Three Montessori-friendly baby products we’re loving

Good morning!

I hope you had a great weekend. It was a good one over here. Spring is probably my favorite season in Austin. There are wildflowers everywhere, the weather is gorgeous, and it seems like there are at least 18 festivals going on every weekend.

I did manage to pry myself away from the sunshine to share three Montessori-friendly baby products that are new to us this time around, and that we’re absolutely loving!

I want to preface this by saying that baby stuff can be expensive. The internet can make you feel like you need all the things. You need zero speciality items to practice Montessori with your infant at home.

It is absolutely about the way that you interact with and view your baby, not about buying special toys and products.

That said, there are some beautiful Montessori-friendly baby products out there and they can certainly be a fun way to watch your baby interact with their world.

Topponcino

The topponcino is a small, infant-sized mattress. The idea is that using this mattress to hold the infant provides him with a consistent, comfortable, supportive surface to be held on, particularly if he is being passed from person to person.

I don’t think we’ve necessarily used the topponcino as intended, or how I thought we would, but I have absolutely been loving it and am a little sad that Lilah is quickly getting too long for it.

I personally did not like holding Lilah using the topponcino. It felt awkward to me, and not nearly as comfortable or snuggly as just holding her.

I do, however, love laying her on the topponcino. It makes it super easy to gently transfer her from room to room – something that we’ve had to do a lot to keep up with the action of our busy toddler. We have wood floors and the topponcino also provides a much softer spot for her to lay on than just a blanket on the floor.

I also love that it’s a clearly defined space that is hers. I think this is really helpful if you have older siblings around.

I would recommend the topponcino a lot more for a second (or third or fourth!) baby. I’m not sure I would have found it as useful or necessary if I had had it when James was a baby, as I didn’t need to move him from room to room so much or create clear boundaries to protect him from little feet.

(Ours is from this shop.)

Montessori Mobiles

I have always loved the Montessori mobile progression. I really wanted these when James was a baby, but I am not AT ALL crafty, and didn’t want to buy them when we had so many other new baby / new house expenses.

This post gives a great overview of the Montessori mobile progression. I also love these ideas for inexpensive alternatives.

My mom made me a Munari mobile (the first in the set) and I was also given a beautiful variation of the Munari by a lovely former Montessori teacher here in Austin, so we did use those with James and he loved them.

This time around, we already had all of the baby things, and a set of mobiles was one of the first purchases I made when I was pregnant. (I chose this set, but there are many options on Etsy.)

It has been so fun to watch Lilah interact with the different mobiles. She gets visibly excited when looking at them and kicks her little legs and smiles. She will concentrate on them for a long time.

I like to hang the mobiles near her mirror. I find that this helps younger babies, who often lay with their head to the side, to view the mobile. Both she and James began by watching the mobile in the mirror, rather than looking straight up at it.

I often bring Lilah to her mobiles when I’m helping James get ready for his nap and she is generally content to play there on her own for a while. I like to turn the ceiling fan on low so that the mobile slowly moves with the air flow.

I want to note that, as they develop so quickly, babies do move through the progression quite rapidly. While Lilah is currently using the third mobile in the series, I think she would still love the first two. You could certainly just make or buy a couple of the mobiles if you don’t want to invest in the whole series, especially if you’re only planning to use them for one child.

Lovevery Play Gym

This is not specifically Montessori, but is definitely in line with many of the design principles.

I actually interviewed the founder of Lovevery a while back. At the time, James was too old for a baby gym and I wasn’t pregnant with Lilah yet, but I knew I would want this whenever I did have another baby. I was super excited when I received it from my parents for Christmas. It is beautiful.

It is simple with soft colors and natural materials. It is interesting without being overstimulating.

It features different areas that you can hide or reveal based on baby’s developmental stage.

I love how this baby gym looks too. The black, white, and grey color palette blend into the home much more than the bold colors so often used for baby gyms.

They also offer play kits with Montessori-style toys for each stage of baby’s development. I am so tempted to get these! The problem is that I already have very similar versions of some of the toys, so I’m not sure it would be worth it, but they look lovely.

I can’t find the exact one we have, but we also have a simple wooden play gym, similar to this, which is a great, less expensive alternative.

What baby products do you love?

This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own. Thank you for your support!