Let's Make: a Faux Wooden Table for a Preschooler's Montessori- and Reggio-inspired Play Space

Oh, Montessori moms, your lovely spaces fill me with such envy and sadness. I'd love to have the budget to have beautiful child-sized wooden furniture, with their softly rounded corners and natural wood grain, and the space to set up a peaceful, blissful (uncluttered) prepared environment. Every plastic bin and piece of plastic furniture I bring into our tiny space feels like settling. The perfectionist in me feels discouraged, but the life enthusiast must let go and move on. So, rather than whine and pine away, I decided it was time to make do and makeover an inexpensive plastic table that could be dismantled and stored when we needed to make space for other things. And because my Google searches for "Can I makeover a plastic table?" and "sticking wood to plastic" were of no help, I thought I'd share my mini makeover experience with you, in case you'd like some Montessori-inspired fakery for your kid's space, too.

Help Your Helpers: Talk to Your Toddler

Today's nap time project was inspired by this post from Imprints From Tricia. Tricia wonderfully suggests six open-ended questions parents can ask their kids during playtime to help engage their littles in a conversation and also stimulate their thinking. The questions are simple enough to add to your playtime interaction but they're also so simple that we may not think to ask them unless we're intentional about saying them. Definitely something I want to put into practice.

Tricia's inquiry questions are too good not to include in E's regular playtime, even if I'm not around to ask them. In Tricia's home, the questions are posted on her kids' playroom wall as a visual reminder. So, for our play space, which is outdoors and visible to everyone from the dining room, I thought, what better way to display them than in bunting form (Yes, i know, buntings. I need an intervention.)

Naptime Project: High-Contrast Buntings

"Nap when your baby naps." That's common knowledge and common sense and new moms would be wise to follow said advice. But did I mention that I've a recovering workaholic? It's hard for me to use daylight hours for sleeping.

Today's nap time project was inspired by this space: the empty space between the changing table and the gallery wall.

My Garden of Small Graces (Updated)

What does it take for a plant to grow? Soil plus water plus sun, right? That's what I was taught in kindergarten, and that's why I believe school doesn't prepare you for real life. Because if that's all it takes to succeed in gardening (just like it just takes a dream to succeed in life, they say), then this garden would be an Eden, not a green grave.

I started this garden project a few months year ago and I've had to bury more than a few hopes (in a new pot of soil, hoping they would grow again). An arrangement I bought from a local succulent grower died in two weeks (from overwatering, I believe—loved to death). A succulent that was thriving in one pot died when I moved it up to my hot but apparently sun-deficient office (those are its leaves you see in a rooting rosette). But every once in a while, a new leaf appears, a tiny white root peeks out, or a tired plant reunites with the sunlight and finds what it was looking for.

A humbled amateur, I'm thankful for the little graces Nature tosses her way, just enough to get my hands back in the dirt again the next day.