You can save lots of money with DIY Montessori materials. However, saving money means spending more time, so you’ve got to be realistic. You may find yourself struggling to keep up with how quickly your child masters activities. If your child shows a strong interest in one area, preparing for the next activity in that category would help keep things moving forward. Otherwise, they may loose interest and move onto another area and not come back to that activity for a few months! If you don’t think you have time to finish a DIY material in time, look for other ways to adapt. Perhaps you can buy a piece of the material from elsewhere and make the rest? Here are some creative, easy, and affordable DIY ideas for each of the 5 Montessori categories to help you get started.
1. Cultural/Geography
Below is a picture of a very simple to make “Land, Water, Air” sorting activity. This idea came from Gift of Curiosity and other sites I found. For this activity you will only need felt, jars, card stock and some small animals.
For this DIY felt scene, you will simply make layers. The sky-colored felt should be a long rectangle. On top, would be the sand/earth-colored felt that is about 2/3rds the height of the sky. Then finally, the shortest layer on top (about 1/3rd) is the deep ocean-colored felt. Included a felt plant and cloud cutout as well.
TOOB animals are a perfect addition to this activity, but any small plastic animals will do.
Next, 3 recycled baby food jars can be used to hold the “real” land, water, air. One jar is partially filled with water (with the lid tightly secured). For land, you can use sand, Kinetic sand, or just soil from your garden. The last jar is completely empty. Easy right!
The only thing left to do is print and cut out cards. Here is a link to FREE Land, Water, Air cards that you can use. Voila, you are done! Your kids will love this sorting activity!
Calendar Conundrum
I scoured the web for a non-plastic, non-paper, monochromatic calendar. I could only find VERY expensive handmade wooden calendars. Spending over $100 on a calendar was not conceivable to me at all. So I made a calendar based on one I saw at a school I toured. I got a framed corkboard, some velcro adhesives, some bass wood pieces, and a wood burning stylus for the lettering. My artistic self thought, “Oh, this will be easy and fun.” Afterwards, I quickly found out that the cheap cork board was a waste, because it was so thin that it tore off each time you removed a number from the velcro. I was constantly reglueing the velcro back on. I was very determined and eventually finished the project.
Do this instead!!!
However, I discovered (AFTER THE FACT) that I could have simply gotten a large chalkboard and made a calendar. A chalkboard calendar is actually better, because your child can practice writing the numbers on it.
2. Language
My Language Miniature Headache
Finding miniature objects for the pink level language activities can be very time consuming and expensive. I tried buying a collection of random miniatures from a seller on Amazon, but some of the objects were VERY small. Like if it dropped on the floor, it would be completely hidden in the tiny fibers of the carpet…Smaller than a pea. Tiny. Microscopic. I was a little peeved if you couldn’t tell. It was obviously returned. If you don’t have the time, investing in a set would likely be cheaper than buying each item individually (just be sure to read the fine details).
If you DO have some time and want to save money; look for miniatures that you may already have (Polly Pockets, LEGOs, dollhouse items). Key chains, ornaments, fridge magnets, party favors, and those popular Japanese erasers, are some alternatives that you can use. You can save more money if you made your own miniatures. Pinterest has TONS of DIY ideas for making miniatures out of things you would typically throw away. Here are some DIY ideas I found on Pinterest to help you get started.
3. Math Works
Math is the hardest, in my opinion, to DIY. When I purchased traditional Montessori materials, it was usually math related. However, if you are really tight on cash, there are adaptations you can do for some of the works that are easy to make. Also, there is always the option to print out materials from online shops, but do so sparingly.
Dollar Tree/Store Hacks
4. Sensorial
I did not have much space on my shelfs for very many sensorial works so I had to think out of the box a bit. Some sensorial works that I include were the pink Montessori tower of 10 cubes, which I purchased. I also included a work for each sense on the shelfs and then incorporated more sensorial activities when we were outside (sticks, rocks, etc) or in other places in the house (cooking). Here is a post explaining how I adapted Sensorial and Practical Life activities. An easy sensorial activity that you can make is a mortar and pestle with some spices to grind. The one pictured below can be purchased on Etsy (click the picture and follow the link). You can also just purchase the cups, mortar, and pestle separately.
We used a mortar and pestle that we already had. I included spices from our pantry such as black peppercorns and rosemary. The cards to go with the spices can also be downloaded separately from MontessoriReStore‘s shop on Etsy.
5. Practical Life
We also had very few practical life activities on our shelves due to space. Instead I found ways to include my child in the chores that I was doing. Or we did baking together in the kitchen. If you have more space, putting together practical life activities is very easy since most items are already around the house. We did, however, have a tying frame. I purchased ours online, but you can easily make one instead.
Tying Shoes
Learning how to tie shoes seems to have become less mainstream for children nowadays, since most shoes for toddlers no longer have laces! In fact, you will may struggle to find shoes with laces even if you look for them specifically. The Montessori tying frame is a great place to start when you try teaching your child how to tie their shoes. The tying frame is the only frame that we used, because it was the most difficult to learn. For buttons, snaps, and zippers, I simply had her help me with dressing, dress a doll, or let her practice on her own clothes.
