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Home › Articles › Toddlers › Plain and Simple Toddler Play

Plain and Simple Toddler Play

The Benefits of Homemade Toys

By Sally Goldberg, Ph.D

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The best toddler play can come from toys you make and simple items such as an unbreakable mirror or ball. There are certain benefits that only homemade toys and simple parent-child interaction activities can provide.

Using easily accessible materials from around the house to create play-and-learn toys provides unending hours of fun. By parents participating in designing toys for their children, they find that they have a passion for playing with the toys and an increased desire to spend time with their children. Strong input, support and commitment on the part of parents help children learn faster and better. Parent play that is truly responsive and personally interactive speeds up development.

A good toy challenges a child to do, to think and to feel. The toys that are the most formed have the least value, and the ones that have the least form have the most value. With little form, your child puts more into playing. As the old saying goes, "The more you put into it, the more you get out of it." Some of the best toys for toddlers are blocks, building sets, bubbles, dolls (male and female) and objects for sand and water activities. These toys all provide open-ended experiences. And, the more children play, the more they want to play.

There are four attributes that contribute to "toy excellence" or play value. A good toy should have these qualities. They are:

  • Something interesting to see
  • Something interesting to touch
  • Something interesting for interaction – both with the toy and with other children
  • The element of surprise

The Toddler Years
If you had to find two words to describe the toddler years, they would be "exploration" and "experimentation." These years are for the basic discovery of how things work. During the year from age 1 to 2, the more exploration and experimentation available to your toddler, the better. He or she wants to know firsthand what opens and what shuts, what pushes and what pulls, what is heavy and what is light and much, much more. The best way to do this is by being actively involved in play with your toddler and providing parental support.

The best toys for toddlers have beginning qualities that work their way into more advanced qualities for the preschool years. Rather than outgrowing the toys, the toys grow with the child. Both parent and child can continue to use the toys in new and different ways. In addition, it is advantageous when the toys can teach early learning concepts such as colors, letters, numbers, shapes and reading by repetition and familiarity.

Exemplary Toys
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