What to play for the younger schoolchild, and what toys and games do mothers choose today for children 6–9 years old?
Sea battle
Almost a classic of the genre among games that develop the ability to build a strategy, plan and so on. Usually two players play a sea battle, on sheets in a cage – or with the help of a ready-made game with chips, ships and fields.
Most often, such a game is made in the form of a solid suitcase that opens on both sides – one battlefield for each player.
Age: 6+
The goal of the game is to sink the maximum number of enemy ships. The complexity of the game is not only in the search for other people’s ships, but also, for the most part, in the fact that you also need to hide your fleet as securely as possible, and this is not so simple.
Great game for an evening vacation with mom or dad.
Checkers / Chess
Age: 6+
Of the classic board games that really teach you to think, plan, calculate moves forward, analyze the actions of an opponent – these are perhaps the most popular games.
For beginners, six-year-olds in chess, there are games with a small number of pieces – to start, these options can be found in the manuals for beginner young chess players.
Anagrams
Age: from 6-7 years old
A very exciting game that will help in the development of combinatorial thinking. It is customary to call an anagram a word that was composed by changing the places of the letters of the original word. For example, from the word “glass” you get “bulb”, and from the word “card” you can make a block of as many as 3 anagrams.
This game is loved even by adults. It develops memory, promotes the manifestation of erudition, increases vocabulary, and also helps to understand the structure of word formation as a whole.
The game will be especially useful for those children for whom the “great and mighty” is given while with a creak.
Microscope
Age: 6+
If your child is interested in the surrounding world, studies leaves and insects, does not crawl out of thick encyclopedias and constantly puts on children’s “experiences”, help your child satisfy his curiosity – present a microscope to your young biologist.
Not the one for children, in which, apart from a modest magnifier, there is nothing, but a real modern device, with which the child herself will find all the answers to her “why” and “where”.
Naturally, you need to choose the device very carefully so as not to discourage your child from studying the microworld. Modern microscopes can be digital or optical. The former are more expensive, but have the ability to connect to a computer to transfer data.
Microscopes usually come with sets of ready-made micropreparations (from the ciliates to the nerve cells), so the child will definitely not be bored!
Dinosaur skeleton
Age: from 7-8 years old
Such a toy will appeal to all novice archaeologists, and in addition – will help in the development of perseverance, fine motor skills, attentiveness.
The game set for this excavation is a gypsum briquette that simulates a layer of earth intended for the work of an archaeologist.
In this briquette, the bones of a long-extinct creature are “buried”. In the set, the child will also find a special malleus, brush and scraper, to accurately, like a true archaeologist, remove the fossilized bones of a dinosaur.
After the excavation, from the found bones and the attached soft wax, you can collect the skeleton of a dinosaur, which will help with a simple instruction.
It is important that the materials in the kit are hypoallergenic, so when choosing, be sure to pay attention to the composition and manufacturer.
Puzzles
Age: 3+ onwards, depending on difficulty
Ageless game for adults and children. Puzzles like to collect absolutely everything – they calm the nerves, balance, put in order thoughts.
The game will also be useful for children for the development of fine motor skills, attentiveness, memory – and, of course, perseverance, which our little “electric brooms” lack so much. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in a child – how to recognize ADHD?
You can play with the whole family – or buy personal puzzles with your favorite characters for your child.
Collected jigsaw puzzles can be designed as a picture for decorating a children’s room or put back in a box to somehow assemble them again.
Lotto
Age: 7+.
The good old game, which first appeared in Italy in the 18th century, and has become very popular in Russia.
If your child is already friends with numbers, then lotto is a wonderful option to not only spend time with the whole family cheerfully, but also give a tangible impetus for the development of attentiveness, quick reaction, memory in your child.
For the game you will need a set consisting of 90 barrels and 24 cards with numbers, as well as special chips.
If desired, lotto can even be done independently with the child.
Crystals
Age: 7+.
When it’s already difficult for children to surprise with something, and the baby’s soul requires new games, think of such an interesting toy as a crystal that you can grow on your own.
The child will definitely enjoy this experience, and the crystal grown with his own hands will become a real miracle, because this is not a boring school experiment, but literally before our eyes growing crystal structures.
A similar kit is affordable for any parent, and for a child it will be useful to understand the intricacies of chemical reactions, as well as learn patience and attentiveness.
A great option is to arouse interest in everything unidentified in Chad.
Young gardener set
Age: 7+.
This “toy” – which is not even a toy at all, but a real mini-garden in the apartment – will be more pleasant for girls, although some boys are happy to delve into the ground and grow flowers.
If the child has at least minimal interest in the flora, then recruitment, of course, will come in handy. Firstly, it will be interesting for the child to find out with a real example how a dry seed turns into a real beautiful flower. Secondly, the plant needs care, and this kit will help to accustom the child to responsibility (“we are responsible for those…”).
This is a great opportunity for a child to feel a little older, because he will grow a flower himself, without his mother’s help.
In addition to the flower, you can choose a vegetable crop – for example, plant cucumbers, tomatoes, a lemon seed and so on.
And you can arrange on the balcony or on the windowsill a real mini-garden, in which there is a place even for greens for salad.
Clay crafting
Age: 6+.
This process, as you know, develops well not only fine motor skills, but also imagination, creative thinking and much more. Any creative work with hands is a process that is extremely useful for the development of the intellect of a child. Well, in addition, modeling is a great way to reduce the degree of tension, relieve stress, calm thoughts.
If you have a pottery wheel, you can use ordinary clay (it is sold in all “creative” stores). If you don’t feel like getting dirty, there are carpets around and there is nowhere to put a circle, you can stop on polymer clay.
The main thing is to choose only high-quality material from trusted manufacturers with a good reputation.
Using polymer clay, you can create toys, jewelry, souvenirs and much more. Most often, this process is carried out by girls who create clay treats for dolls, bracelets and brooches, and other interesting gizmos.
Overhead projector with filmstrips
Age: 3+.
Do you remember how it was? The room is dark, there is a white sheet on the wall, and a real miracle happens through a slide projector…
Of course, modern technologies can no longer be compared with those that we knew 20-30 years ago, but the wonders of the filmstrip are still long-awaited and interesting for children. Such a pastime is useful for aesthetic development, relaxation, development of imagination.
You can purchase several filmstrips at once, which the child can change independently – for example, fairy tales, or filmstrips of an educational nature.
Your child is not familiar with the slide projector yet? Urgently rectify the situation!
Woodburning
Age: from 8-9 years.
This surprisingly enjoyable lesson became available for children back in the seventies, when thousands of girls and boys (mostly boys) rushed to “draw” wood with burners. Today, after so many years, this process is as enjoyable as it was then. Unless burners have become more modern, convenient and protected.
In such a children’s kit, the burner is necessarily equipped with elements that protect the child from accidental burns. In the set you will also find boards with ready-made sketches or clean boards on which you need to apply the drawing yourself.
However, the most important thing is the device (it can have nozzles of different thicknesses), and the boards can be bought at any hardware store.
Of course, this option is a hobby – for older children, who can already be trusted with an electrical appliance.
Photo frames
Age: 7+.
Very often today, mothers buy such toys for their daughters as a gift. There are many options for such creative sets. This can be a set for casting a frame from gypsum – and its subsequent design, or ready-made frames, to which very interesting sets of various materials for decoration are attached.
The frame created by the child’s hands can be used for interior decoration in the children’s room – it will definitely add coziness.
It would seem that it is simple entertainment, but this process develops a creative beginning in the child, instills a good habit of constantly engaging in interesting activities, increases perseverance, and also gives a start to the unknown inside your child that one day will lead him through life.
The more creativity – the wider the choice, the more diverse the development of the child will be.
Scrapbooking
Age: from 7-9 years
As a rule, scrapbooking becomes interesting for girls over 8-9 years old.
This term means the technique of creating albums and beautiful cards with your own hands. When designing, all possible techniques and materials are used – ribbons, sequins, beads, appliques, lacing, buttons and so on. The main thing is that each page of the album (or each postcard) represents a real design project.
Of course, it is better to start with a child – so the lesson will become even more fun. But when the child gets involved, then get ready to regularly visit the stores for needlework.
Advantages of scrapbooking: a beautiful thing (or as a gift) remains as a souvenir, a design element in a child develops, which, by the way, begins to understand the value of handmade itself.
Quilling
Age: 7+
A very painstaking, but extremely interesting activity for girls (boys are very rarely interested in quilling).
If your daughter with pleasure glues fashionable postcards, weaves baubles, knits bracelets as a gift to everyone in a row, and does not know where to direct her inspiration pounding over the edge – show her the quilling technique. With its help, you can create real masterpieces – from postcards to designer paintings for the interior.
Quilling develops in a child patience and perseverance, fine motor skills, creative thinking, imagination, accuracy, etc.
Minimum investments – a special tool for quilling, PVA and directly strips of colored paper (ready-made kits are sold in all art stores).
Whatever occupation, game or toy you choose for your child – do it with the soul. And remember that even the simplest game should benefit the child – at least, relieve fatigue after school.
