Toddler bed to floor bed room makeover

During our trip to Australia, my niece had a sleepover birthday party. One of the mattresses got left out after the girls all went home and Little Bean decided that he wanted to sleep there. My toddler was now sleeping on a Montessori-style floor bed. At least once a night, he woke up and didn't quite know where he was and climbed into my bed. But after a little cuddle and reassurance, I could easily put him back in his floor bed to sleep the rest of the night. Not too bad as far as transitions go.

Now that we're back at home, I thought that we should be consistent and bought a floor bed for his room. He'll quite happily stay there to sleep through the night. 

But what to do with his old toddler bed? I had some inspiration one day when he snuggled up with his Pillow Pets to read a book on his floor bed. I was going to transform his toddler bed into a book nook and activity centre. I moved his Pillow Pets and book basket into the bed, added a snuggly blanket to lay on and that was pretty much it for the book nook part. As for the activities, I decided to add a chalkboard and felt board to either end of the bed. I've been waiting for the shops to reopen after the Vietnamese New Year holidays so I can get some supplies to make the boards. I'll get to it in the next few days and write a separate post for that part of the makeover.

Here are the before and after pictures for his book nook. Little Bean has given it two thumbs up and has been spending lots of time in there.

 Here is his new floor bed. I've put foam matting around the edge as he rolls around in his sleep a lot and I'm a little worried that he'll roll right out of bed. Next to his bed is Big Bear's bed and nappy change mat. He really likes to take care of Big Bear. We change his nappy and clothes, give him bottles and play with him.

 Little Bean mostly eats at his wooden table. The chair is still a little low for him, so occasionally, he'll eat at his highchair style table if he's eating messy food like soup. His water bottle is kept on this table so he can get a drink anytime. He used to sit and read at this table too but now he usually goes to his book nook instead or brings a book to me and sits in my lap.

The window shelf with all his activity baskets and toys.

 He likes to choose his clothes now so I made this little area for dressing. We don't have a permanent chair here. We'll usually grab the one from his dining table or he'll sit on the step. I hang two choices of outfits up for him and there are usually two pairs of shoes in the red basket. At the moment we have a pair of sneakers with socks and a pair of sandals in there. There is a basket on the chest of drawers for bibs and wash clothes for wiping his face or cleaning up spills. I also added a washing basket to his room and he loves to go and put his dirty clothes in there after dressing. Anytime he uses a cloth or bib, he quickly heads to the washing basket with it. There's usually a spare bottle of water here too.

Right now, I'm sure there are Montessori purists looking at this TV in his bedroom and muttering under their breath. Originally, I wasn't going to have a TV in his room but he loves to dance along with his children's music DVDs like The Wiggles, Sesame Street and Play School. There just isn't enough space in my room for us to have a hearty dance and singalong, so we moved it to his room. It doesn't get TV reception, so it's only on for a little while each day for us to watch a DVD, sing, dance and exercise together. This week, we've also started to play percussion instruments along with the DVDs. Little Bean like to play the tambourine and maracas best. In the future, I plan to use it to watch short video clips and mini-documentaries related to the theme we're studying.

 

Little Bean's big boy bed

Little Bean loves to climb, almost as must as he loves to get his own way. When the two loves combine forces, trouble usually follows. As soon as Little Bean learned to climb, I turned his cot around so that the horizontal bars were against the wall. Last week, I found out that that wasn't enough. I put him in his cot while I was tidying up and he wanted out. Being as clever as he is, he propped his iPad against the side of his cot and used it as a step to climb out. What he didn't count on was the drop down the other side. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned just in time to see him mid-somersault. I freaked. I found him laying on the floor having a little sook. I tried to keep him still while I checked him over, all whilst thinking the worst and hoping for the best. He quickly stopped crying and then got annoyed with me. He just wanted to go back to playing. I guess babies are tougher than they look.

This incident prompted me to get out the tools and immediately give his bed a makeover. I sawed the legs off, flush with the base. One side had a section that slid down to make it easier to lift your baby out. I removed the top section. I left the bottom section on as Little Bean rolls around in his sleep a lot. I often find him smooshed up against the side of the cot. He must like it because most of the time, if I move him away, he instantly moves back again.

I added some cute alphabet theme foam matting under the bed. Little Bean likes to play with the mats and take out the letters and put them back in. I had some leftover mats, so I taped them into a stack and put it next to the bed as a step for him.

Little Bean's Montessori inspired bedroom

Little Bean has been living in a half finished bedroom for the past year. We had just been too short on time and/or funds to complete it. I'm happy to say that we've finally finished it. Hooray! Here are some pictures of his new Montessori inspired room. It's not completely Montessori as we're short on space and I've had to incorporate his non-Montessori toys into the area as well. But, overall, I think I've followed as many of the Montessori principles as I was able to at this point in time.

The owl decals were put on the walls soon after he was born, before I researched Montessori,  and unfortunately, can't be removed without damaging the wall paint. I know that Montessori recommends that only a few high quality pieces of art be hung on the walls, so we commissioned this beautiful felt owl picture from FancyNancy ART. You can see her creations here. I can't hang it at his eye level yet as he just wants to pull it to bits.

FancyNancy is uber talented and will do a customised piece for you. I think she's been doing a lot of "Frozen" Ice Princess pictures lately.

I would have loved to have more natural wooden furniture in his room but practicality didn't allow for it. We found this lovely wooden cot for a great price and put in wood flooring, wooden steps and a wooden safety gate. We bought plastic drawers for storage as plastic items are super cheap here and it is much easier to keep plastic mould free in the super humid environment of a Vietnamese wet season. I've found that it can quickly build up on the backs of closets and large furniture that is against the walls, even if you leave a gap behind them. Definitely not a problem that I wanted to worry about in a baby's bedroom.

At the moment, Little Bean is still using a cot and mosquito net, both of which are heading out the door soon. We've just done a heap of "baby-proofing" in preparation for his big boy floor bed. We've moved all of the powerpoints to high on the walls, put in a safety gate and put safety latches on all the drawers. Since I can't keep him out of the nappy bin, I put a safety latch on that too, even though he can't reach it. In theory anyway. I'm sure he will find a way soon enough. I hope he gets over his fascination with bins soon. It's a bit gross at times. Like when he hands you something stinky out of someone else's bin and is all happy because he just gave you a present. 

 I love this bamboo rainbow mobile. It spins in the breeze from his fan. You can twist it or flatten it at will, so I'm going back to buy more of them to use in craft activities. I think they would look great wrapped around some baby formula tins that I could into drums and sorting toys.

We put this cute safety mirror in his cot. I found this gorgeous Taggies toy at Baby Bunting. It has a squeeker inside and has kept him amused on many a long car trip. Baby Bunting is shopping heaven for new Mums with the itch to buy cute things. That's me!

We put in a shelf under his window to store his Montessori activities and toys. We'll change these out regularly so he doesn't get bored. I couldn't seem to get a good shot of it. In the daytime, the sunlight was making the photo glarey, and at night, the photos were coming out too dark. I'm really going to have to study up on my camera if I'm to put lots of good photos in my blog posts.

Down on the floor, we've put a basket of wooden blocks and a discovery basket on a cute playmat. I'll be talking more about discovery baskets in the coming weeks. We're trying to teach him to keep messy toys like wooden blocks on the playmat. I'm looking for a good mat that we can use as a Montessori activity mat. As his room must accommodate both Montessori and play elements, I would like to separate the two by getting him used to using an activity mat as soon as possible. Two different mats, two different purposes.

He loves his nappy change mat. We mostly do nappy changes whilst standing now so it has become more of a play item. He loves dragging it around by the strap and flipping it over and over. He also like laying down on it for a little rest or to have a bottle.

I love this cute child-sized table and chair. I found them at a local baby store. They're made by Win Win Toys, a Vietnamese company. They make great wooden toys, many of which I'll be showing you in the coming weeks. Their toys are excellent quality at cheap prices. I LOVE THEM!!! In comparison to prices for wooden toys at Australian Montessori online stores, they're around half the cost, often less.

We plan to make a few additions in the near future. As I said earlier, we're getting Little Bean a floor bed. We'll be adding a self-care area with a mirror and a place to hang a couple of outfits. I thought about including a place for washing his hands and face here, but I'm worried about water on the wood vaneer floor. I think I might put that in the bathroom for now. Once he's mastered it, it may make it's way to his self-care area. We'll also hang some family photos on the wall. I'll keep you posted.