Diy montessori

I made this puzzle for Seb last year. Not quite montessori obviously, but diy nonetheless. 

I'm poor, no other way to describe it, really. It's OK, I'm lucky that I have both Jewish and Dutch heritage AND inherited the symbolic, stereotypical tightness with money, which comes with both cultures. I'm quite aware it's nothing more than a generalised stereotype, but it makes me giggle about myself and my heritage. It's something I'm usually quite proud of, even though I vowed never to go back to the Netherlands and I've never practiced Jewism. Anyway, I'm frugal, crafty and intend on making all the things, when possible. I plan to share a post on each material, so you understand what I did, how I did it and, most importantly, why. Personally, I find most diy blogs lack the why.
Montessori materials are extremely well thought out. I'm constantly falling off my chair with amazement when I read yet another thing that is taught using these fairly simply, basic materials.  I mean, a pink tower is a pink tower, there is nothing to it. But it teaches weight, volume, decimal system, adding, distracting, number awareness, pencil grip, fine and gross motor skills, concentration, work ethic, precision and probably much more.

Thus, I believe it pays to be precise when diy-ing these materials.

Because I'm crazy, not stupid and absolutely not endlessly skilled in wood work, I bought the following. Unless you have an amazing set up in your shed, I'd recommend you do the same. Everything else is easy to make with not much more than a saw, pens, paint, scissors, whatever most people already have, etc.

Knobbed cylinders, pink tower, brown stairs, binomial and trinomial cube, geometric shapes. Perhaps also the knobless cylinders, as dowels in the right size are hard to find (I found them and ended up buying the set as it was just too much effort still). And the puzzles, but I'm not yet convinced they are necessary. Those are for much later, though. I'm assuming you all have a nearly 3 year old, like me!

Also, I only started at 2.5, so never considered the many materials before that. You can research those yourself. And there will be many materials yet to research, so the list of "don't try this at home" might be expanded. I will up date this post if that happens. If I remember, I'll make a list of posts on the materials I did diy.

Ds is now 2yr 8.5mts

Sandpaper numbers on blue cardboard.