Balance Board in Solid Beech

The curved board, which is a rocker, a bridge, a slide and a boat, and is the single most used thing in most playrooms.

The Montessori idea behind this is simple enough to say in a sentence: a child who can reach a thing can choose it, and a child who can choose it will use it. That is why the bed is on the floor, the shelf is at knee height and the tower exists at all. It is not a style. Almost everything sold as Montessori furniture is a normal piece of furniture made smaller, and the test of whether it is the real thing is whether a two year old can use it without an adult, which is a question you can answer by watching rather than by reading a product page.

Specification

• Dimensions: 600mm wide by 500mm high
• Age range: 10 months to 6 years, with an adult in the room under 3
• Material: solid steamed beech, which is the timber most school furniture has been made from for a century because it dents rather than splinters
• Finish: water based lacquer, certified to BS EN 71 part 3, sanded to 240 grit
• Load rating: 60kg, tested to 150kg and 30,000 cycles
• Standards: BS EN 71 parts 1, 2 and 3, which covers mechanical safety, flammability and the migration of elements out of the finish
• Edges and fixings: every edge rounded to a 5mm radius and sanded to 240 grit, with no exposed fixing on any climbing surface
• Assembly: arrives assembled, or ten minutes for the folding versions
• Weight: approximately 4.3 kilograms
• Rung diameter: 28mm, which is what a small hand can grip
• Rung spacing: 100mm, sized so a foot fits and a head does not
• Fall zone: 1200mm clear on every open side
• Does not fold
• Hooks are sized to the rest of the range, so a ramp bought later fits
• Adult supervision under 3 years

In the box

• The piece, assembled
• Hooks and pins where the piece has them
• Felt pads and spares
• A printed safety card with the fall zone and supervision guidance

Assembly and safety

Arrives assembled. Unwrap it, check it over and put it where it goes. We take the packaging away on the same visit if you ask when you book the delivery.

How long it lasts

Most families buy this for one stage and then move on, and that is fine. It holds its value better than almost anything else in a child's room because it is solid timber with no printed decoration to date it, and we run a buy back on our own pieces at up to 40 per cent, refinish them and sell them as second life stock, which is the honest version of a sustainability page.