Busy board: how to make a development board with your own hands

Here are detailed instructions in the form of a table with photographs and a description of how to attach each part to the bodyboard.

A busy board (developmental board) is a very interesting and useful thing for a baby and his parents. Thanks to it, the child will develop directly and quickly, and for parents this structure will free up a few precious minutes for urgent matters or relaxation.

Thanks to the busy board, children will be able to try things that are usually forbidden to them in everyday life for safety reasons: opening and closing doors, turning flashlights on and off, playing with a working tape measure, and so on.

And parents, working on creating a development board, will be able to plunge into an interesting creative process, remember their carefree childhood and their favorite toys. Besides, it’s always nice to do something useful and interesting for children. And for some, creating such educational boards (busy boards) can become not only a hobby, but also a way to earn extra money .

But remember, all parts (components) of the bodyboard must be safe for the baby and securely fastened. Just like the busy board itself.

What do you need to make a bodyboard for a boy with your own hands?

To know exactly what you need for a bodyboard, you need to understand its purpose. In essence, this is a play complex that promotes the development of a child. Its base is made soft or hard, which depends on the age of the boy. In the first option, you will need durable fabric for the cover and soft filling. Synthetic padding polyester, cotton wool, and fabric shreds are suitable. The rigid base is cut out of plywood, fiberboard, MDF. There is a middle option - soft-hard bodyboard. In this craft, plywood is used as a base, and the top is covered with fabric.

The content of the bodyboard depends on the age of the boy the developmental items are intended for.

An important component is the filling, because it is for this that a busy board is created. Items are selected taking into account the boy's age. They play a developmental role. First, the toy is equipped with simple objects. Over time, they are replaced with more complex mechanisms that help the growing baby develop.

Important! Playing with small parts contributes to the overall development of the boy and his hand motor skills.

The benefits of a busy board for children

The multifunctional busy board helps develop a child's many abilities. A large number of objects are attached to it, when working with which the baby develops hand motor skills. Judging by the statements of the parents themselves, in some cases, a busy board helps preserve property in the house, because, having played enough with all kinds of locks and buttons, the baby will no longer have the desire to look into bedside tables and other forbidden places.

In addition, a busy board allows you to:

• broaden the child's horizons;
• stimulate cognitive activity;
• master simple skills in handling objects;
• develop perseverance, imagination, coordination of movement.

On a note! The larger the development board, the more interesting it is for the child to play with it, since it contains the maximum number of details. This means that the baby will be captivated longer than when using a small-sized bodyboard.

How to equip a bodyboard for a boy

In the home version, you can equip the busy board with items that are often used in everyday life. Their complexity should correspond to the age development of the child. The following requirements apply to filling elements:

1. Safety. When playing with every detail, the boy should not get hurt on it.
2. Interest. Each element of the busy board content should arouse the boy’s interest in exploring it.
3. Cognition. The subject should contribute to the study of the surrounding world.
4. Using the element should develop thinking, logic, and hand motor skills.

To fill a busy board with your own hands, you usually use household items. This is a big plus of homemade products. The boy will learn to use them.

Household items and toys are used to fill a homemade business board.

When filling a busy board with your own hands, use the following elements:

1. Pieces of textured fabric are used to complete a bodyboard for a boy of 6 months and up to 1 year of age. You can sew bags and fill them with cereal.
2. An older child is interested in the elements of fittings. This includes various latches, latches, rotating handles with rim locks, wheels, and magnets.
3. The boy is interested in electrical products, for example, cartridges, buttons, switches, sockets with a plug.
4. You can attach small plumbing parts to the bodyboard with your own hands. A piece of corrugated tube and a rotating valve handle will do.
5. Sewing accessories and elements of leather goods are interesting to a boy at an early age. These include zippers, buttons, snaps, straps, and a section of belt with a buckle.
6. A grown-up boy fills a busy board with spare parts from household appliances with his own hands. Old calculators, rotary or push-button telephone dialers, and used remote controls work well.

Objects that can glow and make melodious sounds are of great benefit in development. They must run on batteries. You can use ordinary bells and rattles.

Advice! When filling a busy board with your own hands, pay attention to the color design. Details should stand out from the general background. It is desirable that they also be of different colors.

At what age can you play with a touch board?

The developmental board begins to interest the baby from about 8 months. By this time, the child already knows how to sit and focus on the process. However, until the age of one year, it is not recommended to use hard boards; at first it is worth playing with soft parts made of fabric and thick felt (when buying felt sheets, you should pay attention to their thickness, it is better to take at least 1.5 or 2 mm). All items are attached to the base using a system of Velcro and buttons.

Children's educational board with switches and light bulbs

The types of parts differ depending on the age of the child. So, a one-year-old baby is more interested in pulling handles, opening windows and doors with locks with pictures of animals behind them, pressing buttons, etc. But older children (3-4 years old) will be more interested in looking for numbers and letters, opening locks and solving simple puzzles .

Children's educational board with phones

Types of educational boards for boys

In terms of shape, content, and design, there are no clear differences between the types of business boards. Developmental parts are attached to houses, animal figures, ordinary plywood boards and other devices. But based on the material used to make the base, there are two main types of bodyboards:

1. A soft bodyboard is made from a fabric base. The cover is sewn in the shape of a pillow, rug, or geometric figure. A good example is a hand-sewn beadboard cube for a boy, where the cover is filled with synthetic padding or cotton wool. Filling items include patches made of fabrics of different textures, Velcro, laces, and rubber trinkets. It is impossible to attach latches, buttons and other mechanical parts to a soft bodyboard, so this model is intended for a boy under 1 year of age. The soft bodyboard is made of a fabric cover, inside of which padding polyester, cotton wool or other filler is placed.
2. A hard bodyboard is cut out of plywood with your own hands. Fibreboard or MDF will do. The structure is made in the form of a single board, a folding book, or a three-dimensional house. Minimum size 500×500 mm. The rigid base allows the fastening of mechanical parts. Hard bodyboard is made of plywood

There is a combined type of bodyboard, in which the hard base is cut out of plywood, but the top is lined with soft fabric. Such models are often in demand by children aged 1 to 2 years.

If we talk in general terms about the size of the development board, then the boy’s age is also taken into account here. For example, a five-year-old child is no longer interested in playing with a small busy board. It will be much more interesting if it takes up the space of half or the entire wall of the playroom. But the filling items are secured with your own hands, taking into account the baby’s growth. The boy must freely reach each element with his hands.

What tools will you need?

To make a children's business board, in addition to the base and many educational elements, you will need:

• jigsaw;
• drill;
• wire cutters;
• screwdriver

For the base, it is better to take durable plywood or wooden boards, from which you can construct a shallow box.

Children's educational board with numbers

How to make a business board for a boy yourself

When making an educational toy, you need to know that it is no different in design and content for boys and girls under three years of age. Children during this period are just beginning to learn about the world around them. As boys get older, they develop their own interests. Here they are already thinking about the thematic design of the bodyboard. Preference is given to mechanical parts.

For a boy, an educational toy is decorated in cool colors

Another feature of the gaming board is color. If pink tones are more acceptable for girls, then for boys educational toys are made blue, gray, or silver. However, this does not mean that you need to completely abandon bright colors. The filling details should be different. Just cool colors are used for the main background.

Advice! You can cut a homemade bodyboard for a boy in the shape of a car, locomotive, tractor or other vehicle. It is this kind of design that will emphasize that the educational toy is not intended for a girl.

How to make a DIY board for a boy under one year old

From the age of 6 months to one year, the boy becomes familiar with surrounding objects. He needs to develop fine motor skills and coordination of movements. The child is interested in feeling everything with his fingers, hearing the sound of hitting an object. At this age, it is optimal to sew a soft bodyboard for a boy with your own hands, and use patches from textured fabrics, rattles, Velcro, bells, and small plastic toys as filling.

A boy under 1 year of age needs a soft bodyboard

To make a soft educational toy, sew a cover with your own hands. Here you will need a pattern. You can find it on the Internet, in thematic literature. Cutting specialists are able to create the pattern themselves. The shape of the case is given as desired. The easiest way is to sew a geometric figure, a pillow or a rug. It is more difficult to give a toy the shape of an animal, a large pumpkin, an apple, or another vegetable or fruit.

When the cover is sewn with your own hands, it is filled with soft filling. Old cotton wool, pieces of padding polyester, and rags will do. The cover is pushed tightly so that the toy retains its shape even after the boy falls on it or climbs on top of it.

Filling items are attached to the finished bodyboard body. They can be hot glued or sewn on. You need to fix it firmly with your own hands so that the boy does not tear off the object. However, they provide for the possibility of removing it. Over time, the baby will lose interest in monotony. The items filling the bodyboard will have to be changed.

How to make a busy board for a 1 year old boy

At the age of 1 to 2 years, the boy continues to develop coordination of movement. He shows independence. The child identifies certain objects he needs and compares their similarities and differences. Here you can already give preference to a development board made of plywood, but still with a soft fabric covering. Three-dimensional figures are chosen as filling items, and they can be soft or plastic. Rings, clasps, laces, pockets are suitable. Of the mechanical parts, the plywood base allows you to secure handles and buttons. You can focus on edible and inedible details.

You can decorate a learning board with soft covering yourself in cartoon style

To make a busy board for a boy with your own hands, first cut a fragment out of a sheet of plywood, fiberboard or MDF. In a simple design, it is given the shape of a rectangle. A bodyboard with a figure of an animal, a house, or a vehicle looks more beautiful, but the body is more difficult to cover with fabric. The fragment cut out with your own hands is sanded with sandpaper to remove all burrs from the ends.

The fabric is glued onto the busy board or secured to the back of the board with staples. If the material is too thin, add a soft lining. Strips of foam rubber can be laid only along the ends of the board to make them soft.

Lightweight and soft plastic filling items are sewn onto a fabric base. Mechanical parts that require strong fixation are secured with self-tapping screws. If the screw part of long hardware goes through the boards, then they are cut off on the back side so that the boy does not get hurt during the game.

How to make a busy board for a 2 year old boy

At the age of 2 to 3 years, the boy continues to learn to identify specific objects from the general mass and compares them. The baby develops independence. The child explores new qualities of objects and trains his hearing acuity. A hard board is suitable at this age. And it doesn’t have to be a board. They use plywood to create a three-dimensional educational toy with their own hands, most often in the form of a house.

Soft and plastic objects are still used to fill the bodyboard, but their quantity is minimal. The house is equipped with opening doors with locking elements, hanging whistles, and lacing. Attach rings, buttons, wide clothing zippers.

A busy board house is made of plywood, preferably with opening roof elements

To cut a plywood bodyboard into a house with your own hands, draw a drawing on paper. You will need 4 parts for the facade and two rectangular elements for the roof. On the facade parts, holes are immediately cut out for doors, windows, and fasteners for various parts.

The walls of the house are glued together with wood glue. If the roof is not opening, then its elements are also glued. However, the boy is more interested in looking inside the house and finding some object there. Opening roof slopes are made with your own hands on hinges. To do this, the pointed corners of the opposite walls of the facade are connected with a batten, forming a ridge girder. The hinges are attached to the wooden lintel with self-tapping screws. The fittings used are small, for example, from furniture or an old wooden toy of this kind.

The filling elements are fastened with self-tapping screws. Everything that can be glued is fixed with a hot gun. The door leaves are painted with colored acrylic paints.

How to make a busy board for a 3 year old boy

At 3-4 years old, a boy feels independent and confident. He is not interested in primitive items that fill educational toys. The plywood board is equipped with a bell button, a socket with a plug and a cut piece of wire. To develop hand motor skills, the busy board is covered with the necks of plastic bottles, on which the baby will screw caps. You can create a simple battery-powered circuit with your own hands, where when you press a button, a light comes on or a beep sounds.

Double-sided board expands the possibilities of a busy board

Houses at this age are already losing interest. From 3 to 4 years old, a business board for a boy is created in the form of a stand. You can use not one board, but two. Plywood blanks are connected on one side with loops, and on the opposite side a piece of cord or chain is attached. He will act as a limiter. The board is laid out like a hut in the shape of the letter “L”. Filling items are fixed on the outer sides of the stand.

Advice! The small size of double-sided folding boards is convenient to take with you on a trip.

How to make a busy board for a 5 year old boy

For a five-year-old boy, ordinary educational boards are not interesting. Here you already need a themed bodyboard, perhaps in large sizes. They cut out a ship, a car, a steam locomotive from plywood with their own hands. The board is decorated with filling items in the appropriate style.

Each bodyboard item should perform some interesting action

Entire circuits are created on the business board with glowing light bulbs, ringing bells, and speakers playing different melodies. A labyrinth, a tunnel for small cars, is assembled from shaped elements of a plastic pipeline. When designing a busy board, parents will have to use their imagination and make their child’s dream come true.

Step by step instructions

Making a busy board can take from one to two days, depending on the complexity of the work. We suggest using the instructions for assembling a relatively simple model in the form of a box with doors.

1. Cut boards for side parts and shelves that will be attached to the inside of the product. Sand all parts, including a sheet of plywood of the required size.
2. Use a pencil to make marks on a sheet of plywood and indicate the location of the parts. Carefully draw the places where the largest ones will be located - doors, telephone dial, switches.
3. Drill holes for the hinges.
4. Using a jigsaw, cut holes for opening elements (doors and windows), a telephone circle, a socket and a bell. The edges should be carefully processed so that they become perfectly smooth.
5. Attach the boards to the plywood sheet using screws and metal angles.
6. To ensure that the hinges are flush with the doors, small laminate strips can be placed under them.
7. Attach magnets to one side of the door openings. The doors should have metal plates in the same place to keep them closed.
8. Attach the remaining fittings (latches, latches, etc.) using self-tapping screws. If they are too long, shorten them with wire cutters.
9. Hide all electrical elements of the door lock inside a wooden box; there should only be a button on the game panel.
10. Glue the lamp onto the base.
11. The back side of the box needs to be closed; to do this, attach the laminate panels to it with self-tapping screws.
12. You can make a handle at the top of the box for easy carrying of the toy. If the development board is to hang on the wall, you should take care of fastening elements, for example, eyes.

Children's educational board with sockets

Children's educational board with the child's name

DIY bodyboard ideas for boys

It’s best to find design ideas for educational toys yourself. This approach allows us to focus on what the child needs more, for example, distinguishing colors or developing hands. If you don’t have your own ideas, you can take tips from the Internet.

Traveler

Boys from 3-4 years old are able to get carried away by traveling. They design a board on this topic with their own hands. Suitable items are a compass, images of pirates, animals and sea creatures. A steering wheel, steering wheel, and ropes are attached to the busy board. Most objects should make sounds or light up.

For a traveler, a busy board is designed in the style of a ship, car or other vehicle

Spaceship

To make the boy feel like an astronaut, a children’s toy – a car steering wheel – is attached to the board. It is equipped with buttons that, when pressed, produce different melodies and a beep. Additional control devices include latches, buttons, and handles. You can hang an abacus and several opening doors.

For the spaceship, a children's play car steering wheel, powered by batteries, is used.

Automobile

Boys are always interested in automotive topics. The board is equipped with control devices, a panel from an old tape recorder, a rear-view mirror, and a steering wheel is attached. By making through slots in the plywood, you can try to create an imitation of the gear lever.

Required materials and tools

The advantage of a homemade business board is not only saving money. With your own hands you can create a design that ideally meets the requirements and interests of the child. The advantage of the craft is its uniqueness.

To make a business board with your own hands, you will need a drawing, a number of tools and materials. The basis of the structure is a piece of wooden slab. Thick plywood sheets and pieces of furniture board are suitable .

The size of the board should be determined taking into account the girl’s age. The wooden slab needs to be prepared: sanded over the entire area and edges. This is necessary so that the baby does not drive a splinter. Then the sheet needs to be varnished. You can use non-ferrous raw materials.

Then you will get a bright busy board. But before you use varnish, you need to make sure that it is approved for coating children's products. Self-adhesive paper can be useful for decorating the base. It comes in a variety of vibrant prints, perfect for children's designs. This option for cladding a wooden sheet is simpler and faster than varnishing.

If you use paper, you do not need to sand the surface of the slab first. It is worth taking care of reliable fasteners for the bodyboard elements. You can use nails or screws. It is important to be able to choose the right length so that the ends do not stick out from the back and do not injure the child’s hands.

To secure the swing elements, you will need small door hinges. If you plan to fasten the bodyboard to the wall, then it must be reliable and durable so that the baby cannot tear off and tip the structure on itself.

To decorate a busy board for girls you will need the following elements:

• latches;
• door hooks, chains, loops;
• yarn;
• push-button telephone, old remote control;
• buttons, zippers, laces, coils;
• a doorbell that operates on batteries;
• abacus, calculator;
• watch elements (hands, dial);
• rotary toggle switches;
• wheels;
• padlocks;
• battery-powered flashlights;
• dolls, animal figurines.

Most of these parts can be purchased at a sewing and furniture store or accessories department. The remaining elements are likely to be found in every home.

Useful tips

Boys show particular interest in bodyboarding between the ages of 7 months and 3.5 years. Over time, they get bored with the educational toy. If your child shows interest in other hobbies, you should not force him to use the board, even if you spent a lot of time and effort making it yourself.

The busy board should not contain objects that can cause injury

Any bodyboard design is made safe. The presence of burrs and sharp edges of parts should not be allowed. Small objects are secured securely, otherwise the baby will tear them off, pull them into his mouth and swallow them.

What can be pinned on the board?

The main goal pursued when choosing details for a busy board is to interest the child. Of course, it is important that these items are safe and will not cause harm during play.

The list of items that can be attached to a business board includes:

• door knocker;
• small computer keyboard;
• circle from a rotary telephone;
• door chain;
• mirror;
• clock with hands;
• compass;
• roulette;
• working calculator;
• horn from a bicycle;
• door lock;
• faucet with valve;
• abacus;
• shoes with laces;
• zippers from clothes and so on.

Each of the items on the busy board should arouse the child’s interest.