Baby Care

Posts Tagged ‘Toys’

In Children’s book stores, you’ll find books with sturdy materials that are developed for babies and for children up to and including the preschool and kindergarten age years. Toy books can been made of heavy cloth, fabric, and cardboard which is sometimes padded. They are called Toy Books. These books are to be read but also to be played with by babies or toddlers.

These books are the first intro to written books and are very important for child development and care. Many Toy Books have a familiar story or nursery rhyme theme. Almost always the books have big images or bright colors. You can also find toy books that “pop up” images as you skip from one page to the next.

The can learn to turn the page, an important emergent literacy step, and hear language as it is also read to them. The books are meant to be shared, as an adult or older child can read it to them. The familiarity of this book then often lends itself to a child actually “reading” the book from memory (again, another important step in the reading process). In this way, the child learns language. In addition, many children’s books repeat words. This leads to forming a memory trace within the child of the letters and the sound of the word(s) as it is heard and viewed frequently. This then leads to the book being read by the child and the book becoming the child’s favorite.

The next time, then, you as a parent, friend, or relative of a baby or child pass an aisle containing these colorful, playful books that look indeed enticing for children, don’t pass them up. They make great gifts! It is highly likely that your intended little one will enjoy these books both in play and as a learning tool. The early books will lead a child to a love of shared reading as you or someone reads the book to the child and models the reading process for and with them. The baby or child will love touching or feeling the book, and, again, three of the senses are involved in the process (seeing, hearing, and the kinesthetic experience of touching). The Toy Book will, most importantly, instill in the child a love of books as a pleasurable, fun experience. This will lay the foundation for a lifetime of the enjoyment of reading.

As parents, we’re living in a paradoxical time. On one hand, the variety of developmentally friendly infant toys available on the market is greater than ever before. On the other hand, this fact can make a visit to the nearby Toys ‘R Us a depressing experience, since we somehow end up feeling like we’re doing something wrong if we don’t exit the store with every book, video and interactive game well-intentioned people have produced for our benefit.

But take heart. Even if you don’t own every toy in existence, your baby is going to be just fine. I promise. In fact, you need not look beyond your own four walls to find plenty of items that will occupy his interest and stimulate his brain. Here’s a list of 10!

1. Paper
Give your infant a single sheet of paper, and he might amuse himself for minutes on end waving it around, laughing at the funny flapping sound it makes or trying to tear it into a hundred tiny pieces. The activity can help him both practice his dexterity and become familiar with an everyday object. Infants’ movements aren’t smooth enough for them to get paper cuts, but you do have to watch out that they don’t try to eat a torn-off sample. They’ll probably be more interested in waving it around anyway. (Note: While regular paper makes for a fun toy, avoid letting your baby play with newspaper, since the chemicals in printer’s ink can be hazardous.)

2. Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls
These offer several fun advantages. One: They’re shiny and reflective. Two: They’re fun to bang on. Three: They make an interesting noise when rattling against the ground. And four: They’re fun to bang on!

3. Computer Keyboard
Most of us have an obsolete keyboard collecting dust somewhere just because we never bothered to get rid of it. Now is your chance to make it useful again. Babies love rapping (OK, pounding) on the keys and enjoying the clacking sounds they make. Your first step is to secure the loose cable to the back of the keyboard with duct tape. Then you’re ready to hand over the keyboard to your infant and watch him pound away to his heart’s content!

4. Piano
If your baby enjoys banging on a computer keyboard, he’s going to positively love banging on something that produces music as a result! From the age of 5 months or so, he’ll probably be thrilled by being placed on the bench – with you holding him for support, of course – and given free reign to compose whatever piece he wants. Benefits of this great activity include practice with hand-eye coordination, learning about cause and effect (he learns that by hitting the keys, he’s the one making those sounds), and, best of all, a developing ear for, and appreciation of, music.

5. Balls
Plastic balls, rubber balls, ping pong balls – any ball large enough not to be swallowed is a good, engaging toy for an infant. Plastic and rubber balls are best, since they aren’t dangerous to chew on. Tennis balls are OK, too, since your infant will probably discover fairly quickly that chewing on fuzz is less fun than playing with the thing instead. By the time your baby is 5 or 6 months old, you’ll start to derive a whole new level of joy from teaching him to play “catch” – passing the ball back and forth with you (even though you’ll probably have to take the ball from him when he passes it to you, since infants learn to grasp objects before learning to release them).

6. Television Remote
While watching TV is a passive activity and therefore not ideal for infant development, the remote itself can be a useful toy. Babies love pressing buttons wherever they see them, and this provides them with a self-contained panel of lots of different buttons to press. If you have a remote with an LED (red light) that goes on whenever a button is pressed, the toy becomes even more fun and educational – your infant will be spellbound by the relationship between his effort and the light appearing.

7. Empty Plastic Bottles
One of the few good things about our society’s obsessive consumption of soft drinks is the enjoyment infants get from the bottles they come in, once emptied. The smaller the bottle, the better for little hands to manipulate. The larger ones can provide lots of fun, too, by being rolled back and forth or knocked ahead only to rotate back. Empty shampoo bottles also work well.

8. Used Toilet Roll Tubes
Part of me thinks the toilet roll tube came first – as a wonderful infant toy – followed by the invention of toilet paper rolls to place around them. These tubes have lots going for them as baby toys. They’re an interesting cylindrical shape, but open at the ends and thus easy for little hands to grasp. They’re stiff, so your baby won’t destroy them in five minutes. They don’t look like something that would be interesting to eat, even to an infant. And they can be banged against other objects without harmful consequences.

9. Watches
The faces of most watches, combined with the texture of their bands and their silver or gold buckles, make them fascinating objects for infants. They may serve you particularly well at the changing table when your baby reaches the age at which he prefers to flip over instead of waiting for you to finish the job. Dangling the watch above his eyes for a moment or two and then allowing him to grab it might keep him interested just long enough for you to complete the crucial task at hand.

10. You
No matter how many pilgrimages you make to the local toy store, your baby’s favorite toy is you. And why not? Just think how exciting a thing you are, with so many interesting parts for a baby to enjoy, including fingers that move around in captivating ways, a nose that sticks out from the rest of your facial plane, features capable of endless amusing expressions and feet that are fun to shuffle after when they walk away. When you think you’re at a loss trying to keep your infant entertained, turn to yourself as the toy most likely to get results. Do an elevator walk, clap your hands under your knees, play peek-a-boo, play a hambone tune on your thighs, do a pratfall or just jump around and sing. Your baby will appreciate the effort you’re making for him, and he may just reward you with a few of those giggles that you’ve come to live for.

So, your child is already 1 year old. Every day, he/she requires more and more attention, and he/she can not be left alone in the company of a musical rug. So what he/she needs?

Toys for 1-2 year-old children
First you need to revise the arsenal of toys that are already available at home. It is necessary to remove those toys with which the baby does not play quite as well as those which are already not suitable for his/her age. Do not be afraid to do it, because you always have the opportunity to get them, believe me, the child often perceives them as entirely new.
Now let’s talk about those children toys, which should be purchased. For convenience, we have combined toys into groups by type of activity.

Handling objects
You have probably noticed yourself that after 1 year your child has become much more self-sufficient: he/she learns to use everyday objects, manipulating them in every way, trying to imitate adults. Therefore, to maintain and develop those skills they need such toys, which are small-scale analogues of real objects:
- Children cooking utensils, clothing, combs;
- Toy food;
- Dolls;
- Shovels, rakes, watering cans, fishing rods;
- A toy phone, bag or backpack.
While playing with these toys, the child learns not only to manipulate them, but also develops the skills of using them.

Visual-effective thinking
A child learns through visual-efficient thinking that is, using his/her hands. Therefore, for the development of this field the toys for children should be of different sizes and shapes that have common features. While playing with these toys, the child learns to compare their size and color, resulting in a presentation to the properties of objects. These include:
- Pyramid;
- Cubes (including soft);
- Mosaics;
- Nesting dolls.
We draw your attention to the fact that these toys should be diverse in color, shape and size. For example, if your child likes to collect a pyramid, buy him/her plastic and wooden, small and large ones.

Cognitive Activity
As you know, a child by nature is very, very inquisitive. Offer him/her toys that encourage experimentation and self-discovery.
- Boxes and jars with a secret;
- Small bowls.
Again, we note that the boxes, jars and molds should be of different sizes, colors and shapes.

Language development
Language development takes place in the process of direct communication with older child, so you need to stock up various toys and materials that encourage this communication. For exaple:
- Pictures of animals;
- Figures of animals;
- Audio recordings of children songs and poems;
- Slides (as a harmless alternative to cartoons).

Creativity and perception
For the development of creative abilities of the child he/she needs such toys as:
- Pens, pencils, paint;
- Clay;
- A set of colored paper (for applications).
By using these materials, the child will develop creativity and create the concept of colors (paint) and forms (clay).

Musical toys are designed to develop the perception of ambient sounds. These include:

- Rattles, whistles;
- Children’s musical instruments (maracas, tambourine, drum, xylophone).
Note that you should not pay much attention to electronic musical toys, because they produce sounds which do not contribute to the development of musical perception in due measure.

Physical development
Physical development plays a very important role in the overall development of the young child. For this we offer the following toys:
- Balls of different sizes (ball game);
- Mats with various surfaces;
- Slides, ladders.

Conclusions
So, we have listed the toys that a 1-2 year-old child needs for the harmonious development of all spheres of his/her activities. Of course, we encourage you to buy all these toys but do not guarantee the results. Returning to the beginning of this article, we’d like to say that a child should play and communicate, and toys are only the helpers in this game.

Summer is a traditional time for traveling. Tickets are bought, things are collected, and you anticipate that very soon under the smell of bitter smoke and dimensional tap of wheels you’ll detract from the pressing problems. But maybe you will travel by car or by plane?

Whatever you choose, of course, you do not forget the entertainment on the road – a couple of detectives, cards, crosswords. However, there is a small snag – you travel with your child. I suspect that detectives can hardly help you in this case. You can’t take bulky table games. First, it is not very convenient, because you are to pay for every extra kilogram. Second, you’ll have some empty centimeter in your suitcase.
The main rule – do not entertain children from the very beginning. After all, first they’ll want to plunge into new experience, study the compartment or the cabin of aircraft, listen to new sounds … But the time will come when your child will be annoyed from these. And if you feel that your child is already tired, it is time to act!

Travel notes

Try to keep a road diary with your child. For this purpose you can use a thick notebook or album for drawing. It’s not terrible, if your child can’t write yet – he/she can draw unusual thing, a bird or a river, car which you met on the way. Then you can paste photographs taken on the road in the diary, or tickets, which will remind of the trip. It is interesting to monitor the movements on the map (it will also become an important part of the diary).
Comments on images and photos can be done in the style of a guide: “Look, what a magnificent panorama of petrol in front of you”. Do not forget to mark the date.

I paint – I paint you

If there isn’t anything interesting on your way, you can simply draw. A small notebook and a set of drawing pencils or felt-tip pen are enough for a young artist! The child may be full of new impressions, and he/she certainly would like to give them shape and color. You can also invent a game related to art.
For example, you can play the game “Nonsense”. Certainly, it is familiar to you from your childhood. You draw a head at the top of the page (humans’, animals’, birds’), indicate where to start the neck and torso, incurve sheet so that your image is not visible, and send it to the child. He/she draws the torso, starting with your marks, and leaves mark where to draw the feet.
We can offer another game-“The enigma of the illustration”. You paint a picture with “nonsense” – for example, while the sun shines in the sky there is also the moon, or a person wears a shoe on one leg, but on the other – boots. The younger the child, the brighter must the “nonsense” be. The task of your baby is to find your mistake. The game develops attention and logical thinking.

Honey, guess yourself…

The best road games are puzzles. There is a wide variety of puzzles. Here are some examples.
Guess my number
One participant keeps in mind any number. Another must guess the number by offering different versions. “20?” “More!” “45?” “Less”.
20 questions
Now think of any object. The participant has the right to ask only twenty questions – “Is it alive or dead?”, “Is it man made or natural?”, etc., then he/she must guess what you have kept.

What was changed?

You should play this game like this: spread a number of any items, toys, pencils, etc. One participant closes his/her eyes for a moment, at this time the other changes their order or removes one or two pieces. The task of the first player is to find out what was changed. You can also play in this way.
But the road gives new opportunities to modify the game, as out of the window of a car or a train, everything changes very quickly. Just turn for a second, and the panorama of the window will be slightly different. Who can find more differences?

Thimbles

This game is extremely exciting. You can play it even with a child of any age. You’ll need 2-3 plastic cups and a small object like hairpins, rubber, figures from Kinder-surprise, etc. For playing this game you can use folding table in an airplane and a train, or back seat of the car.
You must have seen how deftly professionals change the order of the cups. But their task is not very plausible, as they simply fraudulent. We will develop attention and coordination of in an honest way. So we cover the pin with a cup, and change their order. Try to guess where the hidden surprise is.
The important point: give your child the opportunity to hide a thing himself/herself. If your partner is under three, it is better to use colored glasses: color helps to concentrate.

Traveling stories

You can invent the most improbable stories. Just think of the principle on which to build your stories. For example, this:

Unfortunately or fortunately?

Fortunately, we took a clockwork parrot.
Unfortunately, it broke down.
Fortunately, now will be quiet, and we can sleep.
Unfortunately, if you sleep at daytime you’ll have insomnia.
Fortunately, at night you can walk in the fresh air and look at the stars … etc.

My beloved’s name starts with A

This game was described in the famous fairy-tale “Alice in Wonderland”. Choose any letter and create:
My beloved’s name starts with A – Andrew. I love him because he is accurate, I am afraid of him, because he is aggressive. I gave him apricot juice. And he lives in Austria…

Magic bag

Magic bag can replace a simple sock (preferably large one). Place small objects inside the sock-bag (a coin, small toys, rubber, etc.) and let the child feel what he/she holds. This game gives extra tactile stimulation that is not only important for the development of speech, but simply to relax on the road.
And you can make a magic bag in another way. Beforehand, at home choose a suitable bag or beautician and put in it every trifle: buttons, toys from Kinder-surprise, wooden sticks (toothpicks, a countable set), shreds, etc. The young traveler can play with them for a long time, especially if you take part in the parsing of treasures. From the threads and shreds you can make pictures, buttons can be turned into plates for small toys).

After all, you do not need to hurry and with a clear conscience, you can plunge into the wonderful world of children’s imaginations and creativity. Enjoy your trip!

In the first six months of life the child is in the role of a pioneer. The kid opens the first terra incognita in his life – his own body, learning to use the hands, legs, eyes and other senses. These everyday discoveries keep baby in rapture, he rejoices every time discovering the link between cause and effect, and gradually begins to navigate in the world. Children prefer toys that are responsive to their actionsx favorite colors – red, blue and yellow. Therefore, the greatest joy for the kids are toys with a simple design of bright contrasting colors. The toy should be light, soft, simple and easy to use.

Toys that make noise: high playpen with lights, lanterns, and music and moving toy allows baby monitor movement of toys and monitor lights.

Interactive Toys: When the baby learns to walk, he still stands on fragile legs, but, nevertheless, can not sit on the ground. Buy your child a horse – it is easy to climb, but the wheels provide stability. Interactive toys are often equipped with comfortable handles, holders for cups and bottles, baskets for things and the sound signal.

Cubes and simple puzzles: a set of wooden blocks, which can be easily stowed in a pyramid and move are a perfect children’s toy. The size of the cubes are usually adapted to the growing baby. Games with small cubes contribute to the development of motor. There are a number of interactive gaming model, in which the child quickly masters the alphabet (for eg. songs from the letters of the alphabet, coloring, etc.). You can find a lot of blocks using which many children learn to distinguish shapes and colors. Toys with surprise, floating toys, large light balls and plastic toys, which can go – these are favorites of infants.

Musical toys: musical mobile toys, appropriate to the age of the child, can be found in abundance. These toys are usually installed with the melodies of lullabies and pop classics that reassure crying baby. These toys are harmoniously combine mobility and music. As children get older, the color of toy may vary from black and white to bright graphic pattern.

The size of toys: toys for all young children are typically large in size, so your child does not accidentally swallow a toy.

Sharp edges: a toy should have no acute edges. This is very important, because children love to try the taste and poke everything into the mouth. There is always a danger for a child fell on a toy that especially if a toy has sharp points or edges.

Carefully read the information on the packaging of toys: the label or package usually indicate whether a toy hazard to the health of the child. Typically, these warnings can be found on toys made of small parts intended for children under three years. This warning is there and on the packaging of electrical toys.

Adjusting the volume: if you buy a toy with sound, make sure that it is equipped with volume control, as the very loud toys can permanently damage the child’s ear, which in this tender age is very sensitive.

Toxic materials: when purchasing kits for painting, make sure that they do not contain toxic chemicals. Make sure they are safe even if accidentally falling into the baby’s mouth.