Gifts for the child who goes to a Montessori school

Many parents with children in Montessori schools consider purchasing Montessori materials for holiday or birthday gifts.  

Often, parents are surprised that Montessori teachers don't recommend to have Montessori materials at home.

For most children, working with the Montessori materials at home, as well as at school, can be confusing and overwhelming.

Children who work at home, generally don’t want to work with the same materials at school and vice versa. 

Additionally, parents might present the material differently at home, allowing more playfulness with the material, which can distract the child from the intended use of the material and prevents the child to learn properly.  

However, many great activities and materials are out there that support many of the same goals as the Montessori materials, but are not available in the classroom and are more suitable for at home.

So here are my recommendations if you want to support your child learning at home with some toys and materials related to the Montessori materials.

I have presented the suggestions by Montessori areas of learning. Those gifts are more suitable for children aged 3 to 6.


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Practical life:


Instead of Dressing frames:

- offer an apron to your child, add more reality based dress-up costumes and maybe offer a doll that has specific clothes to put on and off. I find these mice with dress up clothes super cute but of course, they are fantasy based.

Instead of Practical life activities on tray:

Offer some baking materials.

A cooking book - we love My Little Sous-chef but they are currently out of stock. You can still find some on Manine Montessori.

Cookies - an interactive recipe book . It is a step by step illustrate recipe book to allow your child to bake independently. There are 3 others in that series.

Craft projects:

- If your child is into sewing : felt craft kit, cross-stitching.

- If your child is interested in painting: Famous Painting - Usborne cards

(more art ideas in this blog post: Art appreciation – Resources and ideas for children

Sensorial area:


Instead of the sound boxes:

- Refine their auditory sense by playing some sound recognition games.

Galt toy soundtrack - Listening lotto - Tune into

Are you based in the UK?

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We make safe, natural wooden toys and educational material for Montessori parents.

Instead of the Pink tower, Brown stairs and Red rods:

Offer some wooden blocks

Grimms small steps pyramid to sort from shortest to tallest

Language:


Instead of the Sand paper letters

Try a Letter book

Instead of the large Moveable alphabet

Try some magnetic letters on the fridge

Instead of the Insets for design

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Maths


Instead of Cards and Counters at home, Spindle box or beads materials.

Play some board games with a dice. Our favourite board games are from Orchard toys.

Some board games focus specifically on counting such as Bus stop that we have and like.

Invest in the Sumblox.

Cultural area:

Instead of the Roman Arch (I love this one)

Try the Leonardo Bridge.

Instead of the Sand and Coloured Globe that your child has access to at school,:

Try a Light up Globe. We have this one.

Instead of the Montessori World map

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About the Author Carine Robin

Carine Robin has a Master’s Degree in Psychology, specialising in child psychology. She worked for various social services in her home country of Belgium, before moving to Ireland in 2006. It was there that she started working in a nursery and discovered Montessori education. After having her first child, her passion for the philosophy grew and she qualified as a Montessori teacher and managed a preschool. Carine has been running a Montessori based parents and toddler group and coaching families for 9 years. She now also runs an online group for over 14000 parents, sharing her knowledge and passion with people from around the world. In 2018, Carine realised families needed more support and launched her popular online parenting courses and monthly subscription boxes, full of personally designed Montessori materials.

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