DIY grasping toy with beads

haptically and visually appealing, homemade baby toy

Becoming a parent and having a small child is a big challenge. Of course, all parents want to do their "job" as well as possible, for themselves and for their children.

One of the biggest challenges I faced as a young mother, besides fatigue, was or is finding and creating suitable, age-appropriate and entertaining creative stimulation and activities for my son. Luckily, the internet is here to help and educational theory exists. Many other parents have overcome the same challenges brilliantly before us, so there is plenty of material out there to provide us with information. Personally, I have discovered that the Montessori philosophy appeals to me in some respects and with some approaches, as it focuses on the development of autonomy in young children. According to Montessori, children are made to learn. The task of adults is to create the appropriate environmental conditions to pave the way for children to learn naturally and to give them the opportunity for autonomous learning and experience, in which parents take on a role that promotes children's autonomy.

As sensory experiences play an important role in this, children need the opportunity to handle different objects and materials and gain experience. The environment and objects become teachers for the child, who according to Montessori should be free to explore everything. For example, on the floor, on a carpet or a crawling blanket, where the child finds all kinds of objects and materials and can decide for himself which ones he wants to take to get to know them, investigate, explore and practise. It doesn't need too many things or even too many toys - it is even said that there are advantages to not offering too much clutter or an overabundance of stimuli so that the child can orientate itself better.

This is one of the reasons why, instead of buying hundreds of toys, which I don't think makes sense for us as a family from an ecological and economic point of view anyway, I decided from the outset to mainly use what we could find at home as toys with my son. Of course, that's not always enough, not everything is suitable for children and of course we also have some toys at home that we have bought or received as gifts, which he also loves. However, as usual, I gave myself something to do and found a great reuse for fabric scraps. And a safe fun way to keep babies occupied without the risk of swallowing.

In this post, as well as chatting about my choices as a mother, I want to tell you how to make a beautiful toy like the one you see in the photo.

It's a simple piece of fabric that becomes the string for the untreated wooden beads threaded onto it. The cord triangles at the ends mean that the wooden beads cannot be pulled off, but they can be moved back and forth between them. Naturally also perfect as a homemade gift for babies in their first year of life. It's also quick and you don't need much :-)

I myself had received the wooden beads as a gift threaded in a different way, but then realized that they were falling off and therefore posed a risk. So I came up with the idea of using fabric scraps to make something else. My son loves the toy - first to put in his mouth, later to push the beads back and forth and... to throw down, of course :-)

The different fabric qualities of the cord and the slightly rougher ends and the movable beads are also an opportunity to feel different materials, consistencies and surfaces: the soft cord, the ribbed cord structure of the ends and the hard, smooth surface of the wooden beads.

You need:

• Muslin fabric

• Fine ribbed corduroy fabric

• Untreated wooden beads

• matching colored yarn

1. Sew a tube from a muslin strip and turn it inside out.

2. Cut 4 triangles from the corduroy fabric and sew two right sides together. Leave a turning opening at the top corner and turn.

3. Thread the wooden beads onto the muslin tube.

4. Fold the ends of the muslin tube inwards and place over the open end of the corduroy triangles.

5. Topstitch this seam well several times to make it stable.

Done. Simple. Safe. Good.

And beautiful :-)

If you liked the post and would like to let me know what you think of it or share it, it would be my great pleasure.

A hug and see you soon!