
50 Montessori ideas for the vehicle-obsessed child!
Sep 8, 2021 - Recommendations , Toddler - By Carine Robin
Are your bored to play vehicles with your child? Are you wondering if he will ever show an interest for something else? In this blog post, I will reassure you and giving you 50 Montessori ideas for your vehicle-obsessed child!
Follow your child!
Montessori is all about following the child. And some children have intense specific interests.
When my son was little, his obsession was all about animals. We explore all that we could explore about animals for 3 years! He is still "Mr facts" about animals and still learns about them every day.
I have to be honest; it was fun for me!
Another common among children is being "vehicles mad" and it seems that it gets on parent’s nerves. One of your questions that comes back all the time is "how do I make my child move on from that obsession towards other types of topics?".
We cannot force a child to show an interest for something. We can only support their current interest.
The only exception is when your child is only interested in screen time then you can have some boundaries (as it’s a passive and addictive activity that we need to balance with hands-on learning). Read more about screen time here.
Let’s come back to the "vehicles obsession".
It’s a healthy, common interest and I encourage you to support it.
And we can use their interest into many kinds of learning activities. This is good for them to explore the topic in different ways and it’s good for us as it’s hard to keep our enthusiasm when the "main topic" is not interesting for us!

So here is a list of 50 Montessori activities about vehicles:
- Rotate the vehicles that are available
- Mix the collection of vehicles with open-ended resources: construction vehicles with mini-bricks , road tracks, stones, features to make a landscape…
- Sort the vehicles by type
- Sort the vehicles by size: have only one type of vehicle and varied sizes
- Sort the vehicles by colour
- Match the vehicles to the colour tablets (or to colour paper, coloured cup, …)

- Pair the vehicles: vehicles counters or Goodies bags vehicles can be great for that
- Match the vehicles to pictures (take pictures of the vehicles toys or print realistic pictures of vehicles)
- Give the names of the parts of the vehicles: exhaust, front wheel, boot, …
- Read books about vehicles
- Visit a transport museum
- Visit the local fire station
- Play pretend going on a train journey: make the ticket, play the controller, …
- Go on a steam train
- Go to the local train station and interview to the employee
- Play a memory game with vehicles: several matching pictures of vehicles upside down. Find all the pairs
- Show three vehicles, make sure your child knows what they are, hide them under a towel, remove one and ask which one is missing. Increase the difficulty adding more vehicles
- Line up cars and measure how long the line is, or try to guess how many vehicles you need to go from one side of the room to the other side
- Do a car-wash: make muddy water (cocoa, water, and a bit of flour), make all the cars dirty then wash them one by one.
- Let them wash the family cars
- Sort the vehicles according to main way of transport: land, air, water. Make a land, air, water mat.
- Make puzzles of vehicles: Print pictures of various kind of vehicles, stick them on cardboard and cut in 4 or more pieces.
- Play with train tracks and train: show how to build a round track and how to build a 8 figure track.

- Use vehicles are counters for a card and counter activity
- Play I spy with vehicles (something beginning with C, car)
- Bring me game (bring me a vehicle to fly, bring me something that help make the road, …)
- Hide and seek game: have one picture and ask your child to find the corresponding vehicles that you have hidden somewhere in the room. Give clues (you are close, you are far, getting closer, look up, …
- Use vehicles with sandpaper letters
- Spell out the name of each vehicle
- Sing songs about transports
- Make paper boats or boat with corks or nut shells and leaves
- Add boats and submarines toys in the bath
- Go on a boat trip
- Make racetrack with washi-tape
- Make racetrack with chalk
- Stamp with cars
- Make tracks on paper with cars dipped in paint
- Roll cars through shaving cream (could be a snow plough)
- Use transport stencils for craft
- Use transport stickers for craft
- Make a tally count of the number of vehicles passing by your window
- Go on a vehicle hunt around your neighborhood
- Make some 3-part cards of the parts of a car
- Make some matching cards of brand of car
- Learn about road signs
- Add road signs to your vehicles collection
- Organise a road safety game on your driveway
- Have some vehicle cutters for the play-dough
- Roll vehicles in the play dough to make tracks
- Bake some biscuits in vehicle shapes
Please let me know if you tried any of these activities out or if you have other ideas, leave a comment!
You may want to read my blog post with ideas for the child who likes to climb or for the child who likes to throw , 2 other common "obsessions".

Are you looking for Montessori activities for your child, but you don't have time to make three-part cards and search for printables?
Are you unsure what activities are appropriate? How best to present them to your child?
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About the Author: Carine Robin is a qualified and experienced Montessori teacher and founder of The Montessori Family. With over 15 years of experience, Carine offers a blend of professional insight and personal understanding as a mother of two and qualified child psychologist. Inspired by the success of her Montessori subscription box, she created The Montessori Family to provide a comprehensive resource for parents and teachers globally. This platform aims to support child growth and well-being through curated educational activities. Additionally, Carine maintains the UK's most popular Montessori blog and administers the largest Montessori UK Facebook group, making her a central figure in the Montessori community.

This is a great list of ideas! Can’t wait to try some of these with my vehicle-loving toddler. Thank you!