“What is Montessori in your furniture?”
I was the last week in Paris. More exactly I was in Villepinte for exhibiting at the Trade Show Maison & Objet. We were placed at the Hall “KIDS & FAMILY”, from the topic we thought it fits perfectly to our furniture and our philosophy.
Understandably lots of visitors asked us “What is Montessori in your furniture?”. Since several years there is a Montessori trend in France, where you can find lots of books or different activity boxes with Montessori materials. Montessori is very present in the stores and librairies. Some parents are thankful, others may be…I would say “saturated” from all the Montessori omnipresence on the market.
Therefore I understand the questions regarding our brand.
This is what I always say: we have a vision at COCLICO which says that the child has his/her place everywhere. As Montessori says: the environment must adapt to the child, not the child to the environment.
So, let’s re-think the way we live together, where the child has his/her place in all living spaces, not only in the kidsroom. Let’s prepare the environment where the world of the child and the world of the adult are brought in line, are harmonized.
Imagine when you know you’re welcome everywhere and can be and discover yourself everywhere. You know you’re trusted from the person being around you, who love you the most.
In concrete terms we wanted furniture where the child can discover aesthetics, design and beauty. We also choosed noble and natural materials.
The first products we’ve created was the chair. Knowing that the two innate needs of the child are the attachment and the autonomy the chair had to be easily carried by the little hands. Why? Well because the child can decide to be in the same living space as the parents, when they change the room (attachment). And he/she can continue his/her activity or participate to the daily family life..independently, with a chair (and a table) adapted to his/her height. Plus carrying a chair is a typical exercice that the child learns in a Montessori Kindergarten where the child discovers the coordination of the movement and the possibility to play and work in a flexible way.
In this development phase Montessori observed that the child discovers, experiences and structures the world and his/her environment through the senses. For this reason we integrated oak and valchromat and textile (felt oeko-tex) in the back. By touching the chair the child will indirectly experience the sensorial differences between smooth and rough such as cold and warm.
Each detail has a function in our different furniture and these are inspired by the Montessori philosophy. During the Montessori Diploma I indeed discover that what she wrote and put in place for the children is way more than a method. It is a way of life, a way of living and educating peace as a family, building trust and understanding the “equal-dignity” of each other (as Jesper Juul says).