The development of fine motor skills at an early age contributes to the full development of the baby. To stimulate tactile sensations, a sensory box for children is ideal. Kids are happy to examine various objects, touch them with pens, pull them into their mouths. This feature of them can be skillfully used by offering them to play touch boxes for children. With your own hands you can make a lot of different options that will be interesting for kids and will give room for the imagination flight of parents.
Where did the touch boxes come from?
This toy originated in the USA. There, their various analogues have been used for a long time, but they came to us relatively recently. World-renowned teacher and developer of early development techniques, Maria Montessori recommends that parents make such educational toys themselves, taking into account the age, level of development and interests of the child. What is a sensory box for children? At its core, it is a home sandbox filled with a variety of materials at hand.
Invaluable benefits
Such a simple adaptation contributes to the full and comprehensive development of the child, starting from 6 months. The upper age limit has not been established, because this is a fascinating activity for people of different ages. Kids transfer objects from one handle to another, which develops motor skills and trains fingers. With the help of this toy, they master the shapes, colors, density and other properties of objects. Sorting items in a box teaches a little bit of patience, develops perseverance and attention, improves coordination.
If the baby is not just poking around in a box with different objects, while parents or older children pronounce their names, color, shape and other qualities, then the baby's vocabulary improves, memory is trained, and analytical thinking is formed . It is important to pronounce the properties of each object, to give it a characteristic: solid, cold, loose, etc.
DIY do-it-yourself touch boxes for kids. In addition, they help not only the development of the baby, but also contribute to the creative development of the mother. After all, new ideas for boxes come constantly.
What age should I start?
There are no age restrictions for fun with touch boxes. The kid can be given to play with them as soon as he begins to sit on his own. The only condition is that touch boxes for children from 6 months to 2 years old must contain items that correspond to the age of the crumbs. All contents must be absolutely safe for the child so that he cannot accidentally swallow, choke or break the item. At an older age, you can safely add small details. When the child is in school, you can build a mini-laboratory in a box for various experiments.
How to make a touch box on your own?
The basis of the sensor box is any capacity that is suitable in size. It can be a plastic container, a basin, a large cup. In the yard you can make a sandbox or use an inflatable pool.
Fillers for the sensory box can be different: cereals, beans, sand, pasta, plasticine, pebbles, shaving foam, grass, cones, dough, jelly, water. You can put beads in different sizes and colors, small toys, buttons, caps from jars and bottles.
To make it more interesting to play, you can use various tools: rake, scoops, spoons, strainers. Suitable for this items from a set of children's utensils.
Knowing how to make a sensory box for a child, you can turn on your imagination and start creating an exciting fairy tale for the baby. Each child is unique, and parents, knowing the features of their child, can make educational toys that can cause special delight in the crumbs. There can be no bad ideas for the equipment of sensor boxes.
The first boxes for babies
Having learned to sit, the little one with interest looks at the objects surrounding it, pulls everything in his mouth, trying to try the surrounding world by the tooth. From this time you can give him the first boxes. At this age, it is especially important to pay attention to the contents so that all items are safe. An ordinary plastic cup or a small basket can be filled with rings from the pyramid, balls of different sizes, cubes. The main thing is that the objects vary in shape, color and composition. Going through them, the baby develops tactile sensations. Mommy or older children can at that time pronounce the names of objects, their shape or give a characteristic of the chosen baby. Do not fill the container to the brim. The kid will quickly get tired and his interest in the toy will disappear. Better to constantly change the contents of the box.
When the child begins to crawl, you can put containers with different fillers in different places. When the baby finds them, he will study the contents, giving his mother time to do household chores. You can put round objects in one, soft toys in another, and third rattles.
Boxes for children from a year
In a year, the child is not so actively pulling into his mouth everything that falls into his hands. But it is ready to shift, overflow, scatter and pour to rapture. During this period, cereal or sand fillers can be added to the boxes. In them, you can "hide" larger objects, looking for which, the baby will massage his fingers and get new sensations. He can even stomp his feet on a loose filler, which will beneficially affect his health.
Such touch boxes for 1 year old children contribute to the development of fine motor skills, coordination, and grasping movements. The accuracy of each movement is being worked out. A crumb can be offered to arrange objects by colors in containers or to divide them by shapes, to teach a baby to actively use tools for playing. You can dig or dig using a spatula. If the filler is sand, then you can make cakes.
Features of touch boxes for children from 2 years and older
A kid who has reached the age of 2 years can already speak some words. Thematic boxes will really please the child. For example, you can make a farm. To do this, install in the box figures of pets and containers for "food" and "water". So the child will study domestic animals, and at the same time feed them and drink. And what a delight the boy will have in the sensor box in which the track for cars is laid. You can mark the road, elevations and obstacles.
A child at any age likes to play with water, you can arrange a home car wash for all cars or other toys in the house. Add warming foam to the warm water poured into the basin, and the game will be filled with vivid impressions. Mom needs to spread a waterproof oilcloth in advance so as not to flood the neighbors from below, and put a towel next to him, which will wipe both the toys and the baby's hands. Playing with water, the baby also learns that some objects are drowning, while others are floating. They can be caught with a slotted spoon from the water. For games, you can buy in the store a set of fish and a magnetic fishing rod, boats and other water toys.
In winter, you can fill the basin with pure snow. The kid will need to wear warm little things and mittens so that he does not catch a cold. From the snow you can sculpt using shovels and molds for pies. Snow can be watered with dyes and watch how they spread, coloring the snowdrift.
In pet stores you can buy sawdust or small wood shavings, which will become an environmentally friendly basis for the sensor box. In departments that sell flowers and fertilizers, you can purchase a hydrogel. This jelly-like mass will give the baby an incomparable sensation. It is pleasant to the touch and at the same time safe for health. With this filler, you can create a swamp, river or beach, forming a variety of themed touch boxes.
How are such activities useful for children? Kids play enthusiastically, not requiring attention. At the same time, they experience new sensations, discover a new world for themselves.
Co-creation time
When the baby grows up, he can also participate in the creation of the sensory box. He will be interested to recreate a small world from his beloved fairy tale. For example, before the New Year you can make a box with a Christmas tree, tinsel, gifts and cones hidden in the bowels of the box. For Easter, you can lay the bottom with soft grass and lay eggs in it, which were also painted with children (for kids it is better to take packages from kinder or wooden blanks for eggs).
Cartoon lovers can recreate the plot by building the house of SpongeBob and his friends. Figures of the characters themselves can be bought at toy stores. Fans of the popular game about angry birds can make a clearing for battle by building obstacles and barricades for pigs from barrels and launching birds. You can build a zoo, while the baby can help make aviaries and decorate the territory. The sensory box for children is the result of joint creativity, brings together the family and stimulates imagination. In the manufacture of various objects are used: matches, twigs, cotton wool, egg packaging, plastic bottles and containers of products, as well as everything that can be found in the house and brought from the street.
Touch Boxes for Older Ages
After 4-5 years, the child can already fantasize, he already knows a lot and shows interest in studying planets, dinosaurs and other objects, and also masters the skills of counting. Touch boxes for different ages are able to stimulate a child’s interest in certain topics. You can recreate the prehistoric world in which dinosaurs live, having built an ancient landscape on loose filler, planted trees, laid a river bed. Dinosaurs can walk along the slope of the volcano, which is easy to craft from improvised means. It is enough to mask a small container under a layer of plasticine or salt dough, pour diluted dye into it and pour baking soda. Before the “eruption” pour a small amount of vinegar and enjoy the process.
Manufacturing tips
Fillers for touch boxes can be painted in different colors. To do this, soak in the food coloring for about 30 minutes the selected bulk material. After the specified time, drain the water and dry the filler on a newspaper. Colorful rice or sand will add variety and added interest to the game.
You can use sand plasticine for the game, which is easy to make yourself or buy in the store. For the manufacture you need sifted clean sand. On a glass of sand should take 1 tbsp. flour, ¼ Art. salt, ground in a coffee grinder, a spoonful of sunflower oil and citric acid. Pour cups of boiling water over this whole mass and knead thoroughly. Such sand does not stick to your hands and at the same time is plastic and pleasant to the touch.
You can mix shaving foam with soda and get an amazing texture. It is difficult to say the exact recipe, but the mass should roll well into balls and not get your hands dirty. Even after drying, this mass is suitable for use, but already as a filler.
If you mix sand with starch in a ratio of 4: 2 and add 1 part of water, you get a wonderful mass for modeling, which is ideal for Easter cakes and construction. It can be painted with dyes diluted in water.
Do-it- yourself touchbox can be created for one game, and can be used repeatedly. You can cover it and put it on the shelf until next time. Fillers and other interesting details for boxes can be stored in jars so that when you create a new masterpiece, everything is at hand.
Touch box for children - an opportunity to captivate a child, and mom to show imagination and love. You can create new variations of the game, which will never get bored.