Are you getting all you can from your toys?
Most parents are taking "baby" toys away that can still offer a huge number of benefits to children. As an adult the first thing most of us do with any toy or game is get out the instructions or mimic the play that inspired us. Quite often that is either an advert or a limited play period at a friends home or play group, we don't really think about all that can be done with it to really teach our children and help with their development. Toys are superb tools and as with all tools the best way to use them is with knowledge.
To prove our point we took one of our most simple toys and even surprised ourselves with just how much potential we found.
The toy chosen was the Plan Toys Geometric Sorting Board.
Here are some of our suggestions on how this toy can be used.
1) Start at 12 months allowing your baby to experiment with the pieces by removing them and putting them back anywhere. Start with colours and affirm the correct colour each time they take one. As they develop their confidence in the game start pointing to the correct group of pins and encourage them to try and put the piece back on. Show enthusiasm every time they try whether they are successful or not. You can use your finger to gently guide or nudge a piece but don’t take over or they will feel frustrated.
Skills learnt: Colour, shape recognition. Following and giving simple instructions. Hand eye co-ordination and simple fine motor skills development.
2) When they are ready evolve the game suggesting colours and shapes, first pointing then asking for them. Always reward attempts and make sure you don’t say no, encourage them with a well done and then point to a different one that has the colour/shape you asked for. Reverse the game and let them tell you which piece it is. Use them to learn about shapes by talking about the number of sides they have.
Skills learnt: Colours, shapes & following instructions.
3) Use the pieces to introduce simple addition or subtraction concepts. As they grow more confident you can use the holes for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This is an easy way for children to understand what is happening in a visual way. Ask them to make up a number using as few pieces as possible.
Skills learnt. Addition, Subtraction, division and multiplication.
4) The pieces can be used to develop creativity. Put the various shapes together to create a picture or object, easy ones are cars, trains and bikes but you can build houses, animals and lots more with a little thought. Develop this by drawing around the pieces and then embellishing to create an animal or object, fruit, vegetables, people....anything! Use them together to demonstrate how simple shapes can be used together to create recognisable objects.
Skills learnt. Creative thinking, fine motor skills.
5) Use the pieces as currency, give each one a value (perhaps based on the number of sides or holes). Play shopping or other similar games and combine mathematics with role playing.
Skills learnt. Addition and subtraction, imaginative play, creative thinking.
6) Learn about patterns using the pieces by sorting them using colour or shape into simple patterns.
Skills learnt. Patterns, repetition.
Skills learned with this “shape sorter” toy.
Fine motor skills
Creative thinking
Pattern making
Four primary colours
Four one dimensional shapes
The numbers 1-4
Addition of numbers to 10 (and above)
Simple multiplication
Simple addition
Simple division
Simple subtraction
Description
Following simple instruction
Let us know if you think of any other ways we can use it so we can add it to our suggestion list.
