If you were picking your top 5 (or 10) montessori-type activities...

[PeterPan]

What would you pick? I've seen some things like sandpaper letters, metal insets, etc., and I don't know what is really effective vs. just nice play (as in equivalent to any other nice play we already do), what is worth the money vs. what can be just as good homemade, etc. I'm not looking to kill time, just a list of your top 5 or 10 montessori activities, the ones you'd MAKE time for because they were so worthwhile and beneficial from ages 1 1/2-3. And are the supplies really necessary to buy, or are homemade fine?

[mamamoon]

hello, do you have a good montessori book? like montessori today or how to raise an amazing child the montessori way? that is a good start. i would read through those and see what appealed to me.

 

when mine were that age, they were really into the practical life jobs, and setting that kind of stuff up is easy in the home. pouring water from a pitcher into little cups, picking up little thingys with tongs etc.

 

the pink tower is a favorite with that age, and the insets. now that mine are a bit older, i would never want to be without my bead set. there is nothing like it for teaching math concepts.

 

good luck~

lisa

[Sweetbabe]

Pink tower, staircase and spindle box. :)

[Starr]

Folding towels :D

[PeterPan]

I got a couple Montessori books that had been mentioned on the boards here, but I was looking at them with a view to later things like reading. Now I'm exploring this whole new area of toddler stuff I hadn't pondered. Ok, call me a bad mom. After reading your posts and seeing what each of those things are, I'm starting to refine more my list of what I'm looking for. The spindle box is math, I understand that. Love the Pink Tower! I was just thinking last night how I wished I had something like that to use with him. On the insets, they are VERY expensive. Is there a less expensive set you recommend, or is it one of those things where you should go for the gold and get the metal ones?

 

And that brings me to what I'm realizing is my next question, which is on fine motor skill development, but I think I'll post that as a new thread.

[AngelBee]

Small cleaning supplies are my children's favorite.

[PeterPan]

Ooo, see we did cleaning supplies, real toys, etc. when dd was little. I'm realizing what I need to focus on are things that build fine motor skills. That's what I DIDN'T do well with dd. Everything else is bonus.

[LauraGB]

Definitely the pink tower :). Also, mine really liked the food coloring/dishsoap activity - if I remember correctly, they had a handheld manual blender (the kind where you crank it to make it go) to make the colored suds in the sink. Another one that is worth the investment are the global map puzzles - later on they can trace the pieces onto big paper and paint the countries different colors. I've got giant boxes filled with those painted maps in the basement! I think you can probably find those cheaper than a Montessori catalog if you look around, though.

[PeterPan]

Ooo, what a neat idea Laura, thanks! :)

[Starr]

I found we could replicate some of their things pretty well. Our dc went to Montessori preschool. I used baby blocks with letter that I had at home for letter sounds and sounding out short words. We had other tower blocks that were cheaper but nice, wooden puzzles, counters for math...

[Pink Fairy]

Favorite, inexpensive montessori activities for the 3 and under crowd:

 

1. Pouring--wet and dry. Using two small pitchers, pour contents from one to the other. Water for wet pouring, small beans for dry. Fine motor skill--show how to place finger from left hand under pitcher spout to stabilize, how to pour SLOWLY so you don't spill. Use pincer grasp to pick up spilled beans, small sponge to clean up water spills.

 

2. Basting--two mason jars, fill one with water (add a drop of food coloring if you'd like). Using a turkey baster, move water from one jar to the other. Use very clear, defined steps when presenting, almost as if you are going to snap a picture at each small point. For example, squeeze bulb, baster down into full jar, release bulb, baster up, move to other jar, squeeze bulb, baster up, back to other jar, repeat process. Provide sponge to clean up any spills.

 

3. Spooning--place dry beans into ramekin, second ramekin empty. Use spoon to move beans from one to the other. Again, when presenting use clear, defined movements.

 

4. Bead Stringing--I use the ones from Melissa and Doug.

 

5. Clothespins--Use plastic, two different colors. Child will place clothespins around flat edge of bowl or basket. May create patterns with two different colors. Present showing use of pincer grasp.

 

I lead a group of 3 to 6 year olds in a montessori environment (Catechisis of the Good Shepherd), and these are some of the practical life skills we work on with the little ones.

[Sherry in OH]

Child-sized tools - brooms, dustpans, rakes, cooking utensils, etc.

Stacking blocks/cups in graduated sizes - (ours are not pink)

lidded jars and containers (we use empty food containers)

beads for stringing

wooden puzzles

shape sorter

pouring activities - (we use plastic and metal measuring cups and funnels)

art supplies - scissors, paper, glue, play-doh, paints, etc.

 

Borrow or buy a copy of Elizabeth Hainstock's Teaching Montessori in the home: the preschool years. This book includes instructions for homemade versions of many of the learning tools.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Montessori-Home-Pre-School-Years/dp/0452279097/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264186226&sr=8-1

[Terabith]

For 1.5-3, you want practical life activities. Your goals are promoting motor skills, concentration, order, and independence.

 

Small cleaning supplies, but also activities like sorting (we did love the sorting trays from Michael Olaf). Honestly, though, at 15 months the best practical life skills are things like wiping up with cloths. Sweeping is a little difficult at that age. Learning to wash hands and such are great for teaching a sense of order. There are a surprising number of steps in an activity like that.

 

I took a child's shoe box, covered it in paper and cut a slit in it. Both of my kids LOVED putting poker chips inside and later taking off the lid and repeating it. (Taking off and replacing the lid are fairly difficult.) Poker chips in general are wonderful Montessori materials. They are used for inserting, counting, sorting, etc.

 

Around 2 or so, shape sorters are nice, and I found one with a large key to turn to open the compartment, and that was very nice.

 

A low, child sized table from Michael Olaf with cube chair was by far the most valuable purchase I have made for my kids. They used it from six months on. The chair was used for pushing around and walking. As they have gotten older, we got the chair leg extentions to make it taller. They jump off the cube chair. It's wonderful.

 

Ice cube trays and placing items like marbles or such (with close supervision) in each compartment teaches one to one correspondence and is enjoyed.

 

Bead stringing and placing beads on dowels that I attached to a base was very popular and promoted fine motor skills and concentration. I made one that was vertical, so the bead was dropped onto the dowel, and a horizontal dowel, with rings like shower rings for threading. I've seen some abacuses for toddlers with large beads that incorporate simple math, bead threading, and color sorting.

 

As toddlers get older, simple nuts and bolts are a good activity.

 

Even very simple things like trying to put a lid back on a pen promote fine motor skills and concentration, as well as independence. My kids liked putting erasers on the ends of pencils.

 

Placing toothpicks into cheese shakers. They could do that for a long time.

 

Pushing pom poms through empty toilet paper tubes is a lot of fun and promotes coordination and concentration.

 

Pouring, scooping, and transferring activities are a gold standard practical life activity. Use small pitchers to pour first beans and then water. You can gradually change the pitchers and containers, from clear to opaque, and then to more than one container, or a different shape. Transferring water with a baster, scooping beans, transferring small objects from one place to another, using fingers, tongs, or scoops. Things like this promote a good pincer grasp. Sand boxes and the bath tub are great places to start with these activities, and we made a bean box with small toys hidden inside, allowing child to pour and search for them. I introduced pouring water for meals at a very early age. I gave them shot glasses to drink from, a small pitcher with water, and a cloth for wiping up spills. They poured their own water. Later we introduced pouring with a funnel into a salt shaker. Then they could open the lid, dump it out, and pour it again. We didn't do this with salt we would actually use, though....

 

Object permanence materials, where they put a ball into a box with a hole and it rolled out were great. I had another box with a hole where they pushed a knit ball into the top and it fell out. Pushing with fingers developed motor skills and finger strength. Opening drawers is good too.

 

Dressing frames with large buttons and snaps. Slicing bananas and spreading peanut butter on bread.

 

Other good activities are removing stickers and nesting cups. Hammering toys like ball pounders are fun and then progress to hammering golf tees into clay. Peg boards. An alphabet puzzle. Simple peg puzzles; we had a nice one with three or four shapes in different sizes. They practiced puzzle skills, fine motor skills with the pegs, and learned shape names and size comparison. Ball trackers and those things that build marble runs. Alphabet blocks. We were especially ones from Uncle Goose.

 

Folding cloths and paper. Polishing.

 

Large lacing cards, particularly wooden, as the child approaches two. Stacking toys like rainbow cones are far more appropriate for toddlers than infants.

 

I love looking at the Michael Olaf catalog and the Early School Materials catalog. http://www.earlyschoolmaterials.com/toddler/index.html I found a used ring slide toy on ebay and my kids played with that a lot.

 

The Montessori materials do require a good bit of supervision, so I don't leave them out all the time. I just got them out at certain times.

Things that build language skills like simple books and photographs are great Montessori type activities too. I had a lot of vocabulary pictures: animals, musical instruments, flowers, trees, tools, fruits and vegetables, etc.

 

Play dough and small markers/ pencils for drawing. An easel for painting, as well as introducing watercolor painting. Painting with water outside, as well as drawing with small pieces of chalk.

 

Lots of large motor skills and outdoor time is important. Climbing stairs and jungle gyms, balancing, jumping, etc.

 

A lot of it has to do with attitude. I tried very hard to promote an environment that encouraged them to become deeply involved in a task. I tried not to interrupt them and to protect their concentration, no matter what it was. (Well, as long as it was appropriate, safe, and non destructive.)

 

Attaching clothes pins.

 

Washing things: cloths, dolls, toy dinosaurs, sea shells, bottle washing with bottle brushes, dishes, pumpkins in the fall. Mostly we did this in the tub, but as they got older, I had dish pans and we did scrubbing activities in the kitchen. We would use a wisk to make bubbles in water. Squeezed water from a sponge, and colored water from squeeze bottles.

 

Playing with magnets. Matching things like shoes or pictures or socks. Learning to roll socks and cloth place mats. Opening and closing a lunch box. Setting the table (closer to three). Putting pretend credit cards in a wallet.

 

Cutting straws with child safe scissors and then stringing the pieces of straw onto a string.

 

Small locks and keys, again, closer to three. Putting together a flashlight. Sharpening a pencil.

Edited January 22, 2010 by Terabith
other ideas

[Mrs Mungo]

I agree with Sherry, I love Hainstock's book. I also really like Montessori Play and Learn. There are a *lot* of activities you can make or do on the cheap.

 

Montessori-n-such is a discount Montessori catalog, they have many items that are much cheaper than the traditional Montessori catalogs (granted, not as nice or beautiful but they work). Just as one example, their plastic inset shapes are $28.

 

Lakeshore Learning is a traditional preschool catalog but they have a lot of Montessori activities. I know I got my set of upper and lower case glittered (instead of sandpaper, same concept) letters from them for around $15/set, of course, this was YEARS ago, I don't know if they still carry them.

 

Pouring, sorting, transferring, sweeping, mopping, washing doll clothes (you can get tiny clothespins at the craft store, my dds *loved* doing that), polishing-those are *all* things you can easily put together from items at the dollar store.

 

I made a lot of things. I made sound boxes out of mini-m&m tubes. I made several matching games out of popsicle sticks. I made a sorting game with buttons and circles of paper that my kids used for years. There are lots of great ideas out there.

 

Other things, like the inset shapes, you could make but I give those high marks and I would consider buying them. I saw a huge difference in how my kids thought about writing and drawing after I introduced the inset shapes to them.

[Kfamily]

Previous posters have given you lots of good info. so I just wanted to say I agree that you can make many of the montessori materials. I even made our own sandpaper letters. It can be time-consuming.

 

Here is a site with some free materials:

 

http://www.montessorimaterials.org/index.html

[catalinakel]

I would visit this homeschool mama's blog:

 

http://lapazfarm.homeschooljournal.net/2008/02/01/i-just-love-this/

 

She has tons of homemade montessori ideas and I love her way of homeschooling. Have fun.

[JenniferB]

I didn't read all the replies, so I don't know if this was mentioned yet, but here are the Montessori materials that get the most use in our house for that age:

 

Knobbed cylinders

 

Button frame (don't buy from Lakeshore)

 

Metal insets (more for age 3+, but excellent for learning to write and control a pencil)

 

Pink Tower

 

Brown Stairs

 

I've purchased from this site, and the prices are really good, and the quality is acceptable. http://www.montessoriconcepts.com/index.php

 

The 1st 3 items I mentioned are really good for thumb and forefinger muscles, and the Pink Tower/Brown Stairs are good for visual/spacial perception and muscle control.

[Dawn E]

For a toddler:

 

1) Pink tower

2) Brown stair

3) Child size pitchers for pouring practice

4) A child size broom, painter's tape to make a small square on the floor, rice or beans to sweep into the square

5) Strawberry huller to practice pincher grip while moving pom-poms from one bowl to another

 

Hainstock's book is great. I haven't finished reading Raising an Amazing Child... but it is a very attractive book and gets great reviews. I also like Basic Montessori since it gives the directions for the activities as they are listed in Montessori training guides. I also just purchased Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius. She truly was a genius and every movement had purpose.

 

One of the concepts I would like to pass on to my boy is that of the work cycle. There is a beginning (choose an activity and take it to your workspace) a middle (working with the activity) and an END (put the activity back as it was, where it was). This is a big concept in the classroom as order is huge in the Montessori environment. I have had a hard time encouraging this discipline at home....but I hope to do better.

[IsabelC]

Yep, Montessori isn't something I usually like at all, but I love the work cycle. It's a concept that I am still struggling to get into my husband! He is forever working on stuff and then leaving everything where he used it instead of finishing off and packing up :glare: He doesn't understand why I don't seem to appreciate him washing up if he leaves three items unwashed and doesn't wipe the sink and benches at the end.