When you buy a busyboard, you expect a couple of hours of fun. But what you and your baby actually could get is a multi-functional non-plastic educational toy that can serve for years and even generations.
Make or buy a busy board to create an ultimate experience for the baby. Here the most fascinating objects are united in a fun and safe exploration space for young mechanics and tinkerheads of any gender.
- With the busy boards, the 1-2-year-old toddlers learn using gravity with the inclines and tubes.
- 3-4-year-old kids research levers and build cable cars with the pulleys.
- And the 7-year olds come up with the most creative uses: they play boards as musical instruments, or incorporate in their fort builds.
I’ve been amazed by the level of ease at which my then 3-year old started combining the various parts and pieces. Anything he found around the house, he made into his own inventions or works of contemporary art.
Turned out that aside from the sensory and problem-solving, his busy board has brought a huge boost to his mechanics and technical knowledge. So, how to buy a busyboard with the best STEM parts in it?
What are the 6 simple STEM machines?
In a nutshell, these were the 6 first devices with few or no moving parts, used by humanity for easing up their daily tasks.
Meet the 6 Simple Machines:
Incline
An inclined plane has been famously used for unbelievable creations since the Pyramids. Add several inclined inch-wide planks to the busy board and get rewarded with the straight hours of your toddler just projecting all round objects they can get down the ramps.
Lever
Lever is the long line where we apply the force from one end to move the other one. We are using levers every day, from the wrenches to the one-handed bandits, and from light switches to the toilet flush handles. To add a lever to the sensory board, simply throw in a door handle. It gives the perfect idea about the lever mechanics, powers, and tensions.
Pulley
The first guy who figured out that it’s much easier to lift a thing with a rope thrown over a tree branch was a game-changer. We’re all merely users. An irreplaceable busy board element to learn about weights and motions is this bright pulley. Add a rope with carbines on the ends for a makeshift cargo weight.
Wheel and Axle
The first wheels were the potters wheels, and only later the wooden wheels with axles were made and used for the one-wheeled wheelbarrows. The rest is history. Put a wheel on your busy board and tell your little human a quick story about how this simple circle took us to where we are now.
Screw
The first screws were made by early tribes from bone, stone, and metal. What’s remarkable is that in all separated early communities screws always go in clockwise. To represent the screw principle on busy board, our hits are the Jar top for homemade option, or the nut-and-bolt set.
Wedge
Wedge helps to use the density and geometry laws to multiply our efforts in parting or disassembling, lifting objects, and can also hold them in place.
Get a funny shaped wedge door stopper and attach it. Now your baby can put it under the doors and velcro pieces to pop them open.
When I buy a busy board, what exactly does it teach my child?
Various busy boards and activity boards help to:
- train up the motor skills at a very early age, in a safe space
- give a fundamental understanding of the cause-and-effect
- introduce babies to real-life problem-solving
- boost roleplay and creative thinking development
By combining otherwise scattered or unreachable parts together in the play, kids get a great boost in the inventiveness and open-ended thinking. When you buy a busy board with all these 6 simple STEM machines, incorporate them into play. Show and tell your kids about them when they’re interested, it only takes a minute.
Bite-sized Education Nuggets. Yes, please.
And as they grow up, you will see them applying it on every step.
What we love the most about busy boards?
The best thing about activity boards is the versatility of the elements that can be used. Therefore, the multitude of challenges, abilities, talents, or sensory quirks that can be addressed with them, is endless. When you buy a busyboard, pick what your baby likes most.
If your little ones love sounds, get more bells and buttons. For the geeky heads, pick magnifying glass and code locks. Nothing makes us feel better than an Easy Busy Board made with love and all the most beneficial parts for a particular baby.
Just as your baby is taking her very first steps, her brain is taking first steps on the path of soaking up the knowledge. She has to slurp everything accumulated by the civilizations over centuries, in several short years. If you want to give her a head-start, a good way is to buy a busy board with these 6 basics neatly included 😉
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La lecture de votre article a été très agréable. Brina Westley Genevra
Merci beaucoup! Heureux d’aider! 🙂
You can find a lot of apps for boys and girls in App Store. There is a lot of good and not so good ones. But do you really want to grow screen addicted child? Me not. That’s why I decided to buy busy board for 1,6 years girl. And you know what? She loves it! Not so much as pacifier, but… That’s fun, she is playing with it in regularly.