Just some notes from today's shopping/research trip.
Trio blocks are about a 1" cube, which I think is considered too small for toddlers. (At least, all the 1" cube manipulatives I've seen are rated for ages 3+.)
Duck brand tape is $3.99/roll at Michaels, and comes in all the Montessori math bead colors.
I'm thinking it might be easiest just to make the squares and cubes from cardboard, cover them with the appropriate color of tape, and mark off the squares with black pen. I'd still try not to let the littlest ones have them unsupervised, but if they did get hold of them, I doubt there would be much damage (to either the toddlers or the math kit
).
The Dollar Tree has sturdy cardboard turn-the-wheel fact finders about dinosaurs, animals, US states, and US presidents. I bought a few copies of the states and presidents ones, so we can make up questions ("What's the state flower of Wyoming?") and race to see who comes up with the answer first. They also have some lift-the-flap board books that teach about the US presidents, the 50 states, and world geography. Straight from the land of asynchronous (product) development.
