Montessori at Home is Affordable for Everyone
Did you know Montessori is for REGULAR people?
NOT just rich people!
Oh, yes. It's true that many affluent parents have fallen in love with the Montessori method. Montessori can look so "haute" sometimes that it makes me want to throw up.
These are strong words because my feelings are strong.
Because, friends, Maria did not create a fancy pants method of education.
She studied CHILDREN.
And her very first school, the Casa dei Bambini, was created for children in San Lorenzo, a working class district of Rome.
So please do us all a favor and don't believe the hype about the expensive stuff!
Yes, Montessori materials can be expensive.
Yes, private Montessori school can be expensive.
Yes, you can open the internet looking for one simple activity and somehow emerge believing your child needs an entire room full of gorgeous wooden materials.
But those things are NOT the only way to give your child a Montessori education.
Not by a long shot.
Montessori is, and should be, available for every child. Not just those whose families can purchase it.
No Cost Montessori Is Very Possible
I like to say I grew up with Montessori. It's kind of in my blood!
I have lived and breathed it my whole life, and after years as a Montessori educator, curriculum creator, and mentor to homeschooling families, one concern still comes up again and again.
Why does Montessori have to cost so much?!
Parents look at the price of materials or toys they have seen people talk about on the internet. They look at the cost of tuition for private Montessori schools. They see the perfectly arranged Montessori homes online.
And I'll tell you, yes, those things ARE expensive.
But they are also NOT the only way to give your child a Montessori childhood.
Montessori is not something you buy.
The materials support the method, but the materials themselves are not the method.
And this is an important distinction, especially now that Montessori has become so strongly associated with a certain aesthetic.
You do not need to purchase a Montessori looking childhood for your child.
You can prepare your home with what you already have.
You can make things.
You can borrow things.
You can decide that a particular Montessori material really would be valuable for your child and purchase that one thoughtfully.
And sometimes you can spend absolutely nothing.
Scrappy Montessori is valid Montessori. I promise!
Montessori From Birth Doesn't Have to Cost Much
A Montessori babyhood does not need to be expensive.
YOU are the most important part of your baby's environment and life.
Of course, there will be a time when your baby starts to engage more independently with their environment, but mostly, they want to be with you.
Carry your baby with you. Talk to them. Let them experience the world with you.
Maria Montessori observed in her travels many cultures in which babies were carried and included in the life happening around them.
I think one of the best environments you can share with your baby is the outdoors!
Take a walk. Have a picnic. Feel the grass. Read some books.
This can even be whatever book you are reading. It doesn't have to be a special baby book.
Giving your baby time to explore with you and letting them see the world through your eyes is a gift and a great experience.
You can give your baby a few simple things to manipulate and explore, but you don't need a lot.
And they don't need to be fancy or expensive.
Montessori at Home Is Already Full of Learning
Once your child is toddling, they take it upon themselves to explore the environment around them fully.
They take all the books off the shelf and push them around the room.
They take all the socks and shove them in a small hole that you forgot even exists.
They empty things.
Fill things.
Carry things.
Climb on things.
Your child doesn't necessarily need more stuff.
Your child needs the opportunity to explore the things that already exist in their environment.
Yes, we need to prepare the environment a little, but it doesn't need to be about toys or spending lots of money.
Let your child have access to a sturdy step stool so they can wash their hands.
Put some dishes and utensils somewhere they can reach so they can participate in serving themselves.
Invite them into the ordinary work of your home.
There are so many low cost and no cost ways to prepare your home because Montessori is fundamentally about helping your child participate meaningfully in the world around them.
And your home is already full of that world.
You Don't Need to Recreate a Montessori Classroom
This is where I think a lot of parents get stuck.
They see a Montessori classroom and think they are supposed to recreate it at home.
You aren't.
A Montessori classroom serves many children. It needs materials that support children at many different stages of development, all working at the same time.
Your home is different.
You can respond specifically to your child.
You can introduce things as your child becomes ready for them.
You can use ordinary household objects when they serve the purpose of a lesson. You can make materials when that makes sense. And you can invest in particular Montessori materials when their specific design is valuable for the concept your child is learning.
You don't have to buy everything.
In fact, our current Child of the Redwoods curriculum is designed around this reality. Official Montessori materials are never required for every lesson. Many lessons use common household items, inexpensive supplies, or printable materials.
The question isn't, "How do I acquire all the Montessori things?"
The question is, "What is my child ready to learn, and what do I need to help them learn it?"
That is a much calmer question.
DIY Montessori Materials Are Still Worthy
You can also make things yourself.
Your materials at home that you are making from scratch are STILL worthy, in all their imperfection.
Who CARES if they are exactly the same as what you'd buy from a company?
They are tools that can aid your child's development.
For example, maybe you want to explore grouping and exchanging quantities but don't have Golden Beads available.
You could use unpopped corn kernels.
They're beautiful and shiny, and your child could group them into batches of ten. Take those ten and exchange them for a popsicle stick!
Is that identical to the Golden Bead material?
No.
Some Montessori materials have very specific designs that help isolate particular concepts, and there are times when that design is genuinely useful.
But that doesn't mean a homemade exploration is worthless.
Not at all.
If your child is exploring quantity, grouping, counting, or exchanging, something as ordinary as corn kernels can become a useful hands on tool.
This is what I mean by scrappy Montessori.
Use your understanding of the concept.
Use your understanding of your child.
Then use what you have.
Montessori Public Schools Are Real Montessori Too
Yes, there really are Montessori public schools!
I wish I could've taught in one full time, though I did get to do some substitute teaching in one.
Here's what I know.
They are using Montessori materials and principles to teach children within the realities and regulations of a public school system.
No, it won't always be perfect, purist Montessori.
But I don't know if ANYTHING is perfect, purist Montessori.
Maria Montessori was a person we can learn from immensely.
We can learn from people who studied and learned from her.
We can study her writing and more than a century of Montessori practice.
But we can't know exactly what she would have done in every situation because she is no longer living.
No school can be perfect.
Everyone is doing the best they can to implement the pedagogy thoughtfully within the community and culture they are in NOW.
They take what they can from Maria's study of children and apply it to the children in their care.
And I think there is something really important for homeschooling parents in that.
Your Montessori homeschool does not have to pass a purity test either.
Your family has its own culture.
Your own needs.
Your own budget.
Your own home.
Your own children.
Montessori has to live there.
What If Your Child Attends a Traditional School?
What if your child ends up in a traditional classroom that relies more heavily on direct teaching methods?
Does this mean Montessori is inaccessible to them?
Absolutely not, I say!
You can still give your child Montessori experiences at home.
You can support what they are learning with hands on materials.
You can encourage independence and purposeful work.
You can follow interests that don't have time to blossom during the school day.
You can give your child opportunities to explore ideas concretely instead of only on paper.
And you can make things yourself.
The Montessori way of seeing and supporting your child doesn't disappear because your child walks into a different kind of classroom during the day.
Montessori is bigger than school.
Did You Know Montessori Began With Children Who Had Very Little?
Maria Montessori's early work was not designed as an elite educational experience.
Quite the opposite.
Her work in San Lorenzo centered children living in poverty, and she spent enormous amounts of time observing what happened when children were given purposeful activities and an environment suited to their development.
She could also be pretty judgmental about affluent families and the ways she believed excess affected children's ability to interact with materials and the environment in a deep and meaningful way.
Maria had strong opinions too.
I don't know that all of her worries about affluent children are valid. I think all children can enjoy playing in the dirt.
Still, it's worth considering whether there is a deeper benefit to children having less stuff.
More isn't always more.
More toys don't automatically create better play.
More materials don't automatically create better learning.
More choices don't automatically create more independence.
Montessori asks us to observe what your child actually needs.
If you want to read more about the beginning of Maria's work, check out The Discovery of the Child.
Your initial reading of it might be that she comes off as judgmental.
And she does!
But the heart of her work was always serving children and protecting their opportunity to develop.
Parents Are a Powerful Part of Montessori Education
I also think Maria underestimated the value and role of the parent in the education of children.
She observed the families of San Lorenzo, in which many parents were struggling financially and had to work many hours to provide for their families. Many children were left alone for long periods of time to fend for themselves.
For those children, the best gift she could possibly offer was the Casa dei Bambini, the Children's House.
But for many families, a Children's House is not necessary.
They already have a loving and wonderful environment at home.
Parents are capable of learning how to provide for their children the Montessori way, even if they don't have lots of money.
Montessori is not something that can be contained within a school system.
Families can follow the same principles without needing to recreate the formality of a school.
And after years of supporting Montessori homeschoolers, I believe this even more strongly than I did when I originally recorded this podcast.
Parents are an incredible asset in their child's education.
If we are truly going to follow your child, the intimate knowledge you have of your child matters.
You know the questions they ask in the car.
You know what they return to again and again.
You know what makes them light up.
You know when they're exhausted.
You know when something that looked like a disaster was actually the beginning of a really interesting question.
Parents deserve credit for the power they have in their child's life.
Affordable Montessori Needs a Plan More Than a Shopping List
This is where my thinking has grown over the years.
I still believe completely in scrappy Montessori.
I still believe your home is full of possibilities.
I still believe parents are capable.
But I also know that telling a parent, "Just use what you have and follow your child!" can leave them with one enormous unanswered question:
Okay, but what am I actually supposed to teach?
That's why affordable Montessori isn't only about spending less on materials.
It's also about having a plan.
You shouldn't have to buy random Montessori materials and then figure out what to do with them.
You shouldn't have to piece together your child's education from Pinterest activities, blog posts, printables, and whatever happened to show up in your search results that morning.
You shouldn't have to become a trained Montessori teacher before you can begin.
Parents tell us they want exactly this kind of clarity. They want a Montessori homeschool curriculum that tells them what to teach without requiring a teaching background or a huge investment in materials.
That is a huge part of why Child of the Redwoods looks the way it does today.
How Child of the Redwoods Makes Montessori More Accessible
We've built Child of the Redwoods around the belief that parents can learn Montessori and teach their own children.
The curriculum gives you a complete roadmap instead of a pile of disconnected activities.
Our Foundational curriculum is organized into six progressive levels based on readiness rather than simply age. Your child may be at one level in mathematics and another in reading, because asynchronous development is normal.
The lessons are fully scripted so you can understand what to present without already knowing how a Montessori teacher would teach it.
Our monthly Theme Packs give families interdisciplinary Montessori learning with scripted lessons, printables, planning cards, multi age adaptations, and activities that frequently use household items and inexpensive supplies.
And our Foundations of Montessori courses help you understand the philosophy, child development, and teaching techniques underneath the curriculum. You aren't simply following instructions forever. You're learning how Montessori works while you teach your child.
That last part matters tremendously to me.
Because the goal is not to make parents dependent on buying more Montessori.
The goal is to help parents become confident Montessori guides.
Scrappy Montessori Is Valid Montessori
So I'm keeping this declaration from the original version of this post.
Scrappy Montessori is valid Montessori.
I promise!
The handmade material is worthy.
The library is worthy.
The backyard is worthy.
The kitchen is worthy.
The hand me downs are worthy.
The corn kernels are worthy.
The expensive Montessori material you thoughtfully decide is worth investing in can be wonderful too.
This isn't about proving that spending money on Montessori is bad.
It's about refusing to believe that money is the thing that makes Montessori possible.
It isn't.
Your child needs meaningful experiences.
Your child needs opportunities to participate in real life.
Your child needs hands on learning.
Your child needs to be observed and respected.
And if you're homeschooling, you need enough structure and support to know where you're going next.
You are 100% capable of learning how to do this.
If the cost of Montessori has been making you wonder whether this kind of education is really available to your family, start with our Montessori Homeschool Curriculum for Ages 2 to 9 guide. It will show you how the lessons, materials, subjects, and progression fit together so you can see the bigger picture before you start buying things.
Montessori is for regular people.
It always has been.
And I'm pretty passionate about keeping it that way.
