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 every day life. I am excited to share the best Montessori toys for babies!
Children learn best through play, so finding toys that are Montessori approved is a great place to start!
What are Montessori Toys for Babies?
Montessori toys for infants should be:
- simple and beautiful
- made of natural and safe materials
- purposeful – focused on the development of a specific skill
- in accordance with their developmental stage
Related Post: Montessori Toys for 1 Year Olds
What Qualifies toys for Montessori?
Okay, so you may be wondering what qualifies toys for Montessori anyway? Here are some pretty straight forward parameters:
- Made of Natural Elements
- Encourages Participation
- Encourages Open Ended Play
- Focuses on Real World Principals
Is it possible to start a Montessori Education from Birth?
Surprisingly, yes! Babies learn from birth. Choosing Montessori toys from birth allows babies to start learning about the real world very early in their life and on the path to stepping into their full potential.
Teaching Little’s Top Picks for Montessori Toys for Babies
Here are my top picks when it comes to Montessori toys for babies!
Wooden Activity Cube
I love the variety in this cube! It allows your kids to play 8 games in 1 toy: bead maze, baby xylophone, learning clock, shape sorter, abacus, spinning gears, sorting & stacking blocks, and word cards. The variety will attract their attention for hours as they will rotate from one side to another.
Wooden Hammering Toy
This versatile toy set is a classic pounding bench, musical xylophone, and number maze puzzle, giving you 3 toys in one. The pounding act develops hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills while strengthening arm muscles. Meanwhile, the xylophone encourages audio recognition and musical development, and the number maze puzzles help with number recognition.
Busy Board
Busy boards have been a hit with children forever. This busy board helps develop fine motor skills in babies, while also helping your toddlers learn how to dress themselves. It also helps build cognitive, attention, and learning abilities in your little one!
Rainbow Nesting Puzzle
Nesting toys are a great space saver for your home, while also providing hours of entertainment to your children. The smooth inner layers are hollow underneath, which allows babies to easily grip the pieces. It is also durable enough to be chewed on without bleeding or warping.
Sensory Development Montessori Toys for Babies
Our five senses are what give us information about our surroundings. However, we weren’t born with the ability to understand what each signal meant. These toys are great for getting your little ones on the path to understanding the environment around them!
Tissue Box
We all know that babies love real tissue boxes, and this is the perfect alternative. The fun {almost} never ends! This tissue box is good for sensory stimulation because it is bright, crinkly, and different textured!
Rainbow Hand Kite
These rainbow hand kites are perfect for indoor play, dancing, and outdoors fluttering in the wind. They are sturdy and easy to grip. They hang on the closet doors in the playroom when not in use, and add whimsical beauty to the room.
Wooden Baby Toys
These wooden rattles can not only help infants improve hand-eye coordination and motor skills, but also double as a safe teether! Shaking the wooden rattle stimulates the senses and promotes gross motor development.
Rolling Drum
Toys like this rolling drum are a must have in your Montessori toy collection. Your little one can quite literally shake, rattle and roll it! As they grow, the drum can double as a stool or table for they dolls!
Montessori Toys for Babies to develop Hand-Eye Coordination
Developing hand-eye coordination in your baby is one of the first and most pivotal milestones in childhood development.
Shape Sorter
This sensory bin comes with 6 colorful shape blocks that have different textures, and a storage cube bin with elastic bands and space, this combination offers a huge imagination for your little baby. When infants see the blocks and the cube, they will likely be curious what they can do with each item and this stimulates their sense of space.
Pushing and pulling motions in different angles, is great for the development of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
Pull String Learning Ropes
Sometimes it can be hard to keep the babies occupied for a while, but this fun baby toy can help. When your infant pulls all the ropes through to one side, they will turn it over and start again!
There are 6 cords of different shapes, some are easy to grasp and pull, while the others are more challenging, that will help strengthen fine and gross motor skills, hand eye coordination.
Soft Stacking Blocks
These blocks are perfect for little ones! I love the colors and I think it’s great that they are squishy. When they are squeezed, they make a fun squeak noise.
Your little ones will love building with these blocks and then knocking them over!
Wood Shape Sorter
How cute is this wood shape sorter and it even has a realistic design. The fruit blocks and wooden carrots are easy to grab & perfectly sized for baby’s hands. The bright colors, the various fruit shapes, and the adorable cartoon design will not only attract your kid’s attention for a long time but can also stimulate your child’s imagination.
Gross Motor Montessori Toys for Babies
Helping your children develop their gross motor skills is extremely important. Gross motor skills for babies are what get them ready to move and explore the world around them, so get ready for multiple disappearing acts!
Stacking Rings
Babies love stacking high and then knocking the tower down! These rings help to teach your baby about larger and smaller objects, different colors and textures and balance.
Object Permanence Box
The Object Permanence Box with Tray contains a wooden box with tray and three wooden balls. The object permanence box encourages curiosity from child’s early age. This toy is great for developing hand-to-eye coordination and basic logic skills in babies and toddlers.
Shape Puzzle
This three shape puzzle is an excellent, high-quality material consisting of a square, circle, and triangle on a wooden board. Puzzles are great hands-on learning toy for little ones in any setting.
This Montessori toy is designed for babies to foster gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination development.
Tummy Time Book
The Tummy Time book is an adorable soft baby book is designed for 2 developmental stages. The crinkle filling, sensory textures & fun activities make for an absolute favorite among infant toys.
Related Post: Gross Motor Activities for Infants
Fine Motor Montessori Toys for Babies
Building fine motor skills is so important for little ones! Having strong fine motor skills prepares them for writing, drawing, coloring, etc.
Fun Dinosaur
The fun dinosaur has so many different uses! Mix the spikes, sort different colors out, and put them in a row. Bright red, yellow, green and blue colors will always attract baby’s eyes, the holes on the back mark with numbers, enhancing their awareness of numbers and colors.
Right size and notched design spikes are suitable for the little fingers to hold, perfect to exercise grasping and hand strength.
Car Lock Set
Help your baby develop early math sequencing skills and number recognition with numbers 1-6 depicted as words, digits, and countable shapes. Babies can build fine motor skills through hands-on matching and unlocking play!
Babies can start playing with a simple push car game, and then try to play the more difficult matching and unlocking game.
Carrots Harvesting Game
Your baby will enhance their size sorting and logic skills as they think about how to put the carrots back into right holes. Toys like this are great for learning developmental concepts such as fine motor skills and problem-solving skills.
Stacking Toys
Stacking toys are perfect for fine motor development as babies can develop their grabbing and gripping techniques. The different shapes will enhance their hand-eye coordination when recognition and also double as teethers!
Montessori Subscription Boxes for Babies
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 milestones. These are more than just toys for your child, Monti Kids is here for you with online support, an 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 Babies
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!
There are so many great benefits to choosing Montessori for your little ones. Remember, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing! You can do a mixture of toys or choose to go full on Montessori!
What are your favorite Montessori toys? Let me know in the comments below!
