You’ll Love These Montessori Toys for 4-Year-Olds and Up

For 4-year-olds and older, Montessori toys get more technical, requiring logical thinking, teamwork, imagination, and counting and literacy skills.

You’ll Love These Montessori Toys for 4-Year-Olds and Up

Montessori-inspired toys are created to effectively encourage hands-on learning and self-led play in children. They're typically made of high-quality, sustainable ingredients, too, which is why parents often prioritize them for their kiddos.

In early child development, Montessori toys encourage sensory play, curiosity and basic coordination skills. But Montessori toys for 4-year-olds and up get more technical, requiring logical thinking, teamwork, imagination, and counting and literacy skills. This is to help prepare them for STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math) learning that they will inevitably see in those beginning years at school.

So, which Montessori toys make the best gifts for kids? Here are eight that we recommend for young children ages 4 to as old as 10.

Family Pastimes Max (the Cat)

Age: 4 to 7 years

Year released: 1980s

Made of: Recycled board and paper, soy-based inks, water-based glue, non-toxic paints

Best for: Thinking, logic, decision making, teamwork, empathy

In the Max the Cat game, players work together to get a mouse, a bird and a chipmunk, called Little Creatures, back to their homes before Max can catch them. The dice used have both green and black spots. If a player rolls black spots, then Max gets to move, and green spots allow the Little Creatures to move. Players must work together to ensure the animals can all avoid Max and act as a team to get them all safely home. Kids learn thinking, negotiation, empathy and teamwork skills.

Family Pastimes Secret Door Mystery Game

Age: 5 to 7 years

Year released: 1992

Made of: Recycled board and paper, soy-based inks, water-based glue, non-toxic paints

Best for: Memory, thinking, strategy, teamwork

The Secret Door mystery game from Family Pastimes is a cooperative game in which players must work together to locate three stolen valuables, hidden behind a secret door, before midnight (when thieves will sneak away with the goods). The game includes a full-color board, clock cards, valuables and a secret door. Players turn over valuable and clock cards and must deduct which valuables are hidden before time runs out. Kids will learn memory, deduction, strategy and teamwork skills as they race the clock to win.

Skoolzy Star Flex Creative Connecting Construction Kit

Age: 5+ years

Year released: Unknown

Made of: Plastic

Best for: Fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, creativity, teamwork, imagination, reasoning, thinking, problem-solving, STEAM skills

The Skoolzy Star Flex Creative Connecting Construction Kit is a building toy that lets kids design and experiment with building anything they can imagine. Kids can make simple or complex creations, depending on their age, and the designs can change each time kids play. The kit challenges kids to start using spatial and mechanical thinking, which lays the groundwork for more complex STEAM skills later. The set is great for travel and includes 90 starter flex pieces, one carry tote and an idea guide.

Melissa & Doug Multi-Craft Weaving Loom

Age: 6+ years

Year released: 2014

Made of: Wood, yarn

Best for: Fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, self-confidence, thinking, resilience, concentration

Forget bead stringing! Older kids can use the Melissa & Doug Multi-Craft Weaving Loom to make a variety of projects, including a scarf, coaster, drawstring pouch and carry-all bag. The loom comes with more than 90 yards of yarn, a wooden needle, a design booklet and materials for three colorful animal pictures. Kids can easily grip and use the adjustable loom and oversized wooden needle. Using the loom and making simple crafts, kids will improve fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. They’ll gain self-confidence through crafting and develop thinking and concentration skills.

Melissa & Doug Safari Floor Puzzle

Age: 6+ years

Year released: 2006

Made of: Cardboard

Best for: Hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, teamwork, fine motor skills

Older kids will enjoy the challenge of the 100-piece, 4-foot-long Melissa & Doug Safari Floor Puzzle. The scene shows African wildlife gathering at a savannah waterhole. Puzzles help children to improve their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination by assembling the pieces and using problem-solving skills to match images on individual pieces. Kids will also develop teamwork skills as they work with friends, siblings or classmates to complete the puzzle. The puzzle is coated with an easy-to-clean surface and will stand up to repeated usage.

Hand2Mind Plastic Rainbow Fraction Tower Linking Cubes

Age: 8 to 11 years

Year released: 2021

Made of: Plastic

Best for: Thinking, problem-solving, concentration, math skills

Hand2Mind’s patented rainbow color learning system uses nine colors to represent different fraction values. Red is one, pink is one-half, orange is one-third and so on. Kids who are visual learners will find this system an easier way to learn fractions, which are the essential basis of later math. Educators believe that using math manipulatives, objects that children can handle, helps them connect mathematical principles to physical items and learn better.

Snap Circuits Classic Electronics Exploration Kit

Age: 8+ years

Year released: 2015

Made of: Plastic, metal

Best for: Hand-eye coordination, creativity, teamwork, concentration, thinking, problem-solving, fine motor skills, STEAM skills

The Snap Circuits Classic Electronics Exploration Kit includes a plastic snap grid, 76 electrical components and three project manuals. Kids can use the components, including snap wires, slide switches, resistors, an FM radio module and a seven-segment LED display, to make more than 500 different projects. The pieces snap together easily on the plastic grid and don’t require tools or soldering. Kids can create real working circuit boards, such as those in electronic devices. Kids develop concentration, thinking and problem-solving skills while improving hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Wreck This Journal

Age: 10 years

Year released: 2007

Made of: Paper, cardboard

Best for: Stress release, creativity, artistic skills, imagination

Wreck This Journal is an artist-created course in art therapy and creativity for older kids. The journal contains prompts for kids to release their inner artist by mixing colors to make mud, ripping pages out of the book, weaving with strips of paper and more. The journal is designed to help kids express creativity and imagination by unconventional means, forget about conformity and quality and have fun while they make art.