How many Montessori materials do you REALLY need in the home?

A Montessori mom recently confessed in my Montessori Facebook group about the constant feeling of needing MORE: more Montessori activities and materials, more quality toys, more art supplies... When do you feel satisfied? When do you have enough!?

"You are not alone!" Was my short answer. It is so easy these days to get sucked into all the Montessori materials and related activities that are now available online, on blogs, on Pinterest, and showing up in Facebook groups! There is so much out there compared to five and ten and fifteen years ago when I first started Montessori online!

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Here's my long answer: My family and I have a really tight budget. My time is limited. I'm craft challenged and impatient with making stuff. We have a small home with an over-flowing garage. So that pretty much stops ME dead in my tracks!

But not having all those Montessori materials and activities can make you feel guilty; unsure of your job as a Montessori mom; and maybe even depressed.

More often than not we moms end up thinking about what we don't have rather than being thankful for what we do have. (This is my daily reminder, to count my blessings... That, and staying off Pinterest for a while! LOL.)

So much love to share!

Last summer we did not have extra money for camps and activities and materials, so I found free things to do around the house: I made a reading tent with baskets of books outside, under our three-story high plum tree. (I used an old card table with a sheet over it and an extra dog bed under it.)

I dug out an old, dust-stained black boombox from my hubby's closet and set it up outside with music CDs from the library, as well as some of my old Motown CDs; and we listened and grooved to music outside in the sun every day.

We gathered purple-red plums all summer and made plum apple sauce in our crock pots and some very sour prunes in our dehumidifier.

We took weekly trips to the library; had some play dates at a local farm; made fruit salad; and played with our new kitten, Neo.

Making fruit salad with my best friend, her son, and my monkey boy

My son and our kitten Neo last summer

And it was the best summer we  had together! It was so relaxing and stress free! Something money can't buy.

Me with my monkey boy and his buddy, Karma

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Most popular for two to five-year-olds:

* Basic Montessori: Learning Activities For Under-Fives
* How To Raise An Amazing Child the Montessori Way
* Teach Me to Do It Myself: Montessori Activities for You and Your Child

You may also be interested in my my Montessori and homeschool PDFs and programs for birth to nine-year olds!