What’s On Our Montessori Shelf for Our 21-Month Toddler
This past month we did a significant rotation of Lee’s Montessori shelf. While we usually keep some familiar items in the mix, Lee seemed eager for new challenges, so we introduced lots of novel activities and materials with this update.
Here is what is on our 21-month old toddler’s Montessori-inspired shelf...
Pom-Poms for Color Sorting
To learn more about colors and practice sorting objects, we pulled out some crafting pom-poms and colorful cups so Lee can drop the pom-pom into its corresponding cup. We also added a set of kid-sized tongs so he can try his hand at picking up the pom-poms with the tongs and develop that fine motor skill.
Matching Game with Animal Cutouts
My mom painted these wood animal silhouettes for Lee. We play a matching game with them and ask Lee to pair up the like colors. Occasionally we’ll expand this game and tape pieces of construction paper to the floor and ask Lee to place the blue gorilla cutout on the blue paper and so forth.
Colorful Straws and Little Jars
We picked up this idea from Montessori in Real Life: Cut up colorful straws to practice dropping into wide- and narrow-mouthed jars. Lee loves tiny jars and bottles, so we felt this was a suitable addition to his Montessori shelf.
Threadable Bead Set
We received this threadable bead set as a part of our Lovevery toy subscription; it’s included in their Pioneer Play Kit for ages 16 - 18. While we’ve had it for a while, Lee has only recently expressed interest in it. It’s been a fun challenge for Lee to practice using both hands to thread the beads onto the string.
Figurines and Flashcards
Our family friend works at Scholastic and sent us a set of toddler flashcards and workbooks that she worked on. Lee loves to empty the pack onto the floor and shuffle through the flashcards until he finds the fire truck. So to make the deck more manageable for him, we set up a matching game for him with the flashcards and animal figurines from the Dollar Store.
Play-Doh and Finger Painting
We do not keep Play-Doh on Lee’s Montessori shelf to access on his own, so we’re cheating here a little bit. But we store Lee’s arts and crafts materials within his line of sight, so he can point to us and tell us when he wants to color, finger paint, or squish some Play-Doh.
If you’re looking for more inspiration and activity ideas, here’s a throwback to Lee’s Montessori-inspired shelf when he was 18 months old!