The Montessori Tower

Categories: Children's Room

Montessori represents a particular pedagogy established by educator Maria Montessori. The Montessori method aims to build the individual in their entirety on all levels - physical, social, and spiritual. 

The principles of this education method are based on the harmony of tools used and the learning environment with the child's development capacity. This alternative education method aims to promote, particularly for the child, self-confidence and autonomy.  

The result of adopting Montessori pedagogy allows gentle learning, experimenting with fine motor skills, and having fun. It uses many ergonomic tools for this purpose, including the Montessori tower detailed below.

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What is a Montessori tower?

The Montessori tower is an educational tool, or rather a learning device taking the form of an improved step stool, benefiting from optimal safety. This observation tower allows the child to climb up and down autonomously, without risk of danger.

Thus, they can participate as much as possible in their parents' daily life, especially during the sensitive period. The baby learns at their own pace, and this aspect of education is beneficial for the child's autonomy.

This results from the fact that the tower is an educational material at adult height, hence the possibility of making it an "observation tower" or "learning tower".

What age for a Montessori observation tower?

The Montessori tower can be adopted from one or one and a half years old to allow the child to work on their balance gently. This educational furniture will promote the child's learning period in various ways, to learn to stand up, sit down and eat...

It is equipment that allows the child to easily face different sensitive periods. It will serve for sensory experimentation and manipulation of small objects. 

What are the uses for a Montessori tower?

A Montessori tower is used to help the child discover and observe practical life. Thanks to the tower's height, each child can access all things that are normally too high. Besides this, they can also participate, even visually, in daily tasks with adults, such as meal preparation and other activities taking place on the work surface. They can also access the sink to participate in cooking recipes.

This educational material promotes development from early childhood, as it contributes to balance and stability work while climbing up and down. It is also a tool for developing awareness and curiosity when installed in it. 

On the other hand, by adopting a Montessori tower, parents give themselves the possibility to be available while having a guarantee regarding the child's safety. Moreover, this learning material can accompany them everywhere in the house. The best part is that the child doesn't feel excluded as they can be involved in the parents' activities.

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An observation and learning tower

The Montessori tower represents an observation and learning device for babies. It is furniture ensuring secured stability for the child while allowing parents proximity and the ability to watch over them. 

It also allows to include them in family activities and encourage your child to learn at home. Moreover, in the learning tower, the child benefits from complete freedom of movement, as well as certain autonomy to better learn through adapted material.

How to choose a quality Montessori tower?

The majority of Montessori towers are made of wood. In choosing the tower for your child, certain criteria must be prioritized.

Safety

The Montessori tower prioritizes child safety while having fun with specific material. And here are the manufacturing basics:

  • Compliance with European standards to develop motor skills

  • The inevitable presence of anti-tipping elements to prevent the tower from tipping over

  • The presence of a barrier or safety gate to protect the child from potential falls

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The quality of manufacturing material

The Montessori tower is made with different materials including natural wood, plywood, or medium-density MDF fiberboard. The most commonly adopted natural wood species are fir, pine, or oak.

The design takes into account the noble aspect of the finished product, hence the tower in natural wood colors, without lacquering or paint. The most used protective products are varnish, wax, or oil.

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Wood thickness

The Montessori tower is intended for safe learning of the child, hence the adopted wood must also be thick.

Whether it's natural wood or MDF, the thickness must be at least 18 mm. 

For plywood, a lighter but resistant material, 15 mm thickness is largely sufficient. 

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The finish

The finishing of the Montessori tower is a very important criterion both from an aesthetic point of view and in terms of long-term reliability.

Indeed, the finish counts to offer an aesthetic appearance, whether it's paint, varnish, or wood grain. The choice must also take into account the quality of assembly (perfect alignment) for a better result.

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Reliability criteria

In terms of reliability, the wood used to manufacture the Montessori tower must have been treated to benefit from strong resistance to daily wear (dirt, impacts). Quality must be prioritized in all accessories of the device, including hinges and locks. Zinc, metal, steel or stainless steel should be preferred for screws and hardware.

Regarding assembly, gluing or screwing must be rigorously performed to have a robust tower for the child's safety. Thus, the tower will serve to help the child discover the world and flourish with a well-adapted pedagogical concept.

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The different Montessori towers

The Montessori tower comes in several models whose difference lies mainly in their functionalities.

The foldable Montessori tower

This is the most popular model, given its very practical aspect. The advantage of this type of device lies in its space optimization capacity once folded. Indeed, its folded thickness doesn't even exceed 15 cm in total. Otherwise, the convertible model can be transformed into a desk equipped with an integrated seat. It is practical equipment to allow the child to draw or perform other manual and educational activities. 

The adjustable Montessori tower

An adjustable Montessori tower is a device offering parents the possibility to use the material throughout the child's growth. This results from the fact that the tower is equipped with a platform whose position can be adjusted to different levels. Thus, the child can, at certain times, place their feet at different levels from the ground, either at 30, 40, or 50 cm.

The multi-purpose tower

Among the Montessori tower models is an educational tower that offers several practical features, including sensory aspects and self-discipline. The multi-purpose tower can be foldable or adjustable, while having additional advantages. This can include a board (white or black), working with chalk or erasable markers.

The model can be equipped with an integrated slide allowing children to play and slide. It can also be equipped with awareness games, logic games, or motor skills games intended for your baby's development. Designed respecting pedagogical sense, the Montessori tower is part of Montessori material, intended for alternative pedagogy allowing young children to learn while having fun. It's not just Montessori schools and Montessori workshops that use the Montessori tower, but also any educational team that wishes to help children flourish through different pedagogy based on the child's rhythm. 

This educational approach adopts a pedagogical principle through the use of everyday objects to create concrete material intended to comfortably awaken sensory aspects.