Part 5 of an 8-part discussion handout.
Materials Organised on a Low Shelf
The two great pillars of human life
Are language and movement.
And of the two,
movement came first.
(Even to hear a sound,
The ear drum vibrates
Three little bones dance
And the brain understands these movements.
Even to speak a word,
There must be the orchestra
Of lips, tongue, palette, throat, stomach, lungs:
all these must learn to move together –
what a miracle!)
So movement is a great thing
And when we see the child’s life
as a growth in intelligent movement
within the environment they live in,
we understand immediately
the need for objects to explore.
A world of Things to explore
There is a world of Things.
And each Thing has a gift to offer.
A rolling ball
is a motivation to crawl.
An empty box with a lid
is more interesting than the present inside.
Anything that invites intelligent movement
is a help to the child.
Order in the environment
This is why we lay out,
on low shelves,
things of interest to them.
They are on low shelves
so the child can choose what they want themselves,
following their inner teacher.
They are laid out,
just a few things – say five to eight at a time –
So there is a manageability to the choice,
and an order to their arrangement.
This order appeals to the baby
Since they are part of an ordered Universe
Where if a planet were to stray from its orbit
Everything would collapse.
Aids to Development
What are these things we should lay out?
A tray with common objects from around the house
Whose names you can offer to your child.
A basket of animal models,
pieces of fabric,
empty bottles.
A box with a selection of balls.
Soft ones for the 6 month old,
hard ones for the 12 month old.
Because soft ones don’t roll far away,
but hard ones do.
Observe the way they work with something
And think: “What New Thing
Or New Way of doing an Old Thing
could I offer them that
picks up on their interest
in This Way of doing This Thing?”
A bowl of seasonal vegetables?
Different pieces of fabric?
A musical instrument?
Anything that introduces them in a simple way
to some part of our world.
Observe your child in our prepared environment.
See what they are interested in.
And try to follow their interest.
Next: The Floor Bed
Some useful links