Do-it-yourself busy boards - review and manufacturing instructions

The magic of charm » Family and children

The child enjoys exploring the world around him. He is interested not only in toys, but also in all objects around that can pose a danger: sockets, switches, sharp objects, and more. Therefore, parents constantly feel tension, worry about their baby, and are afraid to let him out of sight.

A busy board will come to the aid of moms and dads. This is a “smart” touch board that you can make with your own hands without much effort. The developmental board was developed by Italian teacher Maria Montessori. It was she who promoted the theory of raising and teaching a child based on independent knowledge of the world through the senses.

You can either buy a busy board or make it yourself

What is a business board?

This is a game development board with various parts and elements located on it that are safe for children to play. Such parts are capable of moving, opening and closing, clicking, rotating, lighting and blinking, and making sounds.

The bodyboard may include:

• padlock, latches, latches. Children will open them, close them, push them in;
• a doorbell with a soft sound, a clock dial;
• buttons and switches - after pressing them, the light comes on;
• an old telephone set, the circle of which must be twisted with your finger;
• a socket not connected to electricity, and a plug connected to it;
• ribbons, laces and ropes from which children will tie bows;
• snaps and buttons, zippers and various fasteners;
• shreds from pieces of fabric, oilcloth, paper, foil;
• abacus or beads - the child will sort them out in his hands.

You can decorate the development board with pictures of nature, drawings of animals and birds, images of letters and numbers. You can add whatever your imagination desires to such a product. The busy board can be constantly supplemented with new elements when the child grows up or becomes uninterested in playing. You will understand this yourself by his behavior.

Tools

To make a classic wooden bodyboard you will need:

• Roulette,
• Square,
• Hacksaw,
• Screwdriver,
• Sandpaper,
• Drill,
• Screwdriver,
• Scissors,
• Pliers,
• Self-tapping screws or nails.

Having a jigsaw and a grinder will greatly facilitate the process.

What a development board will teach a child

Today, great attention is paid to the early development of children. Parents try to teach the baby various wisdom early. A busy board is necessary to keep your child busy with an interesting educational game. He will explore the world on his own, even without the help of his elders.

During such exciting activities, the baby develops the following skills:

• logic - the child builds a chain of conclusions: to ring the bell, you need to press a button; to open the door, you need to pull the latch up;
• fine motor skills of the hands - the baby learns to work with small objects, receives new tactile sensations;
• perseverance - a daughter or son will finish the job they start in order to achieve a positive result - tie a bow, open a lock;
• attention and memory - children remember their actions with small details and objects, and later they will perform them automatically.

According to the Montessori method, parents should not interfere with the process of their child playing with a busy board. Let your child find solutions and draw conclusions on his own.

Video on how to make a board for kids with switches and locks

What is interesting to children? Yes, absolutely everything! They actively explore the world and every detail seems funny to them. How to make a busy board with locks and switches? In the video you will learn in detail how to make a board for your baby from these parts.

In one of the videos, I saw how my older sister helped her parents make a busy board for their younger child. I really liked the idea: both adult children benefit from it, and for younger children, the busy board is an excellent educational toy.

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Types of busy boards: choose a board according to the age and gender of the child

You can make a busy board with your own hands by the 1st year of a child’s life. He can play with it from as early as 8 months of age, when he can sit up confidently. As the baby grows, the product should be upgraded.

When creating a development board, parents should take into account the age of the children, their gender, their own interests and hobbies.

Let's look at the features of designing a busy board according to the age of the children:

1. For children 8-12 months old, soft models of development boards are suitable. It can be made in the form of a rug or a book. Felt or textiles are used to create the product, all parts are firmly sewn, making them safe for the baby. You can design a colorful pillow with beautiful pictures and details.
2. Children 1-2 years old can already be offered a hard bodyboard for playing without sharp parts or corners on its surface, so that the child does not get hurt. The child becomes familiar with fastening large buttons and lacing ropes. The themes of the pictures are animals, nature, clothes.
3. Children aged 2 to 3 years will be interested in learning numbers, shades and colors. Set up a busy board with many windows and doors. To open them, the child must master the lock or latch. At this age, you can offer a development board in the form of a house, car, castle or cube.
4. Preschoolers aged 3 years and older should be given more difficult tasks. You can make a large business board for the entire wall of the room, where there will be many elements and details - small and large. Add numbers, letters and syllables to various pictures and drawings on the business board.

Such products not only develop fine motor skills and other skills. They give an idea of ​​the objects of the surrounding world and natural phenomena.

Ideas for girls

A busy board is a universal thing for children of both sexes, but a specially developed design will emphasize the child’s individuality. A game board for a girl can be painted in pleasant pastel shades of warm tones, decorated with images of princesses, flowers, animals, fairies. For a little girl, you can create a soft model, and for an older girl, you can create a large playing surface with a variety of objects.

Game boards intended for babies can be made in the following themes:

Toy kitchen

Place hooks with miniature dishes on the surface: frying pans, cutting boards, cutlery. Complete with product images.

Shop

The contents of a business board for girls will consist of an abacus, any panels with buttons, a wallet or a padlock for it, and small items.

Beauty saloon

Place a mirror on the play panel, attach a comb, hang rubber bands and hairpins on hooks, laces for learning how to braid, and jars of cosmetics with a screw-on lid.

Mistress

To other details of the game board, add clothespins on a string, lacing and Velcro on a model of clothing or shoes. A beautiful button and a neat hook will do.

Beautiful castle

Here's what you need for the model: geometric shapes, opening doors, windows. They can be painted in different colors.

Advice. Pictures for a busy board can be cut out from a piece of wallpaper, unnecessary books and children's magazines, use a stencil, a drawing by the baby himself, or buy store-bought stickers. Glue a photo of the child onto
the base
and write his name on the surface. Such a product can safely be called personalized.

DIY educational board

You can buy a busy board in a store, but making it yourself is much more fun. This process is simply addictive for adults! After all, only parents know what is interesting to their son or daughter. Based on this, they select elements for the intellectual development board.

I will describe my experience of creating a development board. After looking at photos of board layout options on the Internet, I went to a construction hypermarket to select and purchase elements. I didn’t have a plan - which elements I would attach.

Busy board - do it yourself

As a base, I chose a wooden furniture panel measuring 80 by 60 cm. It is easier to process than plywood. And a small board 6.5 cm wide. Because I wanted to make not just a “flat board”, but a three-dimensional one, so that something could be folded inside the opening niches. Remains of laminate worked perfectly as doors and back panels.

I bought the following at the store:

• Small loops (4 cm) - 4 pcs.

Advice. It is better to fasten each door with 2 hinges, otherwise it will warp.

• Different handles for doors - 4 pcs.

Advice. It is better to choose iron handles with reliable fastening; a wooden handle - the baby would vomit it very quickly.

• Standard and small latches - only 2 pcs.
• Hook shaped lock.
• Constipation in the form of a chain.
• A small bright lock with keys.
• Corner eyes for a lock and for attaching the entire structure to something - 4 pcs.
• Chain for attaching keys to the board - 1 m.
• Overlay for the keyhole (I had the key from the old door).
• Locking pin for interior doors.
• Small magnets for fixing doors - 4 pcs.
• Switch block with socket.

Important. At first I wanted to make a plug with a socket, but decided to abandon this idea. So that the child does not practice his skills of plugging everything into sockets around the apartment.

• A small lamp with a diameter of about 6 cm. Powered by batteries (price 100 rubles).
• Doorbell with battery-powered button (price 100 rub.)

Advice. To prevent the ringer speaker from playing the melody very loudly, wrap it in foam rubber.

• Steel corners for attaching the frame
• Self-tapping screws.

I asked my friends for an old phone number. I decided not to use the handset, just the dial for dialing.

From the tools:

• electric jigsaw;
• drill;
• cordless screwdriver;
• wire cutters to shorten screws.

Stages of work:

1. I cut the board for the sides and for the “shelves” inside. I also treated them with sandpaper on the furniture board.
2. I outlined the placement of the elements. I drew where the doors and holes for the telephone dial, switches, and key would be.
3. Drilled holes with a drill. For doors, two diagonally are enough.
4. Using a jigsaw, I cut out “windows for the doors” and holes for inserting a telephone dial and switches. Sanded the edges
5. I attached the boards to the shield with self-tapping screws at the corners.

Frame for development board on the reverse side

6. The hinges had to be attached to laminate strips so that they were in the same plane as the doors.
7. I screwed magnets to the sides of the “windows,” and metal plates to the doors to secure them in the closed state.

Advice. This is where it was necessary to shorten the screws in order to screw the plates onto the thin laminate without any sharp ends sticking out.

8. We fasten the latches and latches with self-tapping screws.
9. The bell elements can be hidden inside the box, and only the button can be displayed on the front panel.
10. I glued the lamp.
11. The back side was covered with laminate panels and secured with self-tapping screws.
12. I made a carrying handle on top and corners with eyelets on the sides for attaching the entire structure to the handles of the chest of drawers.

And this is the front side of what happened

It took half a day to create such a toy, if you bought all the locks/buttons and the wooden shield itself in advance. The baby is one and a half years old - he is very happy. Likes to put different things in there and then take them out

I also want to paste various bright pictures with cars, animals, etc.

How it is useful for the development of the baby

If we are talking about the benefits of a busy board, you should pay attention to these main points:

1. A cognitive board, which is made in the most primitive way, already assumes that the child will feel it. This means that fine motor skills will develop. Infants do not have as much developed finger control as adults. That's why their curiosity associated with the desire to touch arises from the simple need to stretch their fingers. This toy allows you to do all this.
2. The fact that a child receives different new sensations undoubtedly makes the brain work. He digests, systematizes and remembers the information he received. These simple exercises begin the development of mental activity in a little person. Busyboard speeds up this process.
3. If more complex structures are recorded on the board for an older child, this will also affect the development of logic in the child. By studying examples of simple mechanisms, such as latches and locks, he himself will figure out how this design, and similar ones, work.
4. How does children's curiosity usually end? Things, as a result of “research,” are broken. And what’s even worse is the health problems of the young researcher. For example, most parents are faced with the fact that children try to stick their fingers into the socket! But that’s what the busy board was invented for! This is a 100% safe thing! And the baby gets the opportunity to explore the world around him. Adults won’t even make comments to him!

Business board in the form of a board

To make a flat product with your own hands, you will need:

1. a reliable base - take for this a sheet of laminated chipboard or plywood with a thickness of at least 10 mm of a suitable size - it depends on the age of the child;
2. plaster the material well so that it is perfectly smooth, without roughness. Cover it with varnish or water-based paint;
3. to create a busy board you will need tools such as a screwdriver, wire cutters, drill, hammer, set of screwdrivers, scissors, jigsaw, glue;
4. make a sketch of the future product. Decide on its shape and size, use your imagination. The development board can take the form of any geometric figure, made in the form of a handbag, a ship, a car, a butterfly;
5. decorate the development board to make it bright and beautiful. Place all elements and parts without fastening on the cut and prepared plane. There can be any number of such fragments;
6. If you like everything, securely fasten the details to the bodyboard - clasps, buttons, loops, rosettes, beads and more. Make windows and doors that close with a bolt;
7. Attach all elements to the bodyboard very firmly and securely. Safety is the main condition of such a game; the child should not get injured.

Preparation and materials

Busyboard is a toy based on the Montessori method for developing thinking, motor skills, logic and various everyday skills. The only thing you need to buy in advance is a board or sheet of plywood from 10 mm for the base. Although you can also use a fairly strong, dense and thick cork sheet.

To work you need a tape measure, a pencil, a hacksaw and a screwdriver with self-tapping screws. When choosing details, take into account the age and interests of the child - but you definitely need all kinds of locks, hooks and laces. The board can be absolutely any size - small for a child to tinker with on the floor, or large and wall-mounted.

Before you start attaching the parts, make a sketch and lay out all the items to arrange them beautifully and conveniently. In order not to clean and paint the board yourself, you can buy ready-made furniture.

Photo: bizibordik.ru

Busyboard - educational house

The voluminous item is suitable for children over 2 years old. It develops the baby's tactile sensations, imagination and thinking. If you want to construct one, you will need carefully prepared, smooth boards. They must be connected to each other in the form of a cube, using self-tapping screws and bars. Make an original roof for the house, cut out doors and windows with a jigsaw. Secure them with loops.

Busy board in the shape of a house

Busyboard castle

Decorate your “building” with chains, shutters, latches, and locks. The options can be any - it all depends on the age and preferences of the baby, his abilities and skills.

Photo: bodyboard cube

The basis

• For the base of a busy board, plywood with a thickness of 10-12 mm is usually used.
• You can also use 18 mm thick coniferous furniture board; you should not take more, as the product will be too heavy.

If you are planning products for very little ones, then you can consider the option of making a soft bodyboard from fabrics of various textures.

Soft bodyboard for kids

It is made from soft, pleasant-to-touch fabric – felt and textiles. This is an ideal development board for little ones. A soft bodyboard is sewn by analogy with a developmental rug. Such a product can resemble a pillow or a book.

Photo: soft bodyboards

You can make a busy board in the form of a bright cube from 4 sponges, soft napkins, beads, bells, rings, ropes and other details. Each side of the cube will have an original design. Children will love this educational soft cube and will have fun playing with it.

What age is a busy board for children?

Teachers and child psychologists say that a 10-month-old baby can use simple constructions because his brain is already ready to make some simple inferences. For the youngest children, for example, structural details are of no use; they perceive sensations from touch.

If your baby gets a busy board ahead of time, it will definitely not harm him. No one can determine with 100% certainty when a baby begins to react to certain things. It is generally accepted that children are interested in such activities between the ages of eight months and six years.

If you make a busy board on legs of approximately 40 cm or place it on the wall, it will encourage the baby to play while standing. The differences in bodyboards for different ages are only in the set of items.

Busyboard for girls and boys - what are the differences?

There are no significant functional differences in the models for girls and boys. They are similar in structure and shape, but differ in design.

For a girl, you can design a development board in the shape of a royal castle, a flower, or a moth. Make a themed design for your business board if you wish: for a beauty salon, laundry room, dining room.

Pink, light green, peach, and soft lilac tones are used in decoration. An interesting one would be a personal board - with a photo frame into which the girl will insert her photo, changing it as she grows up.

Photo: busy board for girls

An educational board for a boy can be made in the form of a train, car, or ship. Also offer the boy a themed board: a watchmaking, automobile or construction workshop, come up with your own version.

Choose darker, more saturated colors for decoration. Use blue, brown, red, yellow shades. Add details - locks, screws, switches, sockets. Install a car steering wheel or a bicycle bell on the bodyboard.

Step-by-step instruction

It is better to make a product according to a sketch or drawing. The main criteria when developing your own toy design are size and shape. The larger the playing surface, the more details can be placed on it, which is more interesting for the child. Before filling the surface of the product with elements, think about a strong fastening. If the base of the development board is heavy, it will be unsafe for the child.

Strong latches or additional fastening on the reverse side will help to avoid injuries. If you plan to use a wall-mounted board, it is better to make it permanent. Decide where you are going to hang the game board. A good option is a double-sided plastic product: it is quite stable and lightweight (even if it is large in size). You can use corrugated cardboard.

Making a development board at home consists of the following steps in stages:

1. Prepare the surface, clean if necessary and paint it in the desired color. Round the corners. Wood boards do not need to be painted or varnished, just carefully walk over the surface with sandpaper.
2. If a glossy surface is preferable, choose acrylic varnish - it is suitable for children's products. Acrylic paint is also a good option.
3. It is better to choose the background of the product in a calm color scheme. It is not necessary to have artistic abilities and inspiration to stylize the game panel by drawing houses, flowers, clouds, or a garden with fruit trees on it.
   A simple smiley face in the corner will create the mood and decorate the surface.

4. To correctly calculate the position of objects on the board, do not rush to attach them: experiment by placing them on the surface. Place the largest parts in the center, small ones at the edges.

5. When the option you like is ready, outline the details with chalk or pencil. Using the template applied to the workpiece, it will be easier to assemble the finished business board.
6. Before use, treat all parts: wash metal and plastic parts or wipe them with disinfectants, wash fabrics.
7. Assembly is a crucial moment: the elements must be secured carefully, step by step, using screws or superglue. A heat gun will also work. Check the strength of the busy board and make sure that there are no parts on it that a child could tear off and swallow. An example of a finished toy is shown in the photo below.

Now it's time to invite the baby to the test. The child will quickly understand why an interesting gift is needed.

Watch a video master class on how to make a development board yourself step by step:

What to consider when making a busy board with your own hands

The main thing is the safety of your baby. After all, he will play independently, you will not be able to control him every minute. Therefore, if you set out to make a development board with your own hands, follow a few rules:

• securely and firmly secure the base of the bodyboard so that it does not fall and injure your son or daughter;
• secure all the parts well so that they do not come off, because children have a habit of putting everything in their mouth;
• Carefully process the base of the development board, eliminating the presence of nicks;
• there should be no sharp corners on the product - round them or use plugs;
• connect luminous objects only with batteries, do not connect to the mains;
• Tie removable items very firmly to the base using rubber bands or ropes so that the baby does not tear them off.

Little children play with the development board on their own; they learn many skills with the help of such an object. When their son or daughter grows up, they use the busy board in story games, attracting friends to them. This is how they develop the skill of communicating with peers.

Making a busy board with your own hands is not at all difficult. The main thing is to stock up on materials and tools, as well as patience. You can also involve older children after 3 years in this exciting work - they will be happy to give you an instrument or decorate their busy board as they like.

Busy board made from scrap materials for girls

In fact, the entire technical side of making a busy board is the same for both boys and girls. The only difference is what to put on such a board.

Author https://somethingturquoise.com/2019/10/28/toddler-busy-board-fiskars-diy-tools/

Baby board details:

• Photos,
• Calculator,
• Mirror,
• Beads,
• A bell and other fun little family items that are fun to touch and look at.

You can also make a mini board for the car.

Of course, nuts and bolts, door locks, and plastic chains can also be useful for this model.

Important condition! Children should not tear any of the things away from the base or in any way injure themselves when feeling them.

What else is different about the board for girls? Ornament and decor. There's more pink here, more of something cute like pictures with hearts.

Of course, the little ones are too small to fully appreciate the pink color of the board and the delicate colors of other details, however, this board is a start!

She is the first step towards getting to know our kids. So we will begin to teach the little ones various subtleties and important details.

You can use a screwdriver, if not, you can get by with a hammer. I really liked the idea with the photo under the lifting lid.

Photo: children's educational boards

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Discussion of the article:

• Any:
  01/28/2019 at 08:38

  Yeah, everything is written out so simply. We waited a year for our dad to “give birth” to a business board for his son. It didn’t go further than buying a board and a couple of locks; the blank was just lying around on the balcony. There was no time to study. In the end, we bought it ready-made and everyone is happy. Both our son and our father.

• Stanislav:

  02/07/2019 at 09:24

  But my friend turned out to be stubborn. I did it, but clumsily - I have no skill in such work. At first glance this is what you want. In general, my friend’s wife spat on the expenses already incurred and bought a factory bodyboard at 1.5 times cheaper. If your hands grow from the wrong place, then you shouldn’t take it

• Julia:

  12/14/2021 at 23:53

  And our dad made it with all the bells and whistles he found in the pictures, my son likes it, he will be as smart as our dad. This business board will then be torn off and sold.

Double-sided board for children (instructions)

Double-sided business boards are often portable. Therefore, their weight and size are predominantly small.

1. Find two boards. If you make a small mobile business board, they will be the same. If the bodyboard is quite large and will be installed on the floor, they may differ slightly.
2. Sand the surfaces and fill all defects with polymer filler.
3. Cut and drill the required holes.
4. Paint, decorate work surfaces with images, and varnish.
5. Attach the selected parts to each board.
6. Connect the boards to each other using door hinges of the appropriate size.
7. Attach a handle (this element is not necessary).
8. If it is a standing bodyboard, connect the boards at the ends on both sides with locks in the form of door hooks.

Small double-sided boards are very convenient to take for trips in the car. In this case, it is enough to install 3-4 elements on each side. Such a busy board will relieve stress during the trip, since the child, as usual, is absorbed in studying it the whole way.

Step-by-step production

A base is prepared from a sheet of chipboard, plywood or wooden board. You can use wooden tablets from an art store, the main thing is that the thickness is close to 1 cm. The surface is treated with sandpaper.

Using acrylic paint and a brush, the voids are filled with patterns. The drawing can be used in addition to future details. For example, buttons and zippers can be attached to drawn clothing.

Using self-tapping screws, each element is screwed well to the base. Textiles are fixed with glue.

What to choose for filling

First of all, when choosing the content of a busy board, you need to take into account the child’s interests now and think about what will interest him a little later.

So, a business board for a one-year-old toddler does not need to be overloaded with overly complex parts with keys or labyrinths, but several types can be left so that the relevance of the toy does not disappear for a long time.

• It is better to use elements without sharp corners and edges so that the baby cannot get hurt.
• For children over 3 years old, it will be useful to use numbers and letters in decorating crafts.
• All elements must be securely fastened to the base to prevent the child from tearing them off or detaching them.
• Do not leave children unattended while playing.

Colors

A child’s color vision develops gradually, so you can’t decorate the busy board to your taste, like on the left in the picture. By the age of 3, a child should clearly distinguish between black, white and the basic colors - red, blue, green; of the additional ones – yellow. By the age of 4-5, several more shades of gray and other additional shades are added: blue (turquoise) and purple (violet).

Incorrect coloring of a busy board and elements for developing color vision on it

Learning to distinguish colors using a color wheel (center) is not the best way. It would be optimal to combine the colors for primary development into a small panel and supplement it accordingly. colors with adjustable chips, on the right. This way the child will learn not only to distinguish colors, but also to create harmonious combinations of them, which can be important for monitoring his development, see also at the end. You can use colored plugs for consumer electronics as chips.

“Subsequent” colors need to mark the elements of the motor-applied and associative blocks. In any case, all shades should be of medium saturation and not shiny (glare).

Folding bed and cube

The pace of individual development of children varies greatly. For some people, a busy board will be useful even at six months, but for others, even at 2 years old, they will be confused about the contents of one common board. Therefore, it is better to make a folding bodyboard for kids, see fig. On one side - motor skills; on the other - associations and color. If you are the same age or are 2-3 years apart and have at least a little free space, instead of a busy board it is better to think about a developing cube - a busy cube.

Folding development board

Dimensions and drawings

Business boards come in different sizes and shapes.
The base of the classic product is a rectangular or square wooden board. There are also soft models made from textiles. You can make a game item in the shape of a house, a cube, or some cartoon character. The size of the bodyboard should be chosen based on the age and height of the baby. As a rule, educational boards are made for children from six months to 6 years old.

The optimal parameters of this item for babies from 6 months to a year are 30x30-50x70 cm. The ideal size of the product for a child over 2 years of age is 1 square meter. You can make the drawing yourself, taking into account the preferences of the baby. Then you will get a unique toy. You can also download a diagram for creating a development board on the Internet.

How to order a business board on Aliexpress?

If parents are deprived of creativity or free time to make a Montessori board themselves, they can order it according to their sketch or buy a ready-made one.

1. Enterprising moms and dads who managed to make a busy board for their kids are collecting orders via the Internet. Some carpentry workshops also produce boards.
2. Brands of children's toys also offer a wide range of development toys similar to a busy board. They can be in the form of a board, ball, cube, plastic or wood, etc.

A wide range of development boards on Aliexpress. To choose and order one that suits your baby, you need:

• go on the website
• in the menu, select sequentially: “Toys and hobbies” - “Puzzles and magic cubes” - “Puzzles”
• choose the board you like
• Click “Buy Now” and place your order

Link to business board on Aliexpress: link

Business board on Aliexpress.

Busy board lacing on Aliexpress.

Household elements for attaching to a bodyboard: