Independent games for children. Independent play and its importance for child development

Which parent doesn’t dream of children playing independent games at least some of the time, without involving you in this activity. Of course, with age, both children will spend a lot of time with each other, reluctantly being distracted by their parents, but while the children are small, they hardly know how to play games on their own. But the need to distract the children with something remains, especially for those parents who work from home.

Most often, in those moments when parents urgently need free time, those things and activities that are prohibited in everyday life are used. When you think about what you can do to occupy your children, unimaginable things come to mind such as a mother's bag, or a cosmetic bag, drawers with underwear or buttons - something that will give you 20 minutes of the necessary time, but you are well aware that things will be either scattered or damaged. Moreover, two children can simply quarrel over the desire to possess some of the gizmos, and instead of the desired freedom, you will get both a scandal and a mess. And from a pedagogical point of view, such behavior is not correct: if it’s really impossible, then it’s really impossible, but then how will the child guess whether it’s possible or not?

Nevertheless, this method works, and abandoning it is also not entirely correct. However, there are other ways to entertain children. Of course, to begin with, it’s worth getting both of them into the game, and when the gameplay continues regardless of your presence in it, you can mysteriously disappear and go about your business. Now we will try to offer you old and new ideas on how to organize creativity and games for two children. Perhaps you forgot something. But they didn’t know something!

40 independent activities and games for two children

Children, starting from one and a half years old, willingly play outdoor games, draw and sculpt, and children over two years old are fond of role-playing games, especially if they have an older friend. However, these games do not require the participation of parents, and children can indulge in them completely independently.

Method number 1: Puzzles

If you want to find a calm way to entertain children that does not involve crazy destruction of the entire living space, then these are puzzles. Each child can be given a set appropriate to his age, while the older one can help the baby, and he, in turn, can scatter, chew or lick the elder’s puzzles.

Method number 2: Soap bubbles

The most fun independent games are not always the most difficult. Sometimes it is enough to give children soap bubbles. If age permits, then each of the children can blow translucent miracles, competing to see who blows the largest amount and who blows the largest bubble. And if the younger one has not yet matured, he can catch up and burst the older one’s bubbles.

Method number 3: Creativity kits

Manufacturers in all countries spend hours thinking about the same thing you are thinking about - what to do with children. That is why you will find many creativity kits on the shelves of children's stores. If you and your children have already done something similar, then the kids will be happy to try to repeat it on their own.

These sets, as a rule, are not very expensive, but you can prepare something similar yourself. By spending a couple of evenings cutting out appliqués, plaster or salt dough baked figures for coloring, and cutting out felt, you will save both time and money. And then you can issue sets individually and not every day.

Method number 4: Magic markers

Kids will be delighted with markers that can be used to both draw and erase them - if you have a marker board, this is it. What do you need!

There are also toys and cards on which you can draw with these markers, and then wash them directly with your hands.

Method #5: Constructors

The longest games are those with toys that have a lot of parts. That is why Lego, mosaics, cubes and construction sets are always beyond competition. Feel free to leave the kids with these magical toys and go about your business.

Method number 6: House for toys

Even boys will enjoy playing in the house for toys and animals. Well, girls have been told to play with doll houses for all centuries of gender division of toys. Setting up a home for your favorite toys is a great idea for something to keep children occupied for quite a long time.

A wonderful option for boys or two children of different sexes would be to play not with young lady dolls, but with animals, figurines of both sexes, or with the participation of a male version of the doll. House sets from LEGO and Sylvanian Families are ideal in this regard.

However, the houses are quite expensive, which means you and your children can make a real palace out of a cardboard box and cover it with real wallpaper. And then children will play with this toy, made by themselves and their parents, for a long time.

Method number 7: Coloring pages

A great way to keep both children occupied for a long time is through coloring books. They require almost no imagination from children, unlike drawing (“Mom, draw for me...”) and can keep kids occupied from 10 minutes to half an hour. Moreover, children easily master such activities and games on their own.

Someone buys ready-made coloring books according to age, someone prints them on a printer, someone cuts out figures from paper and lets the children color them - all methods are good!

Method number 8: Colorful world

While children are given pencils and markers regularly, paints are a special product that requires water, neatness, and mother’s supervision. However, you can sometimes leave children alone with paints by laying a sufficient number of oilcloths both on and under the table.

Method number 9: Interactive books

Modern books give children many tasks for attention, dexterity, and logic. These same books tell children fairy tales, sing songs and play cheerful music.

Method #10: Blankets and sheets

Oddly enough, in order for children to play independently, it is enough to give them... just two blankets! This is a unique game, the rules of which only children know.

The main thing is that both kids have a lot of fun, and you are free!

Method No. 11: Children's developmental sports centers

Play centers are quite popular with many children. Some of them are liked by kids more, some less, some even include a home slide, and some include ropes, ropes and ladders. But it’s very fun and useful for children to spend time like this.

Method number 12: Flash games in reality

You can translate any games with overcoming obstacles into real life by laying out various objects, mugs, things, coins, ribbons, ropes on the floor. Then you can give the children the command to overcome all the laid out obstacles by crawling, jumping, running, or on all fours. You can even “turn on” them at the start with a special remote control - and they will be toys.

Once you have shown and taken the time to teach this game, you can then safely leave the kids to do this activity - they can handle it! In addition, such independent games contribute to the development of many useful qualities in both children.

Method number 13: Musical instruments in four hands

Quite often, children play on a children's synthesizer, but its sound is too quiet, so it gets boring pretty quickly. But a real synthesizer, taken from parents’ supplies or bought at a low price, can captivate them for a long time. So are drums, tambourines, pipes and harmonicas.

Method number 14: Let the children take a bath... without water!

The bathroom can be not only a place for hygiene, but also a creative space. You can introduce the kids to a dry bath with finger paints, tile markers, or even just watercolors. This will keep the kids occupied for a long time, and then you can easily wash everything – both the bath and the children.

Method number 15: Let's put the children in the bath... with water!

But feel free to ignore the advice to leave children alone in a filled bath, it’s too dangerous. But you can give them a bowl of water, placing it directly in the bathtub, and give them a task - wash toys, wash clothes for dolls, or wash children's dishes. And also by launching fish, pirate ships and mermaids into the water.

Method No. 16: Playing “mother-daughter” dolls

This entertainment is more suitable for girls, but some boys are also able to support this game. Dolls can be fed, watered, put on a potty, changed clothes, walked with them, rolled in a stroller, and given holidays for them (see point 3).

Method No. 17: Creator and Destroyer

If your youngest child has not yet grown up to adult games with construction sets and blocks, you can arrange a game in which one child is a creator who builds a city or even a whole world, and the second is a destroyer who destroys what has already been built.

Method number 18: Long live TV!

Not the healthiest, but the most effective way to keep both children occupied is to turn on cartoons for them. You shouldn’t overuse it, but it will do from time to time as an effective distraction maneuver.

Method number 19: Tablet to be torn to pieces

Many games adapted for kids can be downloaded to your tablet. Children, even the tiniest ones, already confidently open the necessary icons on the touch screen and play with pleasure. For older children there are educational programs in Russian, English and just the alphabet.

The hardest part is getting the kids to take turns without taking each other's tablets away. But as an option, the eldest of the children can be offered a phone or laptop as an alternative.

Method number 20: New is well forgotten old

There is nothing more exciting than a new toy. Or - a well-forgotten old one. Almost all teachers argue that it is impossible to dump all available toys in front of children - one third is enough, but it is better to remove the remaining two thirds. After you are already tired of the first toys, you can change the “exposition”. Having missed such toys, children willingly spend their time with them.

Method number 21: Cut and shred

An effective way to entertain your children is a game in which the older one simply cuts out pictures from magazines and newspapers with safety scissors, and the younger one either glues the cutout onto a piece of paper or enthusiastically tears the newspaper into shreds. The downside is the need for subsequent cleaning. There are more advantages: you have free time, children develop fine motor skills.

Method number 22: The heap is small

If distracting the children is more important than sacrificing cleanliness and order, you can give the kids several types of food, for example, pasta, beans, peas, dried fruits. Mix it up - let the children arrange and sort the pile. However, throwing it all around is much more interesting, especially if there are two kids. One child is more diligent and determined to engage in quiet play than two. And even more carefully, make sure that children do not put small objects in their nose or ears.

Method number 23: Bodypainting

Is there any greater happiness for children than decorating the body of their brother or sister with art of their own making? Face painting is an excellent invention that can captivate kids with body painting for a long time.

If it comes to girls, they may well be allowed to use children’s decorative cosmetics - they are allowed from the age of two. Well, or introduce young ladies to the elite cosmetics of the world's leading cosmetic corporations - giving your cosmetics bag to be torn to pieces.

Method number 24: Making a house

The house is a special play space that can develop children's imagination and be the main testing ground for many role-playing games. You can make it from blankets and sofa pillows, under the ironing board, under the table - it would be a fantasy!

Method number 25: Miracle cube

Not a single shopping center can boast of such success among children as a homemade cube, on which everything that is “not allowed” in ordinary life is placed. And doorbells, and horns, and locks with keys, and a door chain, and a switch with a light bulb - you can place many interesting objects there from the point of view of children. If dad has golden hands, this can still work, giving light from a light bulb and sound from pressing.

Method number 26: Guess the melody

This game is for children from three years old. If you have several musical instruments in your arsenal of toys, then you can play the following game: one baby turns away, the second makes a sound on one of the children's musical instruments. The first one guesses which one. And if a drum can be easily distinguished from a xylophone, then three pipes can easily be confused.

Method number 27: Color and shape

Two kids can sort objects and toys based on color and shape. This can be framed: as a lesson - when the elder names and the younger shows, as a competition - who is faster, and as a quest - collect all the blue toys, find all the square-shaped objects in the room.

And kids’ socks are beautiful, bright and varied, unlike men’s. That is why you can mix the socks of both children and invite them to sort this motley disgrace by finding a pair for each of the socks. This is not only interesting, but also trains the memory and attention of both children.

Method No. 28: Cooking for dummies

If the children are already schoolchildren, they can be trusted to cook their own food by giving them a simple recipe. And if the children are still small, they will like to assemble sandwiches themselves from the parts you cut, it’s almost like a construction set, but you can also eat it. In addition, even such ingredients as chopped peppers, turnips or other vegetables are eaten under this bench. And we played and ate. And kids can also help the elders: beat meat with a hammer, cut out cookies, roll meatballs, beat eggs with a whisk, and much more!

Method number 29: Beauty salon – do your own hair!

Do you think this is a girls' privilege? And you think right! If you have two girls, doing your sister’s hair yourself is a tremendous pleasure. Take all the hairpins, all the elastic bands, give the little ones a mirror and combs - and forget about the children for 20-30 minutes.

But children of different sexes, and even two boys, can play at the hairdresser - with great pleasure making their brother a mohawk, horns, or styling his hair with hair gel.

Method number 30: Board games

There are now a huge number of board games for sale for all ages, from the newest to the classics. We will talk about many of them in much more detail, devoting separate articles to this. But, be that as it may, it really can captivate both children for a very long time.

Method #31: Bowling!

You can buy a toy bowling alley, and in stores there are both cheap and very high-quality expensive variations of the game, or you can build a game from improvised materials. Skittles can be replaced with plastic bottles, and the ball can be replaced with a rubber ball. You can add water to the bottles to make them heavier.

Method number 32: Tennis court at your home

Have you already imagined a broken window and a split sideboard? Relax, you can play tennis in a less traumatic way for your apartment. All you have to do is attach handles to disposable paper plates and inflate a balloon. And then create a game that combines tennis and badminton. By the way, you can also play badminton with a children’s light shuttlecock in an apartment.

Method number 33: Roads, roads...

You can buy a carpet with road markings, or you can make roads directly on the floor using electrical tape. Launch cars on the highway, place characters from Kinder Surprises or small toys - let them catch a taxi, cross the road, work as traffic cops. At the same time, kids will learn the rules of the road.

Method number 34: Electrical tape instead of chalk

Children can easily “draw” on the floor using electrical tape. For example, they can make homemade hopscotch or any other game that requires marking.

Method number 35: Darts without sharp objects

An impromptu darts tournament can be held without special equipment - just a couple of crayons and ordinary foam sponges. Draw a target on the wall or floor and have the kids compete to see who can accurately throw the sponges right at the bull's eye.

Method number 36: Balloons

It seems that balloons are a purely decorative element designed to lift your spirits. However, if you use your imagination, games with them will be very different and very fun!

You can inflate them and, without tying them, let them fly around the room, with the older one inflating them, developing the lungs, and the younger one catching the “fugitive” and bringing him back. You can play a game - don't drop the ball by throwing it over your head - and stop your brother or sister from holding the ball. You can throw balloons like a ball, you can paint them with markers, you can teach children to make figures from oblong balloons, and come up with many other interesting things using balloons.

Method number 37: Clothing store

Arrange to try on things under the guise of playing shopping. Children will be happy to try on and sort out both their own clothes and their parents’ clothes. At the same time, glancing at the children playing, you can pay attention to the fact that some of the things are no longer enough, and what needs to be sewn up or washed.

And if you provide children with a cash register, the equivalent of money and the right idea, then ordinary trying on clothes will turn into a game of shopping.

Method number 38: Pillow fight

There is no particular point in explaining this game; everyone has known it since childhood. But to become its instigator and then go about your own business is a nice thing. Children will enthusiastically pick up the game, captivated by pillow fights for a long time. You can complicate it by selecting a limited rectangle of a blanket laid on the floor for the battle - whoever goes beyond the border loses.

Method number 39: Puppet theater

Changing places, children can take turns being both spectators and actors, giving a performance based on famous fairy tales or inventing their own stories.

There are many ready-made variations sold in stores, but it is quite easy to build such a theater yourself. But children need to be accustomed to such a game by showing and explaining it several times, then they will easily play the theater on their own.

Method number 40: Let there be dancing!

Turn on some exciting music and invite the kids to get crazy and dance to it. Show them some simple moves! And they will happily learn to control their own body.

It’s boring to dance alone, but together it’s very fun. Tired of dancing? Turn on karaoke!

Independent play is an important stage of growing up

If the only child in the family says that he is bored quite often, then it is much easier to come up with something to keep the children occupied together. Having a playmate, kids are more willing to let their parents do their adult things. It is possible and necessary to teach children to play games on their own, but over time children will come to this on their own as the only possible option.

In the meantime, most of the methods of entertainment without the participation of parents are very destructive for your home, and for starters, you can suggest that both offspring find something to do in their toy boxes. What if they play on their own, calmly letting you go away from them for a while?

However, from the moment when kids begin to master independent games, you will have to think less and less about how to entertain children - an amazing children's imagination will give them a whole world, and your task is to give them an idea and a couple of thematic items. Go for it!

The mental development of a child is formed in the process of his activities. Playing and acting with objects are the main activities of children of the second and third year of life. Play occupies a large place in a child’s life: all the time not occupied by sleeping, feeding, or studying, he plays. This is his natural state. The game brings a lot of joy to the child and is accompanied by positive emotions: he is surprised when receiving new information, rejoices in achieving the desired result, communicating with adults and peers. Play is a path to understanding the world around us.

Download:

Preview:

KU URAI SPECIALIZED CHILDREN'S HOUSE

REPORT

« Children's independent games"

Prepared by teacher Avksentyeva N.M.

G.Uray

2012

Independent games for children

The mental development of a child is formed in the process of his activities. Playing and acting with objects are the main activities of children of the second and third year of life. This activity differs from classes in that it occurs on the initiative of the baby himself. Play occupies a large place in a child’s life: all the time not occupied by sleeping, feeding, or studying, he plays. This is his natural state. The game brings a lot of joy to the child and is accompanied by positive emotions: he is surprised when receiving new information, rejoices in achieving the desired result, communicating with adults and peers. Play is a path to understanding the world around us.

In play, a child gets acquainted with the properties of objects, while he “experiments” a lot, shows initiative, and creativity. During the game, attention is formed. Imagination, memory, thinking, important qualities such as activity and independence in solving game problems develop. It is in play that the first positive relationships with peers are formed: interest in the games of other children, and in the future - the ability to take into account the interests of group mates.

During independent activities, children develop positive relationships and emotional and business connections with adults. Children are drawn to those who study and play with them; quickly adopt the tone of an adult’s attitude (attention, affection, sympathy) and themselves begin to show such feelings towards each other. Already in the second year of life, children very clearly listen to the teacher’s assessment of their activities and are guided by it.

For a teacher, organizing children’s independent play activities is one of the most difficult sections of work, since, on the one hand, he must, without suppressing the child’s initiative. Skillfully guide his play, on the other hand, teach the baby to play independently. A teacher will be able to properly organize independent play activities only if he knows well not only the characteristics of the child’s mental development, but also the characteristics of the development of pupils in this group.

Features of organizing independent

activities of children of the second year of life

In the second year of life, types of independent play activities of children are observed. These are games associated with movements: with a ball, motor toys (car, cart), climbing on and off a slide, sledding outside in winter, etc.

A large place is occupied by the cognitive orienting activity of the baby. It manifests itself first of all in examining the surroundings, then in observation, looking at pictures and books.

Satisfying his needs for knowledge of the environment, the baby acts a lot with objects - with building materials, with educational toys, with a simple construction set, with folding pictures and with tools - the braid with which he drives the car, with a hammer, hammering nails into holes, with special a machine made of plastic or wood and other items.

In the second half of the second year of life, the child exhibits object-based, playful, conditioned actions with toys - a doll, a dog, a bunny and others, while children already in the first half of the year not only reproduce learned actions, but also reflect what they themselves see in life.

During independent activities, the child, on his own initiative, communicates with an adult for various reasons. The inclusion of an adult in the game gives them great joy. The child observes how an adult acts, turns to him, demonstrating the results of his activities, and together look at a book, draw something for him, help him fix a broken toy, etc.

One of the conditions on which the development of a child’s play activity largely depends is the correct selection of toys and aids. It is determined by the nature of the activities of children of a certain age. Thus, the group should have toys that provide the child’s activities.

To develop movements, you first need space. Among the major benefits that stimulate physical activity, you need to have a slide with a ramp, a barrier table (for children at the beginning of the second year of life), around which the kids not only move well, but also play with educational toys. Let us remind you that you cannot attach toys to the table; this reduces the activity of children in choosing the right toy and does not allow them to examine the object or pick it up.

Small aids should include balls of different sizes, strollers, cars, and hoops. Large moving toys are stored in the area so as not to clutter up the area needed for movement in the room. It is not recommended to attach a wall bars or install a ladder in a group of children in their second year of life, since these aids require the teacher to constantly monitor their use. Children cannot use such benefits on their own.

The group should also have material for examining objects in the surrounding world, obtaining a variety of impressions, which is changed from time to time. These are tabletop paintings (2-3) with scenes accessible to children: “Tanya feeds the pigeons”, “Children are dancing”, “Cat with kittens”, etc. It is good if the teacher specially makes models (1-2) for viewing. This can be a winter model (a doll sledding down a mountain) or a spring model (a blossoming branch with a bird sitting on it). You can hang a panel based on familiar fairy tales. It is better to place the slide by the window so that children can watch what is happening behind it. The group should have an aquarium with large fish. To look at books and pictures, you should set aside a special place by the window. The teacher gives the books stored on the shelf if the child asks.

What is the best way to arrange toys in a playroom? It depends on what age the playroom is being prepared for. The experience of children in the first half of the second year of life is still small, and preparation for the game is carried out either by one teacher, or (closer to the children reaching 1 year 6 months) together with the children. At the same time, the teacher creates so-called prompting play situations: for example, he places a plate next to the dog, puts the bear in a stroller, puts dolls at the table with dishes placed on it, puts educational toys on the barrier table, and several pictures on the table by the window. Such situations direct the baby’s attention to one activity or another.

In the second half of the year, children already have quite a lot of experience and, having learned to navigate in a group, begin to prepare game situations for themselves. So, knowing where the dolls and dishes are located, they themselves find a doll, a plate, a spoon and begin to feed their “daughter.” Therefore, in the second half of the year, when organizing children’s play, the teacher can already place toys in different places in the room so that the children do not gather in one place and interfere with each other.

The place for playing with educational toys is located near the cabinet or shelf. Where are they located. There should be toys that help develop the ability to distinguish the color, size, shape of objects, as well as a tabletop builder, small toys in a box that kids can use in independent games, a construction set, folding pictures and other board games.

You should also determine a place for playing with large building material, which is located on the shelf. There are also large toys here - animals, cars, which are used in construction games. Playing with a large builder should take place on a mat that prevents children from hypothermia and reduces excessive noise.

Toy furniture - table, chairs, bed - is placed in the doll corner. It should be large enough and durable, since kids love not only to sit a doll on a chair, but also to sit on it themselves. In addition to story toys, there should be appropriate attributes: dishes, clothes, blankets, towels, baths, etc. Since children of the second year of life love to dress up, in the doll corner you need to hang a mirror and everything for dressing up: scarves, aprons.

Children of the second year of life reproduce imaginary actions and play with substitute objects. For these purposes, you can use a toy washbasin, around which such actions are played out. Like washing dishes, pouring water from a tap, bathing dolls, etc. while kids use cubes as soap. Smaller toys - toy scissors, syringes, combs (plastic) - enrich children's games and are given to them under the supervision of an adult. These toys can be stored on high shelves so that children can see them, but can only be taken with the help of an adult.

How to teach a child to play independently? This question worries many parents. Partly because when the baby is busy with something of his own, mom and dad can devote this time to household chores, do some favorite activity, or just relax. And partly, parents understand that the development of a toddler’s ability to find an interesting activity for himself and the ability to do without adult care for some time is the next stage in the baby’s growing up. Another step towards his development as a person. There is no way to step over it. And how quickly a child learns a new skill directly depends on how much effort his family puts into it.

Why teach your baby to play independently?

Just as a baby cannot eat on his own or, for example, dress himself, he will also not be able to play alone until he is shown how to do it. Moreover, some time must pass for the baby to accumulate certain gaming experience.

A child should be taught to play in the same way as to walk, eat or dress independently.

Playing alone, the baby models life situations, looks for ways out of difficult situations, tries on different images, forms in his mind his own attitude towards good and evil, truth and untruth, etc.

Independent play develops in a child:

a sense of self-confidence and strength;
oral speech and;
imagination and ;
initiative and patience;
perseverance and ability to overcome difficulties;
skills in finding alternative solutions.

But all this is possible only on the condition that parents periodically direct the game in the right direction and provide the child with the correct (from the point of view of semantic content) and high-quality gaming equipment.

The toddler must first be taught to play different games, and then expect him to show initiative and some kind of passion for the gameplay.

You need to organize the play space for your baby so that he feels as comfortable as possible while playing.

Play space

To begin with, think about where and what the child will play with, so that you can safely leave him alone for a while. The baby should feel comfortable. And be completely safe at the same time.

Numerous prohibitions will prevent the toddler from being independent and active. Therefore, it is better to foresee all the dangers that may await the baby during play and eliminate them in advance.

Non-slippery floor, light, stable chairs, low. Anything valuable, breakable and potentially dangerous for the baby should not be within his reach.

Take the issue seriously. It should be convenient for the child to take them out and put them back after playing. Arrange the toys so that the baby immediately wants to play with them.

Place a baby doll in a baby stroller, seat guests around a table with toy dishes, build a house from a construction set, and arrange plastic animals according to the plot of some fairy tale familiar to the little one.

Don't limit yourself to buying toys at the store. Household items are also suitable for your child to play independently, as they will allow him to imitate the activities of adults

What toys are best to offer?

There should be few toys at the toddler’s disposal at any one time. Carry out regular inspections of your baby's household. Hide those in which your child’s interest has faded at the moment, and display those that he has already missed.

Thanks to this trick, you can always captivate your baby by placing a bag of forgotten toys in front of him. In addition, you won’t be able to buy new ones very often.

Toys for independent play

Toy replicas of household items so your child can imitate what adults do.
Anything that will help the baby explore the world, explore the properties of, for example, water, sand, etc.
Favorite toy friends (teddy bears-hares, dolls) with whom the little one sleeps, eats, and goes for walks. Which are perceived by the child as alive, and with whom he is never sad or bored.
Secluded shelters (houses, tents, huts). They can be purchased, or you can build them yourself from scrap materials (stools, tables, pillows).
Strollers, gurneys, radio-controlled or rope-powered cars.
Sports toys: balls, dumbbells, hoops, jump ropes.
Games that the baby already knows how to play well, but has not yet lost interest in them.
A lot of things that are unnecessary, from your point of view (boxes, scraps, bolts, sticks, bags, chestnuts, pebbles, etc.).

Some toys are perceived by the baby as if they were alive; they become his friends, with whom he is not bored or scared. When teaching your little ones to play independently, you can, for starters, play out stories with them

It is better not to purchase interactive toys for independent play. They do not contribute to the development of the child’s imagination; they limit the flight of imagination to the framework of the written program.

And the baby must learn to find a toy in every object in his environment. For kids with good imagination, an empty box turns into a car, a sock into a snake, and daddy’s slipper into a brigantine.

The little one will appreciate bright and expressive toys that can be used for different games, without limiting the methods of use and without being tied to a specific plot.

Child 1-2 years old: where to start?

The desire for independence is inherent in a child by nature. You just need to develop it in every possible way. At 1-2 years old, when the baby tries to walk on his own, eat on his own, dress on his own, or help you with the housework, do not interfere with him.

This may not always be convenient for you. Getting dressed for a walk, for example, takes longer, or after eating you have to wash half the kitchen. Be patient just a little.

Skills will come, and with them self-confidence, the desire to cope with assigned tasks, and the ability to cope in some situations (the list of which will expand over time) without the help of adults.

And also, for starters, you should have a few harmless tricks in your arsenal.

Magic bag

Place all sorts of odds and ends in a bright, colorful “bottomless” bag. Of course, when choosing this very thing, do not forget about the safety of the child. These can be small toys, boxes, bottles, beads, shells, etc. Everything that in your baby’s mind is a real treasure. And accidentally leave the little one alone with the magic bag. Mandatory conditions: do not forget to update the contents of the bag from time to time and do not give it to your child too often.

I wonder how long the contents of the closet will captivate the little one?

Treasured wardrobe

Within the reach of the baby, “accidentally” forget to close the closet door, which he recently so persistently tried to look behind. First, again, check that there is nothing valuable or dangerous lying there. And leave the room. I wonder, busy with research, how long the baby will not notice that you are not next to him.

Mom's bag

What toddler doesn’t dream of tidying up his mother’s bag? So give your little one this opportunity. True, first carry out an audit of it yourself and leave only what you don’t mind and what is completely safe for the little naturalist. The bag is unlikely to replace you completely, but for a while the baby will definitely be satisfied with it.

Don't expect instant results. The child will undoubtedly learn to play independently. But this will take some time. Some have more, some have less. It depends on the baby's temperament. And also on your competence in this matter and on your patience.

You must comply with some mandatory conditions when teaching your baby to spend time without you.

Firstly , the little one should feel good and be in a good mood during any learning process.

AND, Secondly , playing alone for the baby should not be a test - follow the moderation, there is no need to insist if the baby does not like this course of events.

At 3-4 years old, the child begins to play role-playing games and build more complex storylines

Games for children 3-4 years old

With the accumulation of gaming experience (and this is approximately by the age of three or four), the child is ready to move on to a new form of independent play - plot-role-playing. At the same time, mom and dad can offer new stories and help the baby build more complex combinations.

What do preschoolers play?

With dolls (to daughters and mothers, to family, to hospital, to store, to different professions).
With cars (for cargo transportation, taxis, car dealerships, parking).
With animals (to the farm, to the circus, to the zoo).
With sports toys (relay races, tournaments, training).
They play out the plots of your favorite fairy tales and cartoons.
They love to play dress-up games.

Parents can be partners, advisers or outside observers, but the rules of the game should always be set by the child himself. There will be a time for playing by the rules

At this age, the main condition for relatives is not to impose their vision. At 3-4 years old there is no need to limit your child’s imagination. You can be a partner or an outside observer, an adviser. But the rules must be set by the child.

And remember, the more they play with the baby, the brighter his interest in games becomes, and the faster he begins to play on his own.

Video “How to get a child to play on his own?”

Entertain yourself: 6 tips for parents on how to teach their child to play independently

It happens that an older child cannot play on his own - he always requires the attention of his parents. If you leave him for even a minute, he starts to act up. But it’s impossible to entertain him all day! Is it possible to teach a baby to play independently?

Play is extremely important for a child. Through play, he gets acquainted with the world around him and with his capabilities. The game develops imagination, intelligence, attentiveness, and memory. The game shapes a person’s character and lays down norms of behavior. Independent play is of particular importance for a child. This is the ability to find something to do, to do something with passion, and an opportunity to develop initiative. But most importantly, during independent play, the educational influence of adults is consolidated.

Why doesn't he play himself?

Problems with independent play in a child often arise due to the fault of adults. This is the result of excessive guardianship - a reluctance to provide the child with at least some independence and a ban on initiative. Surrounding the baby with such “care”, constantly taking care of him, parents inevitably face a situation where the child can no longer do without constant attention, joint games and entertainment. Even if the baby plays independently, it is only for a short time and in rather primitive games.

4. I myself!

Give your child small tasks that he can complete without you. For example, you can ask him to wash the pears for dinner or put all the dolls to bed. The main thing is that the child does this himself and feels important. Don't rush the child, don't put pressure on him, let him do everything himself.

5. Hobby time

Now there are a lot of different types of sets for children's creativity. A little advice - take sets that are suitable for the age of your child. In such a game, it is important to complete the task and get a result - beads, pottery, a soft toy, etc. The child has an incentive to do something himself, get a clear result of the work and earn the praise of an adult.

6. Set to choose from

The classic option for developing a child’s ability to play independently is construction sets, puzzles and mosaics.

Advice one- take sets that are convenient for your child. If assembly requires physical effort, the child must independently connect or separate the figures.

Tip two- take sets that you can “replay” many times. For adults, the result is important, but for the baby, the process itself is important.

A healthy child of the first three years of life is usually in an active, active state during wakefulness. His activities are very diverse - he looks, listens, touches various objects, observes the actions of others, natural phenomena, plays a lot and in a variety of ways, communicates with adults and children, talks with them, happily carries out small assignments, etc.

The entire development of a child occurs precisely in the process of his activity, in the process of actively responding to environmental irritations.

In the process of a particular activity, all movements are developed and coordinated. The child masters many basic actions: holding an object, opening, closing, inserting, and later drawing, sculpting. Only active activity is capable of causing and maintaining an emotionally positive, cheerful state, a state of optimal excitability of the central nervous system, while inactivity and passivity lead either to a depressed, lethargic state, or to sudden outbursts of excitement.

In the process of this or that activity, the child forms various relationships with children and adults, and speech develops. In actions with various objects, the child exercises and improves his senses (vision, hearing, touch, etc.). At the same time, he effectively, and therefore more comprehensively and thoroughly, becomes acquainted with the properties of surrounding objects, acquires primary knowledge about size, color, shape, and quantity. By observing and then displaying the phenomena of the surrounding life in his play, the child consolidates his knowledge. In the process of various activities, the child develops perception, attention, memory, imagination, emotions, and thinking. He gradually begins to navigate his surroundings better and gains experience. Carrying out various practical instructions from adults, participating in their work as much as possible, and self-service forms a positive “attitude towards work” in the child. And all this together contributes to the laying of “positive character traits and personality of the child.

Considering such a great importance of activity for the formation of a child’s entire behavior, it is necessary to provide the most favorable conditions for the development and gradual enrichment of various types of children’s activities - primarily games, movements, observations, relationships, practical activities (carrying out orders from adults, participating in their work as much as possible) .

A child’s independent activity is of great importance for his development and behavior (the ability to find something to do on his own, to concentrate on something, to develop initiative, etc.). In the process of this independent activity of the child, what has arisen as a result of the educational influence of an adult can not only be consolidated, but also improved. Proper organization of children's independent activities is also necessary in order not to condemn them to a passive state at a time when the sister is busy feeding or toileting individual children and therefore cannot work with the rest.

In order for a child to play well himself and, while playing, to develop, so that play brings him a lot of joy, creates good health and cultivates certain positive qualities in him, the following is necessary: 1) sufficient space, a comfortable place; 2) a set of toys and aids, different for different ages; 3) frequent and correct communication between sister and nanny with children during play; 4) impressions of the surrounding life, in particular the opportunity to see various actions of adults and children.

Already from the end of the first month of life, the child begins to experience very short, but gradually lengthening periods of active wakefulness. During these short intervals, you need to take the child in your arms, talk to him tenderly, trying to fix his gaze on you, and hang bright toys (balls, rattles, celluloid toys) from the crib.

From 6 weeks, warmly dressed children (wrapped up to the armpits in a blanket) should be placed in the playpen for a short time after feeding, talk to them, lower toys over them, trying in various ways to attract the children’s attention to them, induce visual and auditory concentration.

Children from 2 to 9 months, as a rule, should not be in beds during wakefulness, but in specially equipped spacious playpens with a sufficient number of various toys appropriate to the children’s age.

In the playpen, children can be better served by their sister and nanny in educational and hygienic terms than when they lie in beds at different ends of the room. In addition, in the playpen, children have a greater opportunity to move and get more impressions.

For children up to 2-3 months old, large and bright toys are hung at a distance of 50 cm above the chest on a bracket specially attached to the playpen. From 3 months of age, toys are lowered so that children can touch them with their hands, feel them and grab them. Bilbokes suspended in the form of a trapezoid, tied rattles, rings, etc. are good for this purpose. From 4 months of age, toys should be hung a little higher in order to develop in children the ability to accurately direct their hands towards them. Various balls, rattles, wooden pendants, etc. are convenient for this.

If children are able to grasp and hold objects quite well, toys should not be hung up, but given to children in their hands and placed in the playpen so that the children themselves take them. In order for a child to wave toys, tap them, and transfer them from hand to hand, it is necessary to give him a variety of rattles, balls, eggs, marbles, rings, bowls, rubber, celluloid dolls, etc.

To develop basic actions with objects, for example, taking out and putting in, some of the toys provided to 8-10 month old children should be placed in bowls, basins or cubes, and the rest of the toys should be placed around the playpen so that children crawl towards them, stand up and step over them. along the barrier.

In addition to the toys that children play with, there should also be other objects in the room, for example, a large doll, a rooster, a bright celluloid duck, a clock, paintings of domestic animals, etc. At the age of 7-9 months, children should be shown these objects and named , invite children to look for them in the room by name and thereby contribute to the development of speech understanding.

From 9 months of age, healthy and normally developed children spend their waking hours not in the playpen, but on the floor.

During the period when children are not yet able to walk independently, i.e. for sliders, special conditions must be provided: sufficient area for crawling and various devices for the development of movements - a slide, a ladder for climbing, barriers and other objects for standing up and walking near a fixed support, large wooden boxes on which children can climb and put toys in them, special low oblong tables with retractable drawers and cabinets, etc. A mandatory accessory for games for children of this age are gurneys, which are absolutely necessary for the development of independent walking in children . Children should be given objects that can be shifted and stacked on top of each other, for example bricks, cubes; for opening and closing, various boxes with lids, loose cups, cubes, mushrooms are given; for putting on, sticking in - pyramids, rings, benches with holes and sticks for them; for the development of general movements - large balls, balls, baskets; for naming - dolls, dogs, bears, cats, etc.

For children who can already walk independently, they need a fairly spacious playroom, equipped with a variety of aids for independent active and calm, focused games.

Under the influence of speech development, play in children of the second and third year of life becomes more varied and rich in content. At this age, children run a lot, climb, love outdoor games, so they need to be provided with reins, hoops, boards, toy locomotives, cars, bicycles, etc., at the same time, children in their games begin to reflect the actions of the adults around them and impressions from the life around them. These games are valuable for the development of higher neuropsychic functions, so you need to have in the group all the necessary aids for such games - dolls with various sets of toys (furniture, dishes, clothes), items for dressing up (colored scarves, aprons), a set of various toy animals , ropes, colored shreds, small suitcases, baskets, etc.

For children who can already build with blocks and love this activity, the games room must have large and small building materials and various constructive toys (geometric tabs, construction sets, mosaics, etc.).

Looking at books and pictures is very useful for children, so the group should always have various pictures on plywood or; cardboard, children's books with varied content from the lives of children and animals. Books can be purchased or made by the staff themselves from postcards, pictures cut out from books, magazines, etc. You should also have drawing supplies in the group - a board and chalk, a pencil and paper.

But simply providing children with toys is not enough. The main condition for the well-being of children and the gradual complication of their independent play is frequent communication with them by their sister and nanny and some guidance in the children’s play.

Children cannot be left to themselves for a long time, and the younger they are, the more often the sister’s communication with them should be. Even during hygiene processes, the nurse should approach the playpen in the chest group or the sliders playing on the floor as often as possible. Having made, for example, a toilet for one child, before taking another for this purpose, you need to go to the playpen and talk to the children, give them toys, etc. All the time free from carrying out the processes, the sister should play and study with one child, then with several children, pursuing various educational goals - to complicate the child’s play, to interest him in something, to show him how to use toys in a new way, to focus his attention on the game, to provoke him into conversation, etc.

Communication between a sister and children can be carried out in the form of joint play, joint observation, examination, instructions, questions, storytelling, demonstrations, direct teaching of various new actions with toys and conversation about these actions, entertainment shows (puppet theater, dramatizations, displays of wind-up toys ), fun games (hide and seek, catch-up, games like “horned goat”, “magpie-white-sided”, etc.). However, all this should not have the nature of strict regulation of the entire content of the game, but should be expressed in the form of live emotional communication with children in order to stimulate and gradually complicate their independent activity.

For the full development of children, in addition to the proper organization of their independent activities, it is also necessary to conduct special classes.