Increasingly, caring parents of children are hearing information about the benefits of educational toys for children. Educators also praise various “developments” from all sides. What are these toys? What can they teach? And is it possible to make them with your own hands?
The feasibility of gaming homemade products
Modern toys of good quality, made from safe, environmentally friendly materials, are quite expensive, and not every family can afford to often pamper their child with such gifts. Therefore, it is worth thinking about making some kind of toy at home, be it a knitted bear or a wooden board for children.
A game craft made with one’s own hands, with sincere parental love and care, will certainly please the child, because it will be made depending on his personal preferences and interests. And, importantly, such games will cost much less than purchased ones, since the basic materials can be found at home.
Toys for newborns
Before you start making any games for your child, you need to think about whether he will be interested in playing with this “toy.” Depending on the age of the toddler, he develops an interest in certain things, which should be taken into account when creating any toy, be it cubes with animals or a self-made educational board for children.
For example, children aged 0-3 months lie on their backs most of the time. They need to learn to focus their eyes on individual objects, so brightly colored rattles, beads or garlands are perfect. They should be light, of different textures, bright, but not colorful.
from 3 months to a year
At 3-6 months, babies move more and roll over onto their stomachs. At this age, vision and hearing, grasping skills and coordination of movements should be developed. Fabric toys, rattles, educational mats with arcs and garlands are perfect.
At 6-9 months, the baby already learns to crawl and pronounce individual sounds. It is necessary to encourage his motor and speech activity in every possible way. For this age, cubes, boxes, educational mats, dolls with a carefully drawn face, and pyramids are perfect.
Toys for children over one year old
Children over one year old begin to actively learn about the world around them. There is a desire to be independent. It is necessary to actively develop both speech and motor activity. And also toys must be assembled and disassembled. An ideal option would be a self-made educational board for children, a construction set with large parts, dolls, cars, trains.
Children aged 1.5 years learn not only to be aware of the surrounding reality, but also to build a logical chain, they learn to think. Therefore, when choosing games for a child, you need to give preference to various “developmental games” that allow you to find associations and help you learn something new. These could be music books, rugs with pictures of animals, or a board for a child. You can easily make the latter option with your own hands.
Materials for making homemade “developers”
Most of the materials needed for this type of home craft can be easily found at home. For example, you can use leftover fabrics or scraps from old clothes. It’s good if they have different textures: felt, jeans, knitwear, fleece - this will help develop the sensitivity of the child’s fingers. Craftswomen who love to knit can donate knitted squares made for calculating stitches to create an educational toy. You can repurpose old, unnecessary zippers, so don’t rush to throw them away.
You can also use other sewing accessories - buttons of different colors and sizes, beads, ribbons and ribbons, buttons, drawstrings, non-sharp buckles and even thermal appliques as decoration.
Dads can also contribute to making sure that their own hand-made educational board for children is not only beautiful, but also interesting. To do this, you need to look in your boxes with building materials for unnecessary handles, switches, furniture fittings, latches, locks, chains, etc.
Small children love to make loud noises with their toys, so you should use rustling materials (foil, bags), as well as bells.
Educational board for children: how to make it, where to start
Before you begin to directly design a fascinating board that develops a child’s motor skills and knowledge, you need to select the appropriate material for the base of the toy. You can take a small sheet of plywood, chipboard, or part of an old bookshelf. The main thing is that the foundation of the game is strong and resilient.
If the selected board is smooth, coated with paint or varnish, then you can safely proceed to the next stage of design. Otherwise (as, for example, with plywood), the surface of the workpiece should be covered with durable fabric, otherwise the baby may prick his finger on some kind of wood chip.
A do-it-yourself educational board for children (photo below) should not distract the child’s attention from the details of the toy. Or you can make a thematic design, displaying, for example, a lawn, sky, sun, clouds (which, by the way, can be made from cotton wool or foam rubber).
Educational board for children (do-it-yourself): master class
Once the base is prepared, you can proceed directly to the process of designing the game. To develop motor skills, as well as knowledge of the surrounding world, such a “developmental game” should contain a variety of doors behind which you can hide pictures, locks, latches, and switch buttons. All elements must be carefully fixed to the board using self-tapping screws. It is better for the father to do this part of the design together with the baby. Let the child observe how diligently dad does the work. You can even give your little helper a toy saw and hammer - then the process will become a hundred times more exciting for the child.
But the rest of the work will have to be done by mom. Using glue, several pieces of fabric of different textures should be attached to the development board for the child’s abilities. Buttons of various colors and sizes should be firmly sewn onto pieces of fabric - this way the baby can learn the basic palette and get acquainted with the concept of “more-less” comparison.
Also, the entire composition can be designed as a town in which various animals live - let there be a road, a house by the road, the sky, the sun and clouds. Animals will be hiding behind the opening doors of the house. This will make it much more interesting for your child to learn the names of animals. The baby opens the door - and there is an elephant or a bright parrot. Behind each such door a different number of animals can be hidden - this is how a baby can be taught to count.
You can also draw across the road and make a traffic light. Three plastic screw tops from juice boxes will do the job. Each cover should be painted in the colors of the traffic light and glued to the board: red at the top, yellow in the middle, green at the bottom. Little children love to twist everything, and with older children you can learn the rules of the road.
Precautions when making children's educational games
To make a board for a child (made with your own hands) as safe as possible, you need to remember the mandatory rules:
All small parts of the toy (buttons, beads) must be firmly sewn or glued;
All elements intended for opening must be easy to use (the zipper opens easily, the latches do not “stick”);
A hand-made board for a child should not have any sharp elements that could injure the baby;
The toy must be made from materials without harmful additives and impurities.
Whatever kind of educational board you get for children (with your own hands), the important thing is that it will be made with real love and warmth, as well as at fairly insignificant material costs.
Hello to all DIY lovers and site guests! This article will be of more interest to those who have small children, since at the age of one year, children actively begin to explore the world around them, climb everywhere, press all sorts of buttons, twist, open doors, drawers, and show great interest in sockets and switches .
On the Internet there are many different options for making a children's educational stand on this matter, one of which I would like to show.
This stand is good because it helps develop the fine motor skills of children’s hands, and also, as experience has shown (for me personally), after the children had played enough with it, the desire to climb to switches and sockets simply disappeared and they no longer go to them fit)))
I hope my homemade product will be useful to someone.
To make the stand the following was used:
- base (cabinet door);
- small doors (cut from the same material as the base);
- small door hinges;
- latch;
- socket;
- switch;
- plugs on the wires;
- dial from an old phone;
- lamb from the tap;
- door knob;
- bolt with nut;
- bottle cap;
- wheel from the bedside table;
- self-tapping screws.
Manufacturing process
First, I prepared the basis for attaching all the parts. I took a regular door from an old cabinet. You can, of course, use thick plywood, chipboard or laminated chipboard. I first laid out all the parts on the door, trying on what the stand would look like.
Then I screwed the mechanism onto the bolts and covered everything at the back of the stand with a plastic cover so that children could not get their fingers in there.
Then we attach the remaining parts: sockets, switches, plugs with wires. Attached with regular self-tapping screws.
I also installed a bolt on which you can screw the nut. (nut is not removable).
We also fasten the doors and “lambs” from the taps. I made one door with a latch, and the second just with a small handle. I glued bright red hearts under the doors for beauty.
Busy board (eng. busy-busy and board- board), invented by the founder of one of them, is a useful and practical educational toy. It is a board on which parts of small household items are placed.
It doesn’t matter at what age you should use the product; it is intended for children 2–3 years old, but it may be of interest to both one-year-old toddlers and preschoolers.
The cost of such products is high, sometimes reaching tens of thousands, but making a busy board with your own hands is not difficult. A simple gaming option will cost very little, because any of its components can be found at home.
From this article you will learn
What is needed for production
It’s easy to imagine what a busy board is. The basis of the educational toy is a board or a small square or rectangular stand. Interesting models are made in the form of houses or cubes. Any dense material whose thickness exceeds 0.5 cm is suitable for manufacturing: wood, fiberboard or chipboard, plastic, plywood. There should be no protruding parts on the surface so that the child does not get hurt.
The list of elements for creating a bodyboard is huge. Requirements for items: they must arouse interest in the child, help him master the world around him in a safe format, develop logic, and train hand motor skills. Another function of the development board is to teach how to use household items correctly. Most often, the standard set of parts includes:
- Industrial door fittings: latches, hooks, hinges, push, stationary and rotary handles, various types of locks, bolts and latches. Any small sized valve will do.
- Electrical products: sockets, plugs, switches, small light bulbs, toggle switches, terminals, LED elements, sockets, electric doorbell.
- Furniture fittings: wheels, handles and decor.
- Plumbing products: pipes, shut-off valve parts.
- Sewing materials: bobbins, zippers with large teeth, fabric scraps, felt, laces, buttons.
- Elements of leather goods: a magnetic clasp from an unnecessary bag, a button from dad’s briefcase, parts of a belt with a buckle or bracelet from an old watch.
- Spare parts for various mechanisms and electronic devices: calculator panels, watch dials, computer keyboards, telephone dials, remote controls, gears for a mechanical alarm clock, bicycle reflectors and other reflective elements, abacus, compasses.
- Various rollers with a textured surface.
The following materials are also used in the design of a busy board: a children's xylophone, parts of old shoes or bags with clasps or laces, an hourglass, a compass, large chains. The sound effect will be created by battery-powered doorbells, bells, and parts of electronic toys. The lighting will delight your baby; battery-powered flashlights can be used for this purpose.
A busy board can be made according to an individual project and include items found at home that will be of interest to the child. The place where you can get parts for a toy can be a department of accessories, electrical goods, or a furniture store.
The main criterion for selecting all elements is complete safety. It is advisable to choose sufficiently large and durable parts. All items are carefully fixed to the surface, protruding parts are removed.
Thematic drawings will add individuality to the project, and letters, numbers and inscriptions will complement the content and serve as another educational function.
Look what a masterpiece you can make if you try hard:
Safety regulations
The main requirement is complete safety. Children are very inventive; a one-year-old baby may be interested in a shiny thing, and he will make every effort to try it on his teeth. Therefore, carefully check whether the elements of the board are firmly fixed, especially those on which it rests. It is better to avoid unreliable parts altogether. Observe the following precautions:
- Removable elements must be attached with a cord or a strong chain. Choose a short lace to prevent your baby from getting tangled.
- Important condition: if the set contains luminous parts, they should not be powered. The safest light bulbs are LEDs.
- It is better to sew the parts of a soft product together and glue them for reliability.
- Hide the batteries for sound and light components in compartments located at the back of the board, closed with small screws.
- No matter how safe a toy may seem, do not leave a child of any age to play unattended.
Step-by-step instruction
It is better to make a product according to a sketch or drawing. The main criteria when developing your own toy design are size and shape. The larger the playing surface, the more details can be placed on it, which is more interesting for the child. Before filling the surface of the product with elements, think about a strong fastening. If the base of the development board is heavy, it will be unsafe for the child.
Strong latches or additional fastening on the reverse side will help to avoid injuries. If you plan to use a wall-mounted board, it is better to make it permanent. Decide where you are going to hang the game board. A good option is a double-sided plastic product: it is quite stable and lightweight. You can use corrugated cardboard.
Making a development board at home consists of the following steps in stages:
Now it's time to invite the baby to the test. The child will quickly understand why an interesting gift is needed.
Watch a video master class on how to make a development board yourself step by step:
Ideas for boys
An inquisitive toddler will love the models of educational boards made in the form of transport: a truck, a motor ship, a bus. On the surface you can place images on a sports theme, pictures with animals, dinosaurs.
Samodelkin
Place toy tools, real bolts and nuts, wrenches, plumbing parts, and large and small gears on the game board. 
Young traveler
You can collect the following elements on the board: a compass, an hourglass, a steering wheel from a toy, a toy shoe with lacing. 
Spaceship
Style the busy board in the form of a spacecraft dashboard with light bulbs, toggle switches and gears of different diameters. 
Bizimobile
A model that also contains wheels on which you can roll the toy. 
Advice. The details of themed toy sets are quickly lost. By attaching them to a small board, you will solve the problem, get an educational toy and won’t have to spend a lot of time cleaning.
Check out more options for bodyboard master classes for boys:
Ideas for girls
A busy board is a universal thing for children of both sexes, but a specially developed design will emphasize the child’s individuality. A game board for a girl can be painted in pleasant pastel shades of warm tones, decorated with images of princesses, flowers, animals, fairies.
Game boards intended for babies can be made in the following themes:
Toy kitchen
Place hooks with miniature dishes on the surface: frying pans, cutting boards, cutlery. Complete with product images. 
Shop
The contents of the business board will consist of an abacus, any panels with buttons, a wallet or a lock for it, and small items. 
Beauty saloon
Place a mirror on the play panel, attach a comb, hang rubber bands and hairpins on hooks, laces for learning how to braid, and jars of cosmetics with a screw-on lid.
Mistress
To other details, add clothespins on a string, lacing and Velcro on a mock-up of clothes or shoes. A beautiful button and a neat hook will do. 
Beautiful castle
Here's what you need for the model: geometric shapes, opening doors, windows. They can be painted in different colors. 
Advice. Pictures for a busy board can be cut out from a piece of wallpaper, unnecessary books and children's magazines, use a stencil, a drawing by the baby himself, or buy store-bought stickers. Stick a photo of the child and put his name on the surface. Such a product can safely be called personalized.
Check out more interesting ideas for bodyboards for girls:
Other options for development boards
Making a busy board in the form of a board is a classic solution. But if a small stand does not accommodate all the collected elements or there is a desire to classify them into categories, you can choose the following options:
Folding double-sided busy board
The model has two working surfaces, each of which is designed in a specific theme. For example, on the front surface there are furniture and door fittings, on the back side there is filling with sewing materials. 
Bizicube
This educational toy will distract your baby for a long time. It is a large game cube, each side of which is equipped with various developmental parts. 
Bizidom
This option is made in the shape of a house. It is interesting to play with him not only outside, but also inside.
Mini board
This model has sides no longer than 50 cm. It is convenient to take it with you on the road or to the clinic. It is not as functional as large bodyboards, but it has a cognitive effect: it develops both fine motor skills and logical thinking. 
Soft bodyboards
A separate type of bodyboards is soft, made of felt and fabric. This is what their structure looks like: rustling parts, Velcro, lacing, buttons and buckles are sewn onto a dense base - kids play with these things with pleasure.
The design of a toy can include a whole list: beads, ribbons, hooks, loops, rattles, appliques and any other similar material. Individual elements can be linked independently.
A good idea is to install it as bumpers in a crib or sew elements onto a decorative pillow. Other options: educational book or rug.
You can make a homemade business board together with both parents. Wood workpiece and technical issue, electrical circuit is the responsibility of dad. Coloring and painting the product is my mother’s task. Older children can be entrusted with pasting pictures on a toy or painting the edges.
When the baby grows up, you can give the toy to kindergarten. The use of such products in preschool educational institutions is a common practice and great joy for children.
IMPORTANT! *when copying article materials, be sure to indicate an active link to the original
One evening is enough to make a development stand. The child will play it much longer.
An educational stand or business board (knowledge board) is a surface on which various objects are attached. Those that the baby is usually not allowed to play with. These can be door latches, hooks, locks, beads, rings and many other attractive and alluring things.
Why are they needed?
Such stands contribute to the development of fine motor skills in children, and therefore speech. After all, through tactile sensations the baby learns the world.
In addition, after playing with objects on the busy board, the baby will no longer want to play with the latch on the door or with his mother’s beads.
Various rustling and rattling objects on the stand can captivate a baby who has just begun to crawl. This means that it can be done for a baby of 7-8 months.
What to make it from?
Clear out your garage, attic or balcony. There you will find many unnecessary items that are perfect for your future business board.
The size of the stand depends on the size of the children's room and the age of the baby. A child under one year old needs a board measuring 50 by 70 cm with several toys. For older children, you can make a more complex portable bodyboard or hang it on the wall. Dimensions should not exceed one meter by one meter.
The best material for a development stand is natural laminated wood. This could be part of an unnecessary door or furniture. If you want to introduce your child to fabrics or other sewing elements, then use corrugated cardboard as a basis.
It will be interesting and useful for the child if objects of different texture, size and color are placed on the stand. It can be fabric, metal, plastic, rubber. Possible elements on the development board are:
- Bolts, handles, locks with keys, latches;
- Various rollers and bushings from toilet paper rolls;
- Using ropes and laces you can make different figures on the stand, as well as letters and numbers. It is better to take laces in bright colors;
- Zippers, buttons, snaps and hooks with eyelets along with pieces of fabric - fur, plush, satin. You can cut them out of old clothes;
- All sorts of sounding objects, for example, a bell from an old bicycle;
- Abacus - you can take ready-made ones, or you can string beads onto a wire or string;
- Various switches or buttons;
- Mirrors that should sit tightly in the base;
- A panel from an unnecessary mobile phone or a disk from an old device;
- Switches;
- Steering wheels from old toy ships or a steering wheel.
How to do it?
Mark on the board where future elements will be located. Decorate your stand with bright colors. Attach all parts well and check for strength.
Busy boards, or educational boards for children, are very popular today. With their help, you can speed up the intellectual development of children. Fine motor skills of the hands, which develop with the help of such “toys,” directly affect the development of the nervous system, vision, attention, memory and the child’s perception of the world around him.
In addition, business boards accelerate the development of logic and thinking. Don’t forget about one more positive effect of the development board. With her help. You can keep your baby occupied for a while, during which you can solve your business.
The children's development board was first introduced by Maria Montessori in 1907. This Italian woman was a very famous doctor and teacher. She devoted her whole life to children and came up with a revolutionary method for their development.
Business board: what is it, what is it for, at what age?
The most optimal time to use a bodyboard is the age of 2-4 years. In general, you can use a children's development board from an age when the baby has already begun to actively move around the room. At this time, various “adult” things are very interesting to him. He wants to flip switches, turn knobs and press buttons. The safest thing for such an active baby would be to make a board and attach all sorts of things that interest your baby so much on it.
A busy board is needed when a child begins to become interested in faucets, switches, buttons and other objects.
What to make a busy board from?
It is best to use natural wood for this purpose. Firstly, this material is the safest for children. And secondly, you can easily attach all the objects interesting to the child on it.
The only disadvantage of wood is its weight. For small children, it is best to mount this board rigidly to the wall. This way you can protect it from falling.
What can be pinned on the development board?
In order for the bodyboard to be interesting to the child, attach to it all the things that he likes. It can be:
- Switches
- Disk with numbers from an old phone
- door chain
- Clock with hands
- Lock with a key (the key needs to be hung on a chain so it doesn’t get lost)
- Valve with tap
- The door is on a hinge (you need to do something interesting underneath it)
- Furniture wheel
- Shoe laces
- Velcro from clothes
- Bell
This list can be continued for a very long time. It is important to choose elements with which the child can perform some actions. Fixed elements are unlikely to be of interest to the child.
Do-it-yourself busy board for girls step by step: dimensions and diagram
SCHEME 1 Business boards can be made both universal and thematic. A girl will be very interested in a development board with cosmetics, doll things and accessories that her mother often uses.
- First, let's get the basics out of the way. As mentioned above, it is best to use wood for this purpose. For these purposes, a ready-made board is suitable, which needs to be cut into the required sizes, and the edges and area sanded to eliminate the risk of the child getting a splinter. For a lightweight, portable bodyboard, a board of 30 x 30 cm is suitable. And for a stationary board, mounted on the wall, from 70 x 70 cm. It is not necessary to use a square board shape.
- After pre-processing the board, it can be varnished or painted in a color close to a girl’s: peach, pink, light green, etc. But, you can leave the board uncoated.
- After the coating has dried, the most interesting stage of creating a busy board is placing objects of interest to the child on it.
IMPORTANT: Do not firmly attach objects to the board in advance. Arrange them first the way you like and look at it from the outside. Eliminate the shortcomings and only then fasten them “tightly”.
On a development board for girls you can attach not only buttons, buttons, envelopes with secrets, a doll that can be dressed and undressed, and other “feminine” things. Your little one will also be interested in purely “male” locks, switches and other items.
Do-it-yourself busy board for a boy step by step: dimensions and diagram
SCHEME 2 Making a development board for boys is just as easy as for girls. To do this, we make a board of the required size and prepare it in the same way as a board for girls.
- You can choose blue or light blue to cover the board for boys. A board painted in camouflage color will look very nice. But for this you will have to use at least three types of paint.
- On a board for boys you can place bolts and nuts (of course large), latches, wheels from toy cars, etc.
- If your baby likes to turn the lights on and off, install a lamp on the board (of course, it should have a protective cap and connect it to the switch. The current should be no more than 6 volts. Instead of the switch, you can make a socket and plug. When the baby inserts the plug into the socket, the circuit will close and the lamp will light up.
What else can be attached to a development board for boys?
- Steering wheel from a children's car
- Water tap
- Compass (for mobile business board)
An educational board for boys can be styled as a car dashboard. In general, at the age when a child is interested in busy boards, there are practically no differences in interests between boys and girls. It’s more likely that parents style such boards to suit what they like. A dad can make a military-themed business board for a boy. It all depends on the taste of the parents.
If you have artistic talent, then on the board you can draw the characters of your child’s favorite cartoons: Fixies, Luntik, Smesharikov, etc. They can be hidden behind doors that the child will be interested in opening.
How to order a business board on Aliexpress?
In the popular online store Aliexpress you can purchase educational boards of various sizes and configurations. For example, such a simple board can be purchased for only 122 rubles.
And with the help of such a board you can develop not only logic in a child, but also help him remember numbers.
Busyboard double-sided
A double-sided development board for a child usually comes in small sizes. Yes, this is understandable. Usually such boards are portable.
Mini board business board
Mini bodyboards do not exceed 50 x 50 cm in size. These mobile boards can be taken with you on a trip. They won't take up much space in your luggage. With their help, you can keep your child busy away from home. In terms of functionality, mini boards are inferior to larger bodyboards. But they can also develop logical thinking and fine motor skills in a child.
Educational board business board: ideas, examples
If you haven’t yet decided what to place on the development board, then our examples will help you decide.
An excellent educational board that each of you can make. It contains four doors, stylized as houses, latches, lacing, a switch and a socket, with which you can turn on the light of a protected lamp.
The baby will be interested in pressing it and listening to the melody. Almost all the elements of this busy board can be bought at a hardware store or found at home.
As for the gears, they can be found in the old construction set. If you don’t have such a constructor, replace this element with any other one.
Busy board: reviews from parents
Alina. Once I was going through the closet and found all sorts of unnecessary things there. I was already thinking about throwing them away, but my husband said he knew what to do with them. I selected several bolts, a socket, a doorbell and a handle. My daughter and I went to our parents, and when we returned, an amazing gift was waiting for us. My husband made a busy board himself. My daughter liked it so much that she could barely put her to bed.
Kirill. I made the busy board myself. I found some of the elements at home, bought some at a furniture and construction store. My son really liked it. It was impossible to tear it away the first time. And it develops mentally and gives us a rest.
Video. BusyBoard do-it-yourself educational gaming stand
