There have been countless debates on whether Montessori inspired toys are necessary or even worth it for young children to help with their early development. Parents will scroll on social media and be bombarded with ads from different Montessori brands convincing you with deceiving marketing tactics that if your child doesn’t have Montessori toys, they will fail their first year in kindergarten. So what do you believe in? Who do you trust? We get it, this might be another blog trying to sell you that we are ‘different.’ But here is some background on the concept of Montessori, and you can decide yourself if it’s worth it in today’s day in age:
Montessori philosophy has been around for over a century
That’s correct. The concept of Montessori education has been around for over 115 years. It was originally developed by Italian physician and educator, Dr. Maria Montessori in the early 1900s. Dr. Maria Montessori’s approach focused on hands-on and child-led learning with the emphasis on experiential activities. Which you see with the many different Montessori toys in the market today. The concept of Montessori is nothing new, and it is widely practiced in over 20,000-30,000 schools worldwide.
Helpful for Cognitive Development
Montessori inspired toys compared to regular toys have many advantageous benefits. Regular toys that run on batteries are very closed ended, and do not possess much versatility or exploration. The benefits of Montessori inspired toys is that they encourage children to think critically while enhancing their problem solving skills. The early years of a child’s brain is crucial to learning, so introducing these cognitive opportunities can stimulate early learning and logical thinking. Some of the toys can challenge their cognitive development by making connections and understanding cause and effect.
Helping with important milestones
There are many Montessori inspired toys that can help with meeting early important milestones and help keep your child on track so they do not fall behind. Many products like alphabet puzzles and object-to-picture matching activities are excellent for language development. These engaging activities will help expand their vocabulary and understanding of language structure through hands–on learning.
Builds confidence and independence
The foundation of Montessori inspired toys is that many of the toys are designed to be open-ended, which allows your child to explore with their own interpretation at their own pace. Since they are open-ended, there is no one way of engaging with them. This opens up for problem solving and empowering young minds to make their own decisions. This form of play will instill confidence and they will learn how to trust in their own abilities as they grow up.
At the end of the day, everyone will have their own opinion and interpretations of the philosophy of Montessori and Montessori inspired products. As long as your child is learning and continues to grow and developmentally meet their milestones, that’s all that matters. Regardless of what toys or equipment they use.