Read an Excerpt

Partners in Play

Creative Homemade Toys for Toddlers

Henry Holt and Company

Part 1

Your Toddler and You

One- to Two-Year-Olds

Overview

This chapter contains information on your child's development between one and two years of age. It's provided to help you understand where your child is headed so that you can offer your child appropriate materials and experiences.

Toddler Milestones

This chart lists milestones in the development of one- to two-year-old children. Please keep in mind that the ages and corresponding skills are only approximations. All children have their own developmental timetables.

Play Activities for Toddlers

The following chart shows the types of play activities toddlers enjoy at the different stages of their development. As with the preceding chart, please keep in mind that these readiness ages are only approximations. All children have their own developmental timetables and aptitudes.

Playing With Your Child

Overview

Playing with your child has many benefits and rewards. Above all, it's a way for you to enjoy each other. It's also a way to continually renew child/parent bonding as your child grows and changes. And third, it's a way to help your child develop skills, knowledge, and attitudes. This chapter looks at how you can enrich the time you and your child spend as partners in play.

The Purpose of Play

Children are learning all the time. While playing, they acquire, practice, and master skills. Through their early experiences in manipulating play objects, children learn abstract concepts. As they learn, children gain a sense of order and control over their expanding world.

Children learn more when a parent or other adult becomes their "partner in play." The adult enriches the play experience by providing things to explore, helping children talk and think about what they're doing, helping them form ideas about their experiences, and using words to describe those ideas. This child/adult partnership helps children develop their full individual potential.

Presenting Toys and Activities to Your Child

The success of the toys and activities you introduce to your child depends to a large extent on how you present them. Negative attitudes can develop if you present a toy or activity with no instruction, if you criticize your child's attempts, or if your child is unable to achieve success. In any of these situations, frustration sets in and your child may have no interest in trying the toy or activity again.

To avoid frustration and to make playtime a positive and enjoyable experience, keep in mind the following guidelines:

• Set regular times for your shared play. Most children feel more secure with a routine.

• Make sure both you and your child are in the mood to play.

• Focus on only one or two toys — one that's new and one that your child has enjoyed before.

• Describe and demonstrate what to do with a new toy. Be a role model. Toddlers love to imitate.

• Encourage your child to try new toys or activities and then subtly guide the child throughout the activity. If he/she is uninterested, wait and try another time. Never push your child to learn.

• Introduce a new toy or activity in a way that allows your child to experience success on the first attempt. That may require guiding your child's hand or positioning the toy in a certain way. If the toy is beyond your child's present abilities, quietly put it away until the child develops a readiness for it. The results will be your child's positive attitude toward both the toy and the play experience and a desire to do more.

• Praise your child's efforts and ignore mistakes. Compliment the little successes each step of the way.

• Keep your shared playtime a pleasant experience. When your child loses interest in a toy, put it away or end the play session.

• Critically view a toy for any unsafe features. If you have any doubts, remake the toy or remain alert and stay with your child whenever he/she plays with it.

Once you've introduced a toy, your child can then play with it independently — especially if you store the toy where it's easily accessible to the child. It's unnecessary for a parent to play with a child all of the time. However, children always appreciate the presence of a responsive adult who observes, encourages, and offers praise.

When you see that your child has mastered a toy, you might want to actively join in the play again. You can then challenge your child to try playing with the toy in a more advanced way or in a totally new way.

When you think your child has outgrown a toy, put it away for a few months. When you reintroduce the toy, you'll find that your child will play with it differently because the child's abilities and maturity level are now different.

Building Confidence

Playtime offers a good opportunity to observe children to determine what their abilities and interests are and what they're showing a readiness for. With this information, parents can choose or adapt toys and activities to their children's current level of development and can help their children gain the confidence they need to advance.

Keep in mind that every skill is made up of subskills. To master a skill, a child must first master each of the subskills that comprise it. Every time you see your child master a subskill, you can encourage him/her to take the activity one step further by suggesting "Now, can you do it this way?" By using this step-by-step approach, you're expanding the range of your child's abilities and building his/her self-confidence with a series of small successes. Success promotes the desire to do and learn more and gives your child pleasure in learning.

Understanding the Importance of Repetition

Repetition is a very important part of a child's learning process. To master a skill and retain it takes practice over a period of time. Although repetition may seem dull to an adult, children like doing familiar things. They strive to perfect their skills and enjoy repeating what they can do well. With each success, children build confidence and a sense of pride. Remember to acknowledge those feelings. Praise your child for each new accomplishment and for his/her effort.

Stimulating Language Development

You can use all daily activities, especially play, to stimulate your child's language development. By talking to your child as you play, your toddler's vocabulary and understanding of language will grow. By asking questions, you'll stretch your toddler's thinking. Remember to just talk naturally, using short sentences and easy-to-understand descriptions.

Part 2

Getting Started

Materials, Tools, and Supplies

Overview

The toys described in this book are simple to make. They require materials found around the house; supplies available at local hardware stores, supermarkets, fabric stores, and craft stores; and some basic tools common to most household tool boxes.

Materials

Many of the items we routinely discard are ideal materials for making toys. Some things to save for toy making are:

• Paper bags

• Cardboard boxes — for sturdiness and size, printer's boxes (the kind stationery, computer paper, or copier paper come in) and frozen meat boxes are among the best. Shoe boxes are a convenient size but often need to be reinforced with corrugated cardboard.

• Cardboard tubes — wide tubes come with products such as paper towels and gift wrap and narrow tubes with items such as fabric softener and plastic wrap. Very durable narrow tubes come on pants hangers from the cleaners.

• Metal lids — these come in a variety of diameters and thicknesses on products such as frozen juice and baby food.

• Coffee cans (in small, medium, and large sizes)

• Waxed cartons from milk and juice

• Plastic bottles from bleach, vinegar, or water

• Plastic film canisters from 35mm film

• Plastic pill bottles

• Plastic spice bottles with shaker tops

• Plastic storage containers (from products such as margarine and whipped toppings)

• Yogurt containers with resealable lids

Tools and Supplies

Toy making is much easier when you have the right tools and supplies for the job. Some useful tools to have on hand are:

• A utility knife

• A drill (electric, hand, or push)

• A yardstick or ruler

• Scissors (both manicure and household)

• Brushes for spreading paint and glue

• A sharp serrated knife — an electric carving knife makes many tasks easier.

• A stapler

Other tools you might want to use are wire cutters, a hand saw, a hammer, and a glue gun (although some of the glues listed below work just as well).

Supplies to stock up on include:

• Glue — a wide variety of glues are available. Depending on the toys you're making, you might choose from the following:

• Shoe Goo for plastics (a product designed to fix rubber-soled athletic shoes)

• Tacky glue for fabric or other nonsmooth surfaces

• Glue sticks for paper and pictures

• Rubber cement for paper and pictures (The advantages that rubber cement has over other types of glue are that it does not bleed through paper or pictures, does not pucker, allows you to easily detach the glued item, and makes it easy to remove excess rubber cement by rubbing.)

• Contact cement for permanently sealing plastics and other materials

• Super glue for fastening lids on bottles and jars (This type of glue may not provide the permanent seal that contact cement does.)

• Spray adhesives (This type of glue is suitable for a variety of uses but tends to be messy.)

• Tape

• Craft tape — colorful and available in different widths; appropriate for decoration but lacking in strength and durability

• Duct tape — a very strong and durable tape that comes in various colors

• Cellophane packaging tape — a wide tape that's strong, durable, and appropriate for preserving small items (Because of its shiny surface, items covered with this tape look laminated.)

• Electrical tape — strong but dries out over time

• Strapping tape — also strong but dries out over time

• Masking tape — not as strong as some of the other tapes and dries out over time

• Transparent cellophane tape — a narrow all-purpose tape especially good for fastening paper

• Paint

• Latex — nontoxic and easy to clean up

• Spray — especially good for small items and comes in a variety of colors, including fluorescent and metallic tones

(Tempera and poster paints are also available but have several drawbacks. They get powdery and rub off over time, are more expensive than the other paints listed here, and are not as vibrant.)

• Cardboard

• Posterboard — a commonly used and easily available cardboard; available in many types of stores and in an array of colors, including fluorescent

• Tagboard — a lighter-weight cardboard than posterboard

• Mat board — a heavy-weight cardboard comparable in thickness to corrugated cardboard

• Corrugated cardboard — the cardboard used in boxes; varies in sturdiness depending on the corrugation (Printer boxes, frozen meat boxes, and grocery boxes are all a good weight for toy making.)

• Dowel rods (circular wooden rods available in a variety of widths and lengths)

• Golf tubes (durable plastic tubes available at sporting goods stores and used to protect golf clubs)

• Clear adhesive paper (such as Con-Tact brand self-adhesive plastic) for protecting surfaces

• Miscellaneous items useful in making a variety of toys:

• Small balls (such as cat toy balls and high fly balls)

• Wooden clothespins

• Foam bathtub blocks

• Round napkin rings

• Cookie cutters

• Golf tees

• Food coloring

• Metal notebook rings

Tips for Making Toys

Overview

When you're making toys, three important rules to keep in mind are:

• Make them appealing.

• Make them durable.

• Make them safe.

The general guidelines presented in this chapter will help you make toys that both attract a toddler's attention and hold up to a toddler's abuse. The safety considerations will help you construct playthings that present no danger to a young child.

General Guidelines

Research shows that young children prefer primary colors and geometric shapes. By incorporating these in your decorations, you'll create toys that will grab your toddler's attention. A note of caution, however, is don't overdo it. Avoid decorating toys to the point where the decorations are a distraction. For example, if a play activity requires your toddler to find an opening in a box, make sure the opening is clearly visible — that it contrasts with the rest of the box. Otherwise, your child might have difficulty finding the opening and become frustrated with the toy.

As you're constructing a toy, remember that decorations can be functional. For instance, if you need to seal a box with tape, you can choose a colored tape and apply it in a decorative way — by fastening it all the way around the box and lid to make it look like a band.

Also remember to make the toys you build as strong as possible. Otherwise, after heavy use the toy will fall apart, and you'll need to remake it. Some ways to increase a toy's durability are:

• Use clear adhesive paper (or for small items cellophane packaging tape) to protect surfaces. (If you're covering both sides of an item, extend the adhesive paper or tape beyond the edge of the item to make a clear border around the edge. Then seal it. The result will be a teething-proof, semiwaterproof surface that will be difficult for children to peel back.)

• Add extra pieces of corrugated cardboard to the inside of boxes and lids to reinforce them.

• Reinforce the corners and edges of boxes and lids with duct tape.

• Glue the ends of craft tape to keep children from peeling it off.

• Reinforce cardboard tubes by stuffing them with newspaper. (Push the newspaper far enough into the tube so that a child can't pull it out. To make the newspaper even less accessible, cover the end of the tube with a circular piece of tape.)

Safety Considerations

Always keep safety in mind as you construct toys. The toys you make (or buy) for a toddler should have:

• Smooth, rounded edges (with no sharp points or corners)

• Nontoxic, lead-free paint, which must be thoroughly dried before using the toy

• Flame-retardant or flame-resistant fabric

• No glue on the outside (since some glues are toxic and the child may put the object in his/her mouth)

• Strings or ribbons less than 12 inches long (to avoid strangulation)

• No easily detachable parts

• No parts made of brittle plastic

• No potential danger if played with in a different way than intended

• No parts small enough for a child to swallow, such as beads, marbles, buttons, coins, etc.

It's best to test all small items in the No Choke Testing Tube — Small Objects Tester. Those that fit inside the tube are small enough for a child to choke on and should not be used for toys or games or left within the child's reach. Two sources that carry the No Choke Testing Tube are:

Toys to Grow On
P. O. Box 17
Long Beach, CA 90801

Perfectly Safe Catalog
7245 Whipple Ave. N.W.
N. Canton, OH 44720

Also consider safety when storing toys. Do not store toys in plastic bags. If your child's not yet ready for a toy (for example, if your child puts a foam toy in his/her mouth and bites off pieces), put the toy in an unreachable place and introduce it again later when your child is older. If an older sibling's toys have small pieces, batteries, or surfaces that can be chewed off, store them out of your toddler's reach.

Be sure that toy chests have spring-supported lids. Toy chests without lid supports can injure children or cause suffocation. Spring supports are available from these sources:

Carlson Capital Manufacturing Co.
P. O. Box 6165
Rockford, IL 61125

Perfectly Safe Catalog
7245 Whipple Ave. N.W.
N. Canton, OH 44720

Counter Balance Support Co.
4788 Colt Road
Rockford, IL 61125

In addition, check to see that toy chests have holes or spaces for ventilation.

Part 3

Toys and Activities

Pounding Toys

Overview

The toys in this category include a hammer, either bought or homemade, and something to hit: golf tees, beads, balls, or other objects. Most children are ready for pounding toys between 18 and 20 months of age.

Plastic or wooden hammers are easy to find in toy stores. They're sold alone or as part of other toys. You can also use a wooden meat mallet with the handle shortened to the desired length. An alternative to buying a hammer is to make your own following the instructions given in this chapter.

Purpose

Important benefits of pounding toys are that they provide an outlet for aggressive feelings and a channel for a child's high level of energy. In addition, pounding activities help develop the following in children:

• Upper-arm and grip strength

• Eye-hand coordination

• Finger dexterity and two-hand coordination (when fitting a golf tee, clothespin, or other object into a hole and holding it steady for pounding)

Toys You Can Make:

• Hammer

• Pound the Seesaw

• Clothespin Hammering

• Golf Tee Hammering

• Pound the Balls

• Pound and Roll

The instructions for making these toys follow.

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Excerpted from Partners in Play by Rita Anderson, Linda Neumann. Copyright © 1991 Partners Press. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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