This is a quick review on The Montessori Toddler by Simone Davies. I have had the book for quite some time now but I only felt ready to read it when our baby turned one.
I first encountered the Montessori method a couple of months after giving birth. I liked the construct of “following the child” and the whole “Montessori look” that I immediately tried to know more about it. There were plenty of books to read apparently and numerous blogs to follow that I got confused on what to do first. Some of the books also felt a bit tedious to read that I often fell asleep while reading. So you can just imagine my happiness when I found out about the “Montessori for Parents of Children Ages 0-3” seminar by Montessori Philippines which of course I signed up for and attended. I was so inspired after the event but I have to be honest, our baby was 5 months old then and I still felt clueless on how to apply the principles. He was mostly lying down and rolling and feeding. How was I to implement the Montessori method? We were past the age of black and white mobiles and choosing from the other prescribed activities felt daunting. And so I fell back to the typical way of just adjusting as we went along. We were following the child still so we felt it was okay. But I never forgot about the Montessori method. We still tried to choose specific toys for him though we didn’t buy plenty. We still tried to provide him with a prepared environment though it felt like a long time coming. It’s pretty obvious that this adult was nowhere near “prepared” when we started.
Fast forward to today, our baby is now a year old and I finally felt ready to read The Montessori Toddler by Simone Davies. I figured I didn’t need to read about Montessori from birth anymore as we already have a toddler in our hands. And wow, it opened my mind so much that I was able to implement a lot of the concepts in just a short period of time. While I was inspired by the talk I attended before, it was quite condensed that I felt like I had to research more about it before I could actually implement. I have always been intensely research based that I wanted a logical progression to my knowledge acquisition. This book however, presented Montessori for toddlers in a fairly straightforward and easy to digest manner.
The book started with a good introduction to toddlers and why Simone loved dealing with them. I liked this particular bit as you can really feel her passion for toddlers and this made me eager to attend to my toddler’s needs. There’s also a brief introduction to Montessori which made me go back to the notes from the seminar I attended – I now had a better grasp of what was discussed! It felt like everything was tying up nicely and we had apparently been implementing some principles quite well since the seminar.
And of course, the book had activity suggestions! I especially loved this part because I felt that the selection presented is well-rounded and makes for a good take-off point for Montessori activities. Whenever I looked at our things at home or if I am considering to buy something for our baby, I would always be filtering their use according to the Montessori way.
It also helps that the book has a very appealing layout that makes it quite easy to read. The illustrations by Hiyoko Imai are charming and matches the book perfectly. A bonus: they’re even giving us free Montessori routine cards to print at home. I love how they look and I’m looking forward to printing them and putting them to use with our baby.
There’s a lot more information in the book and I truly recommend reading it especially if you want your baby to grow up the Montessori way. Simone Davies did an incredible job with this book and I’m pretty sure it’s helped a lot of parents out there already. It sure is helping me a lot! I’ve bookmarked a lot of the pages for quick references as we go along our Montessori journey.
You can get your own The Montessori Toddler book here. And omg, I just noticed this today as I’m putting the links here – these books are coming soon!
The Montessori Baby
from conception to 12 months
written by Simone Davies and Junnifa Uzodike
(Spring 2021)
The Montessori Child
from 3-18 years
written by Simone Davies and Junnifa Uzodike
(Spring 2022)
I can’t wait for these to come out!
Have you read The Montessori Toddler? What are your must-read Montessori books?
