Maria Montessori introduced the concept of a prepared environment into the everyday life of teachers and psychologists, where a child develops thanks to his interaction with various objects, the purpose of which is to improve certain cognitive functions of the baby. An adult in this process acts as an assistant and provides for the exchange of didactic materials surrounded by crumbs. The child himself decides what he will do and what subject he will choose at the moment.
Since new and new objects are constantly required, and the cost of ready-made developmental toys is very high, many teachers and parents prefer to make Montessori material with their own hands, using everything that is in the house: fabrics, buttons, cereals, cardboard, etc.
What is the power of every mom?
The main requirement for each component of future toys is its natural origin, cleanliness and safety for a small child.
How to make Montessori materials with your own hands? A discussion by inventive adults of specific objects that can be created independently led to a list of the most affordable, simple and useful educational toys. So, here is this TOP-7.
Liner frames
Montessori's most popular didactic material. With their own hands they are most often made of cardboard. Insert frames are multifunctional - with their help the child simultaneously studies colors, shapes, sizes and learns to compare them. The manufacture of such a toy begins with cutting a large sheet of cardboard or several shoe boxes into equal squares. Then they are pasted over with colored paper and a clerical knife are carefully cut out from the center of the figure: circles, squares, triangles, trapezoids, rhombuses, etc. of different sizes.
Further, in the same way, inserts of a contrasting shade are made, in the center of which a button or other device is placed for convenient gripping by children's fingers. The edges of the cardboard elements are smoothed out with fine sandpaper to make them easier to enter into each other.
Geometric
A geometrical is a wonderful little thing, during the game with which the child is ready to spend more than one hour. In the original, it consists of a board and pins. Creating such a Montessori material with your own hands, instead of wooden choppers, you can use stationery buttons with heads in different colors. It is necessary to drive them into the board with a hammer, so that the young naturalist could not pull the tips out of the base. The kid hooks elastic bands onto the wide plastic parts of the buttons (those suitable for fastening banknotes by bank workers and have different colors), forming lines, shapes and whole pictures.
Touch mat
The fabric rug will become the favorite fun of the baby, because it’s so cool to sit on it, lie, arrange toys, and it also contains a lot of surprises. This didactic material for the implementation of the Montessori method can really be made from anything. The only thing that limits you is your own imagination. The size, color, patterns, developing elements such as buttons, zippers, hooks, pockets can be absolutely any. For sewing such a rug, everything that was lying in the wardrobe waiting for better times is suitable: fabric cuts, old clothes, accessories, etc.
The main thing is that the details have a different texture: elements of cotton and wool alternated, smooth and rough, sewn and knitted. Under the applications, you can hide a rustling plastic bag, a tweeter, a handful of cereals or beads.
Color trainer
Any objects will serve as a simulator for studying colors - from wooden cups, plastic boxes of a certain shade to mugs or figures made of cardboard. The tool for selection is the easiest way to make clothespins. They can be either plastic, a certain color, or wooden with paper stickers. Stickers according to their color should also repeat the figure (capacity).
The child simultaneously trains vision, mental functions and fine motor skills, finding each clothespin the right place. This is another case where Montessori materials with their own hands are in no way inferior to purchased materials.
Lacing board
Despite its name, a lacing board is not necessarily a wooden blank. If it is not possible to cut a plywood figure, then a piece of thick cardboard will do. For durability it is better to glue it with a film. Holes are knocked out in the workpiece with a sharp tool, into which the child can easily pull the cord.
The board can take any form - from close to reality (for example, shoes) to fairy castles, animals or vehicles. It is better to take laces ready-made, their ends are convenient for slipping into holes.
Snake
The sensory snake, or caterpillar, is also Montessori's material. You can make such a toy with your own hands in a few hours. All you need is pieces of different fabric and material for filling the balls. Suitable cereals (millet, beans, rice, peas, etc.), foam or batting, crumpled paper or plastic film. You can come up with other interesting to the touch fillers.
The easiest option is to make snake elements from old ones that have lost their pair of children's socks. They have bright colors and patterns, and in the assembly the toy will look very interesting.
Those who can, can sew balls from fabrics of different textures, and decorate the head with eyes and a smile.
Soft pyramid
The pyramid consists of fleece or felt pads of different sizes. They connect with each other using Velcro.
Despite the apparent simplicity, this is also the real Montessori developmental material. With your own hands, any owner of a sewing machine can easily sew such a pyramid.
The main trick of the toy is that the pads have different coloring of the lower and upper sides. Colors match only in interconnected parts. Cut out the squares, sew them together and fill them with a soft filler is not difficult. Velcro tape is divided into segments that are attached to the center of each part. The bottom pillow for stability of the pyramid can be filled with something heavy, for example, buckwheat or pearl barley.
Learning how to make do-it-yourself Montessori benefits at home, parents can significantly expand their assortment of developmental toys for their baby. And even if a child cannot yet use some of these didactic materials correctly, by manipulating with them he still learns, learns the properties of objects, compares weights and textures, colors and sizes, and creates in his head the basis for further training.
The adult's task in this process is to provide the very “prepared environment”, which means constantly replenishing the collection of Montessori manuals, following the preferences of the young researcher and giving the little time to comprehend the logical connections that seem natural to us. The technique implies the maximum independence of children in choosing the sequence of classes, subject and method of interaction with him. It is important for parents to understand that such an approach to early learning is the most reasonable and natural. In addition, such an attitude of elders lays faith in oneself in a child, and this positively affects his entire future life.