A little background: I was raised with a "less is more" approach to gift-giving. My husband was not. You've heard the phrase, "can't see the forest for the trees"? In his house it was more like, "can't see the tree for the presents."
There has been much debate between us as to how to strike a balance between buying L the bare minimum and spoiling the kid rotten. So far we're doing alright, but he's only one, so we don't have a whole lot of Christmases and birthdays under our belts. He just had his birthday at the end of October, so we're coming out of a "new toys" phase as it is. I've already spent a couple of hours rearranging toys, putting away old toys, and finding places for the new toys. I'm not necessarily ready to do it all over again, but December 25 is on its way and I don't think it cares whether I'm ready or not.
Montessori philosophy leans towards the "less is more" state of mind. In the classroom there is generally one of everything. If a child wants to work with a material, he has to wait his turn. He learns patience. If a child uses a material inappropriately and it breaks, the work is taken off the shelf. He learns responsibility. Montessori teachers take a great deal of pride in their classrooms. We make a lot of our own materials, we use real, natural items whenever possible (think wood or glass instead of plastic, breakable instead of indestructible, long-lasting instead of temporary), and we are very particular about what will and will not make the cut when it comes to putting materials out on the shelves. We understand that children deserve quality materials and that cheap usually comes with a price. The cost of replacing something three times after it keeps breaking is not worth the low price tag and well-made materials will last for years (and many, many children), if treated right.
The bottom line is: I can't afford to buy my son all the wonderful, handmade, all natural, organic quality toys that he deserves. Can't afford it and don't have the space for it. How do we choose quality toys and gifts when the cheap crap is so readily available, and, let's face it, so cheap? So how am I supposed to blend these ideas together? How do we choose quality over quantity when it comes to gift giving / precedent setting / tradition starting? Where do we start?
We started with an easel. A good quality, well-built, comes-with-extra-storage easel. It's a gift that will last for years and (I hope) encourage L to express himself creatively in many different ways. In the me v. my husband battle for Christmas (I jest... almost), the easel was a win for me. Not that he objected, not in the slightest. But, if I'd suggest we buy L an assortment of Tron action figures, he'd have been delighted and seven shades of thrilled.
Moving on...
We started with an easel and added a keyboard. The real kind. With buttons for the samba, the rhumba, and a salsa beat. Or something like that. L loves making music with his shakers, tambourine, jingle bells, etc., so we figured, let's get him a keyboard that actually sounds like music instead of a junky, tinny-sounding "piano" with some ridiculous cartoon characters printed all over it. Real items, remember? Real stuff instead of the fake stuff. Here's the kicker... it's a "cheap" keyboard. Twenty bucks or something like that. Yes, I want it to be real, but I'm not a moron - the kid's one year old. He as likely to try and eat the thing as he is to play it, so we'll save the quality keyboard for later on down the line when his true musical genius is discovered and we feel the need to feed his creative abilities.
So we started with an easel, added a keyboard, and went from there. A couple of puzzles, some new bathtub toys, a car that turns around when it bumps into stuff (remember the me v. hubby debate? That one was for him), one of those Fisher Price classic rotary phones, and a Woody doll from Toy Story (my suggestion, actually - didn't even know I had it in me!). Throw in one of those "microphones" that is really just an echo chamber to encourage kids to be loud and that about does it. I was actually kind of proud of that last one. It's a three dollar piece of junk, but we bought it anyway. The boy loves to make noise... nothing wrong with that.
All in all, I'm happy with the line we negotiated. It feels like a good blend between the Montessori ideal the real world: some good stuff, some cheap stuff, and only one movie-themed toy. No telling what Santa will bring, though. I don't know how much he knows about the Montessori philosophy.
