Maria Montessori-inspired learning mainly depends on self-motivated learning by the children. I have been following and implementing her way of education to teach my son and daughter since they were 4 months old.
What is more, as my babies turned 16 months old, I started implementing the following Montessori activities spiced with my own creativity and teaching experience.
DIY Montessori Activities For A 16 Month Old:
DIY suggests ‘ Do it yourself ‘. Naturally, I aimed to make my children join some activities spontaneously under my supervision.
1) Sensory Bottles For Stimulating Visual And Auditory Senses: I took the plastic bottle and filled it up with beads, glitters, rice, a little confetti, etc. Then I urged them to explore the scaled bottle. They loved to shake it and listened to different sounds with interest.
2)Simple Puzzles For Problem-Solving Skills:
For this, I arranged for a puzzle board and wooden chunky pieces. Subsequently, I showed them how to place the pieces onto the board properly and asked them to repeat it according to his/ her interests.
3) Object Permanence Box For Understanding Object Permanence And Motor Skill:
To materialize it, I procured a wooden box with a hole on its top and a small ball. After making all the arrangements, I showed my children to drop the ball into the top hole for moving through and later collected it by opening the drawer, attached beneath the box. Next, I encouraged him to do so.
4) Beads- Threading For Hand- Eye co-ordination:
For this, I took colorful beads and a thick string. Then I showed them how to thread the beads into the string individually. Certainly, later I made my children practice it playfully.
5) Movement In A Musical Way For Auditory Development And Co-Ordination:
As one of the DIY activities, music turns out to be interesting and important to children. Naturally, I motivated my children to play a drum, baby guitar, maracas, etc and tuned their bodies easily with the rhythm.
6) Water Play For Fine Motor Skills:
This appears to be very interesting to a child to play with water. This time, I allowed my children to be engaged in pouring water from one shallow container to another with the help of cups and sponges. Squeezing sponges to drain out water is a type of exercise and clearly, children love to do it.
All these activities mentioned above are in line with Montessori principles.
Indoor Montessori Activities For A 16 Month Old:
Here I jot down some indoor Montessori activities that I found suitable for my 16-month-old children.
- Shape Sorting: For this, I collected some fitting toys and asked my children to fit them into corresponding holes. Surely it helped them a lot to grasp problem-solving techniques and hand-eye coordination.
- Drawing Activity: To grow creativity, I provided them with wax colors, markers, and finger paints and urged him/ her to draw or scribble on paper.
- Reading Books: To back up a child’s language development, I read out books with colorful illustrations and repeated if needed.
- Posting Activity: I gave them a box with a slot and small items like coins, buttons, and confetti for dropping through the slot. Without a doubt, it made them to be precise and attentive.
- Stacking Cups: One of the Montessori activities for a 16-month-old is stacking cups. For this, I offered my children some cups of various sizes and urged them to stack the cups according to sizes. This inspired coordination.
- Practical Activity: Playfully, I fostered independence in my children by encouraging them to participate in wiping, dusting, doing up, setting books, etc obviously under my supervision.
- Finding Things: For this, I filled up a bin with rice or beads or sand and hid small toys or balls in them. Then I cheered up them to find them in the bin. This stimulated sensory exploration.
Free Montessori Activities For A 16 Month Old :
Under the previous subheadings, related to Montessori activities for a 16-month-old, I have mentioned some ideas for activities that my babies freely and easily took part in, obviously under supervision. Apart from them, I added a few more activities that my children did spontaneously.
Matching And Categorizing: For this activity, I collected different sorts of things like cups, toys, spoons, plastic saucers, wooden blocks, woolen balls fabrics, etc, and then just cheered my babies to categorize them by size, type, color, shape, etc.
Picture Puzzles: To grow problem-solving ability, I made Puzzles by cutting pictures from books or newspapers and arranging them in shapes. Subsequently, I urged my children to rearrange them correctly. One important point is there that pictures must be colorful and interesting.
Building And Balancing: For this, I collected wooden blocks and asked my children to balance them one by one and build a shape.
These activities were conducive to my children’s motor, cognitive, and sensory development.
How To Play With A 16-Month-Old:
It is very natural for a child to be engaged in playing which must be interesting and funny. 16 months – this was the age when my child could grow their cognitive and motor skills. Here are some games that my children tried at home and outdoors as well-
1)For Mirth And Merriment:
- a) I fixed play dates with other children.
- b) My children joined ‘ Peek-a-boo ‘ and ‘ Pat- – cat’
2) For Language And Cognitive Growth:
- a) I read books with lots of pictures before them.
- b) I pointed out household things and named them. I asked them to repeat.
- c) I sang nursery rhymes with my children.
3) For Fine Motor Skills-
- a) I arranged blocks so that my children could build up structures.
- b) I gathered cups, rings, bowls, etc for my children to stack them properly.
- c) I used to urge my children to scribble with crayons.
4) For Imaginative Power:
- a) I collected various toys, dresses, and dolls so that my babies could pretend to be some characters and play with them.
5) For Physical Movement:
- a) I cheered up my children to walk or run or dance to some music in indoors or outdoors. Surely my children took an interest in it.
- b) I offered my children balls for throwing and kicking to me or someone else.
6) For Sensory Exploration:
- a) I provided my children with toys of different textures, colors, and shapes and later asked them to explore them for stimulation.
- b) I asked them to play in a shallow tub and undoubtedly splashing appeared to be mind-blowing to him and her.
Sumanta De is an educator. He has been teaching students for more than 16 years following the principles of Dr.Maria Montessori. He has a 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter.
He is nurturing his children abiding by the principles of Dr.Maria Montessori. His passion for Montessori methods goes beyond the classroom.
Hence, he shares his experiences and insights through a dedicated Montessori blog and a YouTube channel under the name “NewChild Montessori”. He aims to offer valuable guidance to both parents and educators.
Education: M.A. English, Masters in Child Psychology & Bachelor’s Degree in Montessori Teachers Training