We refuse to rely on screen time for our kids. Yes, we let them watch stuff. Yes, the entire house loves Bluey. But we don't want our kids to need it. Below is a list of the five most popular toys for our 2-year-old. They've been proof that he doesn't need screens, but he does need things that stimulate his developing brain. Here are our little toddler's five favorite Montessori toys! Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter at the bottom to receive exclusive deals in your inbox!
Coming in strong at #1 has been this busy board. Our little guy loves it! We got it for him around 18 months and it has been so fun watching him learn how to do each of the switches. It is lightweight, yet durable. The batteries last months (yes, it gets left on accidently constantly). Also, it's been a great way to incorporate teaching him the colors at the same time! It's so easy to just slide in the diaper bag and pop out on car rides or even plane rides. Cannot recommend this toy enough!
The kitchen is currently a world of wonder to our toddler. He wants to do whatever he sees us doing in there - making coffee, washing bottles for the baby, loading/unloading the dishwasher, and, dangerously, chopping vegetables. We love to include him in our kitchen tasks, but using sharp knives was out. Fortunately, we found this awesome set and he is obsessed with it! Yes, dinner can take a bit longer to prep. However, it's allowed us to combine a fun "play" activity with something that this momma needs to get done.
I wasn't kidding about the love of kitchen stuff! We discovered this lovely veggie & fruit playset during a library playtime visit and our little boy could not put it down! He looooves apples (and other foods too haha). However, this set is so useful for helping him with colors, counting, and names of foods. I also feel like a lot of books and sets lately have pretty weird-looking (washed out?) color schemes that can be confusing for littles. I want red to look red. Plus, who doesn't love toys that come with storage for the toys?!?
Alright, enough kitchen stuff (for now!) This car race track is honestly such a blast! Yes, you can teach some colors with it, but really we just play with this one. It's a bit of a nostalgia trip for my husband too as he had something very similar as a kid and some core memories playing with it in his room. There's just something mesmerizing about watching the cars race back and forth, and our little guy has been coming back to this one for months!
Last but not least, a classic! Only in the last few months have we really seen our toddler getting into puzzles. He has become so good at identifying what goes where and is starting to manipulate pieces to put into their spots. Couple that with his current favorite diaper change so is "uhbesee" (said very quickly!). He's even starting to be able to fill in gaps when we pause on random letters like ..."L, M, N, O..." "P!!!!" yells our boy. It's so fun watching him learn and I can't wait till we can start teaching him the sounds that letters make!
I don't know what it is about scooping and pouring things, but our little ones loves it. He wants to scoop the dog food, we let him place with scooping rice, and if there is a spoon involved it's 100x more fun for him! When I saw this toy I knew he would love it right away! It's so simple, yet he is fascinated by it. It's great to work on his colors and motor skills all at once!
Honestly, there are a lot more that I could share, and I will over time, but I wanted to start with the current favorites. For our little guy, all of these were a hit starting at 18 months, but the board and cars he has loved since 12 months. I've loved watching him learn the toys as well. It's not overnight, but slowly and steadily he finds new ways of playing with each one as his brain grows and his problem-solving improves. All of these toys are currently on sale - just be sure to click the "coupon" checkbox when adding to your cart!
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Cheers!
-E
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