Have you ever heard of the Montessori method of learning? Over the past few years, this method has really gained traction with parents and teachers!
You may be scratching your head wondering how to implement this method of learning in your everyday life. If you are on this journey, I have taken my time to find the best Montessori toys for 2 year olds!
Children learn best through play, so finding toys that are Montessori approved is a great place to start!
What is Montessori education for 2 year olds?
Montessori education for 2 year old’s is teaching through hands on learning, play, and self governed activities.
What are the benefits of using Montessori Toys?
By utilizing the Montessori way of learning, children gain confidence in making decisions, pacing their learning, developing independence and developing a love for life time learning.
What are Montessori Toys?
Montessori toys have a bit of a strict criteria. Montessori toys are often described as open ended because they do not have a set use. They are toys that do not flash, make sounds, or have any electronics.
Made with Natural Elements
Toys made with natural elements tend to be more durable. 2-year-olds still like to occasionally put things in their mouth and toys made with more natural elements are safer.
Encourages Participation
Having toys that encourage participation and imagination is a great thing! Your littles will benefit greatly by experimenting with different toys and play items.
Open Ended Play
Open ended play encourages independence, imagination, and creativity.
Real World Focus
A lot of Montessori toys are skill focused. So even though kids are playing and having a good time, they are still learning something about the real world and how things work!
Related: 17 Best Toys for Learning Letters: Early Learning Toys
Teaching Little’s Top Picks for Montessori Toys for 2 Year Olds
Here are my top picks when it comes to Montessori toys for 2 year olds!
Climbing Arch
A Montessori furniture set is a perfect tool for your kids’ balance skills, awareness, gross motor skills, coordination, and learning development. This climbing arch with pillow set is made of the highest quality natural birch plywood and linden tree.
Lovevery Play Kits
Lovevery play kits include several educational toys and objects that stimulate motor skill and cognitive development, specifically designed for the exact age of your child. These kits are meticulously planned out and offer the best variety of toys that children love!
They typically include a book, a puzzle, and several themed, interactive, Montessori-inspired toys, along with a parent guide on how to work with your child to develop their skills and independence. We LOVE these play kits!
They’re available as a subscription too which make it super convenient as your kids grow up.
Wooden Building Blocks
Do you remember these blocks as a kid? I loved building with these blocks and knocking them down! HA!
The possibilities with this set are nearly endless. You can build so many different things, pull the cart around by the string like a trailer.. and have so much fun!
Melissa & Doug Cleaning Set
Little ones love to help, and this Melissa and Doug set is perfect for your little! It has all the essentials to be a big helper!
You can teach your little one some valuable life skills and responsibility by just allowing them to help!
Wooden Fruit Set
Your tiny chef will love cutting fruit and veggies up beside you in the kitchen! This set is perfect for a curious little one that wants to be just like you!
Knife skills are an amazing skill to have. Having the opportunity to learn the very basics when it comes to knife skills is a great start.
Wooden Garden
If your little one is garden obsessed, he/she will love this wooden garden. I love that it even has little worms which makes it double as a nature lesson!
Gardening is a skill that many people don’t have anymore. If your little one is interested, this garden set is a perfect start!
Stacking Wooden Dinosaurs
How neat are these stacking wooden dinosaurs?! I love that this fun toy teaches kids about balance! Knowledge about balance comes in handy in so many aspects of life!
Montessori Toys for Brain Development
Choosing toys that stimulate brain development is very important. Toys that encourage brain development help to lay a solid foundation.
Build early shape, color and size differentiation skills: it can inspire children’s imagination as well as promote their physical and intellectual development. Perfectly sized for toddlers’ hands, great choice as travel toys.
These toddler puzzles are neat and have lots of options on how they can be used. The bright colors are appeasing to toddlers! I love that these puzzles are so versatile for open ended play!
Colorful pieces help toddlers to build color recognition, sorting, and number recognition through play. When your toddler inserts or pulls out these colorful spikes, they will strengthen skills in hand-eye coordination, hand strength, counting skills and fine motor skills.
These magnetic building blocks are neat for little ones who may not have the concept of balance yet. I love all of the different shapes and colors! Your little one will be amazed at the different things that can be built with these blocks!
Related Post: Educational toys for 2 year old boys
Gross Motor Montessori Toys for 2 Year Olds
There is a lot of research that encourages children to participate in risky play. Of course, nothing that could hurt them badly! What I mean by risky play is pushing their bodies to do things that seem scary and maybe even unnatural.
By participating in risky play, children develop a great understanding of their body’s limits and understand tasks they can and cannot do. Not to mention building strength and coordination!
The balance board can be a wooden slide, a tunnel, a bridge and more for kids. An open-toy without any rules and instructions enable the children to improve the coordination between hands and feet, even the whole body in the process of exploring the playing methods.
Every day your little ones can find new ways to play. Toddlers can satisfy the need for entertainment and physical sensory ability.
This balance beam is an amazing toy for toddlers! Challenge their balancing abilities with this balance beam made from birch wood. Each section of the balance beam has a different texture for an added challenge.
Climber Arch
A Montessori furniture set is a perfect tool for your kids’ balance skills, awareness, gross motor skills, coordination, and learning development. This climbing arch with pillow set is made of the highest quality natural birch plywood and linden tree.
Do you have an independent learner that loves to climb? Then look no further than this climbing toy! This triangle climbing toy is perfect for risky play!
Musical Montessori Toys for 2 Year Olds
Music is an amazing self expression outlet for many, including children! Little ones love dancing and moving to the beat. Your littles will love making their own music or going along with their favorite tune.
This instrument toy set inspires children’s sense of sight, hearing and touch. It will be helpful to cultivate the kids’ sensitivity of music and the percept of rhythm, improve the creativity and the ability to distinguish instruments, and develop the their interest in music.
As a kid, I loved playing the xylophone! I love the variety that this set has with all of the different instruments.
This instrument set has a ton of different options! Your little one will never be bored with all of these!
The pounding bench is designed with small crocodile-shaped appearance design. Children can pound the wooden ball and fall on the xylophone to make a wonderful sound, or take out the xylophone alone and play it. Hammer, balls and xylophone in one will bring endless fun for children.
Castanets are a classic wooden instrument. By pressing the sound of the castanets, it will emit a crisp sound. It can exercise children’s sense of sight, hearing and touch, improve the creativity and the ability to distinguish instruments.
Fine Motor Montessori Toys for 2 Year Olds
Building fine motor skills is so important for little ones! Having strong fine motor skills makes things like writing, drawing, coloring, etc.
Colorful wooden building blocks can help kids build color recognition, sorting, counting, and fine motor skills through sorting & stacking games. Introduce Montessori learning into your child’s playroom.
Wooden stacking stones are also a great sensory toy. It encourages sensory development in a fun way, sensory toys for toddlers.
This toy contains classification, stacking, puzzles, matching and other kinds of play for interactive fun. Your 2 year old will have a wonderful time working on their fine motor skills!
Threading toys are great fine motor skill toys to have in your collection. The little objects double as fun play things to use in different ways to help foster open ended play.
Match the bees to their home! I think this game is adorable and doubles as a fine motor skill builder and helps to recognize colors!
Your 2 year old will have so much fun! You can also use this as a lesson on bees and beehives.
Unlike normal shape sorters that only have single solution, our sensory bin allows babies to discover their own method to slip the blocks through elastic bands at any position, which shows how the world will response to their interact. Your baby will recognize the colors and textures from the soft balls and blocks.
Related: 11 Activities to Practice Pincer Grasp with Your Baby
Busy Boards for 2 Year Olds
Busy boards are a great multi use toy for toddlers! In our house, we love all types of busy boards!
This busy board fun and effective learning toy to help young children learn to dress. The busy board also provides a sensory learning activity which is suitable for a wide range of developmental levels.
I love this for on the go!
I love this busy board for practicing daily skills like opening or closing their zipper, button, buckles, or telling time will help them acquire the skills to get dressed. I love that this book is a quiet book, perfect for travel or simply quiet time at home!
The baby busy board develops fine motor skills, dressing skills, dexterity, and brain development. The elements on the wooden learning toys help the toddlers finger grip, turning movements, and learn how to control their hands.
This busy board promotes play and learning excitement, allowing babies to learn the most common things in life.
This toddler busy board features an upgraded design with removable multiple pages that will keep kids hands and minds engaged for hours at a time! From shoelace tying, buckles, belts, zippers, gears, to body parts, clocks, alphabets, number games, these toddler travel toys will become an instant hit!
Kids will love the details and switched as they pretend to drive: honk the horn; insert and twist the key; turn the toy steering wheel; pull the gearshift; adjust the mirror; flip the A/C tiles; push buttons; manipulate knobs; and open the glove box to reveal a fun picture.
Mimicking a real car dashboard, this toddler sensory board encourages fine and gross motor skills as well as logical thinking. It’s a toy that will grow with your child as they move from babyhood to school and go from basic manipulation to imaginative play and creating shared worlds.
This busy board is specially designed for toddlers who love switches and LED lights. There are 8 different switches set up on this busy board, and each switch corresponds to a different color or style of LED light.
The brightness of each LED is adjusted to be just right for the baby, not too bright, too dazzling or too dark to see clearly.
Montessori Subscription Kits
Subscription kits are a great way to add in Montessori toys to your rotation!
Spend less time researching and more time connecting with your child. Our experts link brain science and Montessori to the way you play.
Support your child’s learning during important developmental windows with play essentials that are tailored to their exact stage.
The design team at Monti Kids creates toys with play patterns to support all developmental milestone. These are more than just toys for your child, Monti Kids is here for you with online support, expert-designed curriculum, 1-on-1 coaching and more.
KiwiCo has thoughtful, quality design choices and materials to promote healthy development. Nurture your little one’s growing brain through fun and engaging play!
Frequently asked Questions about Montessori Toys for 2 Year Olds
Do all of my toys have to be Montessori?
No, not all of your toys have to be Montessori! If Montessori is something you want to do, don’t feel obligated to throw everything out at once! You can gradually add in Montessori toys and cycle the non-Montessori toys out if you choose.
Are Montessori toys expensive?
Some are, but there are plenty that aren’t! I made sure to keep the toys on the list budget friendly!
Why should I consider the Montessori style of learning?
Montessori is designed to encourage confidence, independence, and learning at the child’s pace through play. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty awesome to me!
Remember, you don’t have to throw out all the non-Montessori toys over night! You can gradually add them in over time.
What are your favorite Montessori toys? Did I miss any must haves? Let me know in the comments below!
