Two young children picking herbs from a plant pot outdoors

Why an Enriching Environment?

Parenting can be a bewildering journey. From the very first moments that we discover we are expecting a child, we can feel a myriad of emotions.

In the early months and years of parenting, the focus is on all of the “stuff” we should buy for our children, and how we should decorate their nursery, but less about the optimum emotional environment for a young child. At other times, we are doing our utmost to work on ourselves, live consciously and parent consciously but we are not able to access the information to find out how we should arrange our homes so as to give our children a fulfilling space in which to grow.

What you will find on this website is a way to combine the elements of the physical, emotional and spiritual environment to create a truly holistic and child-led approach to parenting. 

My work draws on the teachings of visionary educator Dr. Maria Montessori. Enriching Environments has developed from my experience as a Montessori educator as well as all I learn from raising my own children. 

In a world so starkly divided by social inequality, in some social groups the value of children is placed upon how much they are given by their parents in the way of toys or clothes or material things. For some, childhood is geared towards achieving and competing, influencing them to take more (much more) than what they give back to others or to the planet.

For the majority of the world, there is not enough. There is hunger, lack of sanitation, pollution, and lack of education.

What we really want is to create a world that raises up all humans, and this can only start with children and early childhood. 

What can we do right now, as parents, to give our children the values and the skills that they need to contribute, to collaborate, to engage? 

What can we do to help them live a childhood of freedom that nourishes their souls and hearts sufficiently so that they will want to do the same for others? 

What can we do to support our children in appreciating the wonder and beauty of nature that is right on their doorstep, so that they will want to nurture the green spaces near their homes, the forests, the mountains, the oceans?

Can we show them the joy in climbing trees, so years later, when that child grows into an adult and a developer wants to cut down those trees to build houses, our children will be the ones to stand up and push back saying, “No, these trees, this forest is part of who we are, who I am. I will not let it be destroyed.” Such an adult would mobilise with others like her to protect what is sacred to the earth.

Now is the time to look at the world we want our children to inherit, to look at how we can contribute rather than consume, to look at how we can parent with such joy that our children will pass on that joy to others as they grow up.

The Montessori Method is a hugely popular and widespread educational system across the world, but it is still seen as an educational approach rather than a parenting approach, and for the most part, an alternative educational approach rather than mainstream approach to education.

My vision is to make this approach accessible in the home environment for everyone. For it to no longer be an approach that is only practised in private schools for the wealthy. This approach is a way of life, a way of being with our children, meeting them where they are, supporting them, freeing them, nurturing them and ourselves. It is a way of being with our children, and being with ourselves.

Come with me, I would like to show you how we can do this……..

Two year old completing a puzzle

Other

Three year old showing picture she has painted
Resources
Young children in Montessori playroom
Workshops