Teaching Toddlers How To Play Button Art Toy

When it comes to buttons art toy, many parents’ first reaction is, are they not afraid of their children swallowing them by mistake?

Before answering this topic, I would like to share with you Reggio Kindergarten, which is as famous as Montessori’s teaching genre.

I have been to learn Reggio’s educational philosophy, and also visited the Reggio classroom in New York.

If your child is in Reggio, you must know that all of Reggio’s containers are glass.

The child’s water cup is glass, the crayon jar is glass, etc. The child’s age span is between 1 and a half to 5 years old.

I asked this kindergarten about the probability of breaking glass in one year. It was really very small.

Today I don’t want to share Reggio’s philosophy with you. The reason for sharing this example is to quote what the professor said when I was taking the Reggio course.

“The key is to let the child know how to use the material correctly, instead of not giving it because he is afraid that the child cannot use the material well.

Before giving any material to your child, you need to clearly tell your child what the material is and what is the correct usage.

Many parents and teachers do not establish boundaries when they give their children materials. Instead, they find many problems when the children are playing, then violently intervene.

Finally, the children really didn’t want to play anything. “

The few games shared today can be played from the newborn to preschool. Some are absolutely safe, and some require full parental supervision.

1.Rattle

Applicable age: 0 months +
Function: visual and auditory development, arm strength exercise

The rattle is one of the must-buy toys for every newborn family. Its benefits are self-evident. It can stimulate hearing development and be used as a tool for babies to train and follow.

When the child can hold it by himself, it not only exercises the wrist turning and arm strength, but also the cognitive enlightenment of “causality”.

I also bought rattles on the market for my kid.

After I learned about this DIY rattle, I found that it not only included the benefits of rattles on the market, but also added a function to stimulate visual development.

More importantly, it was super simple to do.

An empty drinking water bottle with buttons of various colors inside. In this way, the baby not only hears the sound when shaking, but also sees the “sound” of the button.

If you are interested in this kind of rattle, another DIY rattle is highly recommended here, which is to put toothpicks and rice grains in an empty water bottle.

I call this “Raining Bell” , because it is like “raining” when turned upside down. This rattle little D still likes it until he is more than 3 years old.

In addition to playing for babies, for children after the age of 2, this rattle can also be a good assistant for early scientific thinking and enlightenment.

Parents can put different amounts of toothpicks and rice grains together with their children, and each time they guess whether there will be a difference between the sound and the speed of rain, and then verify.

This kind of speculation and verification is the simplest way of thinking of a scientist, and it also allows children to find their favorite combination.

2.Piggy bank game

Applicable age: 1 year old +
Function: fine exercise exercise, concentration exercise

Skillful hands can help the mind, and fine exercise exercises are particularly important.

Among them, the thumb and index finger are particularly important to grasp. Not only must the grasping be correct, but also accurate, which will have a very important impact on future learning methods such as writing.

Make a simple piggy bank for your child to exercise this fine movement well.

For the jar below, cut a notch in the lid so that it can fit in a button. You can also open the gap a bit larger at the beginning to improve your child’s accuracy.

When you first play this game, you don’t pursue results. The key is to see whether the child holds the buttons in the correct posture. Accurate grasping is far more important than “being able to play a game”.

After the child is over 2 years old, he can upgrade this piggy bank game to further strengthen his fine movement, and it is also a very good exercise for concentration.

This needs to be combined with the children’s interests, such as threading the buttons into a necklace.

This button does not need to be pasted when painting, just find a piece of paper, draw any form of lines on the paper, and then put them along the lines one by one with the child, without destroying the position of the previously placed buttons.

This requires a lot of “precision” in fine movement, and it also tests children’s concentration and patience.

I and my kid often take turns to play. Sometimes I help her complete the establishment as soon as possible, and sometimes I deliberately destroy it and start again.

In this process, she not only experienced the joy of success, but also let her experience the frustration of failure and the determination to rebuild.

Isn’t the child’s anti-frustration ability built in these little games? Sometimes parents are less patient than their children, and they can’t resist frustration. If you don’t believe me, try it:)

3.Categorize games

Applicable age: 2 years old +

Function: math enlightenment, problem-solving ability exercise

Classification is a particularly important thinking ability for preschool age, and it is also the cultivation of early math enlightenment.

But this ability is often overlooked. After all, it is not as straightforward as reading picture books and counting, so it is even more necessary to consciously add this ability to your life.

This was originally a game made by my kid’s kindergarten. The teacher put a cake-making mold on a table, and put a lot of small buttons of different colors on the table, and then took the children to classify the buttons of the same color. Also cultivated teamwork ability.

After returning home, I simplified the game and bought a few bowls of different colors and buttons of corresponding colors, and started this sorting game.

It took my kid a long time to master the color. Here are two things to be careful.
First of all, don’t be greedy, don’t give your children so many colors like the picture below.
At the beginning, I only gave my kid a bowl of one color and buttons of two colors, which not only improved the accuracy, but also consolidated the mastery of a single color.
Secondly, don’t put pressure, always remember that this is a game, and interest is the most important.

With interest, children will continue to play even if they fail. Don’t always be eager to teach children what is right, which will ruin their appetite for play.
Finally, by the way, it took about half a year for my kid to master the colors, and also cheered up the anxious parents.
I joke every time, my kid is a little snail. Most children can do what she can do. The key is that our parents don’t give up first.

This type of categorization game can also be expanded by everyone, such as the size of the button for classification, or the shape of the button for classification.
When doing any of these sorting games, the most important thing is to give children relevant language expressions:

• “This is red, the same color as the bowl”;
• “This button is bigger than that” (show the child how to compare);
• “This button is a triangle with three sides. Let’s count them together.”

Even if children make mistakes every time they play, and they can’t insist on playing a round of games at first.

If we persevere in these language inputs,not only can children master more abstract vocabulary, but we also allow children to learn how to think, because we show the thinking process to children, this is the most important thing.