Compiling this blog post shocked me. We did a lot more shelf work between 2.5 and 3 than I thought we had! Shelf work has never been the center of our Montessori home (that would be cooking!) but it has always been one of the learning tools that we use in our home. This blog post shares some of our favorite Montessori shelf-work activities for 2.5 to 3-year-olds. Of course, every child varies in interest and abilities.

My daughter just turned 18 months and has entered into the stage of one of my absolute favorite Montessori activities: matching. I give her small animals for her to match with a photo of the animal. My son loved object to picture matching like this from about 18 months to 2.5. At 3 we still use them to teach new language as part of unit studies.

I am asked a lot for ideas for Montessori homeschooling for toddlers or just Montessori activities for toddlers. I used to share a monthly and then every few months blog and Youtube but I did not get to it for these months. At this point, I want to get the blog out because my son is nearing 3 and I will want a whole new blog post then!

If you’ve been here before you might know for a while I was doing these monthly. I realized it wasn’t sustainable but also I can share way more about the progression to share on a three-month basis. There was so much learning between 21 and 24 months and I look forward to jumping in and talking about it! He was really into shelf work this month including some activities such as shape sorters and puzzles he hadn’t particularly loved in the past. Instead of simply going through our shelf since we had a few rotations during this time, I am going to discuss several categories: puzzles, matching, color matching, and fine motor work.

This month there has been intense interest in the shelf and in mastering some materials that have been out for a while. The multi-piece puzzle, for example, has been mastered this month and while still interesting to him will likely be rotated out for a more challenging one soon. I find there is still interest in toys that have been on the shelf for a while.

Our Montessori shelf and activities at 15 months old. We have been loving shelfwork this month and have seen a huge increase in fine motor skills. Come check out what we have been playing with this month!

One thing you might notice about our shelf this month if you also read my blog post from 13 months is very little has changed.. We have been very interested in practical life and in being outdoors. All in all, we didn’t do a ton of shelfwork and that reflects in our shelf looking basically the same.

Our Montessori shelves at 13 months. This month we are loving posting activities and our ball run. We are also working on shape sorters and bigger puzzles.

Our Montessori shelf at 12 months old! This month we are doing more complicated object permanence boxes, ring stackers, and a lot of one-piece puzzles.

Interest in shelf work has really taken off this month. At 10 months Yitzchak was almost exclusively interested in gross motor work and being held. This month he began ball posting in his object permanence box, stacking things, and putting the rings on the ring stacker.