Montessori Gifts

Pick the age, then the gift.

Montessori gifts for babies (0 to 12 months)

• Something to watch. A hand-stitched wool felt crib mobile, in five themes from safari animals to sky and ocean. Nothing to plug in and nothing that blinks, just shape and color above the crib. A favorite baby shower gift.

Montessori gifts for 1 year olds

• A first ride. The balance bike has no pedals and no training wheels, so balance comes before speed. From 1 year and up.
• A first band. The wooden music set mounts six instruments on one low stand: xylophone, two drums, cymbal, chimes and bells. From 18 months.

Montessori gifts for 2 year olds

• Their own name. The personalized name puzzle is spelled exactly as you order it, and stays on the shelf as a name plaque once the puzzle phase is over.
• A bedtime they look forward to. Color your own pajamas come with 12 washable fabric markers, in sizes from 2-3 to 7-8 years.

Montessori gifts for 3 year olds

• First science. The digital microscope needs no glass slides: a leaf, a feather or a bug's wing, magnified up to 1000x.
• A clock they can read. The learning watch shows the hour by color, so there is no math to do.
• A run that actually falls. The domino train sets the dominoes upright and evenly spaced, and your child gets to push the first one.

Gifts for 4 to 6 year olds and up

• A first stitch. The embroidery stitch book arrives with needle, threader, scissors and threads, and its cloth pages let a wrong stitch come back out.
• Drawing in the air. The 3D pen is recommended from 6, with 8 filament colors and a template booklet in the box. Adult supervision recommended.

Montessori Christmas gifts

Two pieces made for December itself. The felt Christmas tree hangs flat on the wall at their height, with 40 felt pieces they decorate and undecorate every day, and nothing that can break. For a first Christmas, the Christmas crib mobile hangs a needle-felted Santa, trees and stockings over the crib.

For more ideas sorted by age, read our guide to Montessori Christmas gifts.

Keepsakes for parents and grandparents

• The handprint keepsake frame layers up to five handprints, one per clear sheet, inside a single wooden frame.
• The kids art display frame opens at the front, so this week's A4 drawing goes up without taking the frame off the wall.