The older Nora gets, the more interested in her environment she becomes. As a result, we've introduced more toys for her to explore as she has gotten older. Like the Montessori friendly toys I featured at 4-months, these are not traditional "work." But, these are toys that I believe are work well in a Montessori household.
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I've broken the toys up roughly by the month that I introduced the toy to Nora. Many of these toys she still uses today. At any one time, the toys are limited to a few at a time in addition to some more traditional Montessori items. I rotate the toys every few weeks or when she loses interest.
Montessori Toys at 6 Months
The toys we introduced at 6 months are some of the most popular we have. Even Henry will choose these off the shelf frequently.
- Sensory Balls -- these are by far the most popular toy we have. Henry loves these, Nora loves these. They are on our shelves quite a lot! These are worth every cent.
- Sophie The Giraffe -- This may not be 100 percent Montessori because it is a bit cartoonish. But, this is such a great teether that I love it anyway.
- Bell Cylinder -- The bell cylinder is pretty traditionally Montessori, and could probably be introduced even a little earlier than 6 months. It makes a great sound and encouraged Nora to crawl as it rolled away.
- Schleich Animals -- These animals are amazing. We use these every day. I actually never intended this to be Nora's toy, but she wouldn't leave this polar bear on Henry's shelf. Henry and Nora both use these animals daily for months on end. In my opinion, you can't have enough of these!
Montessori toys at 8 months
The toys we introduced at 8 months started to have some objective -- stack or move. While they can all be used for open play, they also can be used for purposeful action.
- Flapping Flower Toy -- This toy is kind of interesting, because the petals of the flower change colors as you move them back and forth. Nora loved to flip them from one color to the other. And I love anything rainbow for my rainbow baby!
- Bead Mover -- This is a great fine motor toy as the babies move the beads. Nora loved this and it took a fair amount of concentration. She will be able to use this for a long time.
- Stacking Cups -- We have a few different sets of cups like this in different shapes. I do wish we had a nice wooden set, though. The plastic ones are nice, too, because they can be used in the bath or on a shelf.
- Basic Blocks -- We have several different sets of blocks in our house, and Nora loves them all. Right now she is mostly interested in taking them out and putting them in a basket or bucket. For this purpose, I like smaller blocks instead of unit blocks {which are great for more purposeful building later on.}
Montessori toys at 10 months
By 10 months old, Nora was ready for more complicated and interactive toys.
- Drum -- I love this solid wood drum, it's easy to use and makes a pleasing sound {that's not too loud!} Henry loves this drum too. Although, we have had some problems with Nora gagging herself with the stick, so she is closely supervised with it.
- Simple puzzle -- The puzzled pictured is an older Melissa and Doug puzzle that I bought at a thrift store. However, many Montessori suppliers sell similar sets. And, ideally, we would have single shape puzzles since this is still a bit complicated, but this is what we have.
- Ring Stacker -- I love the beautiful colors of this stacker. At this point, if this stacker is out on our shelves we only give Nora one or two of the rings. As she gets older we will add more and more.
- Books -- We have been reading books to Nora since she was born. However, I put books under 10 months old, because this was when she really started bringing me specific books to read and showing favorites. To keep books Montessori friendly, we try to use books that have real pictures and simple text. We avoid fantasy for this age.
What are your favorite Montessori friendly baby toys?
