Toys and games for 1 puppet.
A great toy for a child approaching a year is transparent, plastic cylinder with holes in the lid. Through them, you can throw blocks of matching size and shape into the transparent box: ball, cube, triangle and others. Of course, first you have to show the baby, what manipulations and how can be done with these toys: how to put molds one inside the other, how to break a pyramid, and then put it back together into a tower that narrows towards the top, how to throw a ball into a transparent cylinder, etc. The child, imitating the actions of an adult, will try to remove the discs himself, scatter them haphazardly, and then painstakingly select and match one to the other, put on a stick. This will help him learn new concepts, judging the size of objects, will enrich orientation in the surrounding world.
It is also worth supplementing the set of toys with large colorful cubes. Initially, the child will watch them, moved from place to place, they hit each other, groped, put it in his mouth, it tasted. But if we show him, how you can build a tall tower by stacking cubes on top of each other, it will start stacking blocks on its own, and then with great joy demolish the building, to raise it again. A small child enjoys the activity itself, and its effect is not yet important to him.
This kind of play begins at the end of the first year of life. Educators call them manipulative games. They will dominate the child's activities almost until the end of the third year of life. They help in mastering and improving individual skills, expand the child's knowledge of the properties of the objects around them.
The infant listens attentively to the words addressed to him. Likes to, when talking to him, he watches his mouth movements carefully, listens to the melody of spoken words. He enjoys listening to an easy rhythmic rhyme, he calms down, when a lullaby is sung to him. He also understands a lot. At the end of the first year of life, he learns to recognize animals: kota, psa, hens, remembers their voices and knows how to recreate them. Babies can easily imitate the sounds that come to them.
During this period of life, the child likes to make sweeping movements with his whole arms. It hits everything, what is within his reach: miss, a doll, mom's cheek, grandma or dad. Many parents are amused by a slap on the cheek given to an adult by a baby. They make fun of the child's behavior, like the best joke, which, of course, it takes as approval, encouragement to repeat this activity. But it, what amuses the baby's behavior, later in the older child. So as not to inhibit the natural need for movement, we will give the baby a pillow or a ball, so that he could hit her at will, and translate at the same time, that you can't hit or mom, nor grandma, nor dad, not a teddy bear.
The baby likes it very much, when an adult picks them up, lifts up, swings with a measured movement. All these games are useful, they familiarize the child with space, they allow you to look at the environment from a completely different perspective, much broader perspective, and thus enrich his sensations and experiences.
A few have been preserved in the repertoire of infant games to this day, repeated for generations. Although many young people, of educated mothers looks with clear disapproval, like a grandmother, running her finger on the baby's open hand, tells, how "mapie brewed porridge for children", and then, pulling each finger individually, counts: "She gave it – he was the youngest, ago she gave – was the sweetest, ago she gave – carried water, she gave it to him - he asked nicely” and, pulling his thumb shorter than the others, he adds: “And she gave it nothing, she broke off her head and flew away into the world alone” There is a sweeping hand movement, which is invariably accompanied by the loud laughter of a child.
It's hard to make sense of the poem, however, this one still by great-great-grandmothers in various parts of Poland (and not only) repeated play is useful. By touching each finger in turn, we teach the child to get to know his own body. Baby from the moment, when the hands begin to obey his will, he looks at them closely and examines them with great interest, then pulls the legs – watches them, puts it in her mouth. He learns and meticulously examines not only the surrounding objects, but also my own body. Playing in "mapie" or in "mow, mows paws", or repeated questions: "And where is grandpa's nose? where is the eyelet?” enriches the child's knowledge of his own structure, develops the ability to consciously direct body movements. This is important and needed. A child, after all, before he learns to talk, it communicates with its environment through the movements of its whole body, gestures, urine.
Playing "mapie" or "mows"., scythes paws” not only have cognitive value, but they also make and delight the child, put them in a good mood. So until we replace the poem about the magpie with another, prettier and smarter, let's repeat it to the children. Just like our mothers, grandmother, great-grandmothers. Because although in upbringing one cannot rely solely on tradition, however, this must be remembered, that not everything old, it's bad.