I get a lot of questions from parents and other teachers about the details of my classroom or how I keep my home a prepared environment for my children. I am going to start using this blog as a way to spread some of my secrets. So here is my first:

Once your baby can crawl, you quickly see their amazing need to seek out and explore their environment. It’s as if they have been taking notes on everything they want to touch, remove, take apart…while they were pre-mobile and now that they can get around, they are itching to explore! This is a great time of information intake for them and they are driven to seek out their environment. They have an internal life force called the Horme. This is an unconscious part of them that ensures they will learn about their environment. They take in impressions through all their senses and grow their understanding and knowledge of the world.

So what does this have to do with Velcro? Well, young children love to see art hung at their eye level, and Velcro is my secret weapon. Because part of their exploration is trying to remove items from the walls, and part of my focus in preparing the environment is keeping them safe and the materials in excellent condition, I use industrial strength Velcro to hang art, hooks, and I have even used it to attach mirrors to the walls in my Infant and Parent classes. I buy it by the roll at Home Depot.