Toys, beyond just instruments of entertainment for kids, are essential to child development. Studies administered all over the globe have proven that toys help young minds develop and expand vital skills that they will need all throughout their lives like cognitive development, fine motor skills, problem-solving capacities, conflict resolution, critical thinking, and even cause and effect.
If you’ve been searching for the perfect toys for your kids for a while, you may have run into the term ‘Montessori toys’ and have had yourself thinking: “What is it?”
To gain a better perspective on the modern child development marvels that are Montessori toys, the first thing to remember is that it’s not one toy brand or company. Technically speaking, there isn’t one particular Montessori toy as well. There are toys, however, that align themselves with the Montessori learning philosophy. The goal of Montessori toys, aside from enhancing the child development experience, is to spark a young mind’s curiosity through a straightforward repetition and purpose, allowing them to reflect on their experiences every day.
What Makes a Montessori Toy?
Montessori toys are instruments of education that follow a certain set of functions and principles developed by a trailblazer named Maria Montessori, the founder of the method. While most misconceptions look to the material and substance used in making toys like wood and other natural resources.
The very essence of Montessori toys, however, is equally centered on the combination of form and function. Aside from the important elements of being constituted by natural wares, it’s also important for the playtime experience to be aligned with the teachings of Montessori learning and educational philosophies.
One famous example of a Montessori toy is the classic and iconic pink tower. If you’re unfamiliar with the ingenuity of the pink tower, it is a set of wooden blocks that have become traditional pieces of the Montessori learning philosophies. The set includes 10 differently-sized pink wooden blocks that range from 1 centimeter cubed to 10 centimeters cubed. The goal of this particular innovation is to provide close-ended play and a sensory experience for the children playing with the Montessori toy as they stack the blocks on top of each other from biggest to smallest.
Based on the pink blocks, the philosophy of Montessori toys can be summed up in five different characteristics: simplicity, reality, environmental, functionality, and freedom.
Simplicity
As your kids develop, they are in a constant state of attempting to make sense of the world and environment around them. This is why in many cases, it helps children develop when there’s less clutter around them to digest and process, so giving them the toys that come with the least parts and the most order will help them acquire knowledge at optimal conditions.
The toys that have simple puzzles and basic shapes like squares, triangles, and circles embellished by solid colors empower your toddler to be set and calm as they play and learn from the toys they play with. As the fundamental geometric shapes, children easily learn its structures and are able to recognize them. This is a great example of how simplicity helps children learn and synthesize information. When a toy has too many moving pieces and elements, children are challenged to understand all the content the toy offers and this may lead to feelings of being overwhelmed.
Environmental and Natural
One of the most prominent traits of a Montessori toy is its constitution which promotes the use of natural materials such as wood. It is, however, important to remember that while most of the Montessori toys are wooden, it doesn’t essentially mean that all wooden toys are Montessori toys.
The Montessori philosophy believes in the many benefits of wood to a toy. The material is a way to connect your children to nature and gives them access to a sensory experience that just isn’t available to plastic toys. Further, it is safe and durable so wooden toys can be used to entertain and nurture children at an early age.
Most importantly, the use of wooden materials allows Montessori toys to be environmentally-friendly and sustainable. Wooden toys, in place of plastic ones, help the world become a better place.
Montessori classrooms make use of other natural materials too like metals, stones, cotton, and wool. As long as the material is sustainable and environmentally friendly, they are welcome in Montessori households. While there may be cases where plastics are used but, however, natural materials are still the preferred choice.
Functionality
What makes Montessori toys special is their ability to engage children and maintain their focus and participation throughout certain use or activity. These toys are designed to allow kids’ young minds to explore and discover through their own independent will, choice, and ideas. The Montessori philosophy imbibes toys with the ability to empower children in pursuit of active learning as they interact, build, learn, and take control of the elements available to them to interpret how the world works.
Montessori toys are specifically made for the purpose of helping children learn and develop sensory, fine motor, and gross motor skills. It also aims to teach kids about practicability, language, mathematics, and last but not the least, arts and crafts.
Reality
A child’s developing brain is a complex mechanism. While imagination certainly plays a role in their development and childhood, it is equally important that they also secure a relationship with the world they live in.
To help kids develop a healthy imagination and mold their perspective of the world, it is important that they first learn what the real world is like. Montessori toys help them secure a firm grasp on the life they live by providing them with activities and instruments that have real consequences. These toys can be a range of entertaining mechanisms that produce sounds, visual stimuli, and other things that are real and perceivable. You, as parents, can also enrich this process by telling stories about real animals in their real habitats instead of the classic fables for now. Find ways for your children to get access to toys and books that help them become strongly rooted in reality by enabling them with things that exist in the world around us instead of fantasy and the surreal.
According to studies, a child’s imagination develops naturally at the age of six without the need for external fantasy stimuli. In fact, it’s been discovered that too many fairy tales or fantasy-based learning can confuse a child’s understanding of reality. That is why Montessori toys often align themselves with reality like farm sets or animal toys that look realistic rather than dragons or talking bears.
Freedom
As parents, one of the best things about choosing Montessori toys is that it nurtures independence and freedom. Independence is one of the many virtues that Montessori education supports; that’s why toys in Montessori playrooms encourage low shelves where children have the freedom to choose what toys they want at any given time.
This gives parents breathing room and time to rest as their kids play and, more importantly, it helps children develop independence as they play with freedom.
However, this doesn’t mean that children will be able to do whatever they want whenever they want to. Parents now have the responsibility to teach children that every toy will have a given station or location for storage and they should be put back on the shelves after they finish playing with them. This is something that they can learn at a very young age.
It’s also important that you give the kids limited choices for playtime. Too many choices can overwhelm kids and will eventually lead to dissatisfaction. Research has shown that it becomes increasingly hard to decide what to play with when children have too many to choose from. It is also harder for kids to stick and commit to a single choice, once they’ve made a decision.
Instead of playing with one toy and concentrating on one activity, their attention will fly from one toy to the next, ultimately making a mess out of a playroom and progress in learning that seems unfinished. The ideal number of choices can increase as your children get older, but it will also depend on their personalities. You can opt for a rotation of their toys so they can explore all the toys that they have in the chest.
Montessori Newborn Baby and Infant Toys
Montessori toys can start helping kids as soon as they’re born. Since most Montessori toys are made out of natural materials, parents wouldn’t have any toxic materials to worry about. For babies, however, playing can be different compared to how toddlers or other advanced children play. For babies, Montessori focuses on sensory stimulation to provide children with entertainment and help them develop their cognitive capabilities.
Even at an early age, babies can benefit from sensory play as it helps a growing child’s developing senses. As your baby grows, it will eventually develop new skills like hand-eye coordination. This would be an ideal time for families to introduce toys that will reward and encourage interaction and exploration. With more growth and the development of more activity, problem-solving toys will eventually take center stage. Through such toys, children will develop critical thinking skills, and conflict resolution, and familiarize themselves with the concept of cause and effect. From here, they will develop confidence and will progress towards the idea of trial and error and guidance. Eventually, they will move past the fundamentals of development and move on to activities that incorporate all that they’ve learned and physical activity.
Montessori Toys for 3 to 6-Month Old Babies
The type of play that babies do varies in stages as they get older for babies, learning is basically taking in information and sensations that their senses perceive around them. As their vision develops, they start to appreciate bright, vibrant colors; as they start hearing, auditory stimuli like their parent’s voice become important cognitive exercise; as their sense of touch matures, different textile sensations allow them to gather information about their surroundings; their sense of taste progress as they transition as well, allowing them to taste new things; and as their sense of smell grows, they can be introduced to all kinds of olfactory stimuli by moving around, new food, and going to different places.
These experiences can be aided and augmented by toys that fit each growing child’s needs. This is why it’s important that parents choose the best and most age-appropriate toys for their kids
An excellent toy to have for your three to six-month-old baby is Little Dove’s classic Baby Play Gym Wooden Baby Gym. Based on the name alone, it’s certainly made of quality wood that makes full use of strong unfinished pine wood that is sanded thoroughly for a smooth texture.
Free of any chemicals, the entire wooden baby gym is made up of all-natural wooden beaded toys and three soft toys equipped with sound. As it follows the Montessori educational philosophies, the gym focuses on encouraging kids to develop their motor skills by giving babies something to grasp with their hands and strengthen their grip.
What makes the Little Dove Baby Play Gym Wooden Baby Gym special is its customizable nature. With a removable construction that allows parents the option to change or add toys, babies can have a combination of different stimuli to learn from every day. It’s very easy to assemble and can be folded away whenever needed. Due to its natural color, its aesthetic can fit in with almost any nursery.
Promise Babe, with its own innovation of toys that help children develop through Montessori learning, brings parents the 4pc Organic Toddler Wooden Toys. Made up of natural beech wood, the Promise Babe 4pc Organic Toddler Wooden Toys is an environment-friendly choice for you and your kids. Perfect even for newborns for being non-toxic, the wooden toys in this collection were sanded to perfection so there wouldn’t be a need for chemical paint.
Prioritizing visual and auditory stimuli, the rattles are specifically designed to provide audio and visual sensations that soothe a baby when the rattle is shaken. Its colors also provide an engaging experience for newborns as the solid and vibrant hues make for ideal visual stimulation.
The carving of the toys also caters to the needs of babies and toddlers as the finger-size design of the carved wood makes it easier for tots that have a knack for grabbing their rattles.
Naturals Infinity Montessori Toys for Babies | 3 in 1 Soft Baby Toys Bundle
Naturals Infinity brings parents quality Montessori toy options through the Naturals Infinity Montessori toys for Babies 3-in-1 Soft Baby Toys Bundle, a product made with premium quality, safe, and highly durable food-grade silicone that’s 100% BPA-free, non-toxic, and easy to clean. One of its primary designs aims to ensure that its material does not wear out even when kids handle it with energy and excitement.
The 3-in-1 set includes blocks that can benefit developing minds from ages up to three years old. But because of the soft and safe features, the teething toys, in particular, are sure to be a hit for growing kids even at zero to six months old as the materials are able to assist children as they go through the process of teething.
The package includes 22 different pieces that consist of 12 colorful blocks, six soft stacking rings, and four squishy balls that prepare your babies for hours and hours of entertainment and learning. All the toys in the Naturals Infinity Montessori toys for Babies 3-in-1 Soft Baby Toys Bundle is specifically designed to stimulate learning through colors, shapes, textures, and counting.
The toys also enhance developmental processes like balance, fine motor skills, and problem-solving capabilities to ensure that your children are equipped with a comprehensive learning tool aligned with the Montessori learning philosophies.
Let’s Make Wooden Baby Toys 5 pc Organic Wood Rattle Toys Colors Series
Embellished in the colors of the rainbow, this novelty by Let’s Make is a classic all-wood rattle baby toy. Providing your kids with five different toys, the Let’s Make Wooden Baby Toys 5 pc Organic Wood Rattle Toys Colors Series is a fun, durable, and eco-friendly choice for your babies.
Coated in a special beeswax and jojoba oil wood finish, the colorful toys from Let’s Make are designed to be safe and non-toxic for your children. The design of each toy is particularly beneficial for kids who had just started exploring the world around them by grabbing things and shaking them. Since wood is the primary material used in creating these products, its textile stimuli are especially special for kids to enjoy and interact with so. The soft and calming jingling of the rattles is a gentle auditory experience for the kids and is paired with a bright visual for an aesthetic that engages a baby’s attention.
Overall, the Wooden Rattle Toys Colors series is a complete sensory experience that helps babies from zero to six months old progress in their gross motor skills. Its form, carved to accommodate the tiny hands your kids have, is designed for easy handling as the wood provides excellent tactile stimulation.
It is important to remember that these toys should never be submerged or rinsed in water as it will raise the grain of the would that would cause the product to become rough. Doing so will also remove the important water-based sealant that paints the colored balls. To clean the toys, you will only need to wipe a slightly damp cloth on each of the products. Should there be a need for a fix, you can just re-oil the toys.
The Zhanmai-branded seven-piece Montessori toys for babies is a package that includes several specially-designed items that can bring hours of entertaining and informative playtime for your kids. Putting a teether ring, grasping rattle, pacifier clip holder, and many other things that babies aged three to six months can enjoy playing with.
The teether, particularly, is made out of fine natural beech wood. They are designed to be extra safe, crafted to be durable and sturdy, having edges that are polished to be healthy for the skin, and colored in the colors of the rainbow to engage a young mind’s senses. Cut in fun shapes, which help retain the attention of newborns and encourage positive emotions, the toys are highly recommended for the use of kids early on.
A prime addition to a Montessori playroom is the Tiger Montessori Infant Rolling Drum Toy, a valuable instrument that facilitates general sensory learning. Through the design of the rolling drum toy, sensory play is implemented through simple movements. Kids from three months old to three years old can benefit from exercises that this novelty from Tiger can provide like hand-eye coordination skills and gross motor skills refinement.
The Tiger Montessori Infant Rolling Drum Toy is durable and made out of high-quality wood, further reinforced by prolific workmanship. It can withstand a number of conditions as it is equipped with moisture and abrasion resistance, smoothed, and burr-free.
Montessori Toys for 6-Month-Old Kids
When kids turn half a year, they start to become more active in pursuing their exploration of the world around them. As a parent, your main concern is to ensure that you provide age-appropriate activities that will help them develop their growth in language, movement, hand-eye coordination, and aural development,
In light of these growths in various physical and mental aspects, activities like singing to babies and responding to the sounds they make can be a bedrock of language development. Encouragement, as they move around, sit and crawl, can also be foundational to their exploration of movement.
Toys that encourage movement like waving or clapping can be a baby’s gateway to developing their hand-eye coordination, too. Rattles and objects that make gentle sounds, then contribute to aural development. With these concepts in mind, it is important that kids be given access to toys and instruments that empower these activities to ensure that their growth is accelerated and not stunted.
The Cate and Levi Hand Puppet is a unique novelty that’s perfect for improving your kids’ communication through playful conversation and visual and auditory stimulation. This Montessori innovation from Cate and Levi is specially handcrafted from premium reclaimed wool to ensure parents of its quality and textile superiority.
Each puppet is designed to be unique, as the creators in Cate and Levi have made it a point to make no two puppets identical. Each puppet created is painted in color combinations unique to each one of them to give kids a special visual experience as they converse with the puppets their parents give life to.
Puppets are manufactured to 12 inches in height and can be washed using a machine or hands. The main function of the Cate and Levi Hand Puppet is to improve and enhance the storytelling experience and take children through an adventure through movement and interaction with the puppet.
Sized to fit both children and adults, the Hand Puppets are excellent tools for developing children’s motor skills, hand-eye coordination, communication skills, and kids’ self-confidence.
Giving a creative twist to the classic block-stacking activities that children of many generations have enjoyed and learned from, the Lewo Wooden Rainbow Stacker Nesting Puzzle Blocks make use of distinguishably-shaped rainbow arches that can be stacked on top of each other.
Coming in sizes that can be arranged from smallest to biggest and vice-versa, the rainbow arches are designed to be stacked on top of each other to provide close-ended play for learning children. The rainbow block set comes in six different colors and sizes and is perfect for growing kids!
Through their distinct shapes, the arched building blocks provide different possibilities from the conventional cubed blocks. This innovation from Lewo encourages creativity and develops imagination through pretend play and practicing kids on their color and size recognition.
The arches can be alternatively used as bridges, tunnels, bikes, beds for little dolls, and many other things for kids’ pretend and imaginative play. Lewo also made it a point that the toys are extra safe by using non-toxic wood and child-safe water-based paints and have been reviewed by the US Toy Standards.
Originally, the Mini Tudou 8-Piece Multipurpose Cup Toys were listed online as the “Mini Tudou 8 Pcs Stacking Cup Toys, Nesting Cups Toy, Baby Bathing Toy & Building Toy for Early Educational Development.”
True to its original title listing, this novelty from Mini Tudou is an innovation rife with versatility as it can be used as stacking toys, a nesting cups toy, a baby bathing toy, and a building toy as well.
The flexible toy set comes with eight differently colored cups that are made to be safe with high-quality materials with no sharp edges and smooth surfaces. To provide flexibility to playtime, six of eight cups have fun and different hollow patterns and have numbers etched on them representing the order of each cup from smallest to largest.
Its stackable properties allow children to use them as stacking toys or building toys that can be a lot of educational fun. The hollow designs allow water to flow out in different shapes and patterns that can add a dynamic to their playing in the shower or swimming activities. To add even more educational elements, the cups are numbered, colored, and can be arranged in different patterns.
Recognizing the importance of the sensory experience to growing kids, the Textured Multi-Sensory Ball Set by Konig Kids is a contraption specifically designed to give kids an enjoyable and educational adventure through their senses.
The toy set features sensory toys that have a variety of textures that kids can use for tactile exploration and sensory development. Its colors are specifically designed to provide a visual adventure for your growing kids that would enhance their imagination.
Each ball in the set is lightweight and durable as they are designed for long-lasting play. The balls are also crafted to be easy to handle as they provide an effective way for babies to have an enlightening tactile experience.
The balls are also equipped with auditory stimuli as they squeak when babies grasp it with a certain amount of force. This gives the sensory ball set a wider use case for a child’s development. The sounds the balls produce are also activated when they roll and bounce, giving children different options in playing with this innovation from Konig Kids an extra dimension of entertainment.
Developmental Shape Sorting & Matching Puzzle Carrots Harvest Game
Following the Montessori philosophy of close-ended play and the utilization of natural materials, the Developmental Shape Sorting & Matching Puzzle Carrots Harvest Game is a premium example of a Montessori toy that children will love.
The toy is made of sturdy New Zealand natural pine wood and is painted in water-based paint to ensure that the material is baby-safe and non-toxic. The toy’s primary educational function is to help your baby develop their size comparison and sorting skills as well as their logical capabilities by matching the carrots with the holes assigned to them. There are seven differently sized wooden carrots in the set and seven matching holes that are as wide as each carrot. Your kids, then have to find which carrots fill each hole best in a puzzle game that will help them develop spatial recognition along with many other lessons.
To wash the toy set, remember to just use a damp cloth to wipe the product with mild detergent. Never soak it directly in water as it will cause paint flaking. Don’t place it under direct exposure to the sun for extended periods as well as this will result in unwanted paint discoloration.
Melissa & Doug Classic Bead Maze – Wooden Educational Toy
This toy from Melissa & Doug combines the elements of close-ended fun, visual stimulation, auditory motivation, and textile thrill to create an amusing and equally educational playtime. By adhering to Montessori learning philosophies, Melissa & Doug Classic Bead Maze – Wooden Educational Toy made use of brightly colored wooden beads carved in a variety of shapes for a full sensory experience.
The Bead Maze works through three roller-coaster wires where 18 wooden beads can slide and glide through as the children transfer them from one end of the wires to the other. The activity the toy administers also helps children develop their fine motor skills and shape recognition.
Montessori Toys for 9-Month-Old Babies
There are quite a few things to remember when buying toys for your 9-month-old child. One thing that immediately comes to mind is safety as children around this age frequently put things into their mouths. 9-month-old babies also become increasingly agile and mobile. Their attention also starts to develop and they can focus on things for much longer. These developmental milestones help them reach new heights and experience new things.
Toys that help them navigate and explore movement, language, and social-emotional capacities are now crucial for their growth as they continue to flourish. This is the reason why toys that help them hit developmental milestones are paramount to their progress.
Soft Stacking Blocks for Baby Montessori Sensory Infant Bath Toys
Focusing on hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills, the Soft Stacking Blocks for Baby Montessori Sensory Infant Bath Toys is a toy that adheres to the Montessori learning philosophy.
With 12 pieces of toys included in the set that have animals, shapes, fruits, and numbers on the side, this novelty educates children about many important concepts while utilizing visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli to keep kids engaged and entertained.
The blocks are soft and durable yet easy for kids to squeeze. They also make a squeaking sound when kids grasp them at a certain force. The bath toys have a teething function as well as they are made of safe material that is BPA free and non-toxic.
Object Permanence Box with 3 Colorful Balls and Tray
Object Permanence Box is a timeless Montessori classic that parents often introduce to their children once they are able to sit up independently. According to studies conducted on child development, children often learn how to sit up independently at about eight to twelve months of age.
The way Object Permanence Box with 3 Colorful Balls and Tray is a form of close-ended play. When the colorful balls are put into a hole located on top of the box, they disappear momentarily as they travel through the hole and reappear into a tray as it rolls through the entire mechanism where the child can retrieve them and repeat the process.
Babies who have been known to be actively developing an understanding of object permanence will, most of the time, engage with this particular toy in long instances of repetition until they master and fully comprehend the concept.
The goal of this toy is to help kids develop an understanding of object permanence while also enhancing hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and concentration. As a classic toy that follows the Montessori learning philosophy, its effects are heightened with the addition of bright colors to add a visual spur as kids play. This novelty is carved from high-quality wood, has expert workmanship, and is resistant to moisture and abrasion resistance.
This Montessori-based innovation by Kghios has a 4-in-1 multipurpose function for your children’s playtime. Its actual selling title, Kghios Montessori Box w/ Bins Coin Box Object Permanence Box with Drawer Imbucare Box w/ Ball highlights its primary roles during playtime.
Equipped with four different elements that children can interact with, the Kghios Montessori Box focuses on important aspects of child development such as refined hand movements and sensory learning.
It makes use of a box with a bin and a Coin Box that children can play with through precise hand movements to develop wrist and finger control. It also contains an Object Permanence Box that helps children develop a better understanding of object permanence itself through repetition.
The Imbucare Box, like the rest of the toy, is painted in solid and bright colors that encourage an incredible sensory experience. Overall, the Kghios Montessori Box is an excellent and versatile toy for a classroom, educational environment, or at home. Its many functions can aid child development in many ways through early learning experiences that are backed by the Montessori learning philosophy.
Subscribing to the Montessori educational design, the Spin Around Rainbow Drum makes use of natural materials like wood for quality textile stimulation and bright colors to give your kids healthy visual experiences.
With five primary colors – red, yellow, orange, blue, and green – and a mirror, the Rainbow Drum provides kids with a unique visual input that will engage their eyes. With a wooden exterior for fantastic tactile quality and a bell mounted on the rotating drum, this toy is primed to give kids a complete sensory exploration.
Developing important facets of child growth such as hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills through the spinning drum, the Spin Around Rainbow Drum is best for children around 9 months old. The manufacturing of the toy is cared for by fine workmanship and was designed to be safe for children as it is polished to be smooth and burr-free.
Montessori For Toddlers
Toddlers are natural explorers. At the age of one to three years old, toddlers learn about the world around them and how things work by experimenting on things they’re curious about themselves. Ensuring that your growing toddlers get enough playtime provides them with opportunities to cultivate and enhance their capacities and interests.
The toys and tools for learning that children have at this age will have a great impact on how their development shapes out in many ways. As your choice
The toys and playthings your child has available to her can shape her development in important ways. In choosing your children’s toys, you look for things that will challenge them and nurture them as well through intellectual, physical, linguistic, and socio-emotional activities.
Montessori Toys for 1-Year-Olds
The important thing to remember about babies is that their brains develop rapidly. Studies have found that one-year-olds respond more enthusiastically to toys that take their developing brains by surprise. Academics have discovered that in order to keep kids at this age engaged, toys need to have an element of sensory or mobility function that will keep children engrossed in their playtime. Simply put, the more senses you can stimulate during playtime the more children can learn from playing.
With safety as a priority, the Skoolzy Lacing Beads for Kids Toddler Toy is made out of safe material and is non-toxic. This novelty from Skoolzy is specifically designed to be a child’s first lacing toy, having large handy parts for one-year-olds to grasp. To help develop fine motor skills, the sorting toys were made to be jumbo-sized for easy handling.
Its customizable nature makes it an exceptional easy crafts toy for young boys and girls. The beading activity is primarily designed for the development of fine motor skills. This toy by Skoolzy is best for growing children as soon as they hit 12 months of age. Aside from fine motor skills, this Montessori-based innovation also assists in the development of hand and finger dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
Skoolzy Lacing Beads for Kids Toddler Toy is also a preferred resource for occupational therapy, learning about colors, and sorting and comparing activities for toddlers. This toy can also prove to be a valuable asset for arts and crafts.
Boasting a versatile use case, the Wooden Shape Sorter and Stacking Toy is a novelty filled with Montessori-fueled learning. It serves an amazing versatility that allows it to be a shape-sorting toy, a stacking exercise, a color-based activity toy, and a baby puzzle that exercises both mental and physical aspects of a child’s development.
This toy is built to enhance children’s comprehension of shapes and basic geometry, and color recognition, and to cultivate their capacity for problem-solving and cognitive thinking. In aiding a child’s physical development, the activities that the Wooden Shape Sorter & Stacking Toy can administer focus on fine motor skills through flexible use of colored puzzles that can be sorted according to shape, size, and color.
From stacking and sorting activities to the mentally-challenging puzzle-solving, the Wooden Shape Sorter & Stacking Toy provides your children with opportunities to grow mentally and physically through entertaining and engaging ways.
Orcamor Organic Wooden Stacking Rings Toy with Elephant Topper
One of the most prominent activities in Montessori classrooms is the closed-ended exercise of stacking. With an added visual element, stacking has become even more fun and educational for growing children as the Orcamor Organic Wooden Stacking Rings Toy with Elephant Topper enhances the ordinary activity with cute and amusing aesthetics that will keep children engaged as they play and learn.
Through sorting and stacking, this classic toy cultivates a toddler’s fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, organizational skills, and object permanence.
This Orcamor novelty towers up to eight inches tall and is made out of premium heirloom-quality beech wood, true to the Montessori virtue of being environment-friendly. The materials used to craft this particular toy are non-toxic and are safe for children of all ages.
Considered to be among the best Montessori toys for kids aged 12-18 months, the Adena Montessori Discs on Horizontal Dowel takes the classic stacking activity and its educational focus and gives it a twist by using a horizontal model in lieu of the classic vertical form.
Like most stacking toys, the Adena Montessori Discs on Horizontal Dowel primarily cultivates children’s hand-eye coordination and grasping capabilities. It also exercises a developing toddler’s ability to develop spatial awareness and strengthen their fingers and gripping prowess.
These areas are developed through the exercise that involves sliding discs onto the dowel. The horizontal feature makes it quite challenging for kids to complete the activity as controlling the discs will require finesse and adeptness that can be developed through repetition.
Designed to help toddlers gain a deeper understanding of height, size, counting, geometry, and shape, the BOHS Montessori Knobbed Cylinders Blocks – 6 Pegs is a brilliant toy used in occupational therapy to improve kids’ fine motor skills, spatial reasoning, hand coordination, and dexterity.
The BOHS Montessori Knobbed Cylinders Blocks – 6 Pegs helps children understand the world betters by isolating the relationship between dimension and volume. With elements enhancing problem-solving skills and critical thinking, kids are tasked with the challenge of placing the cylinders onto the correct block spaces. Should they make any mistake with the placement of the cylinders, they will always be left with a lone piece that would not fit anywhere, giving this toy a measure of self-correction that has proven to be beneficial for developing children.
This novelty from BOHS can also be a medium for language development if you personally get involved with the kids’ playtime or if your children play amongst each other or other toddlers too. This can also be their gateway towards learning new words and expanding their vocabulary by familiarizing them with words that help with solving the challenge they face such as longer, taller, shorter, thinner, and so on. And last but not least, this toy is also particularly helpful in developing pincer grip strength. By holding the peg between the thumb and other fingers, babies are given the chance to cultivate this particular fine motor skill.
True to the Montessori philosophy’s virtue of reality, one option parents have in choosing toys for their kids is an anatomically-accurate doll. This amazing baby doll from Layette is equipped with a wardrobe to complete an eight-piece set and will surely help your one-year-old gain a better grasp of reality.
The doll is 14 inches tall and is geared for dress-up play for the kids. The set includes a diaper, a diaper cover, a bodysuit, a t-shirt, booties, a gat, and a pair of customizable hospital bracelets for a baby and a parent.
The joints of the baby are particularly mobile as the arms and legs are poseable and easily movable. Joints are located at the shoulders, hips, and neck for leg and arm rotation and easy access to clothes removal or dress-up. With movable joints in realistic places, the doll is anatomically accurate and is perfect for children to hug and care for.
Montessori Toys for 2-Year-Olds
According to experts, children discover, learn, and explore the world through play. This is why toys play a significant role in children’s development and growth. At two years old, it is paramount that children be given toys that open opportunities for practical learning and variable manipulation to keep them engaged in their educational exploration.
Through activities like stacking, fitting, twisting small pieces, and comparing, children at the age of two will be able to benefit from the development of fine-motor skills and other facets of physical, mental, and emotional growth. Research has found that playing that encourages parallel play, interaction with other children, and simple board games hone their capability to share and take turns.
Toys that encourage kids to become physically active are also popular among kids aged two years old. Simple activities like wiggling, scooting, bouncing, and running around have been discovered to be an effective way to expend your two-year-old’s endless energies.
Toddler Puzzles – Shape Sorting Matching Gear Game
Assembled right off the box, your children can immediately enjoy the Shape Sorting Matching Gear Game that imparts activities that abide by the Montessori learning philosophies. Through this simple gear game, children will gain a fundamental understanding of simple mechanics and how one movement affects an entire mechanism.
Educational and equally entertaining, the butterfly-designed gear game was designed to create a toy that can provide hours of dun as it improves fine motor skills, impart basic physics ideas through hand movements, and share lessons on reasoning and creativity. The toy is also a source of physical motion that administers learning through play.
Crafted with quality materials and premium substances, the Toddler Puzzles – Shape Sorting Matching Gear Game is sturdy and built to last. Because of its non-toxic features, it is a perfect Montessori toy for the home setup and the classroom playground.
Particularly more beneficial for kids around two years of age, the Top Bright Toddler Magnetic Worm Games is an amazing Montessori toy that encourages children to learn and explore through play. This novelty by Top Bright is designed to expand the imagination as kids develop an independent way of playing.
By engaging kids’ hands, fingers, and wrists, through exercises like grabbing, reaching, and raking, the Magnetic Worm Game improves the development of children’s motor skills. The toy expedites children’s growth through several healthy exercises. Playing with the toy starts with finding the worms hidden within the tree holes. Once they locate the worms, they use the mother bird’s pointed beak to grab the worms off the tree hole like a puzzle mechanism. The toy can be played within two different ways, catching the worms upright or upside down.
The toy was designed to have a nature theme to appeal to young curious audiences. The entirety of this innovation was manufactured with a safe design. It’s pained with bright, solid colors that are safe and non-toxic. The nature-based design, according to Top Bright, is their way of keeping kids aware of what nature looks like in real life, true to the Montessori virtue of realism.
Designed to administer hours of physical play for both the outdoors and indoors. Built to withstand enthusiastic and active play, the Smart Climbing Triangle with Ramp, Climbing Arch, Montessori Climber, Waldorf Ladder, Toddler Gym, Birch Hardwood is made out of natural and durable materials.
Using premium birch plywood, a prevalently recognized sturdy material, the toddler gym is crafted with adept workmanship so it can last and withstand the test of time. The climbing triangle and climbing ramp are carved using beech wood that is known for its rigidity and fortitude. With these natural materials, the toddler gym is assured to be extremely safe and non-toxic. The materials used for its composition is smoothed to perfection and corners and edges are rounded to prevent all possibilities for harm and prevent impact injuries.
Preschool Learning Sorting Balancing Stones Large Wood Rocks Set
Visually appealing and fun for children about two years old, the Preschool Learning Sorting Balancing Stones Large Wood Rocks Set is a prime example of a Montessori toy. Close-ended, natural, and purposeful, this toy is built to ensure that your kids learn at both a mental and physical capacity.
Built for kids at least two years of age, this particular Montessori toy has some degree of difficulty that was designed to challenge this specific age group. To ensure that children develop smoothly, the Montessori learning philosophy believes that a certain degree of difficulty is pivotal for growth but not to the extent that children would feel frustrated to pursue playing with a toy.
The Preschool Learning Sorting Balancing Stones Large Wood Rocks Set provides children with unconventional ways to balance, stack, and build blocks. This activity allows their growing minds to perceive things in different ways and develop patience, concentration, critical thinking, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and other facets of child development.
These blocks have a unique design as each block is carved to be irregular polyhedrons. The entire set consists of 36 wooden stacking stones that come in a variety of shapes, colors, sizes, and weights.
The entire set is made out of safe and durable materials that fit perfectly in playrooms at home, school, and anywhere else.
Montessori Toys for 3 & 4-Year-Olds
The toys that keep children engaged at ages three and four years old drastically change from what they were 12 months ago. At this age, children have started to learn and develop their own interests and things that they like. They will have grown to develop their own opinions, interests, and ways to express their excitement in a language they understand and prefer.
One thing that remains, however, is their interest and the thrill they feel when they receive a good surprise. Experts have noted that the ecstasy and thrill of receiving a surprise supersede the actual gift that they receive in the process.
After two years of making sure that children are grounded in reality and recognize the world they live in, experts have discovered that three-year-old children are primed and prepared to take on toys that nurture and administer imaginative play.
It is important that children at this age are given opportunities to explore the world alongside other kids and people too. It is at this point that they start focusing on their social skills through group interaction and other channels of socialization. Toys that reward physical activity and confidence in movements are also something that three and four-year-olds appreciate.
Panda Brothers Montessori Screw Driver Board for Kids
Panda Brothers took the basic life skill of learning how to use fundamental tools and created a toy that simulates its basic use cases that children can enjoy playing with and learning from. The Panda Brothers Montessori Screw Driver Board for Kids is described as an educational board that utilizes basic skills to teach children about independent problem-solving to real-world challenges.
On top of the physical and mental enhancements that children can learn from the activities that this toy can administer during playtime, they also learn valuable practical life skills like using screwdrivers, working with a variety of useful tools, and correctly handling keys. These activities also improve hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
The toy boasts seven different insert screws that children can use for practicing the action of removing and re-inserting that can also act as a way to heighten their recognition capabilities and serve as a sensory activity. The board is also equipped with two inserts used for holding the screwdriver and bolts when they’re removed. Overall, the Panda Brothers Montessori Screw Driver Board for Kids is safe for children’s use and is embellished with essential equipment that makes it a toy for both fun and learning.
This toy combines the philosophies of the Montessori educational paradigm and STEM learning to create a toy that opens doors for learning through play.
With a package containing 52 differently-colored magnetic blocks, Magnetic Blocks Building Tiles STEM Learning Toys gives children the experience of building highly-personalized structures that showcase their imagination and creativity. They can build castles and monuments using these blocks and hone their motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and art skills in the process.
Using high-quality materials and geomagnetic materials, the Magnetic blocks are safe to use as they are free of any sharpness that can cause any harm to the skin. The design of the toy is made extra educational as it makes use of colorful visual stimuli for an expanded sensory experience.
One of the main areas that parents prioritize in a child’s development is the young mind’s cognitive learning. With the goal of helping parents all over the world in this endeavor, the Montessori Mama Wooden Toddler Puzzles for Kids provides home or school playrooms with toys that focus on improving children’s cognitive learning and helping them develop recognition of solving puzzles, counting numbers, refining hand-eye coordination, and fitting jigsaw puzzles together.
These puzzles come in 3D models of dinosaurs, dolphins, rabbits, and many other whimsical animals. The way the puzzles are designed is specifically made to offer several benefits to children’s development, offering lessons in spatial awareness, fine motor skills, concentration, shape recognition, memory retention, and self-confidence.
This Wooden Toddler Puzzle makes use of a brightly colored 3D jigsaw puzzle that was carved out of high-quality wood. Sturdy and eco-friendly, the puzzle was smoothed to round edges and removed sharp edges, and was painted in bright, visually stimulating colors that are non-toxic and water-based.
This Montessori toy is a brilliant sensory experience for children that improves on the classic stacking blocks that have become mainstays in playrooms. With a rainbow theme, the solid and bright colors excite children that play with these wooden novelties.
The package consists of 19 different pieces that include seven square rainbow blocks, six arc wooden blocks, and six small doll shape blocks. Aside from its primary use case that administers stacking and sorting activities for kids, they can also be used as building blocks for pretend play. The shapes can be mixed and matched with each other to create unique shapes.
These wooden toys are manufactured to be completely non-toxic as they used water-based paint for their bright solid colors and were smoothed to be burr-free, odorless, and safe. Each piece was designed to be large to avoid possible dangers of choking and for kids’ easy handling. The stackers fit perfectly with toddlers’ hands to make it convenient for children to go about stacking activities and stimulate their imagination and creativity.
CozyBomb Wooden Number Puzzle Sorting Montessori Toys for Toddlers
Help your kids learn about shapes and numbers through the CozyBomb Wooden Number Puzzle Sorting Montessori Toys for Toddlers. This Montessori toy is best for three-year-old kids who had just started venturing out into learning and remembering mathematical fundamentals.
Through color recognition and other visual cues, the pieces of this knowledge help children gain a better grasp of what numbers look like and retain the information. Additionally, its bright design enhances sensory stimulation to build creativity and nurture kids’ imaginations.
The toy package includes toys that administer color sorting exercises, counting activities, block-stacking, color recognition drills, and organizational lessons. Made with 100% natural wood, the entirety of the package is non-toxic and the paints used to brighten its colorful aesthetic is water-based.
Toddler Tool Set with Real Tools for Kids Who Love Fire Truck Toys
Many kids find the concept of firetrucks quite interesting. With that in mind, the design of this toy follows the image of the classic firetruck and tasks your children to get it fixed through a puzzle involving real-life tools for a fun yet educational playtime.
One of the toy’s main priorities is to develop independent play among children so parents like you can tend to other matters as your kids play quietly in the playroom. The toy works in two ways: it can be used as a firetruck for pretend play and be a puzzle board that your kids can solve using realistic tools. If your kids have a knack for grabbing your keys or tools as you work in the garage, this board gives them the real deal. The set includes four proper tools that they can use on eight real metal nuts assigned to various parts of the firetruck for them to fix. The toy set also equips them with two types of screwdrivers, an Allen key, and a wrench. The board takes on the form of a design that has never before been seen on typical Montessori boards.
The materials are thoroughly made to be safe as manufacturers use beech wood which is known to be durable and tough. Compared to many other types of wood, beech is less likely to scratch or splinter. The nuts and bolts are 100% strainless steel painted in non-toxic paint that was safety tested in well-known institutions.
Magnetic Blocks Sticks Tiles Construction Building
Mustering the benefits of both the Montessori and STEM learning philosophies, the Magnetic Blocks Sticks Tiles Construction Building is an excellent toy that can bring out and develop the best out of your three or four-year-olds.
With a package including 48 blocks all boasting magnetic capabilities, these special blocks is primed to open kids’ inner engineers and architects because of the many combinations they can use to make majestic shapes and structures.
Children can even make their own worlds using the pieces of this package. This would be a great and amusing challenge for kids at least three years old. The Magnetic Blocks Sticks Tiles Construction Building aims to develop children’s perception of 2D and 3D shapes, kids’ sense of space, their understanding of colors and geometry, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. The toy encourages physical growth, as hand-eye coordination and proficiency in fine motor skills are needed to fully express their creativity through the magnetic blocks.
The magnetic blocks are perfect for enriching children’s imagination and creativity in a safe and entertaining exploration of what they can create through magnetic building blocks. The materials used to create this innovation are safe and non-toxic so it’s perfect for playrooms at school or at home.
Skoolzy Peg Board Toddler Stacking Toys – STEM Color Sorting Learning Games – Montessori Toys
This novelty by Skoolzy, like the Magnetic Blocks Sticks Tiles Construction Building, combines important developmental benefits that come with STEM and Montessori-based learning. The Skoolzy Peg Board Toddler Stacking Toys takes the basic building blocks stacking play to the next level by adding an element of precision to playtime.
Unlike the ordinary blocks where kids need only put one block on top of the other, the pegs will need prolific control of the hands and visual awareness to stack one peg on top of the other. This toy is a popular teaching tool in Montessori schools and is known to be a great way to enhance early childhood development.
The entirety of the package includes 36 different pegs with 12 varieties in shapes and sizes. The pegboard is an ideal challenge for kids around three years of age as it helps develop the pincer grip and other motor skills that involve hands, wrists, and fingers.
Children will acquire pleasant yet challenging exercises for fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, strengthening visual perception skills, visual-motor coordination, recognizing and making patterns, and many other essential elements for growth. The toy especially administers play involving stacking, sorting, organizing, and sensory experiences to give children opportunities for growth and development.
Coogam, in their pursuit of helping parents with child development, created a Montessori toy that will address several points of development in one innovation. The Coogam Wooden Reading Blocks provides learning opportunities that discuss many lessons through short vowel rods spelling games, flashcards, turning rotating letter puzzles for kids, and vision-based resources for toddlers.
This Montessori toy is packaged in a wooden tray that houses five sets of handheld rotating blocks that have three-letter word movable blocks. It also has 48 pieces of flashcards that consist of 24-word cards and 24 different 2-in-1 foldable word cards.
This toy is perfect for teaching kids about new words and developing their reading skills. The cards can be mounted onto a tray that can hold them up for kids to see. While this toy brilliantly delivers its purpose in any learning and playing environment, it particularly excels further in a classroom environment where children can interact as they navigate through the wooden blocks and flashcards.
By adding an animal aesthetic to the common stacking and sorting toys available in the market, Shape Sorter assures an engaging, funny, and educational playtime for your curious children. The baseboards of the toy are carved in cute turtle shapes that kids endear and empower them to find more ways to play.
This toy was specifically made to keep your kids engaged as they play and learn through the toy’s stacking and sorting mechanics as well as its colorful and bright visual design. The toy develops a child’s concept of space and improves their hand-eye coordination.
The Shape Sorter Montessori Educational Puzzle Blocks Toys are best for kids around three years old and are safe and durable, as it is made out of high-quality wood that has the great tactile quality and is perfectly sized for toddlers’ use.
Hi, my name is Elena Jones, and my full-time job is a teacher. Through teaching, I have discovered that children learn in many different ways, and have seen the positive impact both STEM and Montessori toys have on children.
Through this site I hope to educate parents and adults about these toys, providing them with useful information on how they can be used, and provide some in depth reviews of different toys to consider too.
Pingback: Montessori Toy Storage Options - Spiral Toys