You are a baby’s first and foremost teacher! According to a theory of Dr. Jean Piaget, a pioneer in Early Childhood education, “young children are explorers and it is the job of the adults around them to provide the experiences and materials to stimulate their development.”
Parents and caregivers promote education from the early age, using everyday life experiences to develop the child’s mind as well as the body. Toys are an excellent way to stimulate all learning, be it in the mental, emotional and physical realms.
When baby plays, he learns while having fun…and when you make the toys yourself, you share the fun!
We met with creative Mum, Claire Waring. She spent hours on end crafting as a kid. This helped her become a successful creative director in an ad agency that paid her to make things all day long!
Then the baby arrived… Suddenly every creative bone in her body just wanted to make stuff for this amazing new little person in her life. “I couldn’t believe it – I hadn’t sewn anything for years. Craft Schmaft, I said, this won’t last.” How wrong she was! Claire moved on from quilts and cradle sets and started making soft toys for her baby boy. “He was obsessed with labels and tags on his blankets so I made him a tag monster. He loved it. I cried (OK, I was breastfeeding at the time). I haven’t stopped making toys since.”
When you craft for kids, not only do you get the satisfaction of having made something by hand, you also get a surge of pride watching the look on their face when they play with that toy… it’s magic! To me, says Claire, there’s nothing more rewarding than making soft toys for little ones. In this wonderful digital, mass-produced world it’s not often that we make things with our own two hands.
The other great thing is that you can create toys that are tailored to your child. Decorating a nursery with a woodland theme? Make an owl mobile. If your little one loves puppy dogs you can whip up a sock dog. Obsessed with Finding Nemo? You could crochet a turtle or stitch a whale. An afternoon tea party? Why not make felt cakes for all the teddies to enjoy? Using different materials, colours and textures helps with sensory development. By creating animals, objects and food we teach them about the world they live in.
So how do you get started? You don’t have to have a fancy sewing machine, most toys can be hand or machine stitched. These days there are so many PDF patterns and tutorials on the web that with a few materials and a couple of hours you can make your very own toy – and be a hero mummy at the same time. “Personally I intend on taking advantage of being the cool hero while I can, by the time my little Oscar is a teenager I’m sure I’ll be the uncoolest thing in his life!”
Here’s a few links to get you started:
Craft Schmaft: Free Tag Monster Pattern, sock toy patterns and kits
Softie Making: Brilliant resource for soft toy making
Ric Rac: A great blog with free softie tutorials
Etsy: A great place to buy patterns and other handmade goodies
Madeit: Australia’s own handmade marketplace
Can you discover your passion in making handcraft for baby? What have you created at home that has created joy in baby?
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