Box with Bins -- Montessori Young Toddler Week 29

At 18-months-old Augustus has a wide variety of interests in both objects in our environment and with experiences in our environment. I would say he still falls more on the busy side, spending just a few moments working before going back to something gross motor focused, but I can tell his attention is shifting. I want to make sure we're providing interesting challenges that he can engage in when he does feel called to take work out. 

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One such work lately has been the Montessori box with bins. This simple wooden box has three opening bin drawers - one red, one blue, one yellow. The box is then accompanied by a couple small objects to remove or place in the drawers.  

This work seems simple but it really works on a lot of great skills. For a younger baby, it's opening and closing, and object permanence. For a toddler like Gus, it's logic, color matching, and language opportunities. It helps to refine fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and wrist movement. 

At this point, Gus is not color matching with the bins but is still more interested in the motion and the hide and seek aspect of the material. I'm guessing over the next few months, he will be more and more interested in sorting the objects by color. We've tried a variety of objects in the boxes. When he was younger (we introduced this around 13/14 months) we didn't worry at all about color matching the objects. Now I've been a bit more careful to pick objects that match, but have not pointed that out to Gus. 

Right now, Gus loves birds, so a set of birds is a fun discovery for him! We've also used wooden bead and blocks in the bins. I just change the objects every now and then for a fun discovery.