Forest Montessori

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Montessori Baby Timeline- Our favorite Montessori Mobiles, Rattles and Books for the first 6 Months

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I recently had the opportunity to work together on Instagram with some amazing Montessori mum’s who shared lots of fantastic information for our miniseries called ‘#themontessoribaby’. Check it out if you haven’t already! I enjoyed sharing timelines for most topics as a way of reflecting back on past 6 months depending on what has been Anika’s favorite and how each book, mobile and rattle has worked for her developmentally. Montessori mobiles, rattles and books are baby’s “main toys” for the first 6 months and here is our timeline for each….

Montessori mobiles timeline

Babies have an immense capacity to concentrate for long periods of time and these early years are a sensitive period to build concentration. Montessori mobiles are scientific in the sense that they are developmentally appropriate to a child’s growing visual sense. Here is the sequence we introduced the Montessori mobiles in…

  1. Munari mobile– We introduced this to her when she a month old. Since babies can see only high contrast colors in early days, this black and white mobile was perfect for developing tracking skills and concentration.
  2. Octahedron Mobile– introduced at 6 weeks old. Babies eye sight develops at rapid pace. This mobile introduced primary colors in 3 dimensions.
  3. Gobbi Mobile– introduced at 8 weeks old. Gobbi introduced gradation of colors from the darkest to the lightest.
  4. Rainbow mobile– introduced at 9 weeks old. Introduces secondary colors and was Anika’s favorite mobile.
  5. Dancers mobile– introduced at 11 weeks old. It shows realistic shapes, movements and bodily expressions.
  6. Wooden figure/ whale mobile– introduced at 13 weeks old. Represents concrete and realistic form which aids in visual development and tracking.
  7. Ring on ribbon or bell chimes mobile– introduced at 15 weeks old. Strengthens grasping skills that is developing at around this time.
Baby Books Timeline

We have read heaps of baby books from day. 1 and we have read lots. Anika showed a preference for the following during each month….

  • 1 Month Old and 2 Months Old– We loved reading black and white books as she could only see in high contrast. She also enjoyed concentrating on high contrast flash cards. She enjoyed the visual aspect more than the oratory, so we spoke little and watched more.
  • 3 Months Old- She could see primary colors well and we loved reading small simple books with 1 picture per page and no words. We started talking a wee bit more about each page.
  • 4 Months Old– She started grasping everything. We loved reading the ‘indestructible series‘ for grasping and chewing. Instead of constantly saying No, we choose books that were safe for her to mouth and chew on.
  • 5 Months Old– She was fascinated with ‘lift the flap books’ which made her an active participant in our reading time. For the first few weeks, she watched me open the flaps and slowly she started trying to do it herself. I have written about our top 3 favorite lift the flap books here. She also enjoyed visual as much as oratory, so we talk heaps. I also added a lot of synonyms and actions into each page; example- elephant was too big is described as he was huge, gigantic, humongous, massive (with actions) etc. She seemed to understand some words and many actions, even if not she enjoys the description.
  • 6 Months Old- She was fascinated with body parts and loved to stare and play with my eyes, nose, ears etc. So we loved reading “My first Body” book along with some other favorites from the Indestructible series and Lift the flap series.
Montessori Rattle timeline

Rattles help in strengthening hand muscles and developing baby’s grasp. 2 Montessori concepts we always follow with any material are:

  1. Are they ready for it?- Never set them up for failure! It should be doable, not too easy (results in boredom) and nor too difficult (results in low self esteem).
  2. Order of introduction- Every material is introduced in order from the easiest to the most difficult, when they are ready for it. So here is the rattle timeline that we followed with Anika…
  • 2 Months old- We introduced the soft crochet black and white rattle. This soft and light weight (and safe!) bell rattle perfectly fit in small hands.
  • 3 Months old– We introduced the stick rattle. We love this willow rattle and also the wooden rattle. The stick is a firmer texture for a babies growing hand control and excellent for grasp refinement.
  • 4 Months old- We introduced circular rattles, which gave her a different grasp to work with. It also gave her an opportunity to practice hand to hand transfer.
  • 5 Months old- Anika could grasp and hold things with both her hands and the egg rattle was great to practice that skill.
  • 6 Months old– Anika was slithering and the rolling rattle encouraged her to move more.

Montessori mobile sequence

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Introduce the Munari mobile at week. 3


Montessori mobiles are elegant in its simplicity and don’t have music or brightly colored cartoon images. The purpose of each is clear and developmentally appropriate to a child’s growing visual sense. I am a big fan of Montessori’s scientific approach from birth. Below is the suggested timeline we followed to introduce Montessori mobiles.

First few weeks- child lies on floor mat to observe the environment. While this continues over the next few months, we introduce mobiles as an aid to developing their concentration. Here is the sequence we followed:

Week 3– Anika seemed comfortable in the new environment, so we introduced the Munari mobile. She spent a lot of her wake time concentrating on it.

Week. 5 introduced the Octahedron mobile- introduction to primary colors in 3 dimensions

Week 5– Octahedron mobile replaced the Munari. Octahedron introduces the primary colours in 3 dimensions.

Week 6- set up the rainbow mobile, introduction to secondary colours

Week 6- We set up another mobile station near the kitchen in the living room. Anika wanted to be able to see me, esp in the evenings. We introduced the Rainbow mobile, which is the introduction of secondary colours. She thoroughly loved this mobile for many a weeks.

Week 7- We introduced the Gobbi mobile at week 7, which refines the visual sense through the gradation of colors from the lightest to the darkest.

Week 9– We introduced the Dancer’s mobile at week 11. This is the last in the series of visual mobiles and introduces realistic shapes and represents movement, flexibility, bodily expression and potency and human interactions.

Important notes:

  • We changed approximately every 2 weeks or she got bored.
  • After week 11 when she was bored of the dancers mobile and not yet ready for grasping mobiles, we rotated and went back to Munari mobile and started the sequence all over again. She loved them all once again. I also introduced a series of my own batting mobiles.
  • We didn’t want to drill and used the Fealkira Adhesive hooks as our ceiling hooks and they were perfect!
  • These mobiles are followed by batting and grasping mobiles.

Products that we have used

Munari mobile

Double sided mirror

Fealkira Adhesive

Montessori inspired Batting mobiles

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If you are new around here, I highly recommend you first read about the Montessori mobiles in the visual series. From week 9 onward, Anika was batting all her visual mobiles. At week 11, I set up the bell on ribbon mobile but she batted it and was not ready for grasping yet. So along with rotating the visual mobiles once again, we also used experimented with my DIY bell batting mobile from the ceiling hook. Alas, it oscillated too far and after a while Anika got frustrated tracking it. So then we placed all her batting mobiles on her Lovevery Play gym, which has Velcro hooks to replace mobiles.

We prefer batting at the play gym because the mobiles don’t oscillate as much, which sustains concentration and interest. I think any sphere shaped ball is ideal as a batting mobile. We used some open- ended sphere items that we already had at home…

  • Bunch of bells- bought at spotlight during Christmas. I love open-ended objects like these! Mobile today, part of heuristic basket in few months, part of Christmas decoration again in few months and just so much more year after year.
  • Felt ball sphere- bought by my mum from Nepal. Another open-ended item, I just happened to have and works perfectly for batting. It can be used as sensory ball, to study shapes in a few years, as a cards and counters extension and on and on! 
  • We also used the black and white ball, which is a part of Lovevery gym.

In this transition phase, where we are still working on our grasping skills and not yet ready for bell on ribbon or ring on ribbon; these batting mobiles have been heaps of fun! 

I reckon any sphere shaped (safe surface)  item works well or maybe even a soft toy? Would love to hear more ideas….