October 25, 2006

Montessori Box with Knitted Ball

I went to a Montessori school when I was a young child. I never really understood what that meant until I started thinking about how I wanted Anderson to be educated. Okay, I still don't really get it. However, Maria Montessori definitely came up with some good ideas back in the 1920s, and toys like this really show how simple and powerful this kind of learning can be. This box teaches children about object permanence — even when they can't see something, it still exists and is waiting for them to find it again! Your child will push a soft cotton ball into the hole in the top of the box and then remove it by pulling the drawer knob and lifting it out in this exercise to develop hand-eye coordination, sophisticated hand movements and simple problem solving skills. The box is made by hand in small batches in Holland, and will last many lifetimes.