Despite the fact that the shelves of modern children's stores literally cave in from all kinds of fun for kids, parents are increasingly wondering how to make educational toys for children with their own hands. After all, I want the child to have a concept about the properties and characteristics of the materials surrounding him, objects and phenomena. And who better to know than parents, what exactly during what period of life interests their baby. So why not make a toy yourself that will be interesting for your child? Moreover, such an option is usually cheaper, and for the peanut it is safer, since you know all its components.
The role of educational toys in the life of a child
To exaggerate the role of developing toys in the life of a child is probably impossible. Indeed, it is thanks to them that a small person learns the world around him. Toys contribute to the formation of auditory and visual systems, the development of fine motor skills, attention. And if up to 6 months the baby only reacts to bright objects with his eyes and hearing new sounds, then after six months the child needs to touch various objects, hold them in his hands, carefully studying, and sometimes nibbling, and his hand toys should be ready for all this .
However, parents need to keep in mind that the smaller their child, the more attention must be paid to the safety of those things that fall into his hands (and sometimes in his mouth). And it is best to make educational toys for children with their own hands, using natural fabrics, yarn, sewing threads, wood, cardboard, paper and other materials safe for the child. In this case, it is necessary to ensure that the materials have different colors, textures, density, etc. After all, this will contribute to the active development of tactile sensations in the child.
Board with "forbidden" elements
Everyone who has children of their own or who are familiar with toddlers knows that the child, as soon as he begins to move around the house on his own, seeks to know the things around him, and it cannot be otherwise. But, unfortunately, in every housing there are such items, contact with which can harm the child. In addition, many things can be damaged if used for other purposes. But everyone knows that the forbidden fruit is sweet, and the more parents forbid the child to contact with a certain subject, the more he seeks him, while any surprise toy takes his attention for a maximum of 20 minutes. So why not please the baby by building a special stand for him?
To make such a “toy” you will need a board, as well as all kinds of items that you do not allow your baby to use in everyday life. These are latches, locks, sockets, latches, Velcro, lacing, various switches and much more. All this must be attached to the board, and hang it on the wall at a height corresponding to the growth of the child.
DIY book made of fabric
Each parent dreams that his child will be successful and smart, and here you can’t do without a book, and you can teach a baby to it at a very young age. True, this will not require an ordinary book, although with the participation of an adult it may be suitable. But it’s better, nevertheless, that among the objects for the amusement of the child there should be not only soft toys from the fabric, but also books from the same material. Moreover, making it with your own hands is an occupation that any adult can do.
Of course, the purpose of this book is not reading, but rather acquaintance with the outside world, so show your imagination. As pages, you need to use a fabric of various colors with bright patterns. On each sew some interesting flower, animal or object cut from a fabric of a different texture, felt is ideal. You can, for example, sew a boot with real lacing so that the child can lace it up on his own. An interesting page can be a sewn flower of 5 large petals, which are pulled together with an elastic ribbon into a bud. In the middle you can “plant” a moth from another fabric or cardboard. Try to create a book with the elements that your child is most interested in.
Lacing “tablet”
If you don’t have much time to make educational toys for children with your own hands, but still want to please your baby with something unusual, then a laced “tablet” is a great option for this. Its manufacture will not take much time, materials can even be found at hand, and for the development of fine motor skills of a child, this toy will become simply irreplaceable.
You need a sheet of plastic or plywood about A4 size. Holes with a diameter of 5 mm are drilled at a distance of 1.5-2 cm from each other. In addition to the tablet itself, you will need more laces of various colors, and the more the better. They will act as the main tool for the implementation of the creative plan of the child.
Homemade puzzles
All parents know about the existence of puzzles, but many of them do not even realize that it is not at all difficult to make these educational toys for children with their own hands. In addition, they will not be similar to those sold in stores in large quantities. The easiest way to make puzzles at home is to cut the cards into pieces. Their number should depend on how large you want to get items. For very young children, puzzles from painted fabric can be made in the same way.
Puzzles from ice cream sticks are also interesting. You need to find a suitable picture, cut it out, take the sticks and stack them one next to the other so that the entire image area is covered. Then use sticky tape to fasten the sticks together, and stick the picture on top. When the glue dries, the sticks must be freed from the adhesive tape, and cut the picture in the places of their contact. As a result, you will get a lot of sticks with pieces of the picture, from which the child will need to add an entire picture.
Puzzles from felt
It is worth noting that folding, adhering to certain rules of the sequence, you can not only picture from the parts, but also, for example, the sun, the rainbow and many other elements. So, for the manufacture of puzzles in the form of a rainbow, you will need a felt of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, blue and purple.
Parts of the rainbow should be cut out of felt - semicircles with a small notch in the lower part. In this case, the red arc should be the largest, and each subsequent one will slightly decrease in size, the last - the purple will be the smallest. Such a toy will allow the child to better get acquainted with such a phenomenon as a rainbow, and remember the sequence of its colors.
Continuing the theme of exploring natural phenomena, it would be appropriate to make toys in the form of other elements, for example, the sun. To do this, you need to cut out a large circle from yellow felt and many thin strips - rays. You can also cut raindrops, clouds, flowers, butterflies, bugs, trees, leaves and many other elements that allow the child to add whole pictures.
Homemade flying toys
After the child had already “held enough” in the hands of various objects, “had seen enough” of their bright colors, managed to gnaw and tear them, he begins to actively move and again look for something new for himself. And here, cars, balls and other things for outdoor games come in handy, but even at this stage you can make certain objects that can please the little one. First of all, these are all kinds of flying toys.
The simplest craft from this category is a paper helicopter. To make it, you will need paper (preferably thick) and a paper clip. A strip of approximately 48 mm wide and 140 mm long should be cut out of paper. Having moved 70 mm from the bottom on both sides, make indentations of 16 mm and cut a corner 10 mm high. Next, fold the lower part in three and fasten with a paper clip, and the upper part - cut in half and bend in opposite directions - these will be the rotor blades. Flying toys of this type will be able to take a child and even a whole company for a long time, if you make several helicopters, because then children can not only admire how their toys spin in the air, but also arrange competitions among themselves.
"Pyramid" of fabric
Pyramids are one of the most interesting types of toys for children , but they do not have to be bought at all, but can be successfully made at home. Moreover, handmade pyramids can be very original and varied, which a child will undoubtedly enjoy. You can, for example, sew a triangular pyramid of fabric. To do this, you need fabric (preferably several colors), a filler (synthetic winterizer, foam rubber, etc.), a needle with a thread, scissors and Velcro. First you need to cut triangles from the fabric - two of the same size. In this case, it is necessary to calculate so that each subsequent triangle is slightly smaller than the previous one.
Pads should be sewn from cut blanks, filling them with padding polyester or any other material. The more such pads, the better. At the final stage, Velcro must be sewn to each triangle on both sides in the center, so that it is more convenient to build a pyramid from these pads. Similarly, you can make such toys from fabrics of any shape - round, hexagonal, square, etc.
"Fabric" animals
Each child likes soft toys, but if they are also made with their own hands, then there will be no limit to his delight. Indeed, at home, in addition to the fact that you can make funny toys, they can also be filled with unusual materials, which will also cause interest in the baby.
Immediately it is worth noting that there is no need to pay too much attention to the pattern, it is enough that it at least slightly resembles the animal that you are going to make. That is, cutting out a cat’s fabric, it’s enough to carve out a head with sharp ears, two legs at the bottom and two on the sides. Similarly, you can cut out a bear figure, except that the ears will be rounder, and the whole body and legs will be fuller.
When the two parts of the figure are sewn and the time comes to fill them, it is better to use not only soft material, but also some kind of “unusual” one. For example, pour buckwheat, rice, peas or any other cereal inside. You can also fill a small plastic bead with small beads and place it inside the toy. Any small objects will do, the main task is to interest the child in their unusual shape or sound.