The Best Montessori Toys for Toddlers: Making Parenting a Breeze with Lovevery

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As our little toddlers continue to grow and explore the world around them, we all want to provide them with the best learning experiences. That’s where Montessori toys come into play! These thoughtfully designed toys foster creativity, independence, and cognitive development in toddlers. In this article, I’ll take you through a carefully curated list of the best Montessori toys for toddlers. Plus, I’ve got a game-changing secret that makes shopping for these must-have toys easier than ever!

First and foremost, let’s go over what makes a quality Montessori toy for young children anyway…

When it comes to selecting Montessori toys, you’ll want to make sure they have or are made of:

1. Open-endedness: Look for toys that have no predetermined outcome, allowing your child to use their imagination and creativity freely. Open-ended toys can be used in multiple ways and grow with your child’s evolving skills (from infancy through toddlerhood).
   
2. Natural materials: Opt for toys made from natural materials like wood, cotton, or metal. These materials provide a more authentic sensory experience and are environmentally friendly.
   
3. Simplicity: Montessori toys are often simple in design, without excessive lights, sounds, or flashy colors. Simple toys allow your child to focus on the essential aspects of play and learning and using their imagination.
   
4. Realistic representation: Choose toys that represent real-life objects, animals, people, or activities. That’s one of my favorite things about the Lovevery: The Connector Play Kit — it features realistic play characters that foster acceptance and inclusivity. These toys can help your child make connections between the physical world and their play, promoting a deeper understanding of the environment.
   
5. Size and weight: Ensure that the toys are appropriately sized for your toddler’s little hands. They should be easy for your child to manipulate, play with, and carry.
   
6. Safety: Always prioritize safety. Ensure that the toy size is appropriate for your child’s age, and development, and is made with materials that are good for the planet.
   
7. Fine motor skill development: Look for toys that encourage fine motor skill development, such as puzzles, building blocks, nesting toys, counting toys, peg boards, or toys with different textures to explore.
   
8. Independence-promoting: Montessori toys often support your child’s desire for independence. Toys that your child can easily set up, clean up, and use on their own in a variety of ways are ideal.
   
9. Sensorial exploration: Select toys that stimulate the senses, such as toys with different textures, scents, sounds, and colors. These toys are a great way to help your child refine their sensory perception.
   
10. Purposeful learning: Choose toys that have a clear educational purpose. For example, toys that teach counting, sorting, matching, or language skills can be excellent Montessori toy choices (think of wooden toys, blocks, a rainbow stacker, and more).
    
11. Real-life skills: Montessori toys often focus on teaching and helping your child develop their real-life skills. Look for toys that mimic household activities, such as toy kitchen sets, cleaning tools (these are our favorite ones my kids use to mop the floors all the time), or gardening sets.
    
12. Versatility: Look for toys that can be used in various ways and across different age ranges. Versatile toys provide prolonged engagement and adapt to the child’s changing interests and abilities. (For example, a balance board is great for imaginative play and core motor skill development).
    
13. Interest-driven: Observe your child’s interests and select toys that align with their current fascinations. This approach encourages active engagement and learning. For toddlers who love physical exercise — a balance board, pikler triangle, or arch would be a great choice! For toddlers who enjoy toys that promote fine motor skills — wooden balls, puzzles, lacing toys, or peg boards would be a great choice for them.
    
14. Social interaction: While many Montessori toys focus on individual play, it’s also essential to include toys that facilitate social interaction, like board games or cooperative building sets. Bonus, especially during the toddler years, if they also contain social-emotional learning and help your child learn about their feelings.
    
15. Sustainability: Consider the environmental impact of the toys you choose. Select products from eco-friendly and sustainable brands, like Lovevery, whenever possible.

Now, let’s dive into the BEST Montessori toys for toddlers. 

The Best Montessori Toys For Toddlers

The Connector Play Kit by Lovevery

First and foremost, Lovevery is a subscription-based delivery service that has revolutionized the way parents can access high-quality Montessori toys for their babies and toddlers. 

Lovevery understands that busy moms need a hassle-free shopping experience, and that’s exactly what they deliver. With a Lovevery subscription, you’ll receive age-appropriate toys right at your doorstep. They thoughtfully curate each play kit to suit your child’s developmental stage, taking the guesswork out of toy shopping.

For instance, this kit, The Connector Play Kit is ideal for children 49, 50, or 51 months old. It was kindly gifted to us from Lovevery and we can’t wait to show you what’s inside!

It features:

• A real working microscope that detaches for on-the-go fun to promote STEM concepts.
• A wooden modular village, and pathways to boost creative thinking and problem-solving (my kids have SO MUCH FUN with this one).
• Realistic play friends that promote inclusivity and imaginative pretend play. 
• Adventure Pack with lots of zippers, buttons, and is the perfect way to strengthen fine motor skills. 
• Daily helper board to build routines and independence.
• A book that helps toddlers this age work through frustration when trying something new.

One thing I also love about Lovevery play kits is that they all come with a play guide. Meaning, parents can learn all the different ways to use the toys in the kit to support their child’s learning and development. 

Plus, remember how we talked about safety earlier in this article? Well, Lovevery’s playthings are thoughtfully crafted to be 100% child-safe using sustainable materials like 100% FSC-certified sustainably harvested wood, organic cotton fabrics, and other child-safe materials.

The Block Set

The Block Set is another popular toy item from Lovevery that my kids (toddlers) absolutely love. What love is that you can use it in so many ways. 

It can be used as an educational toy to count blocks and practice basic math skills. It can also be used to build fun towers and towns that boost that creative thinking. We also love using the Block Set to sort and arrange the blocks since they come in different colors and different types. 

If you like making sensory kits for your toddler, these make great filler pieces for sensory play as well. The open-endedness of these blocks has no limit and we’re here for it! The Block Set is easily one of our favorite Montessori toys to date!

Want to learn even more about The Block Set by Lovevery? Check out this article we wrote when we first opened up our Block Set package!

Pikler Triangle

If you have an active toddler who loves to climb, run around, and jump all day — a Pikler Triangle could be the perfect type of play! When we first introduced a Pikler Triangle to my kid’s playroom — they played with that thing for a LONG time. 

It offered new ways for them to explore climbing up, climbing over, crawling under, and even getting extra creative to throw a little blanket over the top to create a small fort. 

But in general, Pikler Triangles are a great way to offer your child a safe space for play that will strengthen their gross motor skills and cognitive skills, and awareness.

The downside is that these popular Montessori toys aren’t cheap.

From time to time to can find a good deal on Amazon (especially around the holidays), but here is a Pikler Triangle almost identical to the one we own and love (and going 2 years strong!) and will be gifting to a new baby friend in our life as my boys are ready to move on to toys that better challenge their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and concentration skills.

Play Kitchen

Play kitchens are another favorite toy of ours and I know a few Montessori teachers who love them and have them in their classrooms as well. That’s simply because play kitchens allow children to play by practicing purposeful work and of course, boosting their problem-solving and developmental skills. 

For instance, we like to put dirty dishes in the “sink”. I then prompt my kids with something like: “hmm, these dishes look dirty. What should we do next?” Activities like this are also really fun to encourage independent play, and around here, we’re all about giving our kids space to play independently so parents can knock out some quick chores or simply just relax for a couple of minutes. 

Why Montessori Toys?

Three words: The Montessori Approach. Montessori toys are rooted in the educational philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori, who emphasizes child-led learning, independence, and respect for a child’s individual pace of development. 

In fact, some research supports that the Montessori philosophy and education have more beneficial outcomes than traditional education.

Montessori toys are often carefully crafted to stimulate multiple senses and promote your child’s development at their own pace. 

Lovevery embodies this philosophy, ensuring that each toy they offer is thoughtfully designed by their child development experts to support a child’s cognitive, emotional, and physical development. 

As moms, we always strive to provide our toddlers with the best tools and toys for learning and growth. As discussed in this article, Montessori toys are a wonderful way to foster independence, creativity, and cognitive skills in our little explorers. 

With Lovevery’s subscription delivery service, shopping for these incredible toys has never been easier. Their curated toy boxes cater to your child’s developmental needs, making sure they have the right toys at the right time. It’s no surprise we think they make the absolute BEST Montessori Toys for Toddlers.

So, let’s empower our toddlers to reach their fullest potential while cherishing the precious moments of play and discovery right by their side.

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