Clay games can be very helpful for both boys and girls.
Especially toddlers benefit immensely.
“ancient societies utilized diverse nature-made toys for the development of the child’s cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning.”
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Clay Dolls for Kids
Have you played with clay? I am not speaking about playdoh.
I am speaking about the gooey, malleable clay. Parents tend to call it mud 😁
While playdoh is also a type of clay, real clay has so many benefits.
Benefits of playing with Clay
Playing with clay is very helpful for kids.
These are the benefits of clay
- Improving Cognitive ability
- Psychomotor development
- Development of Social Skills and
- Develops Imaginative Skills
#1 Improving Cognitive Ability
Clay makes it easy for kids to understand concepts like weight and volume.
Kids also understand shapes such as circles squares are rectangles.
This helps them develop mathematical abilities and the knowledge of physics.
It is a kind of stem learning and you can read the article on stem learning here and how it helps your child selecting their future career.
#2 Developing Imaginative skills
When children mould items out of clay they tap into their creative skills.
They need to imagine the objects or animals or people before they shape the clay into that image.
As an example if a child is making a dog out of clay the child has to imagine what a dog looks like before moulding the clay.
The child needs to imagine this entire detail.
They have to notice and imagine the shape of the face ears tail location of eyes and various proportions.
This helps develop their imaginative abilities.
#3 Psychomotor Development
To make the clay pliable the child has to
- Pound
- squeeze
- press
- shape
- bend
- Poke
- Flatten the clay.
All all these activities help improve
- Dexterity
- Strength
- Hand Eye Coordination
- Motor Skills
Activities such as squatting on the ground, lifting, standing up constantly improve their posture and provides a good exercise to the child.
#4 Social Skills
Playing with clay helps improving social skills in the child development.
This is because the child is involved in
- Brainstorming
- Discussions
- Negotiations
- Dividing task
- Working together on projects
History of Clay Toys and games
India has a tradition of toys dating back 5000 years.
The Mesopotamian people are also known to have games made of clay.
They’re known as the inventors of the checkers game.
Kids played house making using miniature pieces of furniture such as stools, beds and small animals.
The oldest known clay toy is the clay circle.
They made a clay circle which was dried.
This circle had a hole in the middle.
A string was passed through the hole in the circle.
This was spun real fast on the rope to make a buzzing sound.
The kid who made the loudest buzzing sound won.
One another clay toy was a clay disc which had images of deer in different positions on either sides of it.
When this disk was spun, it makes dear look like it’s running.
Clay toys existed from a long long long time and this is one of the highly recommended toys for kids to develop imaginative play and lots of skills such a psychomotor skills, cognitive skills and social skills.
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5 Best Clay Toys for Kids
There are different ways in which kids can play with clay.
I love those kind of toys which can be moulded. Suggest the ones which can be made into jewellery, cooking utensils, houses.
There is clay available in the market which is suitable for kids age 3 years and above.
Some of the clay toys on exposure to air, while other varieties of clay need to be baked.
Making jewelry helps spark creativity. If your child loves to make things, is interested in making jewelry, this is fun.
#1 Clay Jewellery Making Kits
Not all kids can enjoy this activity.
Some kids hate sitting in one place. This activity requires patience.
Also remember to supervise.
#2 Air Dry Clay
Air drying clay is very easy to work with. Once the clay air dried it will hold its shape.
Look for an air dry clay with the following properties for your child
- Non toxic
- Does not include GMO
- Safe for people with food allergies
- Can be reused
- Holds Shape
- Comes with tools
- Has tutorials ( Not must but helpful )
You can take a look at this air clay which is safe and come with bags for reusable bags.
#3 Dough Clay
Dough clay can be made at home. It is used a lot in schools and by parents.
You must be familiar with playdoh.
Here’s what you need to look for
- No toxins
- No fumes ( as some can cause breathing difficulties)
- Easy to work with
- Retain shape
#4 Pottery
I love this concept. It’s a battery operated pottery wheel.
You can make real pottery.
It takes practice and clay needs to be malleable.
Make sure the clay is damp, use wet hands and do not put pressure on on the wheel or clay.
#5 Imagimake Fleximos Yummy Treats DIY Window Art
These clay stickers can be fun to make and stick.
You receive 3 stickers Ice cream, burger and cupcake.
You get 12 pouches of clay in 6 colours
Different Types of Clay for Clay Molding
There are so many types of clay. It is truly amazing.
For youn ger kids 3 years and older stick with playdoh or air-dry clay mentioned above.
My kids are experimenting with homemade clay.
For older kids let them make their own sculptures, mugs, jewelry using terracotta clay or polymer clay.
Some Activities for kids using Clay
Some really neat activities you can do at home or at school with kids.
These use real clay – clay activities for kids
I was looking at an article on early child care years by Mark Lim.
this article shows how we can use schemas to understand child’s play.
Using this information we can make the play interesting.
When you incorporate this into your child’s pla, your child will play for a longer time.
Schemas are an interesting way to make game time fun for your child.
It is being used in schools by teachers to make play time more meaningful for the child.
As per schemas let me give you examples of how your child can use it to make his play meaningful.
Let’s look at 7 schemas which I have found and how this can be used when playing with clay.
First you need to identify what kind of schema your child fits into.
A child can fit into more than one schema.
You might notice that the child may be transitioning in and out of various schemas which is perfectly ok.
Once you know that you can then decide on the best way to make playing with clay fun for your child.
| Schema | Is your child doing this? | How your child can use Clay |
| Transporting | A child fits into the schema if he or she likes moving things around. Picking things up Moving them and Putting them down or dumping them | . Moving clay from place to place |
| Transforming | The child likes materials which change shape, colour, consistency. | . Making dough . Clay hardening . Baking dough |
| Trajectory | Child likes to move toys things and toys. Horizontal Vertical Diagonal movement of things. | . Rolling clay . Banging . Hammering . Poking . Chopping . Mashing . Pouring . Sprinkling . Throwing clay |
| Rotation and Circulatory | Child like things that turn loves wheels and balls. He likes curved lines and circles. | . Mixing dough . Rolling dough . Making balls . Wheels . Whisking . Blending . Stirring |
| Enclosing and enveloping | Child likes to wrap things. Likes the cover things. Child likes to get intoe boxes. | . Wrapping clay around stones . Making clay caves . Wrap clay around objects . Covering cakes |
| Connecting | child likes joining things together. Child likes to tie things together | Go into bigger lumps. Joining clay with toothpicks |
| Disconnecting | child likes to take things apart and scatter them | Cutting play doh and clay |
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