Spielgaben educational toys are recommended for ages 3-12. If you consider the Spielgaben yarn balls, then the Spielgaben toys are appropriate for birth through age 12. (Only the yarn balls are safe for babies and toddlers, though.)
Spielgaben yarn balls have been my 8-month-old granddaughter’s favorite toys for some time now. Today, I’m sharing some Montessori-inspired ideas for babies and toddlers using the yarn balls.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Spielgaben. All opinions are honest and my own. This post also contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).
Note: Spielgaben toys are exceptionally high-quality educational toys designed for ages 3-12.
The Spielgaben complete set comes with over 700 pages of full-color printed learning materials. These printed materials help you as a parent or teacher easily use Spielgaben toys educationally with your child and/or students.
Baby Mobile
I used Spielgaben yarn balls to create a mobile for my granddaughter, Zoey, when she was a newborn. This was part of my Montessori baby space in our living room. Zoey loved her mobile, and her relatives all loved playing with Zoey using the yarn balls on her mobile. When Zoey was big enough to pull the mobile down, I placed the yarn balls in a Montessori-inspired ball treasure basket.
Ball Treasure Basket
Zoey LOVES her ball treasure basket. It’s the first activity she chooses whenever she’s at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. She often has a yarn ball in each hand as she crawls around the living room.
DIY Montessori Object Permanence Box
The Montessori object permanence box is a great way to help babies and toddlers develop a sense of object permanence and work on fine motor skills through the whole-hand grasp. The object permanence box is typically introduced between 8 and 12 months.
An object permanence box could be a great learning material to purchase for your baby. Or you might choose to make your own version of an object permanence box.
I made a DIY version of an object permanence box, using a facial tissue box. All I did was to cut out a section in the side of the box using an X-acto knife. I placed books underneath Zoey’s floor bed to create a slant for the yarn balls to roll down to the hole in the side of the box.
Playing with Matched Yarn Balls
This was a simple activity I prepared by putting together the yarn balls by color. I said the color names as I matched the yarn balls by color. Then I watched my granddaughter play with them.
I did this activity to mention the color names and to give my granddaughter an introduction to matching. I didn’t worry at all about her matching the yarn balls or keeping them together by color.
Simple Color-Matching Activities Using Yarn Balls
Yarn balls are great for early color matching activities for toddlers. The Montessori-inspired train car color matching uses the Spielgaben Worksheet1, Level 1.
The color sequence caterpillar is a fun color-matching activity for toddlers that I shared in my “Montessori-Inspired Color Activities Using Yarn Balls and Free Printables.” The post includes a link to the free printable.
Introduction to Montessori Color Box I
I had an activity with color tablets and yarn ball matching in my “Montessori-Inspired Color Activities Using Yarn Balls and Free Printables.” The post includes the link to free printable color tablets. For toddlers, I’d recommend introducing only the three primary colors. You could extend the activity by adding the matching yarn balls.
UPDATE:
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All My Spielgaben Posts
Many of these include links to free printables! (Click on an image to go to the related blog post. The gallery is ordered according to publication date with my latest post at the top.)
Version 4 of Spielgaben Educational Toys
I highly recommend Spielgaben as an amazing educational material for home or school. Even though the toys aren’t inexpensive, they’re definitely worth the price because of the high quality of materials and number of years your children or students can use them.
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Vanessa says
Beautiful post! Thanks for sharing your amazingly awesome Montessori knowledge with us! 🙂 Pinned and linked up!
DIY Corporate Mom says
absolutely love seeing your little grandchild at work! how old is she in these photos? how early did you start?
Danielle says
Thanks for hosting! Love all the great ideas!
Carlo Angel says
Brilliant post indeed,
Though long but, I enjoyed every bit of it :). The baby also looks so cute
Nur says
How adorable is she! If we have extra cash, we’d definitely get the Spielgaben set. Thank you for all your amazing ideas and posts!
Dianna says
I can’t wait to try out some of these ideas with my youngest son! Daniel is 4 months old, and really becoming interested in his surroundings!
Tina Peterson says
Hi! Love this series! I’ve gotten some good ideas for Tot School this fall. Gianna will be 20 months and I’m looking for some fun activities for us to do together. I can’t afford the Spielgaben manipulatives – but I can make the balls and get us some cubes to play with.
I do have a question…. I cannot figure out where to get the Train Color Matching sheet mentioned above. Can you send the link to me please? Thanks!
Tina