12-14 Month Montessori-Aligned Favorites

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As we get into month 14 of Luca's life, I've observed his main interests for the last few months have involved practical-life opportunities. He is wanting to be very hands-on and involved in our daily tasks and chores. This has been such a fun development to witness and encourage. For that reason, I will dedicate this first section of favorites to items that have made involving him a little bit easier!

Practical Life Favorites

Luca loves to stand at the counter with us as we prepare meals. He also enjoys playing in water as we do the dishes. For this, we use the Sous-Chef Toddler Tower from Sprout. This was his big-ticket first birthday present from us! I know we will continue to get a lot of use out of it as he grows.

For pouring activities, it has helped to have a small pitcher for Luca to use. It has a small enough handle that he is able to get a good grip on it. He uses this pitcher nearly every time he helps with meal preparation. I will put milk in it for him to pour into his cereal, water for recipes, etc.

We've just started to introduce chopping at 14 months old. To start, we are using this wooden dull cutting tool. He still needs our assistance but he is beginning to understand how it works.

Favorite Toys

As far as toys are concerned, we rely pretty heavily on our Lovevery play subscription. We've subscribed since Luca was around 3 months old and we plan to keep these toys for our future children. You can find a lot of them secondhand! We also really like Tiny Earth Toys - they are a Montessori toy rental company.

Luca has been pretty heavily interested in posting activities for months now. We've DIY'd a posting material with an old canister and some dowels which has gotten a ton of use. We also use a posting box from Lovevery.

One of Luca's favorite activities is cleaning. He loves vacuums, brooms, dust mops: if it has a handle and he can push it around, he loves it. He received the Melissa and Doug cleaning set for his birthday and that has been a total hit. He also received the children's Dyson vacuum and this is something he plays with day in and day out. This one is mostly pretend play, though it does suck up *very VERY tiny* amounts of debris.

Cars, trucks, and anything with wheels! This one has been very fun! He is starting to push cars around and roll them down his slide. He makes car noises and even says "car" now. Definitely a new favorite that

started around 13.5 months. He's not picky - he has some plastic cars, some wooden, even some that are friction-powered! We have loved this car track too!

Luca has been doing a lot of climbing these months, he has a big need for gross motor play and has been working hard to reach maximum effort. He uses his Pikler triangle daily and just started to learn to climb up the ramp too. Our triangle and accessories are from Shop Joey Co. and they have been amazing for us!

Lastly, I will share our convertible 2-in-1 balance trike/bike! This was his birthday present from his grandparents and it has been a really fun one to watch him figure out. It converts from three wheels to two. Right now he is still using it as a tricycle and when he is ready, we will convert it to a balance bike. It is from Coco Village and it is the Nano size (use code LUCA10 for 10% off).

Favorite Books

Luca is a big book reader. He loves to sit by himself and flip through books independently and he also loves to bring us books, sit in our laps, and listen as we read to him. We have many favorites so it is hard to pick just a few to share! Disclaimer: traditionally in Montessori environments, the preference for books is reality, meaning the books may include real photographs and realistic storylines. We love books with real photographs, but we also have some fictional stories as well. As always, follow your gut instincts and do what works best for your family!

"All Better!" is a board book that has reusable "bandaid" pieces that the child sticks on different animals injuries throughout the story. This one is just so adorable and Luca loves to give the animals kisses before distributing the bandaids!

"Lifesize Dinosaurs" is just such a fun and informative book! It features different to-scale illustrated images of dinosaurs. The child can then compare their own body parts to that of the giant dinosaur to truly understand the size of the ancient creatures! This isn't a board book, it's a hardback with real paper pages so it may not be suitable for young toddlers.

"Animal Babies" is a classic Eric Carle book. Luca is learning animal sounds now so he enjoys listening and mocking the noises, as well as looking at the beautiful illustrations.

"The Babies and Doggies Book" is a rhyming board book that features real images of babies and dogs. Luca is always captivated by this one!

"What Makes a Rainbow?" is a big board book that has "magic ribbons" that open with each page. Every page introduces another color of the rainbow and brings along a new colorful ribbon. The end of the book features a beautiful pop-up rainbow!

That's all, folks! Thank you for reading about our favorites! If you'd like to see Luca in action, follow us over on Instagram where we post daily.