Montessori friendly advent calendars

Oct 26, 2019 - Christmas , Recommendations - By Carine Robin

Do you use an advent calendar in your house?

Updated version for 2023!

For the last 3 years, we have done an activity advent calendar.

I bought a fabric advent calendar, I believe from Lidl. And I made some activity cards that I hide in each pouch of the calendar. I chose the activities to be in line with our December schedule, with some activities being more appropriate for the weekend and some more appropriate for a school day.

When my daughter was 3, I did once 24 hand-made felt surprises that I hide in a similar fabric calendar. I had time back then! And I am not a sewing expert! I barely manage to do a back stitch on felt.

Along the years, I collected a few ideas that I wanted to share with you:

• collect 24 small animals toys, even new or second hand bargain and have one for each day. You could add a matching card and at the end of the advent period, you will have 24 animals and 24 matching cards
• find a 24 pieces puzzle (or 4 six pieces puzzles, or 6 four pieces puzzles, depending of your child's abilities) and let your child discovers the puzzle day after day.
• Make an advent calendar with a pile of wrapped Christmas and winter-related books. I did this one year with their own books, wrapped up (we only take our Christmas books out in December), along with some new Christmas books. Check my list of Christmas books here
• Hide craft materials in each pouch of your calendar as an invitation to create each day with your child. (use rock crayons, sheets of stickers, mini-kits and all the materials you have at home already)
• Finger puppets and stickers are great small tokens to hide in a calendar.
• The toobs small toys can be shared in the advent calendar. Similarly, you can use the Lanka kade wooden animals, small cars, train set parts, a Lego set spread over a few days, and so on...
• When your children are under the age of three, you can use any toys you have in storage. Seriously, they generally don't remember they had them!

This year, my daughter will 12 years old on the 1st of December. I feel that we are slowly but surely moving away from cute family activities. She wants beauty products and more teenager gifts. Even if she did asked for some Sylvanian families ;-)

My son is 7 and he is still into that magical childhood period when he still wants to do all our Christmas traditions.

So this year, we will have our activities again although I will revamp them to fit a teenager's spirit as well.

And I might offer them a product based calendar for once. We tend to avoid extra chocolate and sweets here!

If you are lacking time to create something, here are the ones I like:

The decorations are made of resin.

Playmobil has some too

Most include a Santa and an Angel, But this one is a farm topic.

Hama beads

I am torn with the concept of Hama beads. I love that it encourages children to use a Iron but it's a lots of plastic.

When you could make your own playdough and store it in 24 cute little jars, it might be easier to buy an offical Playdough calendar. (you could also make one big batch of playdough for the first day and add 24 playdough cutter).

If your children are 4+, a Lego advent calendar could be to their taste.

This one would been right up my street! I loved plaster craft when I was a child!

Great for a budding geologist! You could pair it with a book of rocks and minerals!

This one looks fun for my 11 years old!

Now that my children are 11 and 15 (she will be 16 in December), I am very tempted by this one as a way to connect over the Holidays period.

Do you have any other advent calendar ideas?

I also share my own activity cards printable with you when you enrol in my free Simplify Christmas e-course. You can join this course and receive an email series with information, printables, and videos to help you make the holiday season more meaningful for your family.

Subscribe below to receive this course (you will also receive my weekly newsletter).

Discover our Montessori Christmas box!

Plenty of activities and craft for the holidays!

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.