Montessori-Inspired Education for Children
18 Months–3 Years Old.

18 Months–3 Years Old: Early Practical Life, Language Development & Purposeful Exploration.

Toddlers enter a powerful period of independence and language growth, and our Montessori Toddler communities are designed to match this energy. Children engage in meaningful, hands-on tasks that strengthen confidence, coordination, and emerging self-regulation. Practical Life experiences, such as pouring, transferring, and early dressing skills, support the child’s desire to “do it myself,” while rich language experiences help expand vocabulary and communication. Through sensorial exploration, children begin to classify, compare, and understand the world around them. The environment encourages guided choice, repetition, and purposeful movement, helping children build concentration, problem-solving abilities, and a strong sense of capability.

Early Start Kindergarten at Inspire Early Learning Journey.

Early Start Kindergarten at Inspire Early Learning Journey provides eligible three-year-old children with free, high-quality early learning that strengthens social, emotional, and cognitive development during the most important years of growth. Our Montessori-aligned environments, qualified teachers, and play-based learning experiences support each child to build confidence, communication, independence, and readiness for school. Aligned with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework, our Early Start Kinder program ensures every child receives the strong foundation they need to thrive now and into their future.

18 Months–3 Years Old: Emerging Creativity, Expression & Independence.

Toddlers begin to use art as a language — a way to communicate ideas, emotions, and new discoveries. At this stage, children explore paint, clay, collage materials, natural loose parts, and drawing tools. They begin to make marks with intention, repeat movements to gain control, and enjoy the process of transforming materials. Through exploration, they develop coordination, concentration, and independence as they create freely and experiment with mixing colours, building forms, and exploring patterns. Art becomes an important outlet for sensory processing, emotional regulation, and growing confidence.

18 Months–3 Years Old: Independence, Routine & Exploring New Foods.

Toddlers begin to participate more actively in mealtimes. As their coordination and confidence grow, they move towards self-serving, trying new ingredients, and learning the rhythms of shared mealtime routines. Our chefs create meals that introduce a variety of textures, colours, and nutritional components, supporting toddlers to broaden their palate and strengthen independence. Children learn to use utensils, communicate preferences, and enjoy food as part of their social and developmental learning. They begin recognising familiar foods, making choices, and building a healthy, positive relationship with eating.

18 Months–3 Years Old: Practical Skills, Independence & Early Food Preparation.

Toddlers begin to take an active role in the kitchen with real, hands-on tasks that support their growing independence. At this stage, children participate in simple food-preparation experiences such as washing fruit, stirring mixtures, peeling bananas, cutting soft foods, pouring ingredients, and helping assemble simple recipes. These activities allow toddlers to build hand strength, coordination, and concentration while learning early language around food, taste, and cooking. Children feel a strong sense of pride as they contribute to shared snacks and meals, developing early responsibility and an understanding of healthy eating habits.

18 Months–3 Years Old: Emerging Responsibility & Care for the Environment.

Children in this stage begin to understand how their actions contribute to caring for the world around them. They participate in simple, meaningful routines such as watering plants, collecting natural materials, feeding classroom pets, and tidying shared spaces. These experiences build early independence, coordination, empathy, and a growing sense of responsibility. Toddlers also start to notice natural patterns in seasons, weather, plant growth, and insects. Through repeated encounters with nature, they begin forming an emotional connection to the environment and a sense of pride in helping to care for it.

18 Months–3 Years Old: Early Musical Understanding & Movement Coordination.

Toddlers begin to use music as a form of expression and discovery. As their independence and communication grow, they experiment with percussion instruments, imitate simple rhythms, move to music with increasing coordination, and explore the relationship between sound and movement. Musical play supports early language development, rhythm recognition, memory, and confidence. Educators introduce short songs, repetitive patterns, and playful sound experiences that encourage toddlers to participate, express themselves, and build emerging musical concepts naturally.

18 Months–3 Years Old: Early Community Exploration & Real-World Connections.

Children aged 18 months to 3 years begin to explore their broader community with growing confidence. As toddlers develop communication, mobility, and independence, they engage in short, guided excursions close to the campus, such as visiting local green spaces or observing community helpers. Incursions at this age—such as animal visits, cultural storytelling, hands-on creative workshops, and interactive sensory experiences—encourage toddlers to make connections between their learning and the world around them. These experiences foster expressive language, emerging social skills, and a sense of curiosity and excitement about new places and people.

18 Months–3 Years: Emerging Language, Early Vocabulary & Purposeful Expression.

As Toddlers become more independent, language becomes a powerful tool for expressing their needs, ideas, and emotions. At this age, children rapidly expand their vocabulary, imitate new words, participate in simple conversations, and begin forming short sentences. Educators support this stage by modelling rich language, naming objects, extending children’s ideas, and offering meaningful communication experiences through books, songs, storytelling, and everyday routines. Language play, early phonological awareness, and repeated patterns help toddlers build confidence and clarity as they experiment with words, ask questions, and engage socially with peers and educators.

18 Months–3 Years: Identity, Expression & Understanding Differences.

As Toddlers grow in independence and language, they begin to recognise cultural elements within their environment and express their own identities. Children in this age group explore diverse stories, songs, celebrations, and experiences that reflect both their own background and the backgrounds of others. Educators introduce simple cultural narratives, sensory materials, and expressive activities that help toddlers understand that people come from different places and have different traditions. Through conversation, dramatic play, and guided experiences, toddlers begin to notice similarities and differences, developing early empathy, curiosity, and respect for others.

18 Months–3 Years: Coordination, Gross-Motor Strength & Independent Movement.

As toddlers grow, movement becomes their primary way of learning, exploring, and expressing independence. This stage is marked by rapid improvements in balance, coordination, and physical confidence. Children engage in purposeful activities such as climbing, running, jumping, pushing, pulling, and navigating obstacle courses that challenge their gross-motor skills. Educators guide toddlers through music-and-movement experiences, outdoor adventures, ball skills, and intentional fine-motor activities that strengthen hands and fingers for future writing. These rich physical opportunities help toddlers regulate energy, build resilience, develop persistence, and experience the joy of mastering new physical abilities.

18 Months–3 Years: Exploration, Cause-and-Effect, Early Classification & Simple Experiments.

During the toddler years, children’s drive to explore and experiment becomes the core of their scientific learning. Toddlers begin intentionally testing ideas and observing what happens when they interact with everyday objects and natural materials. They pour, mix, transfer, and manipulate substances to see how they change. They explore water to understand sinking and floating, observe insects and natural items to learn about living things, and delight in discovering how light, colour, and shadow behave. Through sorting, comparing, and grouping materials, toddlers develop early classification skills and begin making meaning from patterns and similarities. Educators support this process through rich language, encouraging children to think aloud, express predictions, and notice outcomes. Through these early investigations, toddlers build independence, persistence, problem-solving abilities, and confidence in experimenting with the world around them.