Montessori Friendly Toys and DIYs at 8 Months

Augustus is getting bigger, older, stronger and wigglier each day! And with all this growth comes new interests, new challenges, and new struggles. With some observation, I change the materials available to him to hopefully meet his needs. It can feel like a guessing game, but he will always let me know if I'm right or wrong! 

I wanted to share some of the Montessori friendly toys and DIYs at 8 months. I say 8-months, but this is just an approximation. Some he used a little earlier, some he is still enjoying now at over 9-months old. In particular, he still loved the glitter drum and bell rollers until very recently. 

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Rattle Ball -- Many of the things (specifically teethers and rattles) that he was using at 6-months and 4-months are still present. I usually have a treasure basket of teethers on the shelf for him to mouth. This one was a new one we added around 8 months. 

Hair Rollers -- these are a great open ended manipulative for babies. They can pull apart, put together, roll around! So many things. Stick them in a basket for an easy DIY! 

Small Books -- Gus loves to look at books, especially these mini baby books from Helen Oxenbury

Egg and Cup -- a traditional Montessori classic. 

DIY Wipes Toy -- Gus loves our wipes container when he gets his diaper changed so I brought this out for him. At this point, he really just loves to play with the door and hasn't really started pulling out the fabric.

Object Permanence Box -- another Montessori classic, and probably the most used toy/material during this time. 

Basket of Fabric/Ribbon -- here's another easy DIY! I just keep a small basket to explore different fabrics or ribbon. I just occasionally switch out what I have available in the basket. Augustus loves to explore the texture or mouth the materials. 

Mini Rainbow Sensory Bottles -- these were a DIY I made with Nora. For her I introduced much earlier (around 5 months) and she loved them. I tried at the same age with him and Gus had no interest. But, at this age, he has been MUCH more interested. I loves to shake, chase, mouth, and stare at them. 

Glitter Sensory Bottles -- another DIY and one of his favorites (even now) are these bottles. These are just small craft bottles with sequence and large glitter, and act like small musical instruments. The tops are then glued on. The static makes the glitter one, in particular look very cool when it's shaken. 

Treasure Basket of Balls -- just a lot of different balls. I started with just a couple and have rotated and added as he has gotten bigger and more mobile. 

I also wanted to say that this list doesn't include every single thing he has touched or interacted with at 8-months-old. But these are the favorites. We have two main play areas for him and each has about 4/5 choices for him to choose from. Then we rotate where necessary.