Montessori Aligned Toys

A quick search for “Montessori toys” will lead you to a plethora of children’s toys. Many of these have reviews explaining why this lovely toy is not a Montessori toy. Typically, these reviews are not wrong! One of the biggest conflicts I’ve noticed is open-ended toys being labeled “Montessori” when Montessori materials are typically designed to be closed-ended.

Why is Montessori closed-ended?

When Maria Montessori designed materials for her classrooms, she worked hard to create something that isolated the topic for the child. While many materials have multiple ways to present lessons, there is still a prescribed method of using the material and educational goal. Color tablets teach children color recognition. Moveable alphabet helps children spell. The tower of cubs (also known as the pink tower) helps children explore size differentiation.

Maria Montessori saw the value of play and incorporated it into her classrooms. She also saw how much children enjoyed doing meaningful work. I think a great example is a toy kitchen. Many children will spend hours copying their parents and pretending to pour, measure, stir, and slice in a play kitchen. But when given the opportunity to pour real water, slice a real cucumber, or bake a real cake, children are often far more interested. It may not be play the way adults think of playing, but the child is having fun and learning.

Why we used open-ended toys

When it comes to bringing toys into my home, I much prefer open-ended toys over closed-ended. Why? Because free play is separate from our school. While the line is often blurred with homeschooling,