2-4 months is a beautiful stage. The baby discovers her limbs and you will notice a more conscious movement of hands and legs. She is also getting better at visual tracking. As a continuation to our montessori from birth series, I have listed my top 5 materials or activities for 2-4 months old babies here.

1. Montessori mobiles

Continuing with the visual mobiles, we moved to the gobbi mobile at about 2 months. The Gobbi is made of balls of varying shades of the same colour that help the baby refine her senses by visually differentiating between shades of the same colour. We used it well into our batting stage.
By around 3 months, V2 was all about fluid movement. She was exploring moving her limbs. This was when we introduced the dancers . The 4 dancers gently moving their limbs in the wind develop binocularity and dept perception along with visual tracking. This is a simple DIY project which was well loved by V2.

We also introduced V2’s first tactile mobile– the simple bell on ribbon. It is used to refine purposeful movements and helps the child discover cause and effect.  Every time she bats at it, she learns that it moves with a sound. 

2. Books

We continued using black and white board books. By 3.5 months when V2 started not just identifying faces, but searching for familiar faces in a room and focusing on it, we started reading books with baby faces. We also used black and white high contrast pictures of our family. 
Once she started intentional grasping, she started preferring cloth and high contrast crinkle books. You can read more about our book recommendations for this age group here.

3. Rattles & Teethers

At about 2-ish months, when the baby started moving her limbs, we presented her first rattle.  A rattle is a simple toy that the child holds in her hands. It develops her grasping reflex, refine her co-ordination, and slowly helps her make the connection between sound and motion of her hand as well. You can read more about montessori rattle readiness and timelines here.
Once she started teething at 3months, we introduced teethers as well. We have a decent variety, and what works is using 2 in a basket at any point of time. 

4. Motessori interlocking discs

Am just glad these discs are now available easily in India. We introduced these montessori interlocking discs to V2 around 3 months. In the beginning it was all about grasping and examining. Slowly, she started practice of hand to hand transfers which makes for great wrist movement. It also develops both the sides of the brain.

5. The Prepared Adult

As always, it goes without saying that none of these materials are as important as the prepared adult. The adult who observes the baby’s interest in music and sings appropriate rhymes. The one who gets on the floor with the baby and talks to the baby. Books are useless without the adult who cuddles and reads aloud. The one who watches the baby’s cues and plays peekaboo or beep the nose.

I hope this helps. Do remember that that this list is just a guideline. You may not need all these materials in the exact same order.