Dressing Frames DIY
Liberty/freedom is another pillar of Montessori education and Dr. Montessori insists it be one of the constants of all educational endeavor.
Maria Montessori said:
“No one can be free unless he is independent: therefore, the first, active manifestations of the child’s individual liberty must be so guided that through this activity he may arrive at independence.”
“Any child who is self-sufficient, who can tie his shoes, dress or undress himself, reflects in his joy and sense of achievement the image of human dignity, which is derived from a sense of independence.”
“We habitually serve children; and this is not only an act of servility toward them, but it is dangerous, since it tends to suffocate their useful, spontaneous activity.”
The Montessori dressing frames are an exercise for the young child that encourages independence as they learn to dress themselves. The young child will work on coordination, concentration and motor control.
The dressing frames in the Montessori classroom are frames with various dressing exercises, but for parents with one or two kids, using a teddy bear to show a young child to dress and undress may be an alternative?
The dressing frames in my classroom are handmade.
My carpenter cousin made this frames for me from scrap wood(from wood casing of containers, beautiful pine wood, indeed)
I think you may get the shop that do framing pictures/paintings to sell you the frames. Or, if you can buy the dowels of appropriate size and make the frames yourself. My cousin just cut the wood at 45 degree at both end, and use a big stapler to stapled them together at the corner. He borrowed the stapler from his friend who does upholstery.
(L to R): Snaps, small buttons, big buttons,
(L to R) Normal Zipper, Zipper for jacket and shoe lacing,
I also have velcro, ribbon lacing, belt buckets, eyes and hooks frames that I didn’t take pictures.
I cut the materials and sent to a seamtress to surge the edge, a sewing supplies shop in Melaka town did the snaps, the holes for shoe lacing and ribbon lacing.
I borrowed this stapler from a friend who is a seamstress to staple the finished cloth on the wood frames. If I need to wash the materials when they get dirty, I can just take them off and re-staple. They are still very clean after 2 years of use, so I guess that’s not a problem.
(Pine wood is a very soft wood, so the stapling is make easier, compare to harder wood, I think)
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3 Responses to “Dressing Frames DIY”
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I’ve been thinking of making one for the kids…but really dont know where to get the wood frame..any suggestion?
Do you plan to make and sell??? (argh…me thinking of the easy way out again)
With the long list of materials that I need to make, won’t have time to make this to sell.:-)
May be you can look at shops that frame pictures/painting, ask them for non fancy simple wood frames that are not painted? Or, since you don’t really need the frames to last for 20 years, my favourite place to look for inexpensive things is the RM2 stores. (call me cheapo….:-))
The ones I have are really nice, and my cousin sold this frames to me RM10 each, if you want, I can email you his phone no and you get in touch with him.
Hi Leah,
I am planning to jahit few vests for lil C, (using thicker textile)the basic dressing activities, instead of doing the frames. (Too malas to even think to start making the frames).. I saw this DIY in one of the book, Teach me to do it myself, by Maja Pitamic… (then again, its PLANNING.. dunno when can siap!) ;)