Our Montessori Shelf at 17 Months
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I want to preface by saying our Montessori shelf was not the focus of the month at all. My son is far more interested in practical life activities so that is where we spend most of our time. We cook together in the kitchen a lot. He has also been loving gross motor work and we spend a lot of time at the playground. I went through several iterations to get to this shelf at the end of the month. I should have taken photos during the process but I didn’t. Suffice to say this shelf included a lot of trial and error after multiple materials went completely untouched.
One development I have noticed this month is that my son is in the trajectory schema. I need to do a longer post on schemas, but I do recommend this book. I noticed a lot more interest in throwing this month which is what made me realize he was in the trajectory schema. We have our trusty basket of balls and did plenty of target throwing. The trajectory schema also though clued me in to some other things he might be interested in. The hammering toy, which I will talk about, as well as both the ball and car runs support this schema.
On the top left of his bedroom Montessori shelf was the winner of the month: a woodpecker hammering game. We bought it from the back to school sale at Tiny Earth Toys (homeandontheway15 for discount). It is made by Tender Leaf Toys. However, it isn’t available anymore. We also just got this one in our most recent Tiny Earth Toys box which looks wonderful. Plan Toys also has a similar one to the woodpecker game that looks great. As I mentioned above, this material supports the trajectory schema. While we tend to think of throwing in the trajectory schema, at its core it is an interest in lines and movement. Pounding plays on that same discovery of the world.
Next to it we used the burrow from a past Lovevery box along with some scarves from Sarah’s Silks (OnTheWay10 for 10% off). This was a fun twist on the bunnies in the burrow we played with a few months ago. I noticed my son was interested in covering himself with blankets so I thought the scarves might be a bit of a hit.
Next we have his flower posting material. This has been on the shelf for a couple months and he continues to enjoy it. I wouldn’t say he plays with it constantly at this point by any means but it is a material that he comes back to again and again.
On the left side of the bottom shelf we have a color sorting activity. I decided to put this one out to see what he would do with it. We have definitely not mastered color sorting (which is totally developmentally not expected yet) but he was showing some interest in it. We will continue to work on color sorting in the coming months.
Finally, we have our bird stacker. I also got this from Tiny Earth Toys at their back to school sale. It is also not available anywhere I can find. Stackers have really been favorites for a while though.
On the side of his shelf he has both his ball run and car ramp. Since he has been in the trajectory schema this month I kept both out as both are of interest to him.
On his living room Montessori shelf at 17 months we have a couple repeats and a couple new toys. The repeats are the Magnatiles we have enjoyed for several months and the stacker that remains a favorite. Magnatiles are wonderful for us to play together as I will build something and he will knock it down (also trajectory schema!), but he has also been showing more interest in experimenting with the magnets this month as well. On the bottom we have two new toys: a cute little insect container from Lovevery and a puzzle, also from Lovevery. I like that this puzzle has smaller grips so it gives more exacting pincer grasp work.
