Importance of a Prepared Environment

Dr. Maria Montessori emphasized the importance of a prepared environment for children to thrive and reach their highest potential.  This environment includes clothing, how the child is dressed.  Appropriate clothing is a developmental aid for psycho-sensory-motor development for young children.  At the same time, it can be a big obstacle for your child's development when he/she is dressed without careful consideration.  But it is very simple as putting the following two ideas in mind when helping dress your child. 

First, clothing needs to provide safety.  It should be simple and it should function with purpose.  In other words, unnecessary decorations become obstacles/destructive.  For example, your child's shoes should be protecting his/her foot.  At the same time, it should be simple enough for the child to put on easily by him/herself.  There is no need for pins, clips, flashlights, rollers, and such.  When I choose shirts and pants, I pay attention to the following. For safety concerns, I would avoid decorative buttons, beads, and strings.  These also become destruction.  The short-sleeved shirt is the best for two major reasons.  It is easy for your child to change, and it gives more success in activities.  

Last but most importantly, please avoid characters/images used to market to children.  Those images have a very strong (not necessarily positive) impact on our children and have been very destructive.  Young children need to learn the purposes and functions of what's in their world, but those marketing figures tend to draw their attention just because they can recall them for the simple name and repetitive appearance on media.  Instead, I would like our children to focus on becoming independent in how to dress themselves, open and close their lunch boxes, eat healthy food, and choose what they truly like to do and become who they are.

-Toddler Teacher