Self-made Toys in Children's Games

AGNES VINCE-BAKONYI, HUNGARY

Hungarian kindergarten education attachesgreat importance to playas the basic activityof 3 to 6-year-olds. The textbooks for kinder­garten training deal, in special chapters, withthe educational value of play, the teachingof various types of play, the creation of play­ing conditions, and the principles of playdirection. Special attention is drawn to thenecessity of creating play periods severaltimes a day in kindergarten. We think itimportant that our children should playasmuch as possible, that they be engrossed init, and that this activity should become ahappy one. This is of primary importancenot only because we want children to have agood time in the kindergarten, but also be­cause play is considered to have great in­fluence on character formation.

Children develop through activity andtheir individuality is formed by it. Therefore,varied types of activities must be incorpor­ated in the curriculum if we want to developharmonious and many-sided individuals.Types of activities change to suit the differentage groups. As the child's personality devel­ops it requires varied kinds of major activityat each stage of development.

Playing is the most complicated type ofactivity for the child. All his other activitiesare based on it. Much that the child will takeup seriously in the years to come, e.g.studying, working, he does first of all within

the framework of play. Such activities,though clearly separated from play, oftenkeep the characteristics of play in themnevertheless. Therefore it seems importantfrom the point of view of the child's presentand future life that he should find pleasurein creative play.

In some of our kindergartens we foundthat the standard of play was not as high asit might have been. The play itself did notdevelop easily enough or it was too stereo­typed. We often found that playing becamesluggish and consequently children lost in­terest in it - life in the doll's house becamestereotyped - the dolls were fed, dressed,taken for walks. Structures made from build­ing blocks were always the same, they weredestroyed and rebuilt the same way over andover again. Eventually children either be­came passive and bored, or the more creativeones found unusual uses for the familiartoys, e.g. pots were used as microphones,dolls' beds for fences, round tables forwheels, etc. Symptoms like these indicatethat we must create more opportunities forthe children to use their imagination in ourkindergartens.

On the other hand directing play is a dif­ficult and complex task for a kindergartenteacher. It is complex because in spite ofdirection, the play has to retain its essence,the spontaneous initiative given by the chil-

16 SELF-MADE TOYS IN CHILDREN'S GAMES

dren themselves to it, it has to ensure thechildren's independence and give them anopportunity to express their own feelingsand moods. The teacher therefore cannotsuggest a game herself, nor is it desirablethat she prescribe the plot and choose theactors to take on the various parts. Sheshould not suggest the fixtures or tools whichshould be used nor the use which is to bemade of them. These rules must be kept,otherwise the children lose their initiative,the development of which was the primaryaim of playing.

We had to find the kind of play directionwhich will induce children to play morecreatively through using their imaginationand initiative. So we hit upon the idea ofjoining handicraft activities with play. Byhandicraft we mean the preparation of simpletoys from wood, paper, textiles or syntheticmaterials. By observing the children at playwe discovered that they found toy makingan exciting and challenging occupation.Their enthusiasm exceeded the actual pre­paration of objects and gave them many newideas for making up new games. They in­vented more exciting and more complicatedgames with their self-made toys.

On the basis of these experiences westarted experimenting systematically to findthe circumstances under which the self-madetoy becomes the instrument of more imagin­ative play. We wanted to find out what sortof environment the children needed to de­velop their creativity and not only theirmanual skill.*

Our experiment lasted for 2 years, and150 children aged 5 and 6 from 6 kinder­gartens participated in it. Handicraft activi­ties were organised in two ways: one groupof children made their toys during 'compul­sory activity' (by compulsory activity we

• The experiment was conducted by Dr. EndreneNuranyi Kovacs, Psychologist and Mrs. AndrewRonai, Teacher.

mean in our kindergartens the kind of ac­tivity when all the children are occupied byone specific thing, e.g. they learn poems, dosums, draw, sing, etc. This type of activity isdone under the supervision of a kindergartenteacher). The other group made their toyswhile they were allowed to play.

We shall not go into the details of theexperimental circumstances nor its method­ology. We similarly do not intend to describethe whole experiment or the effect it had onall the children. Our aim is to present onlythe essence of the experiment.

For those children who made their toyswithin the framework of compulsory activitya one year plan was made up. This planprescribed the objects which were to bemade, the materials to be used, and the worktechniques to be taught taking into con­sideration the stages of work complexity.According to the plan children were requiredto prepare toys under supervision during agiven period of time. The kindergartenteacher tried to arouse the children's interestwhile she prepared the sample toys herselfand told them that after they had made theirown toys they would be allowed to play withthem. By making this promise she made toyconstruction attractive to the children. Dur­ing the course of the handicraft activities,children made various objects, e.g. thermo­meters for dolls, ladders, fences, bridges forsand castles, aeroplanes, ships, doll beds, etc.The children's activity was observed fromspecial points of view, e.g. their interest inthe work, their participation, independence,in what they needed assistance, their reac­tions to the task and their attitude towardsthe finished toys.

The analysis of the diary which was keptduring the experiment can be summarised asfollows: the children were glad to start theproject, but the majority of them eitherasked for the teacher's help at the firstdifficulty or stopped altogether. We shalldescribe one activity in detail which can besaid to be typical. While the children made

SELF-MADE TOYS IN CHILDREN'S GAMES 17

the toy fence the kindergarten teacher helped24 out of the 30 in the group. Out of the 30only 6 children finished their work, 18 left itunfinished, 4 worked independently and 2not at all. Unsuccessful work did not moti­vate them to work better. As time passedthey became discouraged, and as a conse­quence the quality of their work declined. Itwas found that handicraft activities duringcompulsory activity developed chiefly man­ual skills. As the kindergarten teacher pre­pared a sample of each object for each child,this work neither stimulated the children'sthinking nor their imagination. Toys madethis way did not stimulate creative playeither. After a while children did not knowwhat to do with the mass of similar objects,e.g. 15-20 thermometers, ladders, etc. Inthis way the new toys became uninterestingto the children and did not inspire them toinvent new games. No matter how attractivethe aim of making the toys was, or howmuch the kindergarten teachers tried toarouse interest in the process of toy making,this type of activity did not promote themany-sided development of the children, nordid it enrich their play.

On the other hand when handicraft ac­tivity was combined with play, children'sreactions differed very much from the onesdescribed in the previous experiment. Foreach group of children a handicraft cornerwas set up consisting of a table, a tool shelfand a big box in which different materialswere put (wood, textiles, paper, syntheticmaterials, etc.). In addition to these, severalobjects were placed handily to help the chil­dren in their work. At the start of the ac­tivity the teachers watched the children atplay trying to find out what supplementarytoys they could use. When they found some,they suggested that the children make them.Subsequently when the children becameaccustomed to the idea of making toys forthemselves, the kindergarten teacher's rolewas reduced to giving additional ideas fortoy preparation and for their application in

games. In each instance the teachers en­couraged children to come forward with theirown ideas and to translate their ideas interms of toys. They did help with the actualmaking of toys, but always in a way whichwould encourage the children to developtheir own imagination. Kindergarten teachersdirected these handicraft activities the sameway as they would ordinary games. Theygave ideas and encouragement, but otherwisetried to ensure the greatest possible scopefor the children's independence.

We again observed the children's activitycontinuously from certain points of view. Wepaid special attention to their attitudes to­wards the task in general, the formation anddevelopment of collective work, the mani­festation of any technical thinking and thehandling of tools. The following conclusioncan be drawn from the several hundredrecords kept in diaries about the experimentand from the actual development of thechildren themselves: the children soon gotaccustomed to the idea of making small toysand supplementary objects themselves fromthe materials provided. The demand forthese toys arose from the games themselves.The desire to create new toys came from thechildren themselves, who used them to realisetheir own new ideas.

By using these new self-made toys in theirgames, the children obtained new ideas, oncemore making the games more of a real andpersonal experience. In these experimentalgroups playing became more complicatedand more dynamic. Play of this sort inspiredthe children to make more toys and theinteraction of handicraft activity with playthus enriched both. The anticipation of moreinteresting games increased the joy of toymaking as the children could clearly see thattheir work was useful and that their effortswere not in vain. All this filled them with asense of achievement. The children weremore strongly attached to their self-madetoys than to the ready made ones. Thisseemed to us a perfectly natural sentiment.

18 LE ROLE DES JOUETS FAIT PAR LES ENFANTS

They were extraordinarily fond of the ob­jects which they made according to their ownideas and in connection with which theyexperienced the joy of creation. After a whilethe children associated the love towardstheir new toys with the games in which theyused them. The joy they found in their playand the sense of usefulness in their workpermeated their whole community and thechildren on the whole demonstrated a higherdegree of cooperation than it would be ex­pected from their age group.

We experienced that when handicraft ac­tivities are carried out in conjunction withplay, the work part of the activity retainsmuch of the happy mood of the play whichpreceded it and contains the anticipation ofthe one to follow. In this way when workactivity is placed between two periods ofplay, the work takes over some play charac­teristics, e.g. initiative, independence, crea­tivity, free play of imagination and the joyof absorption in it. We also experienced thatthis kind of. handicraft activity had a verygood influence on so called problem childrenbecause they reacted favourably to the ac­tive, happy mood of the group and to theexcitement of expectation. Aggressive, over-

active or short-tempered children couldadapt better to their companions during thistype of activity as the observation of andcooperation in each other's work brings withit the necessity of subordinating their will toothers and keeping a check on their moodsand tempers.

Handicraft activity joined with play hada positive attraction for shy, retiring, lonelychildren. In many cases this kind of childstarted to make something on his own whichcould be used by the others as well. When hereceived encouragement and appreciationfrom his companions he became capable ofmaking more complex and more difficultobjects and could join in the activity ofother children and no longer be isolatedfrom the community.

The final conclusion of our experimentcan be summed up as follows: handicraftactivity and play have the most positiveeffect on the different types of children whenthe handicraft activity is motivated by play.We found that this work especially adaptedto the requirements of 3 to 6-year-old chil­dren could make their life in kindergartencheerful and happy.

ResumeLe role des jouets faits par les enfants dans les jeux de ceux-ci

Le jeu joue un role important dans l'educationprescolaire en Hongrie, tant par le plaisir qu'ilprocure a l'enfant que par son influence sur laformation de son caractere. Des jeux differentssont necessaires aux differents stades du developpe­ment de la personnalite. Le jeu a certaines carac­teristiques communes avec le travail et les etudesfutures; aussi importe-t-il que Ie jeu createurengendre le plaisir. Dans certains jardins d'enfants,on a constate que le jeu etait si stereotype etrepetitif que les enfants s'ennuyaient et etaientdevenus passifs. Les jardins faisant exceptionetaient ceux oil l'on savait utiliser les jouets fami-

liers de facon originale. La jardiniere etait tenue dereduire au minimum les directives donnees auxenfants, pour permettre a ceux-ci de faire preuvedu maximum d'imagination et d'initiative. A cettefin on a eu l'idee d'associer le jeu et le travailmanuel. En confectionnant des jouets simples al'aide de bois, papier et etoffe, les enfants inven­taient de nouveaux jeux. A partir de ces observa­tions, on s'est livre a une experience, qui a duredeux ans et interesse 150 enfants ages de 5 a 6 ans,frequentant 6 jardins d'enfants. Deux conceptionsdu travail manuel se trouvaient en presence. Ungroupe d'enfants confectionnait les jouets durant

JUGUETES AUTODIDACTICOS EN EL JUGAR DE NII'IOS 19

la periode d'activites dirigees, On leur avait ditqu'ils pourraient jouer avec les jouets une foisceux-ci termines. Mais cela ne les a pas incites itterminer leurs jouets plus vite, ni it les utiliser defacon creative. L'autre groupe a mene de front Ietravail manuel et Ie jeu: on confectionnait lesjouets quand on en avait besoin pour un jeuqu'on venait d'inventer. Plusieurs centaines d'ob­servations ont ete consignees au cours de l'experi­ence. II en est ressorti que Ie premier groupe avait

surtout fait des progres au point de vue de ladexterite manuelle, alors que Ie 2eme groupe avaitelabore une facon de jouer beaucoup plus dyna­mique et complexe, assortie d'un fort attachementaux jouets fabriques par ses soins. La joie trouveedans Ie jeu s'etait communiquee au travail fait enclasse. Le programme du U:me groupe avait etebenefique aux enfants-problemes. Les enfantsagressifs comme les enfants timides s'etaient trou­yes encourages it participer et cooperer.

ResumenJuguetes autodidacticos en el jugar de niiios

EI jugar es una parte muy importante en la educa­cion en jardines de infancia en Hungria, por elplacer que Ie da a los nifios, y su importancia enla formaci6n del caracter, EI jugar, y los lab ores yestudios futuros, poseen algunas caracteristicas encomun: asi el placer en jugar creativamente esimportante. En algunos jardines de infancia eljugar se encontro demasiado estereotipado y repeti­tivo con los nifios pasivos y pesados. Las excep­ciones fueron los nifios que emplearon jugnetesfamiliares en modos desacostumbrados. Se pidi6a la maestra de los jardines de infancia que inter­viniese 10 menos posible en los juegos, para quela iniciativa e imaginaci6n de los niiios pudiesetener rienda suelta. Para este fin naci6 la idea dejuntar el trabajo manual y el juego. En haciendojuguetes sencillos de madera, papel y tela los nifiosinventaron juegos nuevos. Sobre las bases de estasobservaciones, un experimento fue conducido pordos afios, con 150 nifios de edades 5 y 6, en 6

jardines de nifios, Las actividades de trabajo ma­nual fueron organizadas en dos modos. Un grupode nifios hizo juguetes durante «actividadescompulsorias». Fueron informados que podianjugar con los juguetes cuando estuviesen acabados.Este metodo no les di6 el incentivo de acabar lasconstrucciones ni se aprovecharon creativamentede ellos. EI otro grupo combine el trabajo manualcon el juego. Juguetes fueron hechos cuandohacian falta para un juego inventado. Se guardaronvarios cientos de datos del experimento. Se descu­brio que el primer grupo adqueri6 habilidadesmanuales, pero el grupo segundo adqueri6 unjuego mucho mas dinamico y complicado con unafecto mas hondo hacia los juguetes que habianhecho ellos mismos. EI gozo que se encontr6 en eljugar fue incluido en sus labores. EI grupo se­gundo fue beneficial para niiios problematicos,Los nifios agresivos y timidos fueron incitados aparticipar y co-operar,