The Montessori Toddler: A Parent's Guide to Raising a Curious and Responsible Human Being (The Parents' Guide to Montessori Book 1) Kindle Edition

Such an incredible read! What started off as a random audio book I bought on @audible ended up making its way to my book collection where I am constantly referencing and learning from!Simone Davies talks about the history and science behind Montessori and how to create a more independent environment for your toddler. The first few chapters gives you an opportunity to see things from their perspective and how to make things accessible for them. Towards the end, she gives visual examples on how to set up an independent toddler environment.I grew up with immigrant parents that were by far “gentle parents” and if you can relate, you understand how hard it is to unlearn unhealthy behaviors your parents taught you while trying to “discipline” you. I am by far a perfect parent. I loose my cool and sometimes have to be honest and real with myself about it. This book has truly been and blessing in disguise and I wish I had know about it when I had my first born. My husband and I have come a long way from where we started in our prenatal journey and this is just another amazing resource we have found along the way 🤍Side note: I expect a lot out of my kids even when they didn’t even know how to crawl. It maybe common sense for some to know when children have certain milestones but I didn’t know anything. This book has helped me understand my child and I will continue to use it even as they grow!

This is the best parenting book I've read so far. It's not only a great one-time read, but it's used as a sort of reference book in my home whenever I'm looking for ideas on activities to do with my toddler or thoughts on how to handle various aspects of toddler development. And as a plus, it's beautifully designed and has strong, thick pages, which is very helpful when my toddler grabs it!This book offers straightforward, efficient, and well-organized information about how to apply Montessori principles to toddler life, how to guide your own thoughts on parenting a toddler, and how to involve your toddler in daily life in a way that minimizes stress for both you and them.I read some of the other reviews, a few of which mention that the book's recommendations are out of reach for some families due to income, space, or ability, and I can understand how that could be felt when reading it, because it includes imagery of beautiful (and often expensive) high-quality wooden toys, discusses buying dedicated kid-sized furniture to be set up in a serene space of their own, and invites you to give your toddler difficult tasks really early on. But, if you look to this book as suggestions and guidelines on the "complete" way to do Montessori-style playtime/kid space design/etc, then there is nothing elitist about it. This book gives the "ideal-situation" suggestions, but every kid and parent is different, so take what you like and leave what you don't.This book actually tells you to look outside the box of conventional consumerist-style parenting, to find inexpensive or natural elements or items you already own as you work with your kid's development. Of course we don't all have the time, money, or space to do the more specific suggestions perfectly all the time, but we can find helpful advice for how to slowly incorporate these principles into our kids' lives.Take as much of it as you want and use it as a guide, do Montessori imperfectly or as much as you want to, and this book will help you immensely along the way. I'm very grateful I came across it.

Great read! My toddler is not currently in Montessori, so I leaned some great strategies to implement at home. Highly recommend!

This book is fantastic! I bought this book looking for more ways to incorporate Montessori philosophies with my toddler at home. What I wasn't expecting was all the incredible parenting advice that came with this book. It is like an expanded version of "How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way" (Tim Seldin) specific for toddlers that meets a summarized version of "Positive Discipline: The First Three Years" (Jane Nelsen) with a layout that makes reading it fly by. Not to mention the gorgeous photography throughout.The author's charts in the back of the book are SO helpful! She has an "Instead of this, say that" section as well as a list of suggestions of activities for your child broken down by age. I will frequently be referencing back to both of these charts. I also loved all the books she referenced to throughout her book. The ones I haven't already read sounded so intriguing that I added them to my to-be-read list. Clearly my parenting style is very in line with the author's so I found it easy to love this book.And finally, the chapter on "Putting it into Practice" was a gold mine. The author tackles subjects like feeding, sleeping, toileting, pacifiers, siblings, brushing teeth, getting dressed, sharing, hiting, biting, throwing, clingy stages, screen time, and even how to help build skills for an introverted toddler. There were times when I wanted more from the author on a specific topic, but in those times she generally referenced further reading which works well for me since I enjoy reading. She gives such a great over-view of each topic!All in all, this book is excellent! I would highly recommend it for any parent or caregiver of toddlers.

The only book you need if you are new to Montessori! From the moment I opened this book I have not been able to put it down. So nice to read, the quality of the book itself is superb, keeps me interested and lots of hands on practical tips, I also love the artwork and photo examples. This book is so spot on and modern not outdated at all! All the recommendations are wonderful. This book has also opened my eyes to view my child and motherhood in a much better and different way, I am so grateful to this Author for such a lovely book. This book also reignited my love for reading.