Homemade toys, what fun!
From the first few months, playing is as essential for children as feeding or sleeping. And you don't need particularly structured toys or game-activities. On the contrary, practically anything can turn into a wonderful journey of discovery and exciting entertainment. You will notice that the child is potentially intrigued by everything: having grabbed an object, he observes it, tries to put it in his mouth, sticks his fingers in the holes, runs it through his hair and shakes it to hear what noise it makes (and children love everything it does noise).
To stimulate our children to play and help them grow, it is often enough to use the objects we have at home, together with a little imagination.
DIY toys
FROM 3 MONTHS
DONALD SOCKS
Different noises, sounds, materials and textures – all in your baby's first hand puppet. Create it with your own hands and you will get a unique and non-stereotyped game.
Materials:
■ a white sock
■ marker for fabrics
■ colored beads, sequins, buttons
■ colored felt or felt cloths (yellow, orange, blue)
■ wool needle and colored wool threads
■ a bell
■ small yellow feathers
Put the sock in your left hand (in your right if you are left-handed), draw the shape of the eyes and a rhombus for the beak with the marker. Sew two small colored buttons on the eyes, then cut two small triangles from the orange cloth: sew the first along the two upper sides of the diamond-beak, the second along the lower edge. On a yellow cloth draw and cut out two wings, on a blue cloth a tail and a smaller tuft, then sew the wings to the sides of the sock, the tail on the back and the tuft on top. Take the feathers and sew them all over the place; around the neck of the duck sew colored beads and sequins, like a necklace, and in the center the bell. You have made a cute little duck, but with a little imagination you can create kittens, teddy bears, gnomes and anything else your imagination suggests.
One sock, a thousand stories
Wear the Donald in one hand: move your fingers and make him talk in a funny way, make him jump - so the bell will ring - wrap the child's hands in feathers and 'bite' his nose with his beak, tell a little story.
You will definitely capture his attention.
12-24 MONTHS
IRRESISTIBLE TRANSFERS
Here's a simple manipulative toy – and great for honing hand-eye coordination – to keep baby entertained while you prepare dinner. Let him cook with you, he will be thrilled.
Materials:
■ an old sheet
■ saucepans, plastic cups, small containers
■ spoons, ladles
raw short pasta of various shapes: penne, farfalle, shells, fusilli…
Spread the sheet on the kitchen floor, make the child sit down and place containers, pots and spoons around him; in some you put a little pasta (five or six penne here, as many fusilli there…). Now ask the child to cook with you, perhaps even offering him some of the ingredients you are using, such as a carrot, a little ham... You will see that your little one will be enthusiastic and will do his best to pour and mix all the time.
Colored variants
If, after playing, you plan to have some time for cleaning, in addition to the pasta, you can give the child a glass of cornmeal and one of coffee powder. There is nothing better for a good game than decanting.
THE PLEASURE OF PLAYING
According to the psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), the child repeatedly carries out a certain activity – especially if he has just discovered it – for the sheer pleasure of doing it. So for fun. At least for the first few years, while playing his attention is entirely directed to the object – therefore to the means of his playing – and not to the end. The small child likes to pour water from one glass to another because he likes to see and hear it fall; and scribbles for the sake of the gesture and the surprise of the colors, not yet to make a nice drawing to give to mom.
