Self-Actualization

After weeks of hard work, Alex is now mobile. This was a huge milestone for the both of us. Clearly, Alex loves his newfound freedom. At the same time, I am seeing now just how well Montessori philosophy and, in particular, its ideas regarding the setup of the environment, support self-actualization.



Alex's ability to move means that he can seek out objects, noises, or areas that interest him. One of his first missions was to crawl over to and scrape at a red sticker attached to a piece of equipment in the living room. He also grinned once he managed to get himself underneath one of the dining room chairs. Crawling also allows him to access his favorite piece of the wooden train set on his shelf - the smokestack. In short, it has made very plain the fact that Alex already has strong preferences.



Having been skeptics of the Montessori bed initially, my husband and I were particularly interested to see how it would work for our family once Alex was crawling. This morning, he called me out of bed at 6 am to come look at Alex. When I rounded the corner of the hallway, there he was sitting at the gate to his room.



In that moment, I loved the bed. He had wanted to get up and come find us and had been able to do a part of that work himself. The low bed, then, has two purposes in my mind: it helps Alex to better communicate with us (as when he rolls out when he is not ready to go to sleep) and allows him to do the work of getting up himself. I'm still waiting for the day when he communicates his readiness to sleep by crawling on to the bed; perhaps that's a little much to hope for!



I can see already that this is by no means the end. Rather than rest on his laurels, Alex is already working to stand. It will be exciting to see what new parts of his selfhood emerge when that victory is accomplished!