Everything You Want To Know About Montessori Board

Children who learn at their own pace are usually happy children who develop to the fullest by enjoying their surroundings. For this to occur, play is usually a crucial element. Within the context of play, toys are crucial elements. For example, kids can learn a lot while enjoying playing with a Montessori board, which is what we want to talk about today.

Children have an innate need to explore, discover and satisfy their curiosity. For that reason, Maria Montessori – the famous teacher who has contributed so much to children’s joy and optimal development – has developed theories and toys specifically designed for our children so that they can learn through play.

What is the Montessori Board?

A Montessori board is a toy specially designed for children so that they can develop certain skills. The most common skills are  creativity, problem solving, logic and fine motor skills. 

How are these boards used? They present games and little mysteries that children have to solve. How? Generally by using their cognitive skills – such as logic, observation, etc. they have to find the right solution.

These boards also promote resilience as  children are very prone to make mistakes in their first attempt. However, they need to show perseverance and patience to test, think, reason and find the best solutions to the mysteries they encounter.

The board consists of a series of locks that hide concrete elements. These can be drawings of animals, for example. Through a question or problem, it is important that children try to guess what is hiding under each lock that they need to deduce according to their knowledge and capacity.

To all this we must add the improvement of manual skills related to the fine motor skills. The little ones, for example, have to open and close the locks and needles according to the type of toy. Therefore, they expand their skills with their hands and fingers.

Benefits of Montessori boards

Why is it valuable for our children to play with Montessori boards? There are clear benefits for children from the time they are babies until they are around six years old.

Problem solving

These boards can help young children improve their ability to solve simple problems  because they get children to observe and search for hidden things.

Fine motor skills

We have already mentioned this detail. The small children move items in different sizes according to their age. It allows them to train their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Improving memory with Montessori boards

This is another point that speaks in favor of the use of the board, which is designed according to the Montessori method. Children need to remember certain illustrations and figures that they will associate with concepts. That way  , they use their memory. 

Learning environment

Montessori boards have many themes. Some focus on cooking, animals, nature, medicine… In other words, they help children become familiar with their surroundings and in short with the life and world around them.

Persistence

Children become more persistent. When they are interested in something, for example a problem that they cannot solve but really want to solve,  then they will keep going until they achieve it,  without thinking about giving up at any point.

Patience

It is a rare quality in children as it lies in their nature. Therefore, it is important that children learn and internalize it as quickly as possible through play. Fortunately, the Montessori board helps teach this.

Attention

We also know that children do not have a very great ability to maintain their attention on something concrete for a long time. It is a skill that gets better as they develop  and this toy can help them move forward in a natural way.

Montessori board stimulates curiosity

For a child, everything in the world is new. This is why these boards, whereby they will discover basic elements of everything around them, such as animals in the countryside, parts of the kitchen, etc., are useful to help the little ones start to know what the different things are for, what animals do, why they have to respect all kinds of life, etc. Montessori boards help them want to know more and more.

In short, Montessori board games are toys that  focus on children’s autonomous development and learning from a multitasking point of view. They improve their coordination, logical thinking and ability to analyze, while also motivating them to seek new challenges and optimizing their cognitive skills.