Walking into the Nido for the first time with my eight-week-old daughter felt surreal. I expected cribs lined up against walls, babies in swings, and that institutional daycare smell. Instead, I found floor beds at baby height, mirrors mounted low on the walls, and a peaceful calm that felt more like a thoughtfully designed home than a classroom.
The guide was sitting on the floor with a three-month-old, speaking to her in full sentences while gently narrating a diaper change. Another baby was on a mat, reaching for a wooden rattle hung at just the right height. I thought, “Can babies this young really learn?” Two years later, watching my daughter’s confidence and capabilities, I have my answer.
What You’re Really Signing Up For
Nido (Italian for “nest”) serves infants from around 8 weeks until they’re walking confidently, typically 14-18 months. Rather than babysitting, Nido provides a carefully prepared environment that respects even the youngest babies as capable learners.
- Age Range: 8 weeks to 14-18 months (pre-walking to walking)
- Core Focus: Movement, language development, trust, independence
- Environment: Floor beds, low mirrors, freedom of movement
- Teacher Role: Observer and gentle guide, never director
- Key Difference: No cribs, swings, walkers, or movement restrictions
- Average Cost: $18,000-$22,000 per year (varies significantly by location)
What Makes Nido Different from Traditional Daycare
The first time someone explained Nido to me, I honestly thought it sounded like fancy daycare with a higher price tag. I was completely missing the point.
The Nido environment welcomes infants with open spaces for movement, natural materials at their level, and plenty of opportunity for safe exploration.
Traditional infant care focuses on keeping babies safe, fed, and entertained. Nido does all that, but with a completely different philosophy underlying every choice. The question isn’t “How do we keep babies occupied?” but rather “How do we support what babies are naturally trying to learn?”
Dr. Montessori observed that even tiny babies are working incredibly hard to understand their world. They’re not passive recipients of care. They’re active learners figuring out how their bodies work, how to communicate, and how to interact with their environment. Nido respects this work by creating conditions that support it rather than interrupt it.
The Philosophy Behind the Setup
Every detail in a Nido environment exists for a reason. Floor beds allow babies to see their surroundings and eventually learn to get in and out independently. Mirrors placed at baby height let them observe their own movements, building body awareness. Materials within reach encourage reaching, grasping, and eventually crawling to get what they want.
A Day in the Nido
When I first asked what a typical day looked like, I expected a rigid schedule with feeding times, nap times, and activity periods. What I learned surprised me.
Even very young children develop remarkable focus and concentration when given appropriate materials and respect for their natural rhythm.
Nido follows each baby’s natural rhythm rather than imposing a group schedule. When your three-month-old gets hungry at 10:30 and the baby next to her isn’t hungry until 11:15, they each eat when they need to. When one baby needs a nap at 9 am and another isn’t tired until 10, they sleep according to their own bodies.
What Guides Do Throughout the Day
Observe and Respond
Guides spend significant time simply watching babies. They notice when a baby is ready to try reaching for something new, when someone needs a diaper change, or when another is showing signs of hunger or fatigue.
Narrate and Communicate
Everything the guide does is accompanied by calm, respectful narration. “I see you looking at the mobile. Would you like me to move it closer?” or “I’m going to change your diaper now. I’ll lift your legs gently.”
Support Movement
Rather than placing babies in positions they can’t get into themselves, guides let babies move at their own pace. A baby who can’t sit yet spends time on their back or tummy. A baby learning to sit gets support but isn’t propped up artificially.
Facilitate Care Routines
Diaper changes, feeding, and dressing become opportunities for connection and communication rather than tasks to rush through. The guide involves the baby in the process as much as possible.
What this looked like for my daughter was surprising. At four months, she spent long stretches on her tummy, reaching for simple wooden rattles and fabric balls. At seven months, she practiced pulling herself up at the low bar mounted on the wall. At ten months, she crawled across the room to get specific materials she wanted. No one entertained her or directed her play. She directed herself.
The Materials You’ll Find in Nido
If you’re expecting primary-colored plastic toys, prepare to adjust your expectations. Nido materials are beautiful, natural, and chosen with specific developmental purposes in mind.
Guides in Nido environments offer materials thoughtfully, always following the infant’s interest and developmental readiness.
Mobiles for Visual Development
These aren’t the battery-operated mobiles that light up and play music. Montessori mobiles are simple, beautiful designs that encourage visual tracking. The Munari mobile with its black and white geometric shapes helps newborns practice focusing. The Gobbi mobile with graduated colored spheres supports developing depth perception.
Grasping Materials
Simple wooden rattles, fabric balls with different textures, and soft rings allow babies to practice the incredibly complex skill of reaching for and grasping objects. Each material offers slightly different challenges as hand-eye coordination develops.
Movement Area
A safe, open space with soft mats where babies can move freely. No jumpers, no walkers, no swings. Just space to roll, scoot, crawl, pull up, and eventually take those first tentative steps. A low bar mounted on the wall gives babies something to pull up on when they’re ready.
Mirrors
Mounted at floor level so babies lying on their tummies can see themselves. This isn’t vanity. Watching their own movements helps babies understand their bodies and develop self-awareness. My daughter spent countless hours studying her reflection, experimenting with different facial expressions and movements.
Practical Life activities like scooping and pouring are designed to refine motor skills, develop the will, and build a sense of order, which provides a strong foundation for future intellectual work.
What Babies Actually Learn in Nido
The question I hear most often is “But what are they learning?” People expect me to say ABCs or counting. The learning happening in Nido is more foundational and, honestly, more important.
My daughter learned that her actions have effects. When she reached for a rattle, she could grasp it. When she made sounds, adults responded. When she moved toward something interesting, she could get there. This sense of agency is the beginning of confidence.
She learned that adults are trustworthy. When she cried, someone responded with genuine care. When she was hungry, food came. When she was tired, she could sleep. This trust forms the secure attachment that research shows is foundational for everything else.
Core Skills Developing in Nido
- Gross Motor Development: Rolling, sitting, crawling, pulling up, walking—all at each baby’s own pace
- Fine Motor Skills: Reaching, grasping, transferring objects between hands, eventually the pincer grip
- Language Acquisition: Listening to spoken language, associating words with objects and actions, early communication attempts
- Sensory Processing: Exploring different textures, sounds, visual patterns, developing sensory integration
- Independence: Beginning to feed themselves, participating in diaper changes, learning to get where they want to go
- Concentration: Spending increasing amounts of time engaged with materials or activities
The Sleep Question Everyone Asks
Floor beds cause more parental anxiety than almost any other Nido feature. I get it. I had the same concerns.
Gentle guidance and respectful interaction characterize every moment in Nido, including care routines and activities that build cognitive growth.
Floor beds follow safe sleep guidelines while supporting independence. Babies sleep on firm mattresses with fitted sheets, nothing else. Always on their backs until they can roll themselves. The room is monitored constantly. The difference is that when a baby wakes and can eventually sit or crawl, they can look around and move to the play area rather than crying in a crib until someone comes.
My daughter started sleeping on a floor bed at four months. By eight months, she would wake, sit up, look around, and sometimes play quietly with a soft toy near her bed before signaling she was ready to get up. This wasn’t forced. It developed naturally because she had the freedom to move.
Safe Sleep in Nido
Reputable Nido programs follow all safe sleep guidelines strictly. Infants always sleep on their backs on firm mattresses with tight-fitting sheets. No blankets, pillows, or toys in the sleep area. Constant supervision. The floor bed is about supporting eventual independence while maintaining complete safety for young infants.
Communication Between Home and School
Leaving your baby with anyone is hard. Doing it at eight weeks feels nearly impossible. Clear communication made it manageable for me.
Our Nido sent daily reports documenting everything: feeding times and amounts, diaper changes, sleep duration, activities my daughter engaged with, and notes about her mood or any developmental milestones. I could see exactly how her day went. Many programs now use apps that let parents check in through photos or messages throughout the day.
More importantly, the guides communicated as partners. When my daughter showed signs of being ready to start crawling, they told me what they were observing and suggested ways to support the same development at home. When I noticed something at home, they paid attention to it at school. It felt collaborative rather than me dropping her off and hoping for the best.
Nido vs. Traditional Infant Care
When comparing options, the philosophical differences became clear pretty quickly.
The Cost Reality
I’m not going to pretend Nido is affordable. It isn’t. But understanding where the money goes helped me make the decision.
National averages put Nido programs around $1,500-$1,800 per month, which translates to $18,000-$22,000 annually for full-time care. Cities like New York or San Francisco can exceed $30,000. Smaller cities might offer programs closer to $15,000. Some factors affecting cost include teacher training and ratios, the specialized materials, maintaining the prepared environment, and location.
Making It Work
Many families combine strategies: part-time enrollment with home care on other days, sharing care with family members or nannies for some hours, looking for programs that offer sliding scale tuition, or checking if your area has public Montessori programs that include infant care. Some schools offer payment plans or sibling discounts. It’s always worth asking.
When Transition Time Comes
Around 14-18 months, when children are walking confidently and ready for more complex work, they transition from Nido to the Toddler Community. This happened for us at 16 months.
The transition was gradual. My daughter visited the toddler room several times with her Nido guide before moving. On her first official day in the new room, a familiar guide from Nido came along for the morning. The toddler guides already knew her from these visits. It felt thoughtful rather than abrupt.
What surprised me was how ready she was. The independence she’d developed in Nido meant she could handle a more complex environment. She knew how to choose work, move around the classroom safely, and communicate her needs. The foundation was solid.
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Questions Parents Always Ask
After talking with countless parents considering Nido, these questions come up repeatedly.
Can I breastfeed at the Nido?
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Most Nido programs have a comfortable, private area for nursing mothers. Some parents come during lunch breaks to nurse. Others pump and send bottles. The guides work with whatever feeding approach your family uses. I nursed at drop-off and pick-up for the first few months, then exclusively pumped. The flexibility made it work for us.
What if my baby cries a lot during adjustment?
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Good programs start with a slow transition. Maybe you stay for the first hour the first few days. Then you leave for increasing amounts of time. The guides are trained to comfort babies and will call you if needed. My daughter cried at drop-off for about two weeks, then suddenly stopped. Most babies adjust within a month. If yours doesn’t, that’s worth discussing with the guides.
Is eight weeks too young to start?
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This is deeply personal. Some families need to return to work and appreciate having a high-quality option for young infants. Others prefer to keep babies home longer. From a developmental perspective, Nido environments are designed to meet the needs of even very young babies. If you need to use it, it’s appropriate. If you don’t need to and prefer more time at home, that’s also completely valid.
How do I know if a program is actually Montessori or just using the name?
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Visit and observe. Do you see floor beds or cribs? Free movement or babies in containers? Calm, individual care or group management? Natural materials or plastic toys? Are guides certified through AMI or AMS? Ask about their training. Trust your instincts. If something feels off, it probably is. A true Nido environment has a distinctive quality that’s hard to fake.
The Foundation That Lasts
Looking back on those Nido months, I’m struck by how much happened in such a short time. My daughter went from a tiny baby who could barely lift her head to a confident walker who knew how to get what she needed.
But the physical development, impressive as it was, wasn’t the most important thing. What she learned was deeper than skills. She learned that she’s capable, that the world is responsive to her actions, that she can trust the adults caring for her. She learned to focus, to be patient with herself as she figures things out, and to persist when something is challenging.
These aren’t skills you can teach through activities or flash cards. They develop through months of being treated as a capable person rather than a helpless infant. Through having your natural rhythm respected. Through being given freedom within safe limits. Through relationships with adults who believe in your competence.
Whether Nido is right for your family depends on your needs, values, and resources. But if you’re looking for infant care that respects your baby as a learner from day one, that supports development rather than just supervising it, Nido offers something genuinely different. Those early months matter more than we often realize. Having them happen in a thoughtfully prepared environment makes a difference.
Sources & References
- American Montessori Society. (2024). Infant & Toddler Programs. Retrieved from https://amshq.org
- Montessori, M. (1949). The Absorbent Mind. Clio Press Ltd.
- Lillard, A. S. (2017). Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190613976.001.0001
- National Center for Biotechnology Information. (2013). The Importance of Early Brain Development. PMC3722610
- Guidepost Montessori. (2025). Parent Handbook: Nido Program. Retrieved from https://guidepostmontessori.com