Developing Toys for Children of 1-3. Do It Yourself!

Once, when our 7-months-old Soniya was sleeping in her pram in the darkness of an autumn evening, I was sitting on a chair beside her thinking what developing toy I could make for our daughter. Such a toy that would be interesting, original and, at the same time, I could be made quite quickly. And here is what I thought up and then made: a burrow for a mouse that has got a secret.

Now, when Soniya is 16 mo old now and her fingers are strong enough to unfasten and open different fasteners, zippers and bags, it is high time to give her the handmade mouse in its burrow. As I have expected, Soniya liked the toy. Now our mornings often begin with working at fine motor skills!

This is how the details of the burrow look:

And this is the mouse itself: a “bag” made of fur with a zipper.

The same mouse when being made:

I cut the “stuffing” from a sponge and then, on its basis, cut out the pattern on fur.

Such a mouse is both a toy and a purse for children’s “treasure”. Each day the child can find a new “secret” in the mouse. Those can be the letters of the alphabet, pictures of animals, mushrooms, flowers, small toy-cars, etc.

To find the mouse, first one should get over the fasteners of three “bags”.

1. Different kinds of fasteners and putting the “bags” one into another leads to the development of the child’s fine motor skills.
2. The child gets to know different geometric figure (I also tried to find such kinds cloth the patterns on which would repeat the shapes of the figures).
3. Touch sensibility is developing – all the “bags” are made of different kinds of cloth.
4. The toy favours the development of visual and operative thinking.

And what developing toys have you made for your one-year-olds? Send us the description and pictures and we will publish your ideas in this blog - in 2 languages (indicating the author and giving the link to your blog): info @ parentsideas.com (do not forget to delete extra space in the e-mail address).

Anastasia

Illustrations to the Article:

The photos are taken by the author of the article

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Here you can read this article in Russian.

Next time we will tell you how to make adventures for kids right at home…