I noticed that Miss K wasn’t engaging with the toys on her bottom shelf, so I shifted her 2 Montessori shelves to the middle of the bookcase. Since then there’s been a small but noticeable change in the way that she’s drawn in and engages with her toys and activities.

Top Shelf

• EverEarth Pop Up Bunny Toy – I came across this lovely pop up bunny toy in a local kids store in town but there are a lot of online stores that also stock this. The bunnies are spring loaded, so once their locked into place they’ll pop up the next time you press them down. It’s great for learning cause and effect, colour recognition, hand eye coordination and focus. At the moment Miss K is too young to push the bunnies down but she loves watching me pop the bunnies (her eyes will screw up in anticipation!) and is able to put them back, although not the right side up or colour yet. I’ve noticed that she’ll ignore this toy if the bunnies are in their place, so when we’re not actively playing with the toy, I’ll usually leave the bunnies out on the shelf and she usually can’t resist putting them back in!
• 2-Piece Number Puzzle – received as a present from my mother-in-law, this is a fantastically simple number puzzle for little people! The numbers range from 1-10 and correspond with a matching number of animals. I found that for the moment, having only 1 puzzle out is best and Miss K loves taking it apart. She also loves having a good old chew on them every now and them, so I need to keep an eye out as their only made from cardboard!
• Kmart Wooden Jungle Bead Maze – couldn’t resist picking up this simple and affordable jungle bead maze from Kmart. It’s small enough for her to carry around and she’s learnt how to push the beads backwards and forwards.
• Kmart Wooden Xylophone – another amazing toy from Kmart’s wooden toy range! It’s bright, cheery, and Miss K loves having a good old bang on her xylophone. Sometimes she’ll even use the hammer from her Bello Hammer Ball set!

Bottom Shelf

• Schleich Farm Animals – see previous description here.
• Bello Hammer Ball – see previous description here. At 16 months Miss K has now learnt how to hammer the balls through! It’s amazing watching her happily hammer away.
• Various Homemade Shakers – I made various shakers filled with dried pasta and beans when Miss K was a baby. I’ve brought them out again as we use shakers in her toddler music class and their fun to shake along with some music.
• Big W Wooden Fruits Puzzle – Unlike Kmart, Big W have a limited range of wooden toys so I couldn’t resist picking this up while I was in store. Unfortunately I couldn’t find this on their online store, so it may not be in stock anymore. As a puzzle, this is too advanced for Miss K but it’s great for naming fruits. Each fruit is listed in English below and I’m planning on adding Chinese characters under each fruit.

Marie xo