Educational toys for newborns: tips for choosing

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

The appearance of a small child in the family always poses a number of questions for young parents. What do you need to buy to take care of your baby? What to wear? What toys to choose for the baby? The choice of educational toys for newborns must be taken responsibly. After all, the he alth and successful development of the baby depends on the right games. The stores have a huge selection of toys. They are designed for different ages of the child, including toys for children up to a year. You can easily get confused in this abundance, waste money and litter the house with unnecessary things. The tips in this article will help young parents find useful toys.

Playing with newborn babies

While mother and newborn baby are in the hospital, father and other relatives are trying to prepare everything necessary in the apartment for the new little man, including toys. At first, a small child mostly sleeps and eats. For a newborn baby, you can pick up educational toys from 0 to 3 months. First of all, these are various rattles.

It is best to choose toysfrom materials that are easy to wash and wash. When choosing musical rattles, you should pay attention to the sounds they make. Too loud and sharp sound can scare, and the baby will not pay attention to a quiet rattle. The color of the toy also matters, it is better to acquire educational toys for newborns in pastel, soothing colors. The child should be surrounded by beautiful and harmonious objects in order to instill good taste in the baby.

Music mobiles and rugs

Music mobiles – carousels – are very popular among parents. Specially designed educational toys for newborns in the crib, which can be conveniently attached and turned on for the entertainment of the child. Mobiles are mechanical. Such a toy needs to be wound manually, and the music does not sound for long. And there are electronic ones that run on batteries, their melody has a high-quality sound, and they work much longer.

Great interest among parents is caused by children's educational toys for newborns - rugs. They are moderately soft and warm. They are easy to wash and dry. Such mats are made of hypoallergenic materials that do not collect dust and do not have extraneous odors. Rugs for newborns can range from the simplest rugs with brightly colored patterns to complex structures equipped with extra toys and musical rattles.

Educational toys

Sometimes parents feel that their child is still too young and it is too early to teach him. This is not true. Every day babygrows up and gets acquainted with the world around him with interest. For initial learning, interactive educational toys are very good. They are suitable for a child of any age. Such games can independently ask the child questions, confirm the correct answers and sing songs for the baby.

Types of interactive toys

Manufacturers produce interactive toys similar to adult electronic devices, for example: mobile phones, laptops, tablets. And also it can be a book, a plush animal or a doll. A game in the form of a phone or tablet will teach the child numbers and letters. In addition, the child will be pleased to have the same thing as the parents. The doll can communicate with children like a friend: tell stories, sing songs and make riddles. Among the toys for children under one year old there is a very funny and funny game "Hamster - Repeater", which will make not only children laugh, but also their parents. In addition to a gift in the form of a good mood, such a hamster will teach the baby the first sounds and words.

How to choose an electronic game

The most important thing is to choose an interactive educational toy in accordance with the age of the baby. For a very young child, you can buy a game that sings songs and reads poetry, and later replace it with more complex toys. For a six-month-old child, games that make animal sounds and ask to match them with the image in the picture are already suitable.

Toys for children under one year old can be even more difficult, such as learning colors, clothing and body parts (nose, mouth,eyes, hands, feet, etc.).

Interactive tablet

Comfortable and compact toy that you can take with you on the road. The children's tablet has a wide range of functions. You can learn almost anything on it. You can learn the alphabet, counting and even a foreign language. In addition, you can play music, listen to songs, poems and fairy tales. Solve riddles and complete various tasks. Such toys are very popular with children and help parents educate and develop the child's mental abilities.

Wooden toys

Among educational toys up to a year there is a large selection of various pyramids, cubes and labyrinths made of wood. This natural material is easy to care for, easy to wash and dry, and wooden games are durable and hard to break. Wooden toys have an advantage over those made of plastic. Wood is always warmer and does not contain harmful chemical compounds. Children are happy to collect pyramids from rings and build houses from cubes. If you wish, you can independently cut out various elements from a wooden beam to build a house, a fortress, and even a whole city.

Soft toys

Children and adults just love to mess with teddy bears, bunnies, cats and other soft animals and dolls. Such things create a cozy atmosphere in the room, the child falls asleep better and calms down faster if he is surrounded by warm and soft fluffies. For newborns and infantschoose toys made from natural materials that can be washed, because cleanliness in the house is necessary for the he alth of the child. You need to choose the size of such things in accordance with the age of the baby. In no case should you leave sleeping, small children surrounded by soft toys unattended. If the toy falls on the face of a sleeping child, he may suffocate as he cannot remove it himself.

Educational toys made of felt are very popular. You can buy them at the store or make your own. Making such games is not difficult, the main thing is to have a good imagination and desire. Felt toys can be made flat, in the form of a book, a rug, a poster, or voluminous, for example, a house. Templates for educational toys made of felt are not difficult to draw by yourself, as well as find suitable motifs in children's magazines, books, etc.

Waldorf doll

Waldorf dolls occupy a special place among educational toys for newborns. They were invented in 1912 by educator Rudolf Steiner. Waldorf kindergartens and schools are now spread all over the world. A distinctive feature of these dolls is that they are made by hand and only from high-quality, natural materials. An appropriate doll or animal is made for each age.

For the smallest children, you can sew a very simple doll - a butterfly, which is made of a head and a primitive body. Any mother can handle sewing this doll, even if she does not know how to sew. Such an educational toy for newbornsit's very easy to make with your own hands, you don't even need a pattern.

Sewing a Waldorf Butterfly Doll

Prepare all the necessary materials and tools:

• Take two pieces of soft fabric for the body measuring 40 X 20 cm.
• Patch of jersey for the head, approx. 15 x 15 cm.
• A triangular piece of fabric for the cap, it can be cut directly on the fabric, the size is arbitrary.
• Sheep wool for felting, it should be used as stuffing for the doll.
• Wooden ring, it should be sewn to the cap so that you can hang the toy on the crib.
• Jingle.
• Braid for decoration.
• Needle, thread, scissors.

How to sew:

• Sew around the perimeter of the rectangles intended for sewing the body of the pupa, leaving room for stuffing and sewing in the head. Insert a tight ball twisted from sheep's wool into each corner and pull it off with a thread, so you get arms and legs.
• Stuff the head flap tightly with wool and form a head. Pull on a thread in the place where the neck will be.
• Stuff the body with wool, but not tightly and fasten the bell inside the body.
• Sew the head into the body, fasten the cap well with threads on the head.
• Decorate the waist and neck with braid.

The first baby doll is ready. It is washable, so it is suitable as an educational toy for a newborn baby. If desired, the doll can be embroidered with a face.

Waldorf doll for a baby from three months

For this age, you can sew a bun doll for the baby. For such a toy, a pattern is also not needed. You can choose any size, the main thing is that the child should be comfortable sleeping and playing with such a toy. The main purpose of the splyushka is to teach the child to fall asleep on time. Therefore, it is sewn from materials suitable for children's sleep. The baby and his doll will look very cute, dressed in the same nightgowns or pajamas.

Technology for tailoring dolls-splyushki

For work you will need:

• Knitted fabric in the form of a stocking, children's cotton tights can be used.
• Color matching calf flannel.
• Sheep wool for stuffing.
• Braid and floss for decoration.
• Scissors, thread, needles.

How to sew a doll correctly:

• Turn the knitted tube from the stocking inside out and collect the edge on the thread from one end. Unscrew the tube on the face and stuff the head tightly with sheep's wool. How to tie a neck with a thread. Fill the continuation of the neck with wool and tie it too.
• Cut out a kind of nightgown from flannel - two parts (front and back). Sew them together, leaving the neck open. Stuff the body with sheep's wool, insert and sew on the head. Form palms at the ends of the sleeves and secure with a thread. The body should not be tightly stuffed so that the doll's handles can be bent. The bottom of the body, before stuffing, can be gathered on a thread and give the doll extra volume.
• Embroider a sleeping face on the doll with floss threads. Do it on the headcap made of knitted fabric. Decorate the neck and handles with lace or braid.

Doll for a baby from six months to a year

The next version of the doll is an educational toy for children up to a year old. Such a doll should look like a child. She has hair on her head, a face, as well as arms and legs. Clothes for the doll must be made removable, but make sure that the doll does not have small parts. Dresses, pants and shirts should be made with ties, not buttons.

To sew such a doll, you need a pattern. You can draw it or find a suitable picture in a magazine or book. The photo shows an example of such a pattern. The head of the doll needs to be made to look like a real head. To do this, the workpiece for the head is tightened, and a cover made of knitted fabric is pulled on top. The chrysalis must have a nose, eyes and a mouth. The face can be embroidered with floss threads. Sheep wool is used as stuffing for felting.

Such dolls are suitable for both girls and boys to play. Clothing can be made in different styles. You can dress dolls in folk costumes and thus instill in your child a love for their people and their country. Suits of different speci alties, for example: cook, doctor, worker, teacher, tailor. This option will help children learn about different professions. That is why the Waldorf doll is so popular in the world. They are used for the upbringing and development of the child from birth to the end of elementary school.

Russian folkdoll

In Ancient Russia, newborn children were also made educational toys up to a year old, and later they taught the child to make dolls on their own. In those days, the doll served as a talisman and a friend for a person. Such toys were created from wood, remnants of fabric and thread. Motanka dolls are good because they do not have small parts and they are safe for small children.

You don't even need scissors to make this toy. The fabric is torn by hand into squares and rectangles, and then a doll is formed with a thread. As a filler, if necessary, you can use the remnants of yarn, wool, or fill the doll with fragrant, dried herbs. The dolls were not sewn together, but twisted and fastened with threads, as it was believed that it was not good to prick a future friend with needles. Russian folk doll will help develop fine motor skills and imagination in a child, teach accuracy and bring up love for the motherland.