🔨 Peg & Hammer Bench
Tap wooden pegs through a bench — big, satisfying, whole-arm work.
🏃 Move·20 min·$18·Ages 1–3·👶 Medium·🧑 Light
⚠️ Safety first
Stay in the room. Mallet stays on the bench — sit beside them the whole time.
You know your child best — supervise the whole time and skip anything that isn't right for them. See our Terms.
Why this is good for your child
- ✓Whole-arm control
- ✓Cause and effect
🌱 Montessori-inspired · Movement
What you need
Peg bench · Wooden mallet
Nice to have — not needed today ($18)
Search Amazon US for peg benchHow to do it
- 1.Set the bench on a rug to soften noise.
- 2.Show one slow tap, then hand over the mallet.
- 3.Flip the bench and start again.
How it actually goes
- ⏱ 30-second set-up —
- Thirty seconds: put peg bench, wooden mallet on a tray or a clear bit of floor, and sit down next to it before you call them over.
- 🧑 What you do —
- Show it once, slowly, without talking over yourself. Then hand it over and stop helping unless they ask.
- 👶 What they do —
- Climb, carry, balance and wobble — and try it again faster.
- ✅ What success looks like —
- At 1–2 they'll tip it out and put nothing back. That's the work — emptying comes long before filling.
- 🧺 How to put it away —
- Everything back into one basket or tray, carried back to its spot by them. Naming the spot out loud is what makes it stick.
- 📈 When they outgrow it —
- Older? Add a timer, or let them design the next round.