Engaging in Imaginative Learning Through Play

Childhood memories of building blocks and matching shapes with colors and size in wooden sets of Montessori toys are set in the minds of those that engaged in play with parents. Montessori toys, like counting with an abacus and learning the basics of spelling from arranging lettered blocks, taught children some of the early development skills in a preschool environment.
Placing letters into their appropriate cutouts while sounding out the letter taught young children skills in recognizing the alphabet and precognitive reading. Even simple unsophisticated toys that do not require batteries and allow the imagination to magically transport children to kingdoms where building blocks become castles, and where knights battled dragons to save princesses.
These toys have aided in the early development of children's minds as they prepare for schooling.

Just as effective today as they were thirty and forty years ago, Montessori toys teach children how to organize, be creative and have fun while learning increased fine motor skills and speech patterns through their play.
With a digital world of video games and internet access at their fingertips, children are falling behind in their early development without the aid of toys to teach them how spatial relationships work, or working with a series of blocks to discover balance and form.
Even with the advanced learning of a digital age, toys are the best foundation for educational learning and early childhood development practices. Forming patterns with brightly colored wooden shapes or pushing the beads of an abacus to learn how to count and measure are skills that every child can benefit from. Building open, creative, free thinking mind is the basis of imaginative learning that comes from playing with Montessori toys.