Tag: Montessori materials at home

Before I introduced all primary colors, I started with introducing by isolating only one color at a time. First, we started with a unit study Red, then Blue, and then yellow. I will have to post those at a later time for reference. This unit study exceeds my expectation as I made some of the materials by myself and used some of the materials from different lessons I already had. With doing Montessori at home, it is extremely important for us that we are not buying expensive materials for all the skills that my little bug need to learn. There are many ways you can create your own beautiful materials at home at much cheaper price and they work great. Do not get me wrong, I do buy Montessori materials from Montessori websites as they are beautiful and durable and let’s face it, sometimes it is just too hard when you are trying to make everything. There are some lessons that are authentic Montessori and then some I added from Amazon because I thought they went well with my unit study. Here is a sneak peek into our lessons on the shelf:

I made this inexpensive lesson with the Dollar Tree wooden clothespin and a wooden board I found at Michael’s Arts and Crafts for 59 cents. With some acrylic paint, there is a lesson that helps with hand-eye coordination and strengthens child’s visual discrimination. I also like this lesson as it promotes bilateral hand use.

This lesson was another DIY with inexpensive material find at random places. The peg board was created free by my husband. He found this piece of wood for free at Home Depot and I bought Pegs from the Michael’s Arts and Crafts store for $2.99. This lesson is another great lesson for hand-eye coordination. It strengthens child’s finer motor skills and prepares their hand for pincer grip, which is an indirect objective of this lesson for later writing development.

I found these wooden spools at a local thrift store for $3.00 and wooden dowel is from the Dollar Tree. This is a great lesson and it is also a little challenging lesson for little ones. My son is only 12 months old and his finer motor skills are not as refined as probably any other older child. However, this is the lesson I’ve seen him getting out the most and trying to thread the spool. He can easily thread one at a time after working at it for a few minutes and he almost succeeded with all three spools. The reason I did not remove it from the shelf is because it provides him a challenge that is just right. He is not frustrated with the lesson yet and since he is going back to it over and over, it reminds me that this is what he needs to do right now.

Simple sorting activity with birds and flowers. Sorting is such an important skill to prepare a mathematical mind. This activity will eventually build up to sorting by initial sounds, shapes, textures, patterns and more.

Basket of simple music instruments. For this unit, I chose all the red, blue, and yellow instruments from the Melissa and Doug Kit that I bought during Christmas. My little man loves music so I try to incorporate opportunities to make music when I am planning my unit study.

This is just a simple knob puzzle that I bought from Montessori N Such. You can see from the picture that it is a much loved lesson. He mastered this puzzle at nine months but he still loves it a lot.

This one is just a paper box from the Dollar Tree where I cut out a little hole to turn it into a coin box. We also have a Montessori Coin Permanence Box but this is a little twist to fit our unit study. This is a good lesson for hand wrist movement, developing fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and teaching the child when object disappears out of sight does not mean its gone forever.

Simple DIY to help more with fine motor skills. This jar and the pipe cleaners are from the Dollar Tree.

Wooden Acrylic blocks for open ended activity. These block I found them on Amazon and they’ve been a favorite for many activities. You can take them outside to see nature with these colored blocks or stack them or use them as building blocks. They are very versatile and a good addition to our unit. I’ve also used them for storing materials as they are perfect size.

These are only some example of our Primary Colors unit study. If you like to see more of our lessons in use, you can follow us on Instagram @trulymontessori.