Montessori Toys for 20 Month Old

What's Covered

Montessori is a specific type of education that is becoming increasingly popular around the world.  Montessori teaching can start right from birth.  Parents and teachers who follow the Montessori style of education believe in allowing children to explore their environment.  They set up toys and activities that are appropriate for the children’s age, this allows the child to explore and develop.    Research shows that Montessori education can be of a great benefit to children both when it comes to academic skills like writing , math and reading,  as well as social skills[1].  Many parents like to practice Montessori at home, to help keep their children entertained and enhance their learning.  Let’s take a look at some amazing Montessori toys for a 20 month old.

Best Montessori Spatial Toys

Spatial toys include toys such as blocks, shape games and puzzles.  These are great for helping young children develop hand eye coordination, concentration and reasoning skills.  Research suggests that these types of toys help young children develop skills needed for school readiness including science, maths, engineering and technology[2].  Below are some amazing Montessori toys you can get for your children to help with these types of skills.

Montessori Wooden Shape Sorter Puzzle

This wooden shape sorter puzzle is perfect to keep your baby entertained and help with their learning.  The toy is made of natural wood with non toxic paint.   Babies can sort the different wooden fruits and vegetables into the correct holes.  This helps them develop many skills, including hand eye coordination, imagination and reasoning.  Children will enjoy the different colours of the fruits and vegetables and learn how to sort them into the correct places.

Wooden Busy Board

This wooden sensory board has 10 different activities which will keep your toddler entertained for hours and enhance their learning at the same time.  This wooden busy board lets toddlers turn cogs, flip a switch, latch and unlatch a door and open and close a zip.  So many opportunities for learning and hours of entertainment for your little one.  While toddlers are having fun with the different functions of the busy board, they are practising fine motor skills, reasoning skills and problem solving.  The  busy board makes a great gift and will help make mums life easier by keeping toddlers busy.

Montessori Wooden Stacking RIngs

These beautiful stacking rings are made of natural wood with a non toxic paint and varnish.  They are painted in lovely, exciting colours and patterns with an elephant at the top.  Babies and toddlers can use this Montessori toy to learn to stack the rings of different sizes.  One of the first building skills children learn is stacking, and stacking rings are perfect for them to practise with.  These wooden stacking rings encourage children to practise fine motor skills and develop hand eye coordination. 

Wooden Building Blocks

Wooden building blocks are a classic Montessori toy.  These are great for all ages and by 20 months old toddlers can enjoy hours of fun with these wooden building blocks.  These blocks are made from high quality wood and encourage creativity, imagination and motor skills.  Wooden blocks are a great way to start encouraging independent play from your toddler.  They can stack these up, break them down and use them to create many different things in their games.  Many toddlers like to incorporate blocks into other types of play.  For example, they like to use the blocks to make fences for their animals or make roads for their cars.  This all encourages them to use their imagination and keeps them busy.

Montessori Wooden Stacking Rainbow

These rainbow stacking blocks are made of quality hard wood and can be stacked to form a lovely colourful rainbow.  Rainbows are really popular with children right now.  It looks great in any bedroom or playroom  and is a fantastic way to add colour to a room.  Children can play with these stacking blocks in many different ways, by creating different patterns and shapes.  This beautiful rainbow helps fosters children’s imagination, creativity, fine motor skills and will help keep them busy and entertained.

Montessori Coin Box

This cute Montessori coin box is made of high quality wood and comes with five wooden disks for your child to put into the slot.  It also has a pull out draw to allow children to easily retrieve the coins.  This coin box is a great toy to keep toddlers busy and occupied while also learning about object permanence and hand eye coordination.  Your child will be having fun and also developing fine motor skills and using their imagination.  This  toy makes a great gift or addition to a playroom.

Best Montessori Musical Toys

During a child’s first three years music plays an important role in brain development.  According to research, music and melody in early childhood helps children with schooling later in life, especially mathematics[3].  Music is considered important in the Montessori style of education as it stimulates all children’s senses and helps with brain development[4].  There are many Montessori musical toys that can be used at home, let’s take a look at some of them.

Mini Band Wooden Percussion Instrument

Help your 20 month old develop a love for music and rhythm with this  musical toy.  This is a five in one musical instrument, perfect for busy toddlers who love to make music.  It includes several different ways to make music including a xylophone, drum and clapper.  This instrument is high quality and is easy to clean/wipe down after baby has finished playing.  This is a fantastic first instrument for your child, they will really enjoy drumming and tapping to different melodies. 

Wooden Egg Shakers

These cute egg shakers are made of high quality wood and are painted with bright colours and patterns to capture your little one’s attention.  These shakers are ideal to give to your children while you sing with them or listen to music.  They can shake the eggs and learn about rhythm and melody.  They are suitable for all ages, toddlers especially enjoy the texture and sounds of these lovely wooden shakers.

Wooden Baby Xylophone

Toddlers love creating their own music.  Why not give your little one this Wooden Baby Xylophone as their very first musical instrument.  With a strong wooden base and bright coloured keys your child will love playing with this toy.  Music is really important during children’s first few years.  It helps with brain development and allows children to express creativity and learn rhythm.  You will be amazed at how much your toddler enjoys tapping away on this musical toy, and how fast they pick up the rhythm.

Montessori Wooden Musical Instrument Set

Want to give your toddler a variety of musical instruments to choose from?  Then this set is for you.  This lovely wooden musical instrument set contains 9 different types of percussion instruments.  Each instrument makes a different sound and is played in a different way.  These are not only great for at home, but also great in a classroom.  Toddlers love being able to make choices, and with this set they have the option to pick from many different instruments, all of which will allow them to create great sounds and encourage their creativity and rhythm.

Montessori Toys for Movement

Toddlers who are 20 months old love to move.  They love to climb, roll and challenge their bodies.  Movement for this age group is very important and all about gaining control over their legs and arms.  Research shows that physical movement and gross motor skills are important for toddlers and can contribute to cognitive development and academic achievement later in life[5]. There are many Montessori toys available to encourage children who are 20 months old with movement.  Movement includes walking, running, climbing, rolling, throwing, jumping and many other activities.  Let’s take a look at some of the best Montessori toys for movement.

Wooden Balance Board

This lovely wooden balance board is an amazing toy for toddlers. First of all it teaches children how to balance and strengthens their muscles while they are using it.  Children can also turn the board over and use it to walk along or crawl under like a bridge, this encourages them to use lots of different parts of their bodies.  Children also use this balance board in many different creative ways, we have seen it  used as a swing, part of a cubby house, as a slide, a chair and as a ramp for cars to roll down.  This is a very versatile toy and will keep your toddler entertained and happy.

Wooden Climbing Ladder

This wooden climbing ladder is made of natural wood and looks amazing in any playroom.  It is made of strong high quality wood so you can be assured that it is safe for your toddler to climb on.  Toddlers love to climb and this ladder offers them a safe way to develop their climbing skills.  You can also drape a sheet over the top of the ladder and turn it into a little hut or cubby house.   With three difficulty levels which can be adjusted to suit your child’s age, this ladder will keep them occupied and happy for many hours of play.

Soft Climb and Crawl Activity Play Set

Your toddler will absolutely love this Crawl and Climb play set.  It is made from five pieces of dense foam, which can be arranged in many different configurations, to ensure your toddler never gets bored.  Children can crawl and climb up and over the different structures that you create.  This helps with gross motor development, coordination and reasoning skills.  The soft foam allows children to play, climb and take risks safely.  The Crawl and Climb playset makes your job easier as it is quick and simple to clean.  Just wipe down with a mild soap and cloth.  Children will have hours of fun using this play set all while learning important skills.

Montessori Climber Set

Want to keep your toddler amused for hours?  This Montessori climbing set will be perfect.  It consists of three parts:  A pikler arch, ramp and pikler triangle.  These parts can be used by your toddler separately or be combined together to create the ultimate climbing adventure.  Children love to explore and use their bodies, this climber set helps children learn how to safely use their bodies and helps them develop gross motor skills.  If you have a toddler who is constantly busy and wanting to climb, explore and get into mischief then thi climbing set will be very helpful in keeping them entertained and satisfying their curiosity. 

Other Amazing Montessori Toys

Below are some additional toys that will help you with Montessori education for you 20 month old toddler.  They will capture your toddler’s imagination and encourage exploration and development.

Wooden Car Race Toy

This bright colourful toy will be hours of fun for your20 month old.  It  comes with seven little cars which your toddler can race down the colourful track.    This toy can be enjoyed by your toddler individually or together with other children which encourages turn taking, social skills and communication.  Children do most of their learning through play, and this toy captures their imagination so that they can play for many hours.

Bee Matching Game

This wooden beehive matching game is made of high quality wood and painted in bright colours to capture your toddlers attention.  This set includes s 7 brightly coloured bees and a set of tweezers.  Children can use the tweezers to pick up the bees and match them to the correct colours in the beehive.  This toy will help your toddler learn in several different ways.  First of all, children are learning and practising fine motor skills when they use the tweezers.  This strengthens their hand and finger muscles in preparation for learning to write.  Secondly, children can learn about different colours and how to match the bee to the correct colour.  This is great for concentration, brain development and also lots of fun!

Magnetic Tile Set

This magnetic tile set is the ultimate toy for encouraging creativity and imagination.  These plastic, high quality magnetic tiles are suitable for children from 18 months right up until school age.  Children can use them to build many creations such as houses, castles, farmyards, boats, towers and many more.  Building with the magnetic tiles encourages toddlers to use their imagination and encourages independent play.  Building and creating helps children to develop reasoning skills, as well as motor skills, hand eye coordination and problem solving.  These tiles are long lasting and hard wearing, so children can continue to play with them as they grow older.  They are also super easy to clean so perfect for home and the classroom.

Final Thoughts

Montessori education is a great option for your 20 month old.  You can start right from birth and continue into the  school years.  Montessori educational toys are a great way to help your child have fun while they learn.  Montessori toys help children develop many skills that they need in preparation for more formal learning at school.  To help you give your child the best start in Montessori education, these are the toys I recommend: , , SoftZone Climb and Crawl Activity Play Set.


[1] Lillard, Angeline Stoll. Montessori: The science behind the genius. Oxford University Press, 2016.

[2] Verdine, Brian N., et al. “Finding the missing piece: Blocks, puzzles, and shapes fuel school readiness.” Trends in Neuroscience and Education 3.1 (2014): 7-13.

[3] Harris, Maureen. “The effects of music instruction on learning in the Montessori classroom.” Montessori Life 20.3 (2008): 24-31.

[4] Rajan, Rekha S. “The music within.” Montessori Life 22.2 (2010): 34.

[5] Marrus, Natasha, et al. “Walking, gross motor development, and brain functional connectivity in infants and toddlers.” Cerebral Cortex 28.2 (2018): 750-763.

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Author

Vivian Perry

Vivian Perry

Mother of 3 kids. Enjoy reading parenting books and studied child care degree. Vivian loves to learn and write about parenting tips and help her kids to grow positively with grit mindset.

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