Increasingly, caring parents of babies hear information about the benefits of educational toys for children. Educators, too, praise the various “evolutions” from all sides. What are these toys? What can they teach? And can you make them with your own hands?
Expediency of game homemade products
Modern toys of good quality, made of safe environmentally friendly materials, are quite expensive, and not every family can often afford to indulge their child with such gifts. Therefore, it is worth thinking about how to make any toy at home, whether it be a knitted bear or a wooden board for children.
A hand-made game made with one's own hand, with sincere parental love and care, the baby will certainly enjoy it, because it will be made depending on his personal preferences and interests. And, importantly, such games will cost much less than purchased ones, since the basic materials can be found at home.
Toys for newborns
Before starting to make any games for the child, you need to think about whether it will be interesting for him to play with this "development". Depending on the age of the peanut, he wakes up interest in certain things, which should be taken into account when creating any toy, whether it be a dollhouse, cubes with animals or a handmade board for children made by himself.
So, for example, children aged 0-3 months most of the time lie on the back. They need to learn to focus on individual subjects, so bright rattles, beads or garlands are perfect. They should be light, of different textures, bright, but not variegated.
Toys for children from 3 months to a year
At 3-6 months, babies are already moving more and turning over on their stomach. At this age, vision and hearing, grasping skills and coordination of movements should be developed. Toys made of fabric, rattles, developing rugs with arcs and garlands are perfect.
At 6-9 months, the baby is already learning to crawl and pronounce individual sounds. It is necessary to fully encourage his motor and speech activity. For this age, cubes, boxes, developmental rugs, dolls with a carefully drawn face, pyramids are perfect.
Toys for children over one year old
In children older than one year begins an active knowledge of the world. There is a desire to be independent. It is necessary to actively develop both speech and motor activity. As well as fine motor skills. Toys must be assembled and disassembled. An ideal option would be a do-it-yourself educational board for children, a designer with large parts, dolls, cars, trains.
Children aged 1.5 years learn not only to be aware of the surrounding reality, but also to build a logical chain, they learn to think. Therefore, when choosing games for the child, one needs to give preference to various "developments" that allow you to find associations, help you learn something new. It can be music books, animal rugs, a board for a child. With your own hands, you can easily make the last option.
Materials for the manufacture of home-made "development"
Most of the materials needed for this kind of homework can easily be found at home. So, for example, you can use leftover fabrics or rags from old clothes. It is good if they will be of different textures: felt, jeans, knitwear, fleece - this will help to develop the sensitivity of the fingers of the child. Needleworkers who like to knit can donate crocheted squares made for calculating loops to create an educational toy. You can adapt old unnecessary lightning, so do not rush to throw them away.
You can also use other sewing accessories - buttons of different colors and sizes, beads, ribbons and ribbons, buttons, drawstrings, unsharp buckles and even decals as decoration.
Dads can also contribute to the development board for children, made with their own hands, was not only beautiful, but also interesting. To do this, in your boxes with building materials you need to look for unnecessary handles, switches, furniture accessories, heck, locks, chains and more.
Young children are very fond of making loud sounds using their toys, so you should use rustling materials (foil, bag), as well as bells.
Educational board for children: how to do, where to start
Before proceeding to the direct design of an exciting board that develops the motor skills and knowledge of the child, it is necessary to choose the right material for the base of the toy. You can take a small sheet of plywood, particleboard, part of the old bookshelf. The main thing is that the base of the game is strong and resilient.
If the selected board is smooth, covered with paint or varnish, then you can safely proceed to the next stage of design. Otherwise (as, for example, with plywood), the surface of the workpiece should be covered with a strong cloth, otherwise the baby can prick a finger on some sliver.
A do-it-yourself educational board for children (the photo is presented below) should have a plain background that does not distract the child's attention from the details of the toy. Or you can perform a thematic design by displaying, for example, a lawn, sky, sun, clouds (which, by the way, can be made of cotton wool or foam rubber).
Developing board for children (do-it-yourself): master class
After the basis is prepared, you can proceed directly to the process of registration of the game. For the development of motor skills, as well as cognition of the surrounding world, such a “development” should contain a variety of doors, behind which you can hide pictures, locks, heck, switch buttons. All elements must be carefully secured to the board using self-tapping screws. This part of the design is better for the father to do with the crumbs. Let the child observe how diligently dad does the work. You can even give a little helper a toy saw and a hammer - then the process will become a hundred times more fun for the child.
But the rest of the work will have to do mom. Using glue, several flaps of tissue of various textures should be attached to the development board to develop sensory abilities in the child. Buttons of various colors and sizes should be firmly and firmly sewn onto pieces of fabric - this way the baby will be able to learn the basic palette and get acquainted with the concept of a “bigger-less” comparison.
Also, the whole composition can be designed as a town in which various animals live - let there be a road, a house by the road, the sky, the sun and clouds. Behind the opening doors of the house animals will hide. So the child will be much more interested in studying the names of animals. The kid opens the door - and there is an elephant or a bright parrot. A different number of animals can hide behind each such door - that’s how you can teach a baby to count.
You can also draw a crosswalk across the road and make a traffic light. For this, three plastic screw caps from juice boxes are suitable. Each cover should be painted in the colors of a traffic light and glued to the board: red at the top, yellow in the middle, and green at the bottom. Little kids love to twist everything, and with older children you can learn the rules of the road.
Precautions in the manufacture of children's educational games
In order for the board for the child (made with his own hands) to be as safe as possible, you must remember the mandatory rules:
- all small parts of the toy (buttons, beads) must be firmly sewn or glued;
- all the elements intended for opening should be easy to use (the lightning easily opens, the latches do not “sink”);
- a board for a child, made with his own hands, should not have any sharp elements that the baby might hurt;
- The toy must be made of materials without harmful additives and impurities.
Whatever development board you have for your children (with your own hands), it is important that it will be done with true love and warmth, as well as at relatively low material costs.