Loving parents, trying to develop their child from birth, they use modern techniques and all kinds expensive toys. Recently, developmental mats have been invented specifically for these purposes. You can buy such a rug in a store, but many women prefer to make it with their own hands, because it is not at all difficult to do. In this article we will tell you how to make DIY educational mat for children from 0 to 3 years old, and we will show photo the most original ideas.

Educational mat for a small child

An educational mat is a textile or knitted cloth, decorated with bright appliqués, with movable elements for play placed on it. It is sometimes supplemented with a frame for hanging toys. This rug gives children the opportunity to develop from the first days of life, and is designed for use up to 3 years of age.

Developmental mat for newborns

Playing with an educational mat will help:

Did you know: a child’s brain is not fully developed at the time of birth. In the first months and years of life, the most active growth and development of nerve connections in the brain occurs. This process, and the number of connections created, is influenced by the environment in which the child grows up and how he is dealt with.

Developmental mat for babies

For a child, the developmental mat will be the largest and useful toy, which never gets boring, and for mom - the main thing visual aid for activities with the baby. When the child grows up and begins to sit independently, he will be able to play with it and develop without outside help. Bright applications and a large number of All kinds of elements will occupy the child’s attention for a long time, and you will get the opportunity to relax a little or do household chores. During joint activities It is necessary to show the child what actions can be performed with objects placed on the mat, and to get him to complete the assigned tasks.

Educational mat for little ones

Advantages of a homemade rug

Advice: make a rug with a spare size so that as the child grows up, you can add new developmental elements that are appropriate for his age. It will “grow” with the child and will always be new and interesting.

Making a developmental mat

We make a developmental mat with our own hands

First, you need to decide what exactly you want to see on your rug and draw a rough sketch on a piece of paper. Then choose a material suitable in size and texture for the base of the rug and for its lining. To make the rug soft and warm, you will need padding polyester or warm coat fabric. The latter will help the mat better keep its shape and not wrinkle during play.

Ideas for an educational square rug

Advice: choose natural or half natural ones for the face covering. synthetic fabrics. They must have a stable color and not accumulate static electricity. Chintz, linen, gabardine, and suiting fabrics with natural wool fibers are suitable. For lining, use a non-slip material. Do not use satin or satin. It is better to take chintz, cotton jersey, linen or corduroy, and woolen suiting fabrics.

Bright and colorful educational mat for children

Preparation of accessories

Collect all the scraps and unnecessary things that you don’t mind cutting up. Try to choose different textures, bright fabrics, with interesting patterns. Wash and iron everything. Look around your house for threads, buttons and locks. Find different colored laces, buttons and beads. Gather small toys and boxes together. All this will be useful to you in your work and this will be enough to get started.

Photo of a model educational rug for children

Then, as needed, you can search and select necessary materials. You may need ribbons, elastic bands, and Velcro. Metal and plastic rings, Kinder surprise boxes and broken rattles will come in handy. You can use multi-colored wool threads of different thicknesses.

Important! Do not use toys with small parts that cannot be secured to the mat; small children put everything in their mouth and can swallow them! Do not use materials that crumble, break or come off!

Preparing the base

DIY educational mat for a baby

Cut panels of the same size from the main fabric, from the lining fabric and from the padding polyester. Lay them out in three layers so that the padding polyester is inside, and connect them together. Finish the edges with an overlocker, edging, or a simple hem. The base for the rug is ready.

Photo of an educational mat with overlays

Creating a playing field

On the prepared basis we create a playing field according to the sketch. It could be a forest, a lake, or flower bed, a road for cars and a river for ships. You can make a green meadow and a blue sky with clouds. We cut the parts of the required size and color, fold the edges and sew them onto the rug, first by hand and then by sewing machine.

Educational mat with small details for a small child

Tip: place the parts on a soft adhesive base (non-woven fabric), it will be easier to work with them and they will look better.

Making game elements

This is the main and most labor-intensive part of the work. You can make flowers, butterflies or mushrooms, come up with fairy houses and castles. Make cars, airplanes or boats, sew any small animals or birds. Show your imagination. They can be sewn or fixed movably, on cords or ribbons, or attached to the rug using Velcro or buttons.

Educational mat in bright colors

Tip: to make the game elements voluminous, use padding polyester to fill them.

Interesting ideas

Tip: To make a lake, use a piece of clear polyethylene or organza and place the fish underneath. For grass, a fleecy fabric of a matching color is suitable.

Educational mat with houses, butterflies and toys

Securing elements to the mat

According to the sketch you came up with, place the finished elements on the rug. Sew buttons, laces and Velcro, secure toys, place game characters in places. Close the clasps and lace up the pockets. Complete each developmental composition according to the sketch you created.

Important! Check the reliability of fastening of small parts, the strength of cords and threads with beads, the integrity of loops and boxes!

An original idea for a developmental mat for a baby

Developmental activities with a mat

Did you know: children who are regularly tutored are, by the age of two, ahead of their peers in development, and their vocabulary is 300 words higher.

The idea of ​​a beautiful educational mat

Having spent a little time making a developmental mat, you will use it for your child's development for several years. You will always find something to keep your baby busy and something to play with him. A bright and colorful rug will decorate a child's room and become a favorite place to play. Made with love by your hands, it will bring your son or daughter a lot of joy and leave warm memories for a lifetime.

Developmental mat for babies

DIY educational mat for children from 0 to 3 years old 39 photo ideas:

Parents set a goal to comprehensively develop their baby, starting from birth. A crawling mat can help with this. You can purchase the device at children's store. But it’s much more interesting to make it yourself.

Loving parents, trying to develop their child from birth, use modern techniques and all kinds of expensive toys.

A rug is a canvas made of yarn or thick fabric. May have different shapes. The main idea when creating a developmental mat with your own hands is to make it bright and colorful to interest the baby. It should consist of different textures with colorful applications, complemented by buttons, rattles, and musical details.

Thanks to the moving elements, the child will develop fine motor skills.

Mats functions:

• Development of fantasy and imagination.
• Training concentration, memory and fine motor skills.
• Development of logical thinking.
• Basic study of the alphabet, numbers, objects, geometric shapes.
• Recognition of colors and shades.

You can buy such a rug in a store, but many women prefer to make it with their own hands, because it is not at all difficult to do.

Basic requirements for educational mats

When making a children's rug with your own hands, it is important to adhere to certain requirements.

An educational mat is a textile or knitted cloth, decorated with bright appliqués, with movable elements for play placed on it.

• The quality of materials and components used during assembly must be of the highest quality. They should not cause allergies in the child.
• All seams and connecting elements must be tightly stitched and fastened together. This is especially true for small accessories that a child can place in his mouth or nose.
• The touch mat must contain only serviceable components.

Do not allow chips, cracks, or unraveling seams.

• When making canvas, it is necessary to take into account versatility. After a few months, the child's interests will change. It will be necessary to replace some parts or supplement existing ones. You can make it yourself kids rug for crawling, equipping it with folding sides, allowing you to expand the playing area over time.
• The toy must be mobile and compact so that, if desired, it can be easily transported and folded.

This rug gives children the opportunity to develop from the first days of life, and is designed for use up to 3 years of age.

• When choosing or creating a sensory mat for children, it is important to take into account age characteristics. It is not recommended to equip a carpet for a baby with many toys and musical elements, since at this age the baby does not yet perceive complex structures and mechanisms.
• All plastic parts should be easy to unfasten for easy washing.
• When making an educational rug for children with your own hands, it is advisable to use different colors and textures, and many interactive, noisy elements.

They will help attract the child's attention and interest him.

Materials for production

To make a rug for the nursery with your own hands, you will need the following materials.

Materials and tools for the rug.

• It is best to use foam rubber or padding polyester as a base.
• Considering that the child will spend a lot of time on the rug, finishing materials should be natural. They don't call allergic reactions and irritation. Note! The fabric should not accumulate static electricity.
• The color palette of the toy should be varied. However, it should be borne in mind that too bright, contrasting combinations will have a negative impact on the child’s psyche, tiring and boring him.
• Large buttons can be used for decoration different colors, elastic bands, thick threads and ribbons, ropes and Velcro.
• To make a play mat with your own hands, you will need to purchase high-quality plastic and mechanical parts.

For a child, a developmental mat will become the largest and most useful toy that will never get boring.

Design ideas

Before you start work, you need to decide on the form and decorative elements. For convenience, it is advisable to draw a sketch of the canvas on paper. Having looked in advance at ideas for designing educational rugs for children from 0 to 3 years old with your own hands, it will be much easier to come up with an interesting and entertaining design. For very young children, sensory, didactic canvases, or those made from soft pom-poms are suitable.

For older children, an excellent option would be those where you can develop not only fine motor skills, but also logic - puzzle rugs, puzzles, mosaics.

Separately, it is worth highlighting rugs for girls - most often they are round or oval, with several zones that reflect the interests of the daughter. It can be supplemented with flaps and pockets. Shades of pink predominate. For boys, the car theme is most often used. How older child, the more detailed the drawing should be. Popular colors are blue, cyan, green. It is recommended for active fidgety children to build a rug with soft sides. You can use not only filler as a barrier, but also an additional layer of pompoms.

When the child grows up and begins to sit independently, he will be able to play with it and develop without outside help.

To make educational rugs for children with your own hands, you will need fabric patterns. With their help, various figures are sewn for decoration and applique. These can be animals, trees, plants, windows, cars, clouds, fairy-tale and cartoon characters.

Bright applications and a large number of various elements will occupy the child’s attention for a long time.

We create an educational mat for children with our own hands

The process of creating a children's educational rug with your own hands is not difficult. And most importantly, the product will be individual, taking into account all the needs of the baby.

When playing with such a toy, the child will feel your warmth, love and care.

You should start work by developing a sketch. You can draw a diagram on whatman paper. Next, you need to follow the instructions, which describe in detail how to make educational rugs for a child with your own hands.

Preparation of accessories

The first step is to purchase all the necessary accessories - buttons, ribbons, fasteners, beads, Velcro, threads, fasteners. The tools you will need are scissors, a needle, a stationery knife, and bobby pins. At the same stage, it is advisable to draw diagrams of future applications and cut them out.

Below we will describe everything in detail on the topic of how to sew a developmental mat with your own hands.

Preparing the base

This stage involves creating a diagram of the finished canvas. You also need to select materials. It is recommended to give preference to natural, non-slip compounds with antistatic properties. These include calico, flannel, felt, cotton. If you intend to create knitted elements, you must choose cotton yarn.

Soft materials cause pleasant tactile sensations and do not provoke allergic reactions.

Important! It is necessary to take care of high-quality internal filler. A baby rug is designed for crawling and is most often placed on the floor. It must be well insulated. It is recommended to use padding polyester or foam rubber.

Before you sew the parts of a baby's educational rug with your own hands, you need to decide on the front and back sides. After this, you can start cutting out the upper and lower parts and the filler. Be sure to leave seam margins on all sides. Then you need to overcast the edges, not missing any protruding threads.

Creation of a playing field, production of game elements

At this stage, you will need to sew on all pre-prepared appliqués and drawings. Then you should firmly attach the fittings, mechanical and musical elements, and rattles. Special attention It is necessary to pay attention to the quality of fastening of small parts, such as buttons, beads. The child should not be able to tear them off. It is recommended not to use glue, replacing it with thick threads.

Adhesive bases are acceptable for fastening fabric elements and appliqués.

Securing elements to the mat

Large fittings can be made either firmly attached to the base or movable. Safe soft parts can be attached using buttons and Velcro.

This will make them easier to remove before cleaning and washing.

After finishing preparatory work You can move on to combining all the parts. To do this, you will need to tightly sew all the components together from the wrong side and turn them right side out.

The advantage of making a rug for children with your own hands is its uniqueness. When creating it, it is possible to take into account all the characteristics and interests of the baby. Below are several ideas that will help parents decide on the plot of the playing field for children from 0 to 3 years old.

You choose the materials for its manufacture yourself and you will know exactly what it is made of.

• A bee hiding in a bright flower.
• Christmas tree with buttons for fastening toys.
• A castle for cartoon characters, equipped with opening doors and windows.
• Ships, boats, cars, attached using tape in a movable way. This way, the baby will be able to move objects independently.
• Multi-colored trees, clouds, plants.
• For older children, you can choose more complex applications - traffic, stories from fairy tales.
• It is recommended to equip rugs with pockets in which the child can put his favorite toys.

Rug with arcs yourself

A good idea for creating a rug for children with your own hands is to equip it with special arcs. You can attach toys, musical mechanisms, and rattles to them.

Thanks to such elements, you can concentrate the child’s attention.

The process of creating a canvas for a children's room consists of the steps listed below. To sew elements of a developmental rug for children from 0 to 3 years old, you need to adhere to the following sequence.

Mat base

To make a sensory mat for children with your own hands, equipped with arcs, you will need several meters of natural fabric and a material that serves as a seal - padding polyester or foam rubber. If you don’t want to create patterns for appliqués from fabric, you can purchase one that is already decorated with children’s patterns.

For the wrong side, a plain calico is suitable.

To create a rug for children with your own hands, size 1 square. m. you will need:

• Main fabric with printed pattern – 2 m;
• Plastic hoop with a diameter of 90 cm;
• Background fabric without patterns - 4 colors, 30 sq. cm.;
• Foam rubber – 1.5 sq. m.;
• Ribbons, Velcro, colored ropes, pompoms;
• Adhesive tape, preferably in different colors;

After choosing fabrics for the base, you need to start cutting:

1. First to be cut Bottom part. A pre-prepared paper diagram, carefully traced with soap or pencil. Be sure to leave gaps for seams. After marking, you can cut the fabric.
2. Next, you should cut out even squares from the background fabric, which are sewn together one by one. You should get a contrasting pattern. It is important to make all seams tightly and efficiently, leaving them from the inside of the product.
3. Educational toys are sewn to the top.
4. After this, the front side can be sewn to a sealant - foam rubber or padding polyester.

Use to create a product better fabric different tones - cold and warm shades.

Arcs

The selected hoop is divided into two equal parts using a stationery knife.

1. The hoop is divided into parts - 125 cm and 132 cm.
2. To give softness to the resulting arches, it is recommended to wrap them tightly with padding polyester, securing it with threads.
3. After this, the arcs must be decorated with colored fabric.

Pieces of padding polyester must be attached to each half of the hoop, pressing tightly and wrapping them with threads at intervals of 2–3 cm.

Connecting the arches and the base of the mat

The best option is to thread the arcs through the holes and secure them with wide Velcro on the inside.

To prevent the arcs from jumping out, you need to tightly wrap the pockets with the arcs with material.

1. Through slots should be made close to the junctions of the background and the center.
2. Then it is recommended to sweep them.
3. Velcro is sewn on the bottom part (closer to the outer corners).
4. The second halves of the Velcro are attached to the arcs on the front surface.
5. The arches are folded crosswise, and a thick braid is attached to the bottom to secure the structure.
6. The touch mat is ready.

Developmental activities with a mat

The functions of a homemade sensory mat are very diverse.

All that's left is with help satin ribbons or cotton braid to hang on the arcs of the toy.

• Infants can be placed on their stomach. In this position, they will be able to look at colorful pictures, trying to reach them with their hands. This develops concentration and tactile sensations.
• After the child learns to sit, you can place the canvas on the floor and join him, pointing in game form what you can do with different toys.
• Older children can fasten buttons and zippers and move elements on their own. These actions develop fine motor skills of the hands.
• As they grow older, a hand-made educational mat for newborns can be equipped with letters and numbers.
• It is important to pronounce all actions and names of objects during the game. This way the child will train attention and memory.

A hand-sewn carpet for a nursery will delight a child for several years. And it will help parents free up some time by keeping their baby occupied. Made with love, it will bring joy and fun to the baby, leaving only warm memories.

Sewing a developmental mat with your own hands can be a very pleasant and exciting activity for a mother during pregnancy or in the first months after the birth of the baby.

Of course, you can simply buy a rug, but by making it yourself, you not only save, but also invest your soul in the development of your baby.

It can be very simple, but contain different elements for understanding the world around you, or you will put a lot of effort and imagination into creating it - it all depends on your desire.

In this article, we have collected the basic principles for creating elements of a developmental mat and ideas for using improvised means for the development of a child.

As a rule, such a mat is used for babies from 1-2 months. The child is placed there on his back (if the mat has curves) or on his tummy. The main requirement for a rug is that it should be warm and cozy and have many different textured elements that the baby can touch, kick, catch, press, and put in his mouth.

The woven material and elements should be varied to the touch - smooth, rough, fur, fleecy, cold, with pimples, etc.

General idea and materials

First, come up with a general idea – color scheme, mood. Will the rug depict a whole story, or represent various phenomena (elements, seasons), or will it simply be sewn from squares or triangles of different fabrics? Draw a sketch.

The colors should not be very flashy, but also not too pale. Small child It only recognizes contrasting colors well, so sewing the entire rug in different shades of pink is a bad idea. And fabrics and various elements should not pose a danger to the baby.

Think about what you have- scraps of fabric, buttons, ribbons, fringe, braid, zippers, Velcro, appliques, images of animals on fabric, something instead of an arc. Everything can become elements of a developmental rug, the main thing is to sew it securely.

And do not forget that the rug will need to be washed, so the fabrics and all elements must withstand washing, or be attached in such a way that they can be removed before washing.

To sew a developmental mat with your own hands, we suggest using an old blanket or padding polyester as a base to make the baby warm and soft. The blanket can be square 1x1 m or 1.5x1.5 m, or any other shape and size.

You will cover the blanket with the main material with already sewn elements in the form of some kind of pattern, or sew the outer surface of the rug using the patchwork technique from pieces of fabric of various textures and colors.

Arcs for a developmental mat can be made from a hoop, which is cut to length depending on the size of the mat. How to attach them is clearly shown in the video at the end of the article. The arcs are covered with fabric, then you can hang toys on them - store-bought or homemade (for example,).

There is another option than replacing the arcs for the rug:

Design themes and elements of the educational rug

The design of the rug can be dedicated to the theme of animals, flowers, fruits, fairy tales. It could be some kind of story or a town with houses, cars, a river and trees. Try dividing the playing surface of the rug into sectors dedicated to the seasons, time of day or elements - water, earth, air, etc.

If you just sew a rug from different fabrics, then take a variety of colors and textures, polka dot and striped prints. Fabrics with patterns are also available, you can choose a suitable theme and sew everything from one fabric, the main thing is that it washes well.

Sew rustling polyethylene or candy wrappers into some game elements. Use satin, tulle, artificial fur for the baby's sensory development.

Let some elements be convex and soft; fill them with padding polyester or holofiber. Sew firmly different buttons, you can make a pattern out of them, use buttons of various shapes.

Rain or rays of the sun can be depicted using fringe, or sew on multi-colored ribbons in the shape of a rainbow. Somewhere you can sew in lacing and a zipper so that the child can practice his fine motor skills and learn how to use them when he grows up.

Let some elements of the rug be attached with Velcro - for example, this is how doors in a house can open and close. Hide some surprises in your pockets; your baby will be interested in how they are hidden and found again. Sew some toys with elastic bands into the pocket.

Come up with sound effects. In addition to the rustling candy wrappers sewn into the elements of the rug, you can hang a bell or musical toys on the arcs. Try taking out a music block from old toys and sewing it into a rug.

And now a video that will clearly show how, from a technical point of view, to make a developmental mat with arcs with your own hands, how to make and attach toys:

The educational mat appeared in everyday life relatively recently and has already gained wide popularity: in caring for and raising a child in early age it is able to replace a whole set of things and at the same time practically does not take up the usable space of the home. Accordingly, the prices for these items are clearly inflated, so there are more than enough people who want to make a developmental mat from scratch with their own hands, especially since at home this is quite possible and does not require any significant costs.

However, if you look at the well-known manuals for making educational rugs, they boil down mainly to instructions on what material to use, how to cut, stitch, stuff, etc. As for the rest, it’s something like “parents can show their imagination and express their individuality.” My? But a rug should help a child develop a personality, and for adults it is what it is. Then, mom, most likely, already knows how to sew, since she looks at sites for needlewomen, and not shopping catalogues. In this publication, we will try, first of all, to give readers an idea of ​​which educational mat for children will be better in which case and how to make it based on the characteristics of child psychology.

Although cutting and sewing will not be left aside either.

Technologically, most developmental rugs are equivalent to a quilted blanket, although other design options are possible, see below. The actual developing elements in it are various kinds of applications, pockets, flaps, voluminous soft linings. How to combine all this into a single product, see for example. Master Class:

Video master class: DIY educational mat

And we will try to figure out how to come up with a composition that is useful for the baby and entertaining for him. More precisely, what framework should be followed when fantasizing about a future homemade educational mat. Note:

When reading further about the composition of the rug in the master class, questions may arise, which we will talk about later.

From 0 to 7 Let us briefly recall the main stages of development of young children. Please only note that the indicated age limits

• conditional; individually they can vary significantly. So: 0-6 months
• - foolish. The sensations are almost completely organic (“internal”, dictated by the state of the body). The basics of vision are formed: clear vision (the gaze becomes meaningful), adaptation to lighting. Feedback from the outside world is instinctive: screaming, smiling, undirected movements. 0.5-1 year
• - a slider, learns to recognize information from the senses and manage it, making still uncertain movements. From about a year old, he will already benefit from educational toys and objects, incl. mat, giving tactile and visual sensations. Color vision is still imperfect, the blue range is perceived as dark and with poorly distinguishable subtle shades, and red and yellow tones are perceived as overly bright, “blazing.”– a walker, the child learns to control his limbs and make purposeful movements. In vision, blue tones gradually gain “juice” and warm tones fade. The “rangefinder” of binocular vision is gaining accuracy, but its geometry is still distorted: objects seem huge and plump. At the age of 2-3 years, a child needs a developmental mat with play elements. The first accurate feedback with the world appears - speech.
• 3-5 years– the most important “evolutionary leap”: a person begins to think, compare causes with consequences, draw basic conclusions about the causes of what is happening and forecasts for the future based on an analysis of the current situation. Motor skills, sensory organs and speech are improving, but there is no abstract thinking yet: the baby’s world is his things and the immediate surroundings, and his center is his mother. Cause-and-effect relationships are recognized as simple and immediate.
• 5-7 years– imaginative thinking develops. A normally developed child is already able to track 2-4 stages of cause-and-effect relationships and, accordingly, make purposeful movements from the same number of phases. Color vision is almost adult, and in all other respects the child is no longer a toddler. Following the rule of ontogenesis, this is a transition from primitive savagery to civilization: the child already understands that the world is not only what he directly perceives, but something huge, but completely knowable, transformable and usable. The rug may still be useful, but for some other purpose: it has done its job in development, it’s time to go to school.

And we will try to figure out how to come up with a composition that is useful for the baby and entertaining for him. More precisely, what framework should be followed when fantasizing about a future homemade educational mat. The rule, or principle, of ontogenesis in biology states that any living organism in its individual development (ontogenesis) to some extent repeats the biological history of its evolutionary ancestors (phylogeny). This rule is also true for humans. For example, in the initial stages of pregnancy, a human embryo appears for a while... gills. Then, while still in the womb, they disappear and are replaced by lungs.

Is it needed at all?

Teachers, pediatricians and child psychologists have not yet come to a consensus on whether a developmental mat is definitely beneficial for a child. There is only one thing in agreement: a developmental mat for babies is beneficial only if the mother regularly and as much of the time as possible during the child’s play activities engages with it or at least closely supervises it. Otherwise, the child’s whole world can become enclosed on the rug, and he can grow up to be an introvert, or, even worse, an autist who cannot fit organically into human society and adequately respond to life’s circumstances. Simply put: a rug will not replace a mother, although it can significantly ease her worries. If mother leaves her on the rug to develop as best she can, and she herself gets lost somewhere, then it will only get worse.

What type of mat do you need?

“They tore off the bear’s paw/Dropped the bear on the floor/I still won’t leave him/Because he’s good!” Everyone knows how tightly children become attached to their favorite toys. The basis of this effect is impenetrable: the instinct of self-preservation. The loss or damage of a familiar thing, the safety, reliability and benefits of which, from the point of view of the little one, have been verified, is a signal of some kind of danger. All the more terrible because it is unknown. That is why, and not because it will have to be altered, it is extremely advisable to make a children's developmental rug so that it becomes loved from the moment the need for it arises until its retirement - turning it into a bedside rug or just a play rug. Reincarnation is also possible for future new family members. Then it should be interesting to play on the educational mat with the youngest and for the child who is no longer small.

Successful examples of this kind of amateur creativity are presented in the photo. We’ll talk about the materials for them below, but for now let’s pay attention to:

1. The detailing is varied, but not too small and not very large: the little things cannot be seen properly by the slider, and the very large, uniform fields of the walker, if they do not seem clearly threatening, will not arouse sympathy;
2. The color scheme is not flashy, the bright details are small, so that even the smallest ones do not seem big in comparison. Elements of blue colors do not dominate the composition;
3. For the slider stage, there are many details with various textures - there is every opportunity to hone your sense of touch;
4. They also give walkers the opportunity to practice counting. Not yet consciously, but then it will be easier to understand that 1 is not 2 or 3 and that “many” can be counted as much as you like;
5. Pockets, flaps, ties, fasteners - we learn to move our fingers accurately;
6. For mental stages - zoning, implicit on the left and explicit on the right. By organizing order in our little world, we ourselves become accustomed to it.

And we will try to figure out how to come up with a composition that is useful for the baby and entertaining for him. More precisely, what framework should be followed when fantasizing about a future homemade educational mat. even before the stage of objective thinking it is possible (maybe with the help child psychologist) determine what the child's temperament will be. In some cases this is also possible for newborns, for example. using the rules of inheritance of temperament. For choleric and melancholic people, implicit zoning is preferable, and for sanguine and phlegmatic people, explicit zoning is preferable.

About materials

The best way to make a developmental mat is from natural fabrics, hypoallergenicity (inability to cause allergies) has been tested: satin (for a smooth but not slippery base), felt, calico, flannel, denim. Wool is not suitable, it is an allergen. Weak, safe for adults, but children's skin is much more sensitive. For the same reason (delicate skin), silk is not suitable; it is very easily electrified and shines with highly polarized light, see below.

Modern synthetic fabrics for children's things are not inferior to natural ones, but only and only in accordance with the requirements. certificate from trusted manufacturers. If synthetics of unknown origin seem to be no worse than cotton, this does not mean anything: it can be made from cheap plastic obtained using toxic catalysts. Residues of the catalyst from fabric fibers can be released in quantities that cannot be detected by conventional laboratory analysis, but with prolonged exposure are harmful to children.

It is better to use synthetic padding as a filler, it is hypoallergenic and practically does not accumulate static electricity. Furniture foam rubber grade 35 and above is not so good; in a dry room it becomes noticeably electrified. The most ordinary batting would be perfect - but, alas, until the first wash. As for the threads, then best option– propylene. They are durable, resistant, and non-allergenic. They themselves are slightly electrified, but if the entire mat is antistatic, no charge accumulation is detected.

What not to do

The above rules for constructing the composition of a children's rug give wide scope to the imagination of parents, so it is necessary to outline the boundaries that cannot be crossed. A mirror on a development mat, pos. 1 in Fig., which, by the way, is the problem with many expensive products promoted in the trade. The point is not that a child can be afraid of his reflection, far from it. The fact is that the direct light reflected from the mirror (and how to avoid it for sure?) is polarized up to 100%. This is very harmful for a fragile visual system; It is strongly not recommended to place a mirror in a nursery for large children.

And we will try to figure out how to come up with a composition that is useful for the baby and entertaining for him. More precisely, what framework should be followed when fantasizing about a future homemade educational mat. the volumetric details in this sample are simply an accident. No harm will come from them.

The next big mistake is using monotonous objects to feel, pos. 2. The tactile sense should develop comprehensively, like others. And at pos. 3 – too large shiny field of saturated blue. Why it’s bad – see above.

Next in Fig. There are examples of mistakes that are more or less forgivable. At pos. 4 blue field muted, at pos. 5 its area is relatively small. At pos. 6, the location of the cold color is actually unsuccessful, as it affects the so-called. the effect of dominance of the top, but the pale blue color significantly neutralizes it. The main mistake here is that the composition is too detailed and complex, designed for fairly developed imaginative thinking.

And we will try to figure out how to come up with a composition that is useful for the baby and entertaining for him. More precisely, what framework should be followed when fantasizing about a future homemade educational mat. completely abandoning the blue color scheme of a developmental rug is, of course, also bad. The child must learn to distinguish between them. Here it makes sense, in addition to choosing soft shades, to drive the blue to the center of the rug, where it will be psychologically neutral, see for example. video below.

Video: educational mat “Underwater World”

The error of the mat on pos. 7, presumably, is clear in the light of the above: this is too small and devoid of clear meaning in the detailing of the zones. How can a person who thinks in terms of “whack – hurt”, “wet – thump” understand these patterns? Also on pos. 8: The rug is clearly for a girl, but what’s what in each sector? If children, due to their still undeveloped imaginative thinking, are pragmatists, then girls are doubly pragmatic. And for the most part they remain so throughout their lives. The same flaw, of unclear meaning, in position 8: zones of suitable size, clearly expressed, but purely children's question: why is there anything here? Can you explain it to yours?

The right rugs

Rugs for girls

The detailing of a developmental rug for a girl can be quite detailed, such as, for example. in the master class at the beginning. But provided that the entire composition is semantically transparent and oriented in a certain direction. If the circle of interests of the daughter is still unclear, then the zones need to be made larger, clearly defined, and the details in them should not be too small, on the left in Fig. Girls generally prefer round rugs; The range of interests for the future housewife is not an abstract concept. Successful farming requires many different interests, and in this case, zoning round rug need to be in sectors, in the center. If the rug is rectangular, then in the middle there must be free space for the mistress of this little world, on the right; In women, the desire for autarky remains for life.

Other special rugs

For a fidgety child who is always pulled where he shouldn’t go, a rug with a soft barrier is well suited, on the left in Fig. Big children's carpet can be supplemented with a separate barrier in the center. It doesn’t have to be filled with filling; a very low barrier made of pompoms will do. How to sew a children's rug from pompoms, see the video at the bottom of the section, but in the same way you can make a border on any educational rug.

Children's educational rugs with special features

A soft barrier is also psychologically gentle, unlike a playpen fence, and keeps the child in his rightful operating zone unobtrusively. Suddenly, a beloved child intends to do mischief on the side, something like this flashes in his head: “Uh-uh... Mmm-mm... Based on the analysis of the totality of operating factors, through trivial conclusions, we come to the conclusion that, in principle, unauthorized activity objectively possible, but only very likely - mom will scold you.”

For girls who are very, very economical, in the good sense of the word, a rug with large deep pockets and flaps, on the right in Fig. Being a hoarder for the same future housewife and housekeeper is not such a sin; can be as useful in life as courage is for a boy.

Video: DIY pompom rug for a child

About car mats

Educational car mats are predominantly for boys, although in modern life knowledge of traffic rules and the ability to drive vehicles are necessary for everyone. Therefore, the narrow specialization of the mat on road traffic cannot be considered its disadvantage. After all, where does it say that your favorite toy should only be one? Or that it’s impossible to sew another one, a general developmental one, for a car mat?

If a child plays with cars on a rug alone since childhood, it is advisable to make it somewhat stylized, detailed and textured, as described above, on the left in Fig. If his driving discipline is controlled by a traffic police inspector in the form of an older brother, the details are allowed to be more detailed and closer to reality, in the center. But in any case, there is no need to install a traffic light at every zebra crossing, or to leave all zebra crossings without traffic lights. It is best to depict traffic lights at 1-2 crossings, on the right there, so that you understand: a zebra is a zebra in Africa, with or without a traffic light.

Rugs with arcs

Educational rugs with arcs more than replace a playpen, without at the same time presenting obvious prohibitions in the form of its fencing:

• Virtually, but unambiguously, they define the child’s own space, without at the same time creating physically insurmountable obstacles; this promotes the development of self-discipline from a very early age.
• It is much easier to grasp the arches and toys suspended from them when learning to walk than the barrier of the playpen.
• On a rug with arches for a child, the likelihood of flopping down on his back (which, by the way, the playpen does not prevent) is minimal.
• Being already a fully qualified walker, with the help of the same toys it is convenient to do stretching exercises, poses. 1 in Fig.

Arcs for a homemade children's educational mat can be made in different ways. The most durable and inexpensive ones are made from a plastic gymnastics hoop covered with padding polyester and lined with fabric. You just need to decide how to make them foldable, so that when the need is over, you can put them away and hide them.

In industrial products of this kind, arcs are often placed crosswise and equipped with a hidden hinge, pos. 2. It is difficult to make it yourself, given the soft covering of the arches, and tying the crosshairs with a cord (item 3) or a bow is unreliable.

The easiest way would be to make the arcs tangential and tighten the joint tightly with braid or elastic, pos. 4 and 5. If the legs of the arcs are connected with a strip of plywood 3-4 mm thick, then the tent from them will be no less durable and convenient for assembly and disassembly than a hinged one. Connecting the legs of the arcs with plywood is also easy: wooden plugs are driven into their ends, and a screed strip is attached to them from the bottom with self-tapping screws. Next, visible wooden parts are sanded and painted.

In cramped living conditions or, say, when the whole family goes to the country for a long time, a developmental mat-bed with one arc can be useful. In this case, her legs are placed in pockets sewn on the outside of the sides. For the child to sleep, so that the relief of the rug does not put pressure, a mattress is placed.

About the figures for the rug

Figures for the educational rug, as already mentioned, are sewn. Patterns of several types are given in Fig. Tree, top left - simple applique. These details are sewn onto a green flap in the form of a crown. But the hippopotamus, so beloved by little ones, is already something like a textile cameo: it is made of 3 layers of identically shaped scraps of different colors. In the subsequent flaps, from bottom to top, windows are cut through which the previous or lower layer is visible. The figures from the set on the right are made in one technique or another.

So let's get started.

The dimensions of the rug are 1m by 1m.
1. Required materials:
- base fabric with a children's pattern. Calico, 2 m
- plastic hoop, diameter 90cm
- plain fabric, 4 colors (let’s call it background), 30 cm each. The ideal option is a raincoat fabric with fleece.
- padding polyester 1.5 m
- Velcro tape (Velcro) white and black
- laces, elastic bands, ribbons, fabrics of different textures, etc.
- rustling candy wrappers :))))

2. Cut the fabric- base and plain fabrics.

Those. we get:

Two pieces of base fabric: 1m by 1m and 63cm by 63cm

Two pieces of plain fabrics 21.5 cm by 1 m
- two pieces of plain fabrics 21.5 cm by 63 cm

The remains of plain fabrics are used to sew developmental elements.
This cutting is the most convenient in terms of assembling the rug, so in this master class we will consider it. I make allowances with a good margin - as much as one and a half cm, just in case.

3. Sew developmental elements onto the background.
There are several rules here (we focus on ages from 3-5 months):
- large
- contrasting
- It's clear
- reliable and safe
- ban on small details
You shouldn’t puff and overload the mat with development tools; a child at this age will not appreciate it. It’s also better to save all sorts of locks, zippers, etc. for a later age.

We take into account that children love to fiddle with strings, pull rustling leaves, ears, wings, open and close, find something that is not immediately visible, touch different textures. Do not forget that what we are depicting will need to be named to the child and told something.
Here, for example: House. There are flowers on the window, clothes are drying on a line nearby (we call it with an older child).

We open the rustling door (fastening is Velcro)... And it turns out that a girl lives in the house! I like to make the eyes from black Velcro, the soft half. I just cut it out and sew it tightly by hand. I sewed the second half of Velcro onto the palms - with hooks, so you can play the favorite children's game "peek-a-boo" with your palms. The girl's arms are like one cord: you pull one arm, the other becomes shorter. The hair is tightly sewn yarn.

And a girl can giggle at a frog that catches butterflies with a net))))).

And so on. Other examples of developmental elements can be found in my posts about rugs: http://happynata.blogspot.ru/2014/03 and http://happynata.blogspot.ru/2014/02

4. We assemble the front part of the rug from pieces.

First we sew the short pieces to the central part. It is imperative to maintain an allowance of exactly 1.5 cm! Now we sew on the long pieces. Same with allowance.

All developmental elements should be directed towards the center so that the child can, after twisting and turning, choose for himself what interests him or crawl from one element to another. central part, in fact, that’s what it’s needed for, to lie down and crawl comfortably, so we don’t attach anything here!

This is roughly what you should get at the end of this stage:

5. Making arcs.

We saw off two arcs from the hoop, 125 cm and 132 cm long.

We cut the padding polyester - two cuts of 1.5 m in length and approximately along the circumference of the arc (with a margin) in width, i.e. about 10-15 cm. Accuracy is not important here.

Now we need to wrap the arcs with this padding polyester. We wrap and strengthen well with threads:

This is what you should end up with:

Now we cover the arcs with fabric.

Hoops can be thin or thick, so I can’t give the exact dimensions of the parts. We wrap a measuring tape around the resulting arc (not tightly) and add allowances. This will be the width of the fabric cut, take the length to be 1.5 m - we will cut off the excess on the spot. Naturally, we cut off two of these))).

Fold the fabric with the right side inward, stitch it, sewing on loops and ties along the way, if necessary. Below I’ll write how to sew a clever thing that makes these ties unnecessary. We turn it inside out and insert the arcs there. And for now we put it aside.

6. Sew the rug and quilt it with padding polyester.

Don't turn it out yet. We cut the padding polyester 1m by 1m and put it on top. We grab it in the corners and in the middle of the sides to the rug. Now he won’t move or get lost anywhere.

Turn it inside out. Sew it up.

We quilt along the connecting lines of the fabrics and somewhere else, if we are not too lazy))). The main thing is to baste it first, because when sewing, the padding polyester will absolutely pull the fabric to the side.

7. Attaching the arches to the mat.

Of all the options I considered, I liked this one. The arcs are threaded through the holes and attached from the inside with wide Velcro. Firstly, it is fast (and when a child cries, minutes count), and secondly, it is reliable - tested over several months of daily use.

So. we make four slits (through and through) in the four corners - not far from the junctions of the background and the central part. And we sheathe it as best we can))). I used bias tape.

Sew with reverse side Velcro - near the cut, closer to the outer corner.

We sew the second halves of the Velcro to the arches, having first cut off the excess and folded it in. Velcro should be located on the front surface, i.e. the center seam of the arc will be at the back. In general, try it on seven times before you start sewing.

Insert the arcs crosswise. We sew fasteners for the arcs to the bottom arc (the one that is shorter) in the middle. I like to use thick webbing and Velcro. Here's what happens: