Outline placemats regularly pop up in Montessori classrooms and books, and it’s obvious why: they are a simple tool for teaching kids to set a table all by themselves.
I first saw these in a Montessori parent-child class, and vowed to make them myself one day. A year later, I still hadn’t gotten around to it. Bean was going through a place-setting sensitive period (you know, the tea party stage: stuffed animals arranged in a circle, each with cups and plates before them. Your baby playing the role of dutiful hostess) and I didn’t want to miss my chance for her to be interested in practicing in a real world setting. I barreled down one rainy Saturday afternoon and finally did them.
They’re awesome.
She was thrilled for the first few days, happily setting her place. Mommy made drawings on the placemats! Bowl goes here! Cup goes here! Spoon goes here! Etc. Much enthusiasm.
The enthusiasm died down a bit after that, and I had to resort to convincing her setting her table was superfunawesome. She’s finally back on it now, and sets her place without me asking or reminding her.
Obviously, the placemats are useful in reminding her where everything goes. I think, as adults, a lot of things are so obvious that it’s tough to remember that some systems are complex for little minds. I couldn’t grasp that after 3 to 4 meals/day for 2 years, she hadn’t yet figured out where a spoon goes. She had it mastered within a day or two of using these placemats, though, even on placemats without the outlines.
An added bonus to the placemats is that they act as a reminder in case she missed something. Sometimes, she’ll sit down and I’ll playfully remind her that she still needs one more thing. And then she’ll scan the placemat, look for what hasn’t been filled in and shout out “water glass!” And down she goes to get herself a water glass. It’s like a place-setting puzzle.
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To make them: I made my placemats using Ikea’s Marit placemats in white. I used a quilt pencil to draw outlines of plate, fork, spoon, glass, and napkin, then sewed on top of the outlines with blue thread. The Montessori classroom used laminate placemats, with black Sharpie outlines on top.
To buy them: Michael Olaf has them in blues and greens and you can find them on Etsy here, here (ADORABLE), here, here, and here.
More fun with place settings: Replacements. com has very informative diagrams of what place settings should look like for breakfast, lunch, family dinner, formal dinner, and a buffet. Don’t you feel like such a commoner now?
