Partners in Play: Creative Homemade Toys for Toddlers : An Owl Book - Softcover

Neumann, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805036733 ISBN 13: 9780805036732

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1995

Synopsis

Offers instructions for using common materials to create more than forty simple toys and activities for toddlers that help them develop age-appropriate motor skills

About this title

From the Back Cover

GIANT BUBBLEMAKERS...LINKING RING STACKERS...FLOATING BLOCKS...FLANNEL BOARD PUZZLES

These are just a few of the more than 40 toys and activities featured in this inventive and easy-to-follow guide that shows how to use readily available materials found in any home to create toys that stimulate toddlers and help them develop age-appropriate motor skills.

Step-by-step instructions are provided for making simple playthings that are fun, safe, stimulating, and challenging for toddlers, without being frustrating. Suggestions are included for using each toy to enhance your child's muscle control and coordination, language development, and reasoning and problem-solving skills. All the toys in this book were carefully designed to help children build upon small successes, gaining confidence as their mastery grows.

Rita Anderson, a former remedial education teacher, developed this successful learn-through-play program for her Partners in Play preschool and for parents and their children, aged 6 months through 6 years. Freelance writer Linda Neumann is a mother and an enthusiastic participant in Partners in Play.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Incline Toys

Overview

Incline toys demonstrate to children the effects of gravity. In playing with these toys children roll objects down tubes or troughs and watch for the objects to reach the bottom. The objects they roll might be balls, large beads, toy cars and trucks, or even homemade objects such as a wad of paper or tape. This type of play begins to appeal to children at approximately 12 to 15 months.

Purpose

Overall, playing with incline toys helps children increase their concentration and attention span because the results can vary each time they play with the toy. For example, children might roll a different types of object down the incline, or they can increase or decrease the incline. The individual activities involved in this type of play help develop the following in children:

- Finger dexterity and eye-hand coordination (by placing a ball or other round object in a tube or trough)

- An understanding of gravity and of cause and effect (seeing that releasing a ball on an incline causes the ball to roll down)

- Anticipation (wondering where the ball come out and, in time, predicting outcomes -- how fast the ball will go, when it will roll out of the tube, and which way it will go)

- Visual tracking (by watching the ball roll down an open trough)

- Directionality (watching the ball roll from top to bottom, from back to front, and from side to side)

- Spatial awareness (watching the ball roll through the box and back out again)

Toys You Can Make:

- Simple ball slide
- Double ball slide
- Triple ball slide

The instructions for making these toys follow.

Simple Ball Slide

What You'll Need

A tube (cardboard or plastic golf tube)
Objects that roll easily through the tube. Among the objects you can use are:

- Cat toy balls
- Large wooden beads
- High fly balls
- Plastic practice golf balls
- Small toy cars or trucks
- Paper or tape wadded up into a ball.

Safety Note: Avoid using ping pong balls, which develop sharp points when dented. Golf balls may be used, but can be dangerous when thrown. Test any balls or beads used in the No Choke Testing Tube Small Objects Tester to be sure they are too large to swallow. For additional information on this product, see the section on safety considerations in the chapter Tips for Making Toys. Check toy cars and trucks to be sure all pieces (e.g., wheels) are securely attached.

Activity

Show your toddler how to place a ball (or other object) in the tube and how to angle the tube so that the ball rolls out. Encourage your child to experiment with different angles to make the ball roll faster, slower, or farther. If your child is interested, keep track of the distance the ball rolls each time by marking its stopping point.

Variations

- Instead of having your child hold the tube, prop it up on whatever is available, such as books, blocks, a pillow, etc. Try propping up the tube on several different objects and see how far the ball rolls each time.

- Cut the tube in half lengthwise to make a trough. Your toddler can then watch the ball as it rolls.

- Set up two tubes or troughs and see which one causes the ball to roll faster or farther.

Things to Talk About

Some questions to ask about the simple ball slide are:

"How did you hold the tube? Did you tilt it or hold it straight up and down?"
"Did the ball take longer to come out when you tilted the tube?"
"Did the ball roll to the same place as before?"
"Did the ball roll farther this time than before?"
"Did the ball roll farther than the car?"
"Did the bead roll faster than the paper ball?"

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805036733
• ISBN 13: 9780805036732
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176