ghoul_girl's review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

4.0

bookswithallyce's review against another edition

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informative

5.0

lissac's review against another edition

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informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

A fast, easy, and informative read if you’re interested in learning about Montessori principles. It was broken up into a lot of different sections that made it easy to put down and come back to over a long period of time.

mmqin's review against another edition

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informative fast-paced

5.0

mrscaew's review against another edition

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3.0

I really enjoyed this book! My favorite part was the suggested list of activities for your toddler and I can’t wait to try some of them out. Some parts of the book I thought “oh that’s common sense”; others I thought “woah that’s a really good point”; and the last type of reaction was “oh this idea is what makes some moms really annoying”. Cool ideas but not worth being dogmatic over. I think a lot of people project their need for religion and ritual into random parenting philosophies, or it’s a channel for neuroticism.

yode92's review against another edition

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5.0

Heel helder en praktisch bruikbaar boek. Tal van voorbeelden en situaties die aangehaald worden met manieren om ze aan te pakken, zonder belerend over te komen of te pretenderen dat je alles tot de letter zou moeten volgen. Ik ben er zeker van dat we deze nog vaak terug gaan openslaan als bepaalde situaties zich voordoen.

lexish00's review against another edition

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4.0

It's interesting and thoughtful! It's set up very simply, which makes it a quick read. I also liked learning a little bit about the actual person Montessori as I didn't know anything about her before.

mosso's review against another edition

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2.0

Two stars is pretty harsh, but it's a no ill will two stars. 

I am not a parent but have worked with kids and look forward to one day parenting. There are interesting ideas in The Montessori Toddler about how to organize and structure activities for toddlers which are undercut by momfluencer suggestions to invest in woven baskets, wooden toys, and organic soy crayons. There's a high emphasis on beautiful, clean spaces. 

Montessori touts an ethos of objectivity, but at least in this book, there's almost no empiricism. Instead, Davies includes (still valuable) personal anecdotes of teaching in a Montessori school and raising her own children.

The most interesting takeaways included advice on fostering independence, slowing down pace, simplification, and a form of discipline that avoids the second person. 

Potentially this is the failing of every parenting book because of the nature of parenting, but I wanted more discussion on handling complicated emotional situations. Davies frequently suggested to "help calm them down," which is a big ask. I also find it incomplete to have any discussion of parenting that's not contending with patriarchy in some capacity.

j_talbert's review against another edition

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informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

a_w_'s review against another edition

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informative

3.75

I had a really hard time reading this as an ebook and had to wait for a physical copy to become available at the library in order to finish. It has great information and ideas. Definitely a take what works best in your home and try to implement it type read. Overall there were many ideas I liked and a few that would be more difficult to actually implement in my home.