn about and have respect for his home environment if he's free to really live and move around in it.
So far, he loves it. And I love the fact that now when he's awake in the middle of the night and cries out for us (he crawls to the baby gate at his door that we put up when we go to bed), I can just hang out on his bed and snooze a bit while he lies beside me or crawls over to his toys and amuses himself. Which is exactly what he did last night at 1 a.m.
3 comments:
Really neat! We are sort of playing with when to take Jesse out of the crib, can't be too close to when new baby arrives (before OR after) but we'll be putting a mattress on the floor too!
I think you're right. Let the kid move around and bump into soft things and reach all of his toys.
I followed you back from my site—weird that we've got the same personal name and same blog name. Post Secret is one of my weekly stops as well. Nice to meet you, Robyn.
hmmm, this is interesting to me. I am due again in October and was just trying to figure out what to do as I do not want to buy a second crib.
Does he fall asleep on his own in his bed?
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