For grown-ups
Knobbed cylinders
What your child practices
Seeing small differences in thickness: ten cylinders, ten holes, each one step from the next. The first block changes only how thick they are, the second how thick and how tall together, the third goes short and thick to tall and thin. Picking something up by a small knob comes along with it.
How to use it together
Show it once: take the thickest cylinder by its knob and lower it into the thickest hole, slowly and without talking, then the next. A cylinder too wide rocks on the rim and falls off. One too narrow drops in, rattles and comes back out. There is no need to say anything; let your child see it. When all ten are in, they rise and fall in turn and play a scale. They can be taken out and done again.
These are Montessori-style activities. Handeware Kids is not affiliated with or approved by any Montessori organization.