Montessori Toddler: Activities that are Keeping Our 18 Month old Absorbed

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Dayna is eighteen months old and here is a look at the Montessori-friendly activities that are keeping her busy.

It has been a long while since my last post as I took a break from social media and blogging to spend time and be more present with myself and my kids. I am back now though, and ready to share and talk about the things keeping both my children busy.

At eighteen months, Dayna is an active toddler who cannot sit still. It’s no wonder since she is in the sensitive period for movement and is working hard at building her gross motor skills. Compared to my son Ryaan, she spends much less time engaging with work that I set out on her shelves, and more time just moving around the house and exploring everything she can get her hands on. This is probably partly due to her inquisitive personality, and partly because she is a younger sibling and has access to so many more of her brother’s toys too.

Now that she is much more stable on her feet, I have noticed her reaching more for the work on her shelves as she works to refine her fine motor skills. The activities listed below have been on her shelf for a few months now and are due for a small rotation soon, but I thought I would share before I changed things up.

Pegging Board

This pegging board has been a favourite of Dayna’s since it was brought out months ago. She loves inserting the pegs and then pretending they are candles on a birthday cake (she saw her only brother do it once and it has stuck).

The board is from Haba and is of excellent quality that has withstood rough handling by both my children over the years.

3 Piece Knobbed Puzzle

This is a simple three-piece knobbed puzzle from Hape that Dayna really enjoys. She mastered knobbed puzzles with simple shapes so we introduced this one since the pieces are odd-shaped and prove a bit more challenging. The pieces are large, the knobs are easy for her to grip and I love that the board has the same outline of the shape when she takes a piece off.

I bought this puzzle five years ago when my son was a toddler, and it seems that Hape doesn’t make the same one anymore. They do seem to have an updated version of these knobbed puzzles though, which I am linking below.

Varying Widths Knobbed Puzzle

This is a great puzzle as Dayna begins to differentiate between the relative sizes of objects. I love that everything else is constant (height, shape, colour) and the only variation is the width of the pieces.

I bought this from Etsy years ago but unfortunately can’t seem to find it anymore. It is a great puzzle though, so I would love to hear if anyone knows of something similar on the market.

Animal Puzzle

This isn't my favourite puzzle for Dayna since the knobs are very tiny and hard for her to grip, and I don’t love the cartoon-ish animals. Dayna seems to love it though and is slowly building her vocabulary and learning the names and sounds of animals with the help of this puzzle.

Note to self: Time to introduce her to some Schleich animals! They make great animal miniatures that are so realistic and of great quality.

Vertical discs puzzle tower

I don't remember the accurate name of this puzzle or even where I bought it from, but it is an excellent self-correcting material. I like that the discs are inserted into a vertical tower, which makes it quite different from regular puzzles.

Nesting cubes

These cubes are great for nesting and building a tower, though for the price of getting them from Grimms, I wish I had got the traditional Montessori pink tower instead. Dayna was not very interested in these until very recently, but she still finds the cubes quite heavy and chunky to handle on her own, so I will be switching these out until she is older.

Object permanence drop rings game

I got this from a shop on Etsy and have been so pleased with it. As mentioned before, I love giving Dayna some variation between traditional flat puzzles and some vertical ones. She has to think about turning the rings so they are vertical before inserting them, which has been so great for her fine motor control.

Stacking Rings Tower

The wooden stacking ring tower is a material that can last a child such a long time which is why I love it so much. When first introduced months ago, Dayna’s main aim was just to get the rings onto the dowel. Now she tries to order them by size and names the colours as she puts the pieces on.

There are so many of these stacking ring towers available but one thing to note is to look for those that don't have funny drawings on the pieces so the child isn’t distracted from the work of pegging and ordering by size.

Water spray and rag

Children love imitating adults which is why practical life is so important in Montessori. Giving Dayna access to her own water spray and a rag gives her so much autonomy to wipe up a spill or clean something that looks dirty to her.

That sums up the materials on Dayna’s shelves. I will be changing things up a little soon and post an update, but till then, please share this list if you found it useful.