As young children get older, they start to explore and climb. Your child’s ability to do so depends on the degree of confidence she or he has in their balance and strength. Montessori climbing toys are designed to aid this development by encouraging play that leads to experimentation and exploration. These educational toys offer activities that encourage freedom of movement and investigation, while stimulating your junior’s imagination.
Montessori toys play a vital part not only in children’s entertainment, but сlimbing toys also help in a child’s development by providing opportunities to work on gross motor skills and fine motor skills. These toys serve a fundamental role in the thriving of a kid's creativity and develop a sense of self-confidence by providing them with an outlet to express themselves in different ways – from racing each other on triangle climbers to building towers and castles on top of these structures. Additionally, these toys can help develop a sense of self-confidence and creativity in children. Parents can use these toys to play with their little ones or encourage independent play.
Montessori environment
A Montessori environment is designed to encourage exploration and provide opportunities for hands-on learning. This location’s conditions should be clean and have everything placed in their own order, with materials that are safe and inviting. The playthings in a Montessori environment are carefully selected to promote physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development.
The prepared environment is a concept that the environment can be designed to encourage fully independent learning and exploration by the child. In the prepared space, there are various activities and a great deal of movement. This allows children to explore and touch different objects. For example, in a Montessori playroom, you might see a pikler triangle that allows children to practice gross motor skills. You might also see educational toys that help children develop fine motor skills as they touch different objects. The prepared environment is designed to help children be as independent as possible. For instance, a youngster may pick up a toy and feel its texture, then he or she uses this information to form an opinion about the object. And parents also play an important role in this process by providing support and guidance when needed.
Children love touching and feeling objects. They could be easily fascinated by the different textures, shapes, and sizes of things. Kids can spend hours exploring new toys, trying to figure out how they are working. Once again, these explorations are leading them to develop fine motor skills and acquire problem-solving skills.
In the prepared environment, activities are everywhere – even on the ceiling! The “prepared” refers to having all of the necessary tools and materials ready before beginning an activity or task because that will help and encourage children to investigate the world around them and develop their own ideas. Climbing toys are a great way to encourage gross motor skills and fine motor skills development in young children. You’ll learn how you can apply the principles of preparedness to your early childhood playroom by designing your own prepared environment and by monitoring young children as they explore their territory. You’ll realize that the more prepared you are, the more independence and learning will be fostered in your playroom!
This environment will also help to form relationships with other children and parents, as well as develop a love for learning and exploration that will stay with kids throughout their life.
Montessori toys
A Montessori toy is not an official term, however, there are some playthings that lend themselves to the Montessori philosophy. With repetition and purpose, as well as by reflecting on your child's daily life, toys in a Montessori environment increase your kid's curiosity.
When you're looking for toys that will fit within a Montessori style play area or classroom, you'll need to know what to look for. These are some signs that a toy will work well in a Montessori environment:
No electric parts
What children lack in substantive inputs they try to get from power-draining toys, which can provide short-term thrills, but come at the expense of any meaningful mental and physical challenge. Imagine that a baby presses a button on a plaything and a purple cow pops out. Lights flash and music plays, and the baby's brain builds a network of neural associations around that sequence. However, this sequence isn't useful to the child's long-term development. Neither is it entirely open-ended or reflective of how the world operates.
If, on the other hand, the toy your child needs is open-ended, then something like the Race and Chase Ramp will let him or her explore concepts like gravity and momentum by rolling small cars down a multi-level ramp. For example, does he or she want to try to see if he or she can roll two cars down at the same time? Can they keep a car from slipping off an edge? Are other objects rolling as well as the cars? These activities prompt problem-solving through exploration. Playing with toys that run on their own kinetic energy inspires children to stay with a problem, investigate further, and build new skills.
So this toy cannot move and make sounds by itself. It needs to be physically manipulated by a child. For instance, a musical instrument for a start instead of the latest and greatest toy robot.
Based on real life
The idea is to make their play spaces familiar. Montessori suggests choosing a toy like an animal they might encounter at the zoo or farm, instead of something unrealistic like a dragon or unicorn.
Children don't learn about make-believe for some time, so start off by exposing them to the real world and photographs. Psychologist Maria Montessori observed that before they're able to jump to make-believe, children need a lot of experience with accurate replicas of objects in the real world. It is comforting to the children and exciting to them at the same time.
Natural materials
A Montessori toy is usually made with safe, natural materials such as wood, cotton, metal, or even rocks. Using your senses in unison is how the brain translates a world of possibility into concrete skills. Multi-textured, cold and metallic things may be used to explore what objects feel like and how their weight, temperature, and size vary. This rich, sensory learning experience is at the heart of the Montessori philosophy.
One skill at a time
If you are considering choosing playthings for your little explorer with the Montessori method in mind, remember that they should teach them one skill at a time. Montessori-aligned toys help your youngster master one skill at once by reducing the odds of unnecessary distractions. Just as too many toys can be overwhelming, too many features on one toy can stop your child from developing new skills.
Initially, the soft octopus filled with eight games, labeled 1-8 on each tentacle, may seem educational. But, in reality, jumping from one activity to the next leaves children confused and overwhelmed and this, in turn, hampers the concept's understanding. You shouldn't only seek out single-use toys. Select items with multiple possible uses and start with one before moving on to the next.
Independence
A Montessori approach to education is about empowering children with real-life, age-appropriate tools or kid-sized alternatives to care for themselves and their environment. The goal is to cultivate your child's ability to be a contributing member of his or her family and community. There are many of these tools that you probably already have at home, such as child-sized spatulas and whisks, and an apron for your juvenile to cook with you.
Montessori learning can be introduced to your child's playroom by arranging a few toys on a low shelf and rotating them periodically to keep your kid interested. Introduce new toys slowly, with exaggerated movements, with few words, and with plenty of space to investigate and solve problems independently.
With Montessori educational toys, your child is encouraged to move, manipulate objects, develop coordination, and excel at spatial intelligence. The handcrafted toys will inspire your young learner to explore more about their world through play as they use their hands and feet to push and pull pieces around and build big structures with their bodies and their hands.
Montessori climbing toys
Learning doesn’t have to be boring! Educational playthings are designed to help young learners develop their balance, coordination, and spatial intelligence. Montessori toys make a perfect addition to any kid's playroom. These educational climbing structures help develop balance and coordination through climbing. Encouraging your child’s mobility and manipulation of objects, these toys will inspire them to learn more about their world through play!
Today, there are plenty of different types of climbing toys to choose from. Youngsters at Montessori schools often use Montessori (Pikler) triangles and nugget couch climbers, and this activity contributes to their development of gross motor skills. Any of the toys on the list below are great for a child's development, you can choose ones depending on the space you have at home, as well as the size of your budget.
● Climbing triangles
A climbing (Pikler) triangle is a structure for children to climb and explore that gets more complicated as the kid grows. Montessori-inspired toys are designed to enable children to experiment with new interests and develop a more thorough understanding of them by playing hands-on.
● Nugget Couch
Nugget Couch is part furniture, part toy, and capable of acting as a couch, bed, fort build-out, or any other use kids can imagine. This simple kids' couch features four removable open-cell polyurethane foam pieces encased in plush microsuede. The cushions consist of two different kinds of main cushions: one firm base cushion and one soft cushion, as well as two triangle pillows that provide support.
● Climbing Domes
If you want to keep your children active and entertained, look into getting a climbing dome! Dome climbers are suitable for young children, as they are made of strong and rigid material to withstand the weight and the material is coated with plastic to prevent it from rusting. The surface finish prevents slipping, so they are safe for children. It is made from heavy-duty powder-coated steel and requires very little maintenance, making it a durable option for a purchase. Very easy to assemble, even without a detailed user manual.
● Balancing toys
Playing with balancing playing stuff is a great idea, and any child therapist will tell you how much they can benefit kids. Below, you'll find some examples of good gross motor toys in balancing selection:
- Balance board
- Stepping stones
- Step-a-Logs
- Balance bike
- Balance beam
The unique design of these Montessori climbing toys allows children to develop balance, coordination, and spatial intelligence. Children will use their hands and feet to push around the colorful or plain wood pieces as they build big structures and learn about their environment.
Montessori climbing toys from WoodandHearts
All of our wooden products are made from natural, high-quality birchwood and are protected with a non-toxic lacquer that does not cause skin irritation or respiratory issues. For our colored products, we use a safe, water-based paint that is similarly safe to put on an infant's tooth. In order to empower kids, WoodandHearts furniture is designed to give them freedom and a sense of responsibility.
Among our shop range, you may find all kinds of products which might be described as climbing toys. This includes sets of four different sizes (large for 4-8 year-olds, standard for 2-8 year-olds, small for kids aged 2-6, and mini for the smallest ones, whose aged from 8 months old to 4 years old) which often consist of three items including triangle, ramp and climbing arch, which, by the way, can also be used as a rocker - you just need to put a pillow on it; balancing boards of two sizes (standard and small), parts of which can be placed as seats for much more comfortable balancing for two kids simultaneously; transformable kitchen tower because yes, your little one will need to climb on it in order to help you out in the kitchen or reach the unreachable high places.
Wooden furniture is sturdy and a long-term decision for each family who decides to introduce the Montessori lifestyle and create such an environment at home. So choosing WoodandHearts furniture for these goals from any category presented on our website will definitely make a compliment to the nursery for a growing toddler.
Remember…
…the tools you use in your Montessori environment should help your little ones reach their full potential, and there’s no better way to do that than through play. At its core, Montessori education involves hands-on learning that encourages both creativity and discovery. Climbing structures are perfect for this type of exploration because they allow children to experiment with their environment and try out new skills in an open-ended way that’s similar to how they would explore the natural world outside the room. This can be especially important as your kids grow older and want more freedom over their playtime. Encourage youngsters to be creative thinkers and problem solvers with our Montessori climbing toys!