[Educational] DIY Montessori-style toy ideas
Have you ever heard about the educational theory proposed by Montessori?
Montessori education is profound, and there are nursery schools and kindergartens that put it into practice.
There’s a growing movement to handcraft toys that align with its educational principles and use them to promote children’s cognitive development.
It’s also called “at-home Montessori,” and many families are trying it at home.
In this article, we’ll introduce ideas for handmade toys that support children’s learning.
All of them are easy to make, so please use them as a reference!
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[Educational] Montessori-style DIY toy ideas (1–10)
drop-in box toy
For babies, the actions of looking, holding, and dropping are quite challenging.
But since these are fundamental movements, you’ll want them to pick them up little by little.
So let’s make a simple drop-in toy using items from the 100-yen shop.
Use a container like a coin bank, and for the pieces to drop, use name keychains.
Remove the metal fittings from the keychains, and decorate the name label area with stickers or masking tape to make them cute.
Besides name keychains, popsicle sticks or flower tags are also recommended.
To be able to take out the contents, cut out the bottom of the coin bank and make it open and close.
Clothespin toy
Let’s make a simple toy you can play with using clothespins! All you need are clothespins, construction paper, round stickers, and a pen.
First, cut the construction paper into rectangles, circles, and squares.
Put round stickers along the two long edges of the rectangular piece.
Prepare stickers in several colors and match them to the colors of your clothespins.
Amazingly, the toy is already complete! Attach clothespins to the stickers that match their colors, or clip clothespins onto the circular or square pieces to make ears and legs, and create animals like rabbits or crabs.
Have fun using your fingertips and letting your imagination run free.
Exciting Post
Let’s play with a mailbox made out of cardboard.
Inside the box is a plastic bottle with holes, and when you drop a ball into the opening, it passes through the bottle and comes out from the bottom.
There are two openings: one for balls and one for cards.
The card slot is small, so it may be hard to insert at first.
But figuring out how to get it in through trial and error—and building up small successes—is important for a child’s growth.
Consider making the cards from a material that won’t crease easily, and be sure to watch over your child as they take on the challenge.
[Educational] Montessori-style DIY Toy Ideas (11–20)
twisting toy
Let’s try playing with a twisting toy where you turn and tighten plastic bottle caps.
This one is made by attaching bottle mouths to corrugated plastic board.
Around each mouth, attach donut-shaped pieces of colored construction paper such as red or blue, and stick circular pieces of colored paper onto the caps.
This helps with color recognition, making it clear which cap goes where.
The twisting motion uses the fingertips well and also provides stimulation to the brain.
Ball drop
This is an idea for a ball drop toy made with towel stickers and colored balls.
Since towel stickers are soft, a cardboard box is placed inside for reinforcement.
As it is, there’s no place to put the balls in, so make a hole in the lid.
With this toy, children can practice hand movements by holding a ball, aligning it with the hole, and letting go.
If the child has started walking, you can set it up at their standing eye level so they can play while standing.
This also helps develop their sense of balance.
Ring Toss
You can easily make a threading toy using pool noodles and ribbon.
Slice the pool noodles into rings, attach a stopper to one end of the ribbon, and add a piece of straw to help thread the ribbon through.
That’s all the prep you need! Let the children freely thread the pool noodle pieces onto the ribbon.
If you provide pieces in various colors and sizes, they can develop color and size recognition while practicing fine motor skills.
Even if they can’t thread them at first, they’ll build problem-solving skills as they experiment and figure out how to make it work.
In conclusion
We introduced some handmade toys that align with Montessori principles.
Many of the ideas use materials you can find around the house, so they should be easy to make.
Once you create them, it’s great that kids can play with them repeatedly.
Be sure to make active use of toys that support children’s cognitive development.