The Montessori Baby Quotes

“There is a common experiment in elementary school where children place a plant or celery stalk in a cup of water with some food coloring in it. The children observe the leaves and petals as they change color. This is exactly how the absorbent mind of the child works—”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“So even though we don’t have to teach our babies everything, everything we do teaches them something, and this can feel like a huge responsibility. It is big work. The kind that we can be intentional about.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Montessori is a philosophy that looks to support the natural development of each child to their maximum potential. It views education as a tool to aid this process and believes such learning can start from birth. This means that it can be applied to babies, too.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Wake Windows And Number Of Sleeps A Day While every baby is different, it can be useful to know how long on average a baby stays awake between sleeps so that we can keep an eye out for tired signs. 0–12 weeks 1–1.5 hours (many naps) 3–5 months 1.25–2 hours (3–4 naps a day) 5–6 months 2–3 hours (3–4 naps a day) 7–14 months 3–4 hours (2–3 naps a day)”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“ALTERNATIVES TO PRAISE Praising our babies can be a hard habit to break or avoid. Often when our children do something, we feel the need to acknowledge it in some way. Many times our instinct is to acknowledge by praising, but when we do this, we teach the baby to look to us for how to feel about their efforts. In Montessori we are wanting to build a child’s intrinsic sense of self rather than having them look for or get used to external praise and validation. Instead of praise, saying “Good job,” or clapping, we could try the following alternatives with our babies: 1. Don’t do anything. This allows the baby to enjoy the moment in their own way. 2. Sportscast—say what we saw the baby doing: “You put the ball in the hole.” 3. Describe what you observe about the baby’s feelings: “You look content/excited!” 4. Acknowledge our baby’s effort: ”You worked on that for a long time” or “You did it.” 5. Give a gentle smile. 6. Offer encouragement: “I knew you could do it.” 7. You could talk about what comes next: “I see you are done. Shall we go get ready to nap?” 8. Or talk about how it feels: “I’m so excited for you. You did it.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“One of the secrets to the success of our intentionally created spaces is to limit the number of activities available for our baby to the ones they are working to master. We can display a limited number—about six of their favorites—on a low shelf in their movement area. It’s easier for our baby to choose from a smaller selection, the activities will be just the right challenge for them, and there will be less for us to tidy up. Then we observe. When we”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“We want to allow the baby (from birth) free movement and unobstructed vision. So we prefer not to use baby boxes, playpens, or cribs in our homes—these contain the baby’s movement, and the bars do not give a clear view of the whole space from the baby’s perspective. We even prefer not to use a high chair. Controversial, we know. These containers have been developed for our convenience, not the child’s.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“what babies are really telling us Instead of thinking they don’t understand They want us to tell them what is going on and treat them with respect Instead of nonsense baby talk They want real connection and conversation where we take turns Instead of being picked up quickly from behind to have a diaper changed (or hearing that it stinks) They want to be able to see us, be asked if they are ready to be picked up, and have time to respond Instead of the latest gadgets They want a simple, beautiful, inviting space to explore Instead of distracting them when they are crying They want us to pause, observe, ask what they need, then respond Instead of allowing anyone to touch or kiss them They want us to ask them first Instead of being overstimulated They want to have one or two things to interact with Instead of interrupting them when they are playing They want us to wait until they are finished concentrating Instead of putting them into a sitting or standing position before they are ready They want us to follow their unique development and let them master this for themselves Instead of rushing through eating, bathing, and changing diapers They want to use these activities as moments for connection with us”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Children tune out when they constantly hear “don’t” and “no” all the time. So we tell them what we want them to do: “Let’s keep your feet on the ground” rather than “Don’t climb on the table.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Teach them what to do, rather than tell them what we don’t want them to do:”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“If we know why our baby is crying, we might say, for example, “You bumped your head and it hurt.” When we say things like “You’re okay” or “Stop crying,” we can inadvertently negate, brush away, or ignore the baby’s feelings. Instead, allow the feelings and let the baby know that we hear them, we recognize their feelings, and we are there. In this way, we accept and respect their emotions.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“When we have a strong reaction, whether positive or negative, we inadvertently teach them to look to us instead of themselves for how they feel.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Trust our body and our instincts. • Make care arrangements for our other children that allow us to truly relax and labor for as long as needed. • Find caregivers (midwives/doctors) who share our values and mutual trust. • Make sure our pillars of support are present. • Contrary to popular belief, sometimes the labor for a second or third child is much longer than the labor for the first or previous child. Knowing and accepting this can make a difference in our endurance. • Sometimes, a drive or a walk around the block can change things up for our labor and trigger transition.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Not every cry means that they are hungry. They may be cold or experiencing some other discomfort so we can see if there is something else they may want before offering them the breast or bottle.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“always”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Montessori is a philosophy that looks to support the natural development of each child to their maximum potential.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding

“Physical preparation Caring for a baby involves a lot of energy, both physical and mental. We need to be in good physical condition to be able to optimally care for our babies. Good nutrition is so important. Every day we can hydrate often and nourish our body with healthy meals, fruits, and vegetables. As we make this conscious effort for our children, but we need to do the same for ourselves. We can set reminders on our phone to make sure we don’t miss a meal. Or we can prepare meals in advance or make sure to have simple ingredients on hand that we can easily throw together. Exercise.”
― Simone Davies, The Montessori Baby: A Parent's Guide to Nurturing Your Baby with Love, Respect, and Understanding