🥄 Make🌱 Montessori-inspired🔬 STEM👨🍳 Practical life🧩 Problem solving
📮 Posting Slot Box
Post large wooden discs through a slot cut in a lidded container.
Ages
1–3
Duration
15 min
Cost
Free
👶 Kid challenge
Easy
🧑 Parent energy
Hands on · 5 min prep
⚠️ Safety first
Stay in the room. No coins or small parts — discs must be too big to swallow. Not for under 1.
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
- ✓Pincer grip
- ✓Hand-eye coordination
🌱 Montessori-inspired · Practical Life
What you need
Container with lidLarge wooden discs
How to do it
- 1Cut a slot in a plastic lid.
- 2Offer 6–8 large discs in a small dish.
- 3Show one post, then let them work alone.
How it actually goes
The honest version — including what "going well" looks like at this age.
- ⏱ 30-second set-up
- Thirty seconds: cut one slot in a shoebox lid, wide enough for a wooden disc or a milk-bottle top. Put five discs in a small bowl beside the box.
- 🧑 What you do
- Post one disc yourself, slowly, then put the bowl in front of them and stop talking. Don't hold the box steady unless they ask.
- 👶 What they do
- Line the disc up with the slot, let go at the right moment, and hear it land.
- ✅ What success looks like
- At 1–2 they miss the slot a lot, open the lid, tip everything out and start again. That's the work — posting is a wrist and eye job, not a tidy one.
- 🧺 How to put it away
- Discs back in the bowl, bowl inside the box, lid on, box on a low shelf they can reach.
- 📈 When they outgrow it
- Nearly 3? Cut a second, narrower slot so the discs have to go in edge-on.