new materials for manipulation

[This post submitted to Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now 9/24/12.]

My long-time friend and conspirator Lynn sent Vicki Jo some new toys.  These Montessori materials came at the perfect time for her.  She is sitting up so well, and she loves transferring items from hand to hand and examining them from her new position. 

She particularly loves the egg in a cup, the peg in a cup, and the interlocking discs. 

Here she is pulling the peg out of its cup and checking it out.  You also get a bit of the dog in the background, as she had to examine the new toys as well!  Vicki Jo very much understands the concept of "emptying" at this point.  She loves taking things out of baskets that I prepare for her.  She is not so much on the concept of replacing things into their receptacles at this point.  So the peg and egg in cups are perfect for working on this hand-eye coordination skill.

Here she is shaking the interlocking discs.  Shaking and banging items on the wood floor is another favorite activity at this point!  Also clapping.  Percussive activity of any kind, really.

You get a better look at the interlocking discs in this photo.

And, because I didn't get a great picture of the materials themselves, here is what they look like:

Peg in a cup is great for working on the pincer grasp, egg in cup is good for palmer.  I hope my photos with Vicki Jo above have made the scale more evident.  They look much larger in these photos here than they really are!

The interlocking discs are a great toy to have around from about three months or whenever hand-to-hand transfer starts.  They are also good for encouraging crawling or scooting, as they gently roll away from the child when pushed.