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Gift Guide:Montessori-Inspired Educational Toys

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 I am  so excited to bring you all a gift guide of Montessori-inspired toys! You can feel good knowing that this holiday season you are giving Montessori gifts to the preschoolers in your life.

Montessori principles and education are near to my heart, so it’s always exciting to be able to pour my passion into a blog post, and what better way than to create a gift guide? Since it’s the holiday and shopping season, I thought it would be appropriate to help narrow down your choices with my recommendations for some Montessori-inspired educational toys. Don’t be turned off…even though you may have no experience with Montessori education or Montessori toys, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by my recommendations. You may even see some familiar items!

These Montessori gifts will not be electronic, battery-operated, plastic toys. They are beautiful, natural wooden toys that will last for years to come. These toys inspire your little one’s mind, body, and spirit through imaginative play.

The goal is to provide children with toys they can play with independently. Not unsupervised (in case something has small parts) but without the help of a parent. The toys should encourage the child to move, dress up, explore, and really play with the toys without structured “rules” or “guidelines”. During the play with the toy, the child is also learning other important skills: fine-motor skills, sorting, learning colors, counting, grabbing, scooping, etc. Montessori also encourages toys that allow the child to help the adults. For example, a small broom and dustpan means they can help you sweep. This ability to help you with everyday tasks increases their self-belief and self-confidence.

Montessori Gifts

Montessori Gifts

1.  Plan Toys Preschool Alphabet: Great for teaching the sounds of the alphabet. Encourages early writing skills and phonetic skills.
 
Montessori Gifts
2. Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks: Great for teaching shapes and patterns.
Montessori Gifts
3. Plan Toy Vegetable Garden: Teaches names of vegetables and encourages imaginative gardening skills that can be carried over to real-life applications. This set is great for little hands.
Montessori Gifts
4. Melissa & Doug Deluxe Pounding Bench: Traditional peg and hammer bench. Teaches motor development and eye/hand coordination.
Montessori Gifts
5. Melissa & Doug Cutting Fruit Set: Encourages imaginative play and teaches creative play, eye/hand coordination, and the names and color of fruits.
Montessori Gifts
6. Kid Advance Cut Out Numerals and Counters: This set is great for teaching the sequence of 1-10, one to one correspondence, and odd/even numbers.
Montessori Gifts
7. Threading Buttons and Spools: Great for developing hand/eye coordination and manipulation skills. Chunky beads are great for little fingers.
Montessori Gifts
8. Montessori Sand Writing Tray: Encourages practicing the writing of letters, numbers, and shapes. Develops small motor coordination. Provides a tactile, sensory experience.
Montessori Gifts
9. Montessori Phonetic Reading Blocks: Encourages pre-reading skills, letter sounds, word spelling, and rhyming. Contains a total of 80 three-letter phonetic words.
Montessori Gifts
10. Wooden Play Set Balance: Teaches the theory of balance and how to add more or less weights to make things heavier or lighter.
Montessori Gifts
11. Little Helper Broom Set: Allows child to participate in real-life applications of helping Mom/Dad take care of the home environment.
Montessori Gifts
12. Learning Resources Super Sorting Pie: Teaches early number skills and provides a visual cue to little ones to support success.
Montessori Gifts
I hope you enjoyed this collection of Montessori gifts.  If you are interested in some more Montessori-Inspired toys, I have some listed on my website that are created specifically by me. Just a few are: Wooden Sorting Bowls, Buttons N Bowls, and a Christmas Bulb Pattern Set. You can view them all HERE.

Erica Leggiero, M.S. Ed.

Erica Leggiero, M.S. Ed.

Erica Leggiero, M.S. Ed. has been working and teaching in the field of early childhood education for over 7 years. Erica is currently the director and teacher at a Preschool Enrichment Program in her area. Erica believes that young children learn best through play and exploration, and she is constantly looking for new and creative ways to incorporate learning through play. She embraces this belief in all of the activities she creates in her preschool classroom, and loves sharing them here on her blog. Erica has also co-authored the book, "Learn With Play" with other kid bloggers in the preschool field.
Erica Leggiero, M.S. Ed.
Erica Leggiero, M.S. Ed.

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