Teaching never stops for me. I have my students and school and when I get home I spend my time with my daughter where we got up to all sorts of fun and educational adventures. On top of having a passion for teaching, I also love DIY projects, which I mostly get to focus on during the holidays. With the mid-year break coming up in just a few weeks, I plan on making my toddler a large DIY sensory activity board which will hopefully keep her busy and stimulated for hours on end.
These sensory boards are quite popular and these days you won’t easily find a nursery school or toddler club without one. The ideas of things you can add to the board are endless and if you make one correctly, you can simply replace gadgets and items as your baby grows and develops, that is, you can make it more challenging.
For the most part, these board help the little ones develop their hand-eye coordination as well as fine motor skills. You could also incorporate a variety of textured fabrics to stimulate the senses. Add things that make a noise to encourage those tiny ears to work and add clips, latches and switches to help encourage problem solving and use of logic.
I intend on making quite a large board which will be mounted in my child’s playroom, at a nice height so that she can stand or sit and play with the intriguing attached devices. I am planning on making it a meter in length and probably half of that in height. It’s so difficult to decide what to add to the board (I wish I could include all of the cool ideas I have), since the options are so limitless. At the moment I have the following gadgets in mind and have already started gathering a few of them:
- A light switch
- A door latches
- An old telephone with a dial
- A variety of textured fabric swatches
- A battery-operated touch (press) lamp
- A wooden shoe with shoe-laces
- A steering wheel
Like I said though, I have sooo many more ideas in mind! Each time I got to the hardware store I am inspired with a new gadgety thing I could add. Really looking forward to these school holidays!
I hope I have inspired you to make one of these nifty boards for your kiddos too. I have had enough of spending a fortune on toys my daughter shows no interest in or end up broken after one play session. I think this is an excellent idea and can’t wait to get my DIY on! WATCH THIS SPACE!
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