Floor Bed

A while back, I heard about something called a "Montessori floor bed", and recently, I've been reading about different people's experiences with them. From what I've read, in the Montessori school of thought, the key to early learning is that children learn through all five senses; they learn by doing. "Don't do for the child what they can do themselves." One of the (very) unique Montessori ideas for infants is that they shouldn't be contained in a crib. Rather, they should be on a floor mat in a child-proofed room so that when the child wakes up, they can entertain themselves by finding things to do -- books to read, toys to play with -- rather than wailing to be let out of the crib.

Now, if we decided to go this non-standard route, we'd have to be prepared to defend our decision to pretty much everyone... let's just say it might surprise people when we tell them our baby sleeps on the floor! But I'm still thinking it's a good idea, especially if we have a very small bedroom for our baby. It wouldn't be very difficult to baby-proof the entire room. And I also like the idea that as you're reading a bedtime story to your baby or comforting them during the night, you can lay down beside them instead of picking them up and taking them out of their crib -- putting them back in -- taking them out -- etc..

There is a very cute picture of a floor bed here (although I don't think the little frame around the mattress is necessary): http://www.monpetitamourblog.com/2011/03/montessori-floor-bed.html

and another one here (with a long review of the pros and cons of using a floor bed -- although it sounds like this person doesn't have an actual bedroom for her baby and just has his bed in a corner of her room, which I would NOT want to do): http://sunriserants.com/2010/07/montessori-child-bedroom-6-months-review/