Sharing what's on our montessori friendly gift wish list for our daughter turning 3 years old! It's definitely a hybrid of montessori gifts and waldorf gifts as my daughter is very into pretend play. But it covers a wide variety of skills and interests from practical life, STEM, arts and culture, and more!
Montessori + Waldorf Gifts For 3 to 4 Year Olds
Lovevery Play Kits
We've had all the Lovevery play kits since my daughter was born and their latest 3-4 year old play kits have been a huge hit in our house!
You can read all of my individual Lovevery play kit reviews here for more details!
National Geographic Books
My daughter has always been a huge fan of Lovevery's books as they feature real people/things and now that she's about to be 3 she's been getting into the National Geographic “little kids” books which make a fantastic gift for montessori families!
She's been OBSESSED with the Go Wild! Sea Turtles book – we literally read it 3 times a day! Maybe it's because we go to the beach a few times a week and see the sea turtle nests or live near a rehabilitation center in Florida? I'm not sure, but she LOVES learning the different turtles, and I think it's helped her to understand why we clean up our beach everytime we go. This is a pretty light book compared to other National Geographic books making it a great started option!
Her other favorite has been the Little Kids First Big Book of Rocks, Minerals and Shells is quite a bit larger/denser than the Sea Turtle one! But she LOVES it too! My daughter has always been obsessed with crystals and rocks and she's really enjoyed learning their names. I've really enjoyed learning more about minerals, so it's a fun book for the whole family.
Rainbow Stacker Building Kit
I've always wanted one of those cute rainbow wooden stackers, but was also ensure if my daughter would play with it.
Then I found this awesome rainbow stacker building kit. It's the ultimate waldorf meets STEM toy in my opinion.
You get the classic rainbow wooden stacker you've surely seen on IG. Plus these flat boards that turn the rainbow arches into a stackable tower. There's also wooden flat pieces for building ramps or slides. Lastly it comes with a set of dolls and balls. So you can use this for building some cool constructions that you run the balls down OR you can build “rooms” and use the dolls for pretend play.
Geoboard
Around 3 to 4 year olds a geoboard can be a great learning tool for understanding early math concepts as kids enter the montessori sensitive period for spatial relations.
I personally love it because it builds the connection between art and math while also working fine motor skills and building their imagination and problem solving.
Screwdriver and wrench board
My daughter always follows me around and wants to use my tools so I figured it was time for a montessori busy board working some practical life skills!
This one comes with a child sized screwdriver, wrench and allen key (regular size) with seven different screws to practice inserting and removing.
Marble Run
A marble run is an awesome STEM toy that families practicing montessori at home will love!
If your kid loves it, there are loads of attachments and add ons for it too like a slide jump and even a xylophone ramp to make music at the marbles run!
Gummy Molds
We make our own gummies weekly!
I noticed my daughter started to lose interest in the making process towards the end when it came time to pour the gummies into the molds and – in true toddler fashion – since our gummies are bigger than the ones that come in a package she didn't like them as much unless I cut them down really small.
So I found these candy molds with a squeeze dropper so my daughter can actually create little mini gummies and help with the end process, not just adding and stirring the ingredients. It's a great practical life skill and fine motor refinement!
Mini Greenhouse
This litle greenhouse from Hape is so awesome!
You use the wood piece as a mold to fit a piece of paper around it and create a seedling pot
You fill the paper mold with soil, seeds and let them sprout!
Once it grows big enough you can transfer to a regular pot or garden.
Vegetable Growing Kit
I also decided to get this vegetable growing kit which comes with the seeds and fiber soil.
It's supposed to be the easiest, low mess starter kit so I'm hopeful we won't mess it up!
If nothing else, we get stickers and a pot out of it!
Butterfly Garden
Our neighbors have one of these little butterfly gardens and my daughter absolutely loves it!
This one comes with the caterpillars and a little learning panel highlight the metamorphosis process.
Magnifying Glass
I wanted to get a wooden magnifying glass we could use with the growing kits and butterfly garden.
I mean what kid doesn't love a magnifying glass?
Silks
Sarah's Silks are top not for play silks! While they are a little expensive they are non toxic, large, and last for so long and can be used 100 ways!
Dollhouse furniture
So whenever I get a big gift like our dollhouse I actually don't get all the accessories right away! I wait until the “newness” wears off and there's a need for any addons.
Over the last few months, my daughter has slowly stopped playing with her dollhouse and it's become storage for loose toys.
She still obsesses over her friends doll houses though which have furniture and loves to play with the dolls and furniture her speech therapist bring over so I knew it was time to add some furniture and clean things up!
This furniture set fits our dollhouse AND it's color coordinated which makes it easy for kids to start the right items into the right rooms.
Play Kitchen
Okay, I know in my montessori playroom tour I said we weren't going to get a play kitchen since our playroom is right off our kitchen and my daughter can just use that…
However, I also believe in following the child.
And while I didn't want “one more thing” in the playroom, I really can't deny the fact any longer that play kitchens are probably my daughter's absolute favorite thing since before she even turned 1 years old. My daughter just LOVES pretend play and that love has only continued to increase.
So I'm caving and getting her the IKEA one which I plan to renovate. There are loads of tutorials to make it a working montessori kitchen to foster independence, but I plan to just renovate the aesthetic since our kitchen is already set up for independence (sans the fridge). So if I do add anything functional it would just be a mini fridge, but I doubt that.
The IKEA kitchen does sell out A LOT so therese were the other one's we considered:
Montessori Toys For 3 to 4 Year Olds
More Montessori Toys
From the Best Montessori Baby Toys For 0-6 months to my favorite montessori toys for 6 to 12 month olds here I've got you covered during the first year!
With that said, one of my absolute favorite gift guides is my montessori gifts 1 to 2 year olds! Jam packed with our favorite items that have lasted for YEARS! Some of the gift ideas in there can even be introduced as early as 6 months old like a pikler triangle or 10 months old, like a toddler kitchen helper
Montessori Gift Guide For 3 to 4 Year Olds
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