Looking for toddler activities? Check out these Montessori toddler activities that you can do at home for child development and helping your kid develop practical life skills. Written by a mom who is a Montessori teacher – this is reliable information to get started with Montessori at home the right away
What is Montessori for toddlers?
As parents, we dream of our kids becoming smart and independent in future. We strive everyday to provide them with the best that we have available – in terms of books resources and education.
But when we think about education – most of us think of ABC and 123’s.
Would simply teaching ABC’s and 123’s to toddlers be enough?
At a tiny age, what they understand is not numbers, but quantity, not alphabets but vocal pronunciations. So why give them just theory? Instead, we must give them a practical understanding of quantity and phonetics that would form a base for them to understand numbers and alphabets later.
This is called a Montessori environment.
What is Montessori Philosophy
Dr. Maria Montessori’s theory says,
- Children are to be respected as different from adults and as individuals who are different from one another
- the most important years for learning are from birth to age six.
Children acquire unusual sensitivity and mental powers for absorbing and learning from the environment, which includes people as well as materials.
Repetition of exercises, orderly discipline, and free choice are important aspects of a Montessori environment.
We need to always remember that a child has a personality of his own. What is needed by an adult is to provide an environment and necessary materials for them to learn on their own.
Can Montessori education be given only in Montessori school
No.
To give Montessori education doesn’t mean you need to send your child to a Montessori school, which if you do, is already commendable.
But, it is necessary that we make our homes too, a suitable learning environment for them; so that they learn everything through play right from birth.
After all, it’s the best gift that one can give to one’s child.
What are the Practical life activities?
You would have hear of this term and we wold also be using in this article on Montessori toddleractivities so let us talk about this.
Practical life activities include all basic activities that we do as adults. Washing, cleaning, arranging, sewing, chopping, etc.
Let your kids join and help you in all household work so that they are active and learn as well. This will also help us cut down their screen time to null.
What are some Montessori toddler activities that we can do at home?
Make them learn basics first.
Opening/Closing a box
Simply put a box in front of them, they will learn to open & close by themselves.
Cutting and sewing
Let them practice chopping vegetables, fruits, using a toy or blunt knife, and also sewing with blunt fat needles. This will boost their confidence.
Folding clothes
Let them fold their own clothes, no matter how they are doing it. Remember, let them take their time. It’s a learning process. And they will learn eventually
Slowly focus on self & environment care
Learning to blow their own noses, to cough, brush, and comb and use the bathroom on their own. The aim is to make them independent.
Dusting, sweeping, gardening, taking care of pets will teach them to care about the environment.
Let them choose to dress themselves. This way, they will learn to dress appropriately for various occasions.
Make them help you in all household chores. Believe me, kids love doing everything whether small or big.
Eventually, focus on their behavior.
They will learn greeting, speaking, behaving, helping and table manners from us.
So, we parents need to behave well first, whether at home or outside. They follow our real behavior and not what we enact as we want them to be.
Next, help learn through play
Will also share some Montessori toys and the links where you can buy them from depending on activities.
Also read Easy visual discrimination activities for preschoolers
Pouring beans
Give the child 2 bowls or jars with beans/beads/seeds in one and the other one empty, and simply watch out. You will find them pouring the beads from one to another within no time.
This toddler activity improves concentration and kids learn pace.
Pouring liquid
Similarly, place a mat on the floor, and repeat the same with some liquid this time, preferably water. They learn to carefully pour from one into another.
Balancing lemon on a spoon
This one’s familiar. Isn’t it? Place the lemon on a spoon and let them balance the spoon in their mouth while they walk along a small area. They learn to balance and focus.
Picking rice with chopsticks
This is difficult for adults as well. But you’ll be shocked to know that kids do it better than us. They are immensely talented.
Let them experiment with everything available around. Make sure the area contains safe materials only.
Building Tower/stacks
Place in front of them a broken tower/stack that they will build according to the size. In the process, they learn various sizes and shapes. They also learn that the foundation needs to be strong for a building to survive.
You can click here to see the details and price of Montessori wooden toy we use for the same
Numbering Rods
You can find some Montessori rods online which can teach kids numbers and size as quantity. This way they know the actual meaning of numbers, heights, lengths, and other quantities.
Click here to see price and details of Montessori number rods
Sense of Smell
Put various things in various boxes like flowers in one, chocolate in another, ginger, capsicum, fruits etc. in others, and blindfold the child. Ask them to then identify them all.
This improves a sense of smell, concentration and memory.
Hankies in a tissue box
Every child loves pulling out tissues from a box. Place some small sized napkins in an old tissue box and let the child pull them out one after another. This way they remain focused; learn hand-eye co-ordination and moms get some rest time as well.
Hammering toy
This improves hand-eye co-ordination since they learn to hammer the right stick in the right angle.
This also improves focus and they learn about ‘Force’.
Click here to see price and details of Montessori Hammering toy
Arranging beads according to colors
Let them separate different colored beads/buttons from a big bowl to different small bowls. This improves concentration, coordination of mind and body and kids love playing with colors.
You may also like Fun ways of Teaching alphabets in toddlers
Pretend play
Most kids predict being teachers, doctors, mothers/fathers and play with teddy bears and other toys. Simply enjoy watching them developing some drama skills. My girl dresses her teddy the way I dress her. She also puts on it a diaper and then dumps it in the dustbin. Lol.
Playing with Nuts and bolts
Collect some clean nuts and bolts and let them learn how to tighten them. For safer option – you can for wooden nuts and bolt sets available online
Click here to see details and price of nuts and bolts toy
Feed the caterpillar
This is my child’s favorite game. He feeds the caterpillar whatever he likes and calls out all names of food that goes into its tummy.
Felt/fabric books
Instead of giving them normal paper books, introduce some felt/fabric books that are colorful and contain mini-activities that help develop mental skills.
Click here to see price and details of fabric book
You can find a lot more ideas and kits on shopping platforms like ‘Amazon’ and ‘Firstcry’.
Best Educational Toy brands
My personal favorite educational toy brands are
all of the above brands have a variety of toys and kits that help develop a child’s brain. And some of them are started with moms so have that extra touch that we need with kids 🙂
Children are born as blank slates waiting to be written on. They learn all the time, from the environment and the adults they encounter in it. It is best to enrich the environment and for adults to serve as role models, rather than try to impose learning from the outside.
If teaching is to be effective with young children, it must assist them to advance on the way to independence.
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