KIRRLiving: Montessori Play at Home

Montessori Play at Home

What if you can bring Montessori play to your own home to further enhance your child’s learning? Read on to find out more! What is a Montessori play area?

They are simple, clean, and a great way to help the child learn, promote concentration and independence!

Here are some tips to create your own Montessori play at home:

• simple with a limited number of toys/ activities
• easily accessible and has everything displayed at the child’s level
• opened with space to move around and not cluttered
• stocked with toys that promote engagement
• neat and has a set place for items

Simple & Neat

"A place for everything and everything in its place" is one of the critical principles of Montessori at home. No one likes clutter, having a limited number of toys allows the child to focus better and master activities. Around 8-10 toys is a good number to have around the play area, you can just hide the rest and rotate them around!

When you designate a place for everything, your child will quickly learn where everything goes. This is an essential tool in teaching them to be independent and responsible for their belongings and clean up messes they may make.

Toys At Child’s Height

Have the toys at your child’s height and on display rather than hidden away in boxes. This encourages them to make choices for themselves and promotes independence.

Open Space For Movement (and play)

This is a tough one for Hong Kong, but even a small open space is important for their gross motor skills development, especially for babies as they learn to crawl and walk.

Choose Your Toys Well!

You may have noticed many Montessori toys are made from wood! That’s because wooden toys are not only environmentally friendly and long-lasting, they also help our little ones' development. It is important to select toys that stimulates learning by allowing children to explore, experiment and involve their own will, decisions, and ideas.

Try to include toys that your child can hold and touch, as learning to manipulate objects is key in helping children develop their fine motor skills.

Avoid battery-operated toys that light up and make noises. These toys seem great as they keep kids entertained and distracted, but they often don’t allow much room for creativity or curiosity. We suggest your play area should include a variety of toys/ activities such as puzzles, language activities and books, musical instruments, artwork, and toys that work on different skills (fine and gross motor, problem-solving, concentration, etc).

Happy Baton is Hong Kong’s first online rental subscription service that promotes learning through play. Each subscription box is curated by experts to optimize the benefits of play, offering families high-quality, safe and educational toys for your little ones. Every box contains 4-6 hand-picked toys that are good for their growing brains, and even better for our planet as they learn to pass on the fun!

Happy Baton is offering a free month trial for their 3 month plan (less than $340 a month for  Use code “HAPPY10” for 10% off on your first subscription plan. Check out our website for more details! For more information, WhatsApp Gloria at +852 5740-3560 or email hello@happybaton.com.hk