project – Minimally Montessori

How it started vs how it’s going

I set up a bathroom station for H a month ago. I had dreams of H calmly rinsing her hands off in a perfectly arranged station, assembled with care. Birds sang, sunshine came in the window, everything was perfect. I knew I was being a little idealistic, but hey, it’s 2020, we’re in the middle of a pandemic, I’ve been stuck at home since March, let me have my dreams.

The real reason why I decided to bite the bullet and set up a bathroom station was because H was becoming a nightmare to clean after meals. It took two people, a lot of water, and a lot of post cleanup. Screaming was involved, and not entirely by H. “OH MY GOD SHE’S TRYING TO JUMP OFF THE COUNTER”, or “OH NO SHE FLUNG WATER ALL OVER THE FLOOR” came from the bathroom as my husband and I attempted to clean her. We sat her on the counter as we tried to pour water over her hands and into the sink. It worked for a while, and then it didn’t. H remained dirtier and dirtier afterwards as time went on, as our attempts fell flat. It was time for a change.

Enter the bathroom station. I found an IKEA nightstand for free on NextDoor, and figured “why not”? I used a glass bowl as a test run, then moved on to a skid proof dog food bowl. It worked beautiful…for a while. I put a mirror up above the sink. H loved playing peekaboo with herself. I had a basket of wash clothes for wiping her face, and a hand towel for drying. She loved the routine.

Now that she’s become used to the routine, H is starting to get bored of our system. The mirror doesn’t keep her attention, the bowl has landed on the floor a few times, and we’re back to it being a two person job. We still try with the station, but it’s no longer the easy task it used to be.

So once again, we are stuck trying to figure out a better system that makes keeping our child clean an easier task. I feel like that’s going to be a reoccurring theme over the next 18 years.

If someone were to ask me 10 years ago what my ideal job was, my answer was always “professional artist”. I grew up with art, spent my high school years pulling all nighters as I finished paintings after inspiration struck me like lightning. Art was my life. In my late teens, and into my 20’s, I taught art classes to K-12 grade at a little art studio. I loved it, and I loved teaching the kids an appreciation for art. I wanted every kid walking out of the class feeling happy and confident over the process, and proud of the work they did. I loved my time there, loved spending those hours with the kids. Some would hug me as they left. It made me realize I wanted to be a parent some day.

Now that I have my own little kiddo, I’m so excited to work on art projects with her. I can’t wait to see what ideas come from her imagination, and how she utilizes the same tools I grew up with. I want her walls to be full of colors, shelves full of craft projects. I want her to have fun.

Today, I did a quick project with her. It was easy, and essentially mess free. The mess came from H poking a hole through the cling wrap.

I used cardboard, cling wrap, tape, Liquitex acrylic paint, and watercolor paper.

I taped the paper to the cardboard, then dropped various paint dollops all over. After that, I wrapped cling wrap over the sheet of paper, making sure it wrapped around to the backside of the cardboard. I taped it, a bit excessively, so there was no way paint could get out. A foolish endeavor.

And then I let H go to town on it. She enjoyed squishing the paint around, and really enjoyed stepping on it. We even got a car and bead in on the action. Lots of mixed media went into this. I loved seeing her manipulate the paint, as she watched, fascinated at how the colors changed.

My plan is to make a bunch of these to hang at H’s level, so she has some toddler friendly art to look at. She loves looking at the artwork that my father in law or I made, and I wanted a place for her to make a mark.

Next time, I’ll use thicker plastic, and thinner paint. This painting has been drying for over 18 hours, and still has more drying to do.