The following article will discuss several types of DIY educational toys for 1-year-olds, including how these toys can educate your child and how the activity can be made by you, as a parent, as an easy DIY activity. It also looks at some objects that may be lying around the home that don’t necessarily have to be made at all.
What kinds of Montessori toys for 1-year-olds can be made DIY?
Montessori toys for 1-year-olds need to include certain activities that help the 1-year-old to develop physically through the activities where development needs to occur at that age. These activities can be made DIY and include:
The peg box
The peg box is a homemade Montessori toys activity that involves stuffing duo sticks into a wooden frame of holes. This helps 1-year-olds train their fine motor control and fine-motor coordination skills.
How the Peg box can be made
As a DIY activity, you can use the peg board idea to create a peg board. A peg board can be made by drilling holes into it and by using matching-sized duo sticks for your child to push into the holes. As an even simpler easy DIY activity, you can also simply use an empty recycled milk carton and some duo pegs as a Montessori peg activity. Then your 1-year-old child can use this milk carton to practice putting the duo pegs into.
Liquid pouring activity
An easy DIY activity that is good for 1-year-old development is the liquid pouring activity. It involves the use of the wrist and the hand grip to transfer water from one container to another by using a scoop to do so.
How the liquid pouring activity can be made
This activity involves the use of a jug or container of some kind and a measuring spoon to scoop water out and transfer it into another jug or container.
The Montessori coin box
A DIY Montessori toys activity that is a good Montessori educational toy, is the Montessori coin box. While this activity can be bought as an activity from an online store or a Montessori shop, it can easily be made at home.
How to make the Montessori coin box at home
The Montessori coin box can be made or put together as a Montessori homemade toy by using a coin box, or even a decorated cardboard box with a coin slot in it. The creation of the coin box can also become a separate art activity for your baby to do when you are decorating it.
Stackers
An all-time favorite Montessori educational toy for 1-year-olds is the Montessori stacker. The stacking activity helps your child to develop concentration and fine motor skills, along with hand-eye coordination.
How to make stackers at home
This Montessori toy can easily be made DIY by using a paper towel holder and curtain rings of various sizes. Cern stackers can be made using colorful rocks that are easily stackable.
Finger transference
1-year-old children can enjoy learning about colors and transferring colorful objects by using the pincer grip to transfer objects in a clockwise direction into a container with various compartments to drop the objects into.
How to create a DIY finger transference activity
A finger transference activity can be made from many homemade objects. This includes creating a transference bowl from an empty egg carton or from a recycled paint pallet. The objects that are used for the transfer activity can be small balls or objects found around the home of various colors.
Sensory bags
Sensory bags are a great DIY Montessori activity that is fun for 1-year-old children. Sensory bags can stimulate your child’s tactile, audial and visual senses making it a fun and engaging activity.
How to make sensory bags
To make some easy DIY sensory bags, you will need some ziploc bags, glitter, small toys or objects and hair gel. Then you put everything in the ziploc bag and seal it up well with some sellotape. These bags can also be filled with beads or rice for shaker bags as well and to add a sound effect to the activity as well. You can also buy laminating pouches, and use a hair straightener to seal the edges together. This creates a super tight seal and is my preference from a safety aspect, as it’s more secure than the the ziplock bag option!
Tactile ring on a ribbon
This homemade Montessori toy is an easy DIY activity to make. The activity encourages your 1-year-old child to explore the ring and ribbons through the use of the tactile sense. It also provides a means by which your child can learn about the variety of texture. It also serves as a teething ring and is visually educational, from the variation in the ribbon’s colors that are attached to the ring.
How to make a DIY tactile ring on a ribbon
To make this DIY Montessori toy, you will need a wooden ring, for example, an old curtain ring will do. If you do not have one, you can use a cardboard ring from the inside of the sellotape, for example, and use it as a frame to sew a pillow ring onto with stuffing and non-toxic material that your child can chew on and touch safely.
Conclusion
There are many Montessori toys and activities out there for 1-year-old children. Most of these activities can be made DIY. While this article can help you to create some inspiring DIY Montessori toys and activities for your 1-year-old child, it can also be used as an inspirational guide to help you research more Montessori toys and activities to make DIY. From this article, you can get a thorough idea of how to make Montessori toys from Montessori-inspired toys and activities.
