Ultimate Gift Guide Of Montessori Toys For 2 to 3 Year Olds

Looking for the best montessori gift ideas for 2 to 3 year olds? You're in the right place!

I'm sharing our most used montessori toys for 2 to 3 years old that we've actually owned and gotten a TON of use out of! It's broken down by price point (use the table of content drop down for easy navigation!).

After this, be sure to check out Montessori Baby Toys For 0-6 months, Montessori Gift Ideas For 6 to 12 Month Olds, and my Montessori Friendly Gift Guide For 1 Year Old to 2 Year Olds!

Best Montessori Toys For 2 to 3 Year Olds

Montessori Toys Under $20

They also encourage working on a pencil grip and provide a different sensory experience than a typical paint and paint brush.

Monti Kids offers a cooking together kit that has basically all the kitchen tools you'd need for a toddler in the kitchen!

Lovevery offers a feeding bundle too which is more for tableware, but we get DAILY use out of!

Child friendly knife

Montessori is all about introducing practical life skills and providing young children with age and skill appropriate tools to do so.

Toddlers can start practice chopping and spreading with a child friendly knife. All of these make great options depending on personal preference:

2 and 3 piece puzzles

We LOVE these 2 and 3 piece puzzles from Learning Journey.

They feature photographs of real animals and objects and are great for teaching loads of concepts. They work fine motor skills too.

You can choose whichever puzzle based on your child's current interested. We usually stout 5-10 sets of puzzles for her to pull out and sort and do. I also recommend these for travel. Just toss 5-10 puzzles in a bag to take them with you!

These are a great twist on the classic montessori dressing boards. You can even take these on the go in the car as a busy board of sorts.

And trust me, you'll be grateful the sooner your kid masters this!

Montessori Gifts Under $30

While many people love the brand Schleich, it is the most expensive and I found this life cycle set that we personally own and it looks exactly like the Schleich ones. The paint on mine has worn a little, but that's also consistent with the Schleich reviews I read as well.

As kids get older you can use the cards to teach about the different teeth too!

It is pretty well made overall (ours has dropped a ton of times and has no wear), but the screws can get a little loose, so just retightening regularly and be mindful if you have a baby around. I also love that it comes with a tray you can use for other activities on your child's play shelf!

My toddler LOVES her timer so much, she even brought it to the park with her to show her friends!

It's a simple concept. Set the timer to let them know how much time they have until a transition (e.g. 2 minutes until the TV goes off!). It starts to lay a foundation for time management, helps manage expectations, and keeps things running more smoothly.

You can also ask a protesting toddler how much more time they need (good news: they usually only say 2 or 5 minutes at this age) and set the timer accordingly. They'll appreciate being heard, parents will appreciate skipping a fight.

They can use them for pretend play or to help out alongside their caregivers. My daughter's favorite items are the broom, dust pan, squeegee, and squirt bottle.

Melissa + Doug make two sets I highly recommend: the dusting/sweeping stand up set, and then a squirt + squeegee under the counter set. They sell at a ton of retailers for you to choose from too:

It comes with sequencing cards for your toddler to replicate the pattern. Then you can just use an old shoelace or waistband drawstring as a lacing string with the beads.

And the dowel set up can come in handy for a lot of at home activities with toilet paper rolls, ring tosses, and all sorts of other stuff.

With that said, if you've ever owned a Melissa & Doug pretend play house like this, you know the printed paper on the plywood can wear pretty quick and their items aren't always the most durable. While the reviews were overwhelmingly positive, a few reviews I came across said the locks and corners did wear faster than expected.

I had gotten the Manhattan Toy Company one but decided to return it. I didn't like that the button didn't press down and while the removable lenses are great in theory, I know we'll lose them so fast and they pop out a little too easily for my liking.

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Instead I got the kiko + gg one with a working button, two neck strap options, a built in kaleidoscope lense with a yellow filter attached. 10/10 recommend it!

Under $50

Of course you are paying more for a wooden set, so for the mom and baby animal matching we prefer this puzzle instead which is only around $15.

They have a wide variety of options ranging as low as $7 to as much as $60. They sell DIY mix, packs of play dough jars, and then also themed play dough kits for the holidays, birthdays, and pretend food. My daughter personally LOVES a good play dough sensory board and these kits come complete with all the accessories you'll need to bring a play dough pizza or birthday cupcake to life!

$75 and up

I've covered all things Lovevery here – including individual play kit reviews, FAQs, and Amazon dupes.

The HOMER app is my daughter's absolute favorite learning app! They have a Black Friday deal right now too where you can get 35% Off HOMER's Annual Plan + Contixo V10 Kids Tablet Bundle through 11/28 when you click here!

My daughter is still kind of short for the Ikea one unfortunately and the flat board on theirs just leaves all her art supplies a total mess. We also have to sit the paper on her playroom shelf since there's no holding roll. This easel cures ALL of those paint points!

The height adjusts. The tray includes four sorting cups to hold art supplies. Paper can be held via a roll at the top. There's a chalkboard on one side and a dry erase board on the other. You can use the included 6 magnets to hold paper in place when painting or coloring on that. It also comes with chalk and dry erase markers make it truly a complete, ready to go set.

My daughter has been OBSESSED with having her own little table/bench set up and it's a smaller footprint than our previous kitchen tower.

I have an entire buying guide on choosing the right kitchen learning tower here – we personally got a second one because we get SO much use out of the first, and wanted something for the bathroom too.

More Montessori Gift Lists

I've shared the Best Montessori Baby Toys For 0-6 months with tons of gift ideas that grow with your baby through 6-9 months and 9-12 months and some even beyond that! Plus my favorite montessori toys for 6 to 12 month olds here!

But one of my absolute favorite gift guides is my montessori gifts 1 to 2 year olds! It covers items that really act as a cornerstone to any montessori home, and will last for YEARS! Many of the great gift ideas in there can even be introduced as early as 10 months old, like a toddler kitchen helper.