The baby's first acquaintance with plasticine should take place at the age of 1-1, 5 years. Sculpting is a great opportunity to spend time with benefit, developing fine motor skills, spatial thinking and imagination.
The beginning of creativity
In order for the baby to like to sculpt, it is necessary to choose high-quality, age-appropriate material. Plasticine for the smallest should be soft with rich, bright colors, in addition, it should not stick too much to the hands. But most importantly, it must be safe, because children often put everything in their mouths.
At first, you should not try to teach your child how to make even "sausages" or "balls", moreover, there is no need to try to master complex shapes. You should start with plasticine, intended for the smallest, allowing him to independently consider and master material that is new to him. You should not give him all the colored blocks at once, a couple of pieces will be enough. It will be interesting for the kid to crumple the plasticine, watching how it easily changes shape.
Mom will have to prepare for the fact that after the fun she will have to wash the child and wipe off the adhered plasticine from the table top and floor. To keep cleaning to a minimum, arrange your work area in advance using special sculpting boards. The floor under the chair can be covered with plastic or old newspaper.
Often mothers are mistaken, believing that after 3-4 introductory sessions, the baby will be ready for serious lessons. In fact, conscious creativity is not at all interesting to kids under 3 years old. Children just sculpt, and then they see what they have done, the process itself is important to them, not the final result. Therefore, you should not rush things, it is much more important to instill in the child an interest in creativity.
But this does not mean at all that the child needs to be seated, given plasticine and left to himself. In this case, after a couple of days, the child's interest will disappear without a trace. Only joint creativity with parents or older siblings will help instill love for this exciting process. Most importantly, the child must see that modeling is interesting not only for him, but also for an adult.
Activities for toddlers
To keep your child interested, offer interesting play activities. For example, to teach a toddler to pinch off pieces of plasticine, you can play with hens and chickens who want seeds and ask the child to feed them. It will be interesting for the baby to tear off small pieces of plasticine, and treat them to painted or toy birds.
Many children enjoy making "plasticine applications", ideal for the first acquaintance with this material. There can be many options for such a game. For example, a mother can draw a cloud, and a child makes raindrops with plasticine, or attaches leaves and fruits to a tree depicted by her mother. In addition, the kid may like to smear soft plasticine on cardboard or thick paper in random order, or by coloring a picture drawn by an adult.
