Tasks for Nikitin's cubes - fold the pattern. Methodological development (middle group) on the topic: Didactic game “Fold the pattern.” Intellectual games of the Nikitins

Every parent wants his child to be the very best, if not in all possible areas, then at least in one. There are many methods to achieve this goal, so choosing a specific one will not be easy. Spouses Boris and Elena Nikitin developed a system of education based on the experience of their children, whom they tried to develop through games.

A little about the creation of the system by Boris and Elena Nikitin

Boris and Lena Nikitin created the method in the process of raising their own children, of whom there were seven born in the family. Since the system began back in 1957, it is difficult to imagine what kind of public censure its authors had to face, who, despite Soviet principles, raised their children according to their own rules.

Much of what the Nikitins were innovators in does not surprise anyone today: natural childbirth, immediate breastfeeding, feeding on demand. The sight of children running in their underwear in the snow provoked a sea of criticism, even despite the facts that spoke in favor of such upbringing: children’s good health, high level of intelligence, development ahead of their peers for several years. But the Soviet Union was known for the fact that any action that went beyond the norms and boundaries was doomed to condemnation by society, no matter how weighty the arguments were for the person committing it. The authors deserve enormous respect for such innovation alone.

The principle on which the entire methodology is based: do not interfere, but help the child develop.

Boris Nikitin put forward the theory that any abilities in a child can be pushed to development if done in time. And he considered the most appropriate time to start classes with a baby not even the infant period, but the perinatal period. According to this theory, human abilities that do not receive an impetus for development at the right time inevitably fade away and cannot be developed in the future.

And if these abilities (intellectual and other) are not activated early, then later they will “die out” - as unnecessary...
B. Nikitin
http://nikitiny.ru/intellektualnoe_razvitie

At school, not a single teacher would think of assigning a problem without first explaining how to solve it. This means that at school the child will encounter almost no tasks that can advance him in the development of his creative abilities, and he has less and less free time, until by the time he reaches high school there is none left at all.(…)
From the standpoint of the new hypothesis, the fact of the mass “production” of lagging behind and second-year students in orphanages, in orphanages and in “week-long” kindergartens is also completely explainable. Here, good supervision of the child and a particularly firm daily routine are of greatest importance, in which the baby does not need to solve new problems (...)
B. Nikitin
http://nikitiny.ru/NUVERS

Yes, this confirms that an education system built in this way does not accustom a person to the main thing - to learn and cognize, ask questions and find answers to them, but has a detrimental effect on abilities and basic development. As a result, there is not only creative degradation, but also personal degradation.

Factors contributing to early development (according to the system)

The Nikitins believed that natural development is the best option for a child, but in most modern families it is artificially inhibited. In such cases, it is not the needs of the baby that are taken as the basis, but the stereotypical thinking of adults. Parents believe that they know when the baby is supposed to master this or that skill, and they forbid him to perform some actions under the pretext of “it’s too early,” while, on the contrary, they impose others because they are sure that “it’s already time.”

It is still common to encounter parents, and more often grandparents, who panic if a four-month-old baby tries to assume an upright position. According to the norms, a child should sit independently at the age of six months. The Nikitins did not follow this approach, giving children the opportunity to develop ahead of established standards.

The child is given great freedom of action. There is no compulsion to study as such. Children study and practice as much as they want.
The physical development of a child is no less important than his education. It is important to have a sports corner, hardening, and no restrictions on playing sports.
The indispensable participation of adults in children's activities: games, competitions, creative processes. A child needs to feel his parents’ concern for his successes, but at the same time he should not feel pressure and specific requirements for his abilities.

Pros and cons of the technique

Despite all the controversial issues that may arise in the process of studying the Nikitin system, practice shows that there are undoubted advantages of it. Even methods such as hardening, which still seems radical to many, give consistent results.

Children raised according to the Nikitins' method are distinguished by good health and endurance.
Development occurs much earlier, and the mental abilities of children are not limited by a given program, as can be observed in children raised according to standard principles. A way of thinking is formed that solves problems, both mathematical and everyday.
Living conditions, everyday life - everything is arranged and distributed in such a way that it is easy for parents and children to fulfill their responsibilities and no one feels overloaded.

The system also has a number of disadvantages:

since children who are ahead of their peers in development think differently, do not go to kindergarten, and attend school on a non-standard schedule (external education), it is difficult for them to be in society and make friends;
methods of hardening children seem barbaric and cruel to most parents;
the technique is designed for the almost constant presence of children with parents who, as a result, do not have time for themselves;
The system does not take into account the instillation of spiritual values in a child.

In an attempt to answer the controversial question of the correctness of the education system, the film “Are We Right” was made.

Film "Are We Right" - video

Principles of the method in raising children under one year old

The goal of the technique, designed for children under one year of age, is to create the most necessary conditions for the child. This age is more characterized by physiological development, which is the basis for further growth of intelligence. The beginning of the implementation of the Nikitin methods is not even infancy, not childbirth, but all the time from the moment of conception.

Fundamental nuances of development up to one year

Family atmosphere. Every child should be desired and raised in love and harmony between parents.
Pregnancy. During this period, certain conditions must be observed: abstinence from nicotine, alcohol and medications, an active lifestyle for the expectant mother, and mandatory communication with the fetus.
Childbirth. They should take place without the use of medications, preferably at home. Attachment to the breast occurs immediately after birth (even before the placenta comes out).
Feeding the baby. Until the first tooth erupts, the baby should receive only breast milk and clean water. Feeding occurs on demand. From the very beginning of introducing complementary foods, there is no need to heat food to a certain temperature.
Contact with mother. From birth to one and a half years, the child should have contact with his mother as often as possible, including the night period (sleeping together).
Congenital reflexes. In no case should the development of motor reflexes (crawling, grasping, swimming, attempts to sit independently, walk) be prevented, no matter how early they appear.
An environment conducive to development. Sports equipment is a natural household item. Availability of construction sets, manipulative games, office supplies (paints, pencils, plasticine, etc.) in constant access.
Freedom in knowledge. Do not limit the child’s movement or crawling. Playpen - maximum for an hour a day.
Hardening. From birth, after bathing in warm water, it is necessary to pour cool water over either the entire body or just the baby’s legs.
Sleeping in the air. In any weather, in any frost, daytime sleep should take place in the fresh air.
Lack of sterility. Cleaning the premises is very basic. No special sterility.
Hygiene. In addition to standard daily bathing, the Nikitins trained children to use the toilet from birth, sitting them over a basin even at night.
Lightweight clothing. It should not hinder movements. At home, where the temperature is about +20 degrees, children walk barefoot and in underwear. Infants do not wear hats indoors; their bodies are exposed to air as much as possible. At the same time, open windows are normal.
Safety precautions. The best way to let a child understand that an object is dangerous is to allow him to come into contact with it. You will not be able to control your baby 24 hours a day and protect him from, for example, spilling boiling water from a kettle on himself. But if the baby touches something hot and gets a slight pain, he will definitely remember the danger.

As you can see, Nikitin’s methods of raising his children under one year old seem cruel and unsafe. Many modern parents cannot imagine that their child can be outside at a temperature of +10 without a warm hat and full winter gear. Of course, you can panic at the sight of a baby licking a rattle that you washed with soap an hour ago, but you can look at the facts. The facts are that in practice, the Nikitin children always had good health and were ahead of their peers in development.

Nikitin system for preschoolers

The preschoolers raised by the authors of the system were at a developmental level of at least second grade. By the age of about five, kids were solving mathematical equations and reading, without their parents teaching them much of what the children could do. The younger ones learned some skills from the older ones, and learned some on their own. This is precisely the essence of education according to Nikitin: the child should not be given knowledge, but should be encouraged to obtain it himself.

You can agree with the Nikitins’ method or not, but you cannot ignore the facts: children who are raised according to this method are superior to their peers in everything.

Nuances of the Nikitin system for preschoolers

Sport. It is mandatory to have a sports complex in the house with various difficulty levels. Not interfering with activities, but helping with them.
Early learning. Reading and counting are available to children much earlier than is commonly assumed. It is necessary to have the necessary materials in the house: the alphabet, abacus, geographical maps. All this should be at the child’s disposal at any time.
Teaching children by children. If there is more than one child in a family (or the methodology is taken as the main one in a preschool educational institution), then the older children teach the younger ones what they themselves already know. As practice shows, they can be even better teachers than adults.
The time spent attending general school is kept to a minimum. The option of studying externally is practiced.
Labor training. There is a place in the house where children can make and invent from scrap materials. The tools must be real. Safety precautions are best learned through practice. These conditions are observed from infancy.
An example set by adults. The task of the parent (educator) in this case is to convey to the child passion for the activity in which he is engaged. The adult acts as a guru and master of his craft.
Involving the child in the creative process. Anything can serve as a creative activity: any handicraft, drawing, modeling.
Involvement in housework. A child, even a very small one, has clear responsibilities. They must correspond to gender, age, and physical development. The requirements for the quality of the work done are as high as if it was done by adults. Labor is rewarded.
Respect for the child and his opinion. It manifests itself not only in words, but also in deeds. The attitude towards the baby should not be as a fool, but as a person, albeit a small one.
Focus on developing thinking. The child is given problems without an explanation for their solution. He learns not to perform actions according to a given pattern, but to independently obtain knowledge. Figuratively speaking, there is no need to force the child to learn the law of universal attraction, but to give him the opportunity to act as Newton himself and discover it.
Planning time for work, rest and training. The process of learning new things should be the same norm as eating and resting without a break for holidays and weekends. But time needs to be distributed in such a way that the child does not get tired and does not feel overloaded.
Brainstorm. Collective problem solving without restrictions or criticism.
Hardening. As for children, it involves light clothing and playing in the fresh air.
Mind games. They were developed by Boris Nikitin, have a large number of difficulty levels and contribute to the intellectual development of children, but will also be interesting for many adults.

If the child does not cope with the game task assigned to him right away, then you need to try later, but do not try to prompt and help. This rule applies to all Nikitin games.

Nikitin games and their descriptions - table

Name of the game	Description
	The essence of this game is to create patterns from 16 identical cubes, each face of which is painted in a different color. Some of the sides are bicolor (diagonally painted in two different colors). There are several difficulty options: according to given patterns, the child must reproduce the drawing; draw a diagram based on the drawing; come up with your own drawings that are not among the diagrams. The game develops thinking skills, the ability to analyze and combine. It can be offered to children as young as one year old.
	This game has 7 figures, each of which consists of several cubes. They are similar to the well-known Tetris, but not on a plane, but in space. “Cubes for Everyone” teaches you to think in three-dimensional images and take into account not just one possible side, but several options when solving a problem. They are suitable for children aged two years and older.
	The game consists of 12 circles, each of which is divided into a different number of equal parts and colored in its own color. They are in a special box. The child's task is to open it, pour out the contents, and then put all the circles first on the surface and then into the box. This game gives a clear understanding of what fractions are, how one whole is divided into several parts. Practice shows that children are able to assimilate such information at the age of 3-4 years, therefore, there is no point in delaying its acquisition until the third grade.
Hundreds Table	This is a fairly simple game, but not an easy one. It looks like a table where numbers from 1 to 100 are arranged in columns and rows of 10 each. Each row is marked with a certain number of black dots. The game teaches children to quickly memorize numbers, and then quickly add numbers in different rows, solve problems of varying complexity, and subsequently come up with new ones.
	The game looks like a watch made from scrap materials. She teaches kids to determine the correct time, calculate the number of minutes and seconds in different time intervals.
	This game was designed as a math test. It consists of 44 squares of four colors: on green, the dots are arranged linearly; on blue - along a triangle; on red - in a circle with a dot in the center; Numbers are drawn on white. The game comes with tasks of varying complexity that develop logical thinking and teach the child to count quickly.
	This game consists of 27 cubes, the edges of which are painted in a certain way in different colors. It is very functional, and the tasks offered are divided into many levels of difficulty. The game will be useful for a child because it will teach him to think in several directions at once, develop modeling skills and teach him to cope with difficult tasks. Unicube is recommended for children aged two years and older.
	This game is essentially puzzle-like. But you need to fold not a picture, but squares that are cut into unequal parts of various shapes and painted in different colors. There are 24 of them in total. This game can be offered to children as young as one year old. The game makes you realize that from parts, sometimes bizarre shapes, you can put together one whole. Teaches you to classify objects by color.

Educational games developed by the Nikitins - photo gallery

The game provides a clear understanding of what fractions are and how one whole is divided into several parts.
“Cubes for Everyone” teaches you to think in three-dimensional images and take into account not just one possible side when solving a problem, but several options at once. Folding patterns develops thinking skills, the ability to analyze and combine Dots develop logical thinking and teach children to count quickly
Nikitin's watches teach kids to navigate time
Unicube will teach your child to think in several directions at once, develop modeling skills and teach him to cope with difficult tasks. “Fold a square” makes you realize that parts, sometimes of a bizarre shape, can be put together into one whole; it teaches you to classify objects by color.

DIY Nikitin cubes

Nikitin's cubes are most widespread. Such seemingly simple, but in practice very interesting games are designed for children of different ages and can be exciting for adults as well. They are quite expensive in stores, but they are easy to make with your own hands.

You can make such a game yourself. To do this you will need 16 wooden cubes of the same size. They must be clean, dry and free from roughness. They need to be painted or covered with colored paper. The sides should look like this:

white edge (front);
yellow (back);
blue (right);
red (left);
diagonally yellow-blue (top);
diagonally red and white (bottom).

From the cubes you need to put together pictures according to given patterns, of which there are a very large number. Such patterns can resemble geometric shapes, people, or animals.

Sample pictures for the game “Fold the Pattern” - photo gallery

Snowflake pattern
Pattern "Grandfather"
Yellow-blue Christmas trees
Pattern "Rhombuses"
Tricolor pattern
Hourglass pattern

Review of cubes “Fold the pattern” - video

This game is also easy to make. All you need is 27 cubes, which will later be glued into the various shapes shown in the photo. In order for the toy to turn out correctly, they must be the same.

Alena Gadyatskaya
Educational game “Fold the pattern” (Nikitin cubes)

Target: Improve theoretical knowledge and practical skills of teachers in development creative abilities of the child through the use educational games.

Equipment: Nikitin cubes, scheme- patterns: house, boat, hook, lightning, Christmas tree, lanterns, candy, parquet, fish, forest, clearing.

Plan:

1. Introductory part.

Announcement of the topic and purpose of the master class. Contents of the master class as a whole and its individual components.

2. Theoretical part.

Usage educational game« Fold the pattern» V development abilities of children 5-6 years old in the ZPR group.

3. Practical part.

Conducting a simulation game with fairy tale listeners "Gold fish".

Modeling: composing a fairy tale on a topic.

4. Reflection of the master class participants. Summarizing.

Dear colleagues! Today I want to present my experience in topic: « Educational game« Fold the pattern» Nikitin cubes».

Any games only give results when kids play with pleasure, with interest. This interest in educational games, to the intellectual tension that they necessarily require, and it is necessary develop in children. Exactly develop, because he himself does not appear from anywhere. In addition, there is one pattern: the more some quality has been developed, the more thirsty for its manifestation.

This is how the child’s mind asks for activity. Therefore, it is very important to let him get stronger and know the joy of success, the joy of overcoming difficulties - and as early as possible.

The first condition for success is a smile, joy, praise, sincere interest in the child’s progress, in the growth of his strength. At the same time, of course, we must not forget that overpraising—praise that is not deserved—can also cause harm. You always need to be able to show the child, as it were, the reserve of his capabilities, what can be done even better.

You are fast today folded the pattern, faster than yesterday. And if you try harder, it can turn out even better.

What do you think you did especially well today?

What else didn’t quite work out?

All this supports the child’s interest in the game, in moving forward, in improving...

But this interest can easily be dulled not only by a little pressure, coercion, but even simply "overdoing it", bringing the game to the point where it became boring.

You need to end the game as soon as the first sign of loss of interest in it flashes, but promise that tomorrow or... another time we let's play more"so that there is a pleasant prospect ahead - tomorrow's joy.

Creation develops and creative forces grow stronger only where there is freedom to express them. But this does not mean that you just have to wait for the child to have a desire. play. We must organize this desire, awaken it, create the conditions for its emergence.

Basic Rule educational games:

An adult should not carry out a task for a child, should not prompt him with a word, a gesture, or a look. While performing a task, even comments should not be abused. type: "Aw...", or "Hm" etc. It is necessary to refrain from such comments during the game, when the child has not yet completed the next task. Why are they undesirable?

It must be said that at the beginning, when the baby is just getting acquainted with the game, such emotional remarks even help: approving - inspire, critical - encourage you to work more carefully. But then it is better to gradually abandon them, because the child begins to judge his actions more not by the results of his work, but by the comments of others. And this will lead to the fact that the child will not have develop self-control. After the next step in solving the problem, he will begin to look at you: whether you smile or frown. And if this becomes the main criterion in his assessment of his own actions, then self-control and introspection are replaced by the desire to simply guess how others feel about it.

Very often, wanting to instill something in a child, they stubbornly and obsessively repeat the same thing to him. There is no better way to achieve the exact opposite result. And vice versa, a ban, inaccessibility always arouses interest and a desire to find out what it is. This principle should also be used in games too. It is forbidden developing transform games into ordinary, always accessible toys. A game becomes accessible, familiar and loses its attractiveness. That is why, after playing, everything must be carefully laid out and put in a place inaccessible to the child, but still in such a way that a game was visible to the child himself. In children, a lot depends on chance; a thing caught my eye - I wanted to take it and play, but if you don’t get caught, you might forget about it for a long time.

It is better to start the game with tasks that are easy enough for the child so that he feels satisfaction from successful work. But then he got to a difficult task and, despite all his efforts, today he did not overcome it. What about tomorrow? Should we start with this difficult one? No, it's better to try to take the obstacle "overclocked", that is, start the game with easier ones or with tasks that have already been overcome and only at the end approach the difficult, yet insurmountable ones. Method "icebreaker" must be used in educational games, because it instills in the child faith in his own strength and teaches independence. Well, what if the method "icebreaker" doesn’t help, it’s better to just skip the stubborn task and take one of the next ones that come after, but not always necessarily more difficult. And, finally, there is another way out of this difficult situation - leave this game for a new hobby. Playing other games, the child grows, gains strength, and in a month or two he can overcome a task that was once impossible for him on the first try. And in such difficult cases, the adult has the responsibility, firstly, to praise the child for what has already been achieved, and secondly, to maintain good spirits for the future and explain that no one succeeds right away, and even his dad at his age has not yet could solve such difficult problems.

Any game requires a relaxed, free environment, when all attention is focused on the game itself, and not on “sit down properly.” Play not necessarily at the table, but also on the floor, and not only sitting, but lying on your stomach, whichever is more comfortable.”

All of the above can be summarized in several rules:

1. A game should bring joy.

2. Get your child interested in playing, but don’t force him play, don’t finish your classes games until you're fed up.

3. Children must do all tasks independently. Be patient and do not suggest with a word, a sigh, a gesture, or a look. Let's give you the opportunity to think and do everything yourself and find mistakes too. Rising gradually and coping with more and more difficult tasks, the child develops your creative abilities.

4. Be sure to start with feasible tasks.

5. If a child cannot cope with a task, then you are overestimating his level development. Take a break, and after a few days, start with easier tasks.

6. Children's hobbies come "waves" therefore, when a child’s interest in the game cools down, "forget" about the game for a month or two, and then "accidentally" let the baby remember her.

7. Take care of the game, do not put it on par with other toys in terms of accessibility. After all, the forbidden fruit is sweet, and it is better if the child asks for it or offers it himself play. Let them stand in a visible, but not very accessible place.

8. Liven up the game with a fairy tale or story, let's "names" patterns, invent, fantasize, until the child begins to be captivated by the very process of overcoming difficulties in solving problems.

9. Create a relaxed atmosphere in the game. Do not restrain your child’s motor activity so that you can jump with delight and do somersaults on the mat.

Definitely unsystematic, occasional use developing games will not bring positive results. So I try to include developing games and direct educational activities. Developmental games turn every activity into a fairy tale. While playing, children gain self-confidence and gain knowledge, which leads to positive child's personality development, development his creative abilities. Developmental games are another method of communicating with a child, fundamentally different from the usual showing, telling, explaining, repeating, i.e. teaching. Special qualities of the mind, such as observation, the ability to compare and analyze, combine, find connections and patterns - all this constitutes creative abilities. IN educational games Children's thinking, observation, and attention improve. When organizing developing games, I paid attention to the fact that the number of children did not exceed 4-6 people, so that each child had the opportunity play, study. The most important condition for mastering new knowledge is the child’s interest in the game tasks that adults can offer him. Excessive didacticism, excessive persistence in one's pedagogical efforts - all this is unacceptable when working with children.

Experience working with children with special needs shows that the program tasks outlined in one lesson cannot be mastered by the child the first time. Tasks during the game become more complicated.

At the beginning of the school year, children are individually tested using various exercises and didactic games that most fully show the level of knowledge of the children. Based on the results of pedagogical observations and after analyzing the adaptation sheets and the health sheet, a long-term work plan for the current academic year is drawn up. In addition to the long-term plan, approximate notes for each lesson were compiled. In any lesson using developing games there are unlimited possibilities for development creative abilities of children, educational problems are solved. Children learn to act together, purposefully, overcome difficulties, bring things to an end, and solve the tasks assigned to them.

(Application : diagnostics, long-term plan)

I invite you to plunge into a fairy tale kingdom Nikitin cubes.

"The Tale of the Goldfish"

Once upon a time there were 7 princesses. They had a big and cozy HOUSE and a huge dream - to hold a GOLDFISH in their hands. And then one day they went in search of their dreams. Their path lay through a dense and dark FOREST. Each princess lit her LANTERN so as not to go astray... and after a few minutes they found themselves in a beautiful FLOWER meadow, where multi-colored BUTTERFLIES fluttered under the rays of the sun. A magic LADDER helped them go down to the river. They got into the BOAT and sailed away. The princesses were so enchanted by the beauty of the surrounding nature that they did not notice how a GOLDFISH swam up to the boat. All the princesses made a wish and sent the fish home. And they began to live happily ever after!

Playing Thus, children will learn to understand diagrams, recognize real objects in abstract drawings, come up with the plot of a fairy tale, story, learn develop the plot, use different types of sentences in speech.

And now a task for you, dear Colleagues:

Compose the plot of a fairy tale using the following patterns-tasks:

OPTION 1: HOUSE, BOAT, HOOK, ZIPPER.

OPTION 2: TREE, LANTERNS, CANDY, PARQUET.

Thank you for your attention!

Fold the pattern (SU)

The game consists of 16 identical cubes. All 6 faces of each cube are colored differently in 4 colors. This allows you to create 12-, 3-, and even 4-color patterns from them in a huge number of options. These patterns resemble the contours of various objects and paintings, which children like to give names to. When playing with blocks, children perform 3 types of tasks.

First, they learn to put together exactly the same pattern from cubes using task patterns. Then they set the opposite task: looking at the cubes, draw the pattern that they form. And, finally, the third thing is to come up with new patterns from 9 or 16 cubes, which are not yet in the book, i.e. perform creative work.

Using a different number of cubes and different not only in color, but also in shape (squares and triangles) of the cubes, you can change the difficulty of tasks in an unusually wide range.

This game well develops children's ability to analyze and synthesize, these important mental operations used in almost all intellectual activities, and the ability to combine, necessary for design work.

How to make a game

To play you need 16 wooden cubes measuring 30x30x30 mm (35 and 40 are possible). If they are covered with paper, then place them in a basin and pour boiling water over them. After 30-40 seconds the glue will become wet and the paper will come off easily. Lay out the clean cubes loosely in one layer and place them on a cabinet or on a radiator to dry thoroughly. The next day, they can be cleaned with fine sandpaper to remove glue and paper residues, and especially the rough end faces. In the “Homemade Cubes” sets they are not covered with paper, but you still need to clean them.

Mark the clean cubes with a sharpened pencil, drawing the diagonals as accurately as possible. The diagonals lie on opposite faces, they are parallel, and they should not be placed at the ends.

The coloring order is shown in Fig. 1:

the front edge is white (shown transparent in the figure),

the back edge is yellow,

right side is blue,

the left side is red,

the top edge is yellow-blue,

the bottom edge is red and white.

It is best to paint cubes with nitro paints; they dry quickly (1-2 hours) and are very durable. Only the tones of paints need to be chosen pure and such that they match the color of the task patterns.

Technical oil paints take longer to dry (up to 1-2 days), but artistic oil paints must be thinned with colorless oil varnish (technical), otherwise drying will take months.

If the cubes cannot be painted, you can cover them with colored paper, but then the quality and durability will be incomparably lower. For the cubes you need a cardboard box measuring 125x125x30 mm with a lid. Make sure that the cubes fit into it freely and that the lid is put on with little friction. In such a box it is not only convenient to hold and store cubes, but also to fold series B patterns (of 16 cubes).

The assignment patterns in the book are made in 1:6 life-size, and for preschoolers they need to be enlarged. It is better to increase the SU-A series to natural size so that the baby can cover the pattern with cubes, and the rest - up to 1:2 or as the parents deem necessary.

It is convenient to make them on drawing paper, on separate sheets of 100×100 mm or 100×150 mm (for long patterns). The task patterns themselves can be drawn with paints, but it is better to stick on a pattern cut out of colored paper (appliqué method).

Separate series of tasks can be placed in bags made of thick paper with large letters A, B, C, D, E pasted or drawn on them, indicating the series.

If you want the order of tasks not to be disturbed, then you can make an accordion book from each series or from its parts. The simplest patterns-tasks of series A are made up of 4 cubes; they can be given to children starting from 1-2 years old. The complication of patterns occurs gradually, but this gradualness, of course, is relative, and the transition from one-color edges to two-color ones (you will see this when playing with your baby) is a sharp jump in the level of complexity. It can be smoothed, including tasks from other series, but with single-color edges, the patterns of which are easier to create.

In Fig. 2-8, you can choose this sequence yourself, knowing your child’s capabilities from previous games. From these drawings you can determine which of the patterns is lost and prepare a new one. On them you can mark those tasks that the baby is already coping with, and see those that have not yet “obeyed” him. In the same drawings, some names of the patterns are given: “flower”, “saw”, “boat”, but it is not necessary to immediately tell them to the child. To develop the child’s imagination, you can show a pattern-task, put together a pattern of cubes and invite the child to think about what this pattern looks like. Kids prefer their “names” and, so as not to forget, they can be written down in the book next to the printed ones.

Patterns - CS tasks

Series SU A

SU B series

SU V series

SU G series

SU D series

We start to play

The method of play depends on the child’s age and level of development. Children aged 1.5-2 years have developed the ability to copy, to “become monkeys”, they love to do as their elders do. If I hammer nails, then Lyuba, who is 1 year 3 months old, pulls her little hand towards the hammer and says “Dam... dam” (give me!) until I give her a small wooden or plastic hammer. Then she begins to knock with this hammer exactly like me, and sometimes even on the same board that I knock on. But she still doesn’t ask for a nail; small things, small drawings still don’t attract her. It’s this baby’s ability to grasp the big, the most important, the most noticeable thing that needs to be used.

In addition, you need to remember your first impressions of the game. It doesn’t matter at all how you poured the cubes onto the table for the first time. If you open the lid in front of your baby and - boom! - they poured all the cubes onto the table at once with a roar so that they scattered to the sides, and the baby even flinched in surprise, then don’t be surprised later when the most favorite activity becomes exactly the same “thump!” cubes from a box, rather than building "trains" or "towers" of them.

Mothers sometimes even complain: “I don’t know what to do with Vladik. He only likes to throw them around. So he scatters the cubes and leaves, he takes toys out of the box and throws them around the room. I don’t have time to clean up after him.” And the whole point is that neither dad, nor mom, nor the teacher in the nursery where Vladik goes, thought about WHAT is stored in Vladik’s memory when he first encounters “the way to handle blocks” or toys. And this “method of scattering” is also reinforced every time Vladik scatters something himself, and his mother follows him and collects it. Therefore, we try not to demonstrate such undesirable ways of handling cubes. I can bring Lyubochka to the cubes that are already lying in disarray and begin to put things in order, or I take them out of the box neatly one after another and immediately build a “path”, or a square, or a “train” out of them. Lyuba is surprised: Dad’s “blue train” is working well, and I, doing “Tut-tut...y!”, move it slowly to the opposite edge of the table or rug. And I don’t hide my joy if Lyuba also succeeds in “training” (even if not entirely successfully at first) or Lyuba has learned to find the red side on the cubes (for now, only one red side, and no other) and puts all the cubes in the box with the red side up, never tired of repeating: “Kas-kas” (i.e. red). And if Lyuba managed to put even the last cube into the box herself (it can still be very difficult for a one and a half to two year old baby to do this), rocking the cube from side to side and pushing a place for it among the rest, then... grabbing my daughter’s armpits, I throw her to the ceiling itself and catch it on the fly. Lyubochka adores these upward flights and therefore also laughs, is also happy, and the next day, having again completed the task of laying all the cubes with the red side up, Lyuba herself, beaming joyfully, comes to me, raising her little hands and as if saying: “Dad, throw me up like yesterday. I put all the cubes in a box and it’s all messy.”

But if the baby is already 3-4 years old, he knows colors and can find the right edge and appreciate the beauty of the pattern, then before giving him the game, choose the most attractive, in your opinion, pattern-task of series B or D and fold in advance according to This pattern has cubes in a box. When opening a box of blocks for the first time, your baby will admire the pattern with you.

Do you think we will learn how to make the same beautiful patterns from cubes?

Of course, we will learn, he has no doubt.

Then place the “path” pattern SU-A1 in front of the baby and think out loud:

I wonder how quickly you can cope with such a task or whether you will have to tinker for a long time? Make a picture out of cubes of exactly the same color!

Fu... nonsense! There you go! - this is how most kids usually answer bravely, assuming that since the first task was easy, then the next one will be the same.

Indeed, the second and third tracks are even faster than the first, and it’s okay if the length is not measured exactly. True, it is easy to check the accuracy of the length, but approach this delicately. Let's say that instead of 4 cubes he took 3.

Don't you think the path is shorter than in the picture? Let's compare!

And it’s better if in this case the baby takes the entire “path” of cubes at once and covers the pattern with it. The deficiency of one cube will be immediately visible, and he will correct it.

Now it turned out exactly, without error, you praise him. And so, encouraging the baby, move from pattern to pattern, carefully noticing the speed of work, the accuracy of laying the cubes, and other advantages of his actions. The seeds of accuracy and precision in work, concentration and attention can sprout here, in the game.

It’s hard to say how many patterns can be made in one game. Maybe 5, or maybe 10 - it all depends on the child’s mood and his capabilities. If the work goes well, the baby is happy, and so are you; that means everything is fine.

You're doing well! I did not expect. Well, that's enough for today! Tomorrow we’ll play again,” you gently suggest finishing, but... this is a touchstone. The main thing is how the baby reacts to the proposal. If he is upset and ready to cry because he “wants to play more,” give in and show the child 1-2 more patterns. If you usually keep your word and the baby believes you, then he will agree that “we’ll play again tomorrow.” This is the most successful outcome of the first game.

It’s not bad when the child immediately agrees to finish the game, but is also interested in:

Will we play again tomorrow?

Be sure to find an opportunity to play “tomorrow evening”, and the day after tomorrow, and in 2-3 days... Such a “wave” of interest in the game, when the child plays with blocks for several days in a row, for example 5-7, is the most successful start. Firstly, during this time both you and the baby will be able to get involved in the game and feel some interest in it. Secondly, the baby will have time to go through all the tasks that are already feasible for him, and you will know his “ceiling” of capabilities at a given time. Thirdly, in a week you can learn to “feel the baby” (if you haven’t had to do this before) in a game where you can neither explain, nor prompt, nor help, but only watch his independent movement and progress and create conditions for him. And this ability to feel the baby is a very important skill for guiding development in any area. It will allow you to “not overdo it” with the dose of play, that is, not to bring it to the point of satiety, but to keep the baby a little “hand to mouth”, and, therefore, start and finish it on time. In addition, it will allow you to find out when the “wave” of interest begins to subside and, therefore, it is time to put off the game for a while - “forget” the game.

We play yesterday, today, tomorrow

Now you can pay attention to the connection between yesterday’s game and today’s and tomorrow’s. Interest in the game and success in moving “up the ladder” of tasks largely depend on this. Let's say that the baby put together 8 patterns for the first time - 4 "paths" and 4 "squares" (SU-A1 - SU-A3). Should I give these same 8 patterns the next day? Or move on to new ones? Practice has shown that it is best to use the “icebreaker” method here, that is, start each next game by stepping back a little. On the second day, you can give several of the same patterns: 2-3 “paths”, 1 “square”, and then new patterns-tasks of series A - as many as the baby wants.

So, each time “to accelerate” you need to put together several previous, already conquered patterns, and only then give new ones. The amount of “acceleration” must also be changed. If there is a difficult pattern ahead, for example, during the transition from single-color to two-color edges (this period is noticeable in all 3 series A, B, C), then the “run” should be taken more, and fewer new patterns should be given, up to 1-2.

In general, the transition to making difficult patterns is a touchstone both for the art of elders playing with children and a test for the children themselves. The easiest way to overcome it is to “forget” about it for a month or two. After a break, with new strength and taking a “greater acceleration”, i.e., returning to relatively easy patterns, the baby can almost immediately take on a previously inaccessible pattern.

But another option is also possible. Vanya is almost 3 years old. He just can't get the "flashlights" (SU-A9). Every time he tries to fold them, he takes the “overdrive” and, having achieved nothing, says with disappointment: “No way!” Sometimes he asks: “Give me another!” And I get him 1-2 patterns from series B, which Vanya is good at (they are made of one-color edges). Not only mom and dad, but also older brothers and sisters already know about Vanya’s failure with the “flashlights”. They also sometimes play with Vanya, and with them he defeated the “saw”, which “ate, ate oak-oak - broke a tooth-tooth” (as Vanya says, moving the “saw” back and forth on the table), and “flashlights” They don’t give up at all.

“Soon you’ll get the flashlights,” we console Vanya.

After all, both the “saw” and the “herringbone” are also difficult, and you’re already doing them.

Several days pass like this, and I’m already thinking whether I should forget both the “flashlights” and the game for a while, when suddenly one evening:

Dad! Dad! Come to us quickly! - excited 7-year-old Anyuta flew towards me. She grabbed my hand and pulled me along. And there, near the yellow “flashlight” folded on the floor, Vanya and 5-year-old Yulia are jumping for joy.

Ulya, ulya! (Hurray!), Vanya shouts.

Dad, write down that Vanya folded the flashlight himself. - By myself! - Yulia jumped up, trying to shout over Vanya.

Of course, both my mother and my older eighth-grader brothers came to see Vanya’s “flashlight” and rejoice. Anyuta brought a notebook, where on a light oilcloth cover it was written in block letters: Ivan - Vanya (we give such notebooks-diaries to every child), they sat dad down on a chair and calmed down only when dad made an entry in Vanya’s diary about Vanya’s “major success”, and Anyuta drew a yellow “flashlight” there with colored pencils.

This event, firstly, raised Vanya to a new “wave” of passion for the game, and secondly, for several days in a row his older brothers and sisters again took up cubes and came up with more than ten new interesting patterns-tasks for our game. Such successes do not happen often, and they should be appreciated; they leave a very good and useful mark in the life of the child.

You can play by yourself

When a game becomes interesting for a child, he himself asks: “Let’s play with blocks! Let’s make patterns!”, then you can think about not just occasionally giving cubes for independent play, but also encouraging this independence by all means. The point here is not only that adults will have free time, but that by playing independently, the child learns to control himself, compare his results, evaluate his strengths and capabilities - this is the beginning of independent thinking, a very important aspect of creative abilities.

Independent play is especially effective when, after each meeting with the blocks, there is a noticeable movement, a new step forward, noticeable for the adult and for the child himself.

In our family, kids play independently from the time when they are able to put blocks into a box after playing and bring it to mom or dad.

Usually we do not refuse a child’s request to give him blocks, but we are interested in:

What series of patterns will you make?

Series D,” he answers, not without pride. And how can you not be proud if this is the most difficult and complex series.

We monitor the progress of the baby and, of course, record all the major achievements and victories in the diary: overcoming difficult patterns like “lanterns”, “slides”, “boats”, finishing one of the series, folding a new pattern that no one else has there was no victory in competitions, etc. The kids feel the interest of their elders and, in turn, they themselves strive to make more patterns.

In educational games, numbering and counting occur quite often, and children, by the way, can master them early and by the age of 4-5 they quite intelligently use counting up to 50, 100 and even beyond.

We give patterns-tasks of the G series to children from 2-3 years old. If you don’t make a secret out of the alphabet and numbers and consider the letter O or A to be as ordinary things as a ball or a table, then the baby will have no idea that there is any difference between them, and he remembers them in exactly the same way as everyone else. other words. In our family, by the age of 3, all seven of us already knew letters and numbers, and at the age of 3-4 they began to read. The ease with which letters were learned early was later transferred to the school curriculum.

Folding patterns from cubes according to ready-made tasks is the simplest type of work in the game. The game can be slightly complicated (and at the same time almost double the number of patterns-tasks) as follows: if the pattern on the card consists of red and white edges, then you can offer to make the same, but yellow-blue pattern, and vice versa. Kids perceive this change in task as a new type of pattern. After all, here you need to not just copy the pattern, but change it in color.

You can compete with others

When there are several sets of the “Fold the Pattern” game, you can organize competitions. They are good to arrange if the strength of the participants is approximately equal, everyone is familiar with the game, or those who are less familiar with it are older than the rest in age, and if the participants themselves are at least 3-4 people. Everyone needs to choose a place at a small table, on a chair or on a rug so that from there everyone can clearly see the pattern-task, but so that the players cannot look into each other. One of the elders takes on the role of the presenting judge, and the second takes on the role of secretary. 5-10 new patterns of increasing complexity are selected from existing ones or prepared specifically for competitions (task patterns cut out of colored paper are drawn or pasted on a white background on a large scale - 1:1 or 2:1). The secretary prepares a table with the names of participants and task numbers.

Speed competition table

Name	Age	Job numbers						Sum	Place
Name	Age	5	10	14	18	23	25	Sum	Place
Vania	4 years 6 months	3	1	2	2	3	3	14	II
Julia	5 years 2 months	1	2	1	3	1	2	10	I
Anya	7 years 1 month	5	4	3	1	2	1	16	III
Masha	8 years 3 months	4	3	5	5	4	5	26	V
Dima	6 years 9 months	2	5	4	4	5	4	24	IV

When everyone sits down and takes out the cubes, the presenter says: “Attention! Let’s start!” - and puts or, better yet, hangs pattern task No. 5 at a convenient height, and he watches who is the first to fold the pattern completely and without mistakes.

Julia! - he says to the secretary when he sees that Yulia was the first to fold the pattern. The secretary puts “1” next to Yulia’s name in column 5, i.e., notes that she completed the pattern the fastest.

Dima! - and the secretary writes the number 2 against Dima’s name.

Vania! - and the secretary writes 3 in the line “Vanya”.

The rest is clear from the table. Whoever put together the patterns faster than others has the smallest amount and the best place in the competition. If kids cannot cope with all the patterns, then the speed of laying out does not necessarily have to be considered a decisive factor. In this case, it is better to take into account the number of patterns that the baby has mastered and their difficulty. To do this, patterns are taken from all 3 series, and the difficulty of each pattern is assessed by a certain number of points, as, for example, in the following table.

Difficulty competition table

Name	Age	Job numbers						Sum	Place
Name	Age	A5	A10	A18	B20	AT 6	B23	Sum	Place
Vania	4 years 6 months	2	3	4	6	8	-	23	II
Julia	5 years 2 months	2	3	4	6	8	10	33	I
Anya	7 years 1 month	2	3	4	6	-	-	15	III
Masha	8 years 3 months	2	3	4	-	-	-	9	V
Dima	6 years 9 months	2	3	-	6	-	-	11	IV

Then the presenter gives all participants the same time to fold, for example 1 or 2 minutes, and removes the pattern exactly after 2 minutes. And the secretary on the sign gives everyone who folded the pattern its “price”, i.e. for example, for the SU-A5 pattern - 2 points, for SU-A10 - 3 points, and gives nothing to those who did not fold it. In this case, the one who puts together more patterns will score more points and, therefore, get ahead of others.

If kids already know how to count, then you can entrust them with counting points in the competition themselves. But then the presenter must stock up on paper or cardboard circles with numbers printed or drawn on them indicating the number of points scored or the “price” of the patterns. And those who completed the A5 pattern are given a circle with the number 2, those who completed the A10 pattern are given a circle with the number 3, etc.

Whoever has the greater sum of numbers on the circles wins. The winners can be rewarded, but in such a way that the losers are not offended, but have fun, and so that everyone would like to participate in such competitions again. There is a lot of scope for mom and dad’s imagination and creativity.

Now let's draw the patterns

Even before the baby switches to performing a series of patterns B and C, he can copy patterns from the cubes. This is a more complex type of working with cubes that develops graphic skills. The child needs to learn to draw straight lines with a pencil and draw squares with colored pencils. It is convenient to draw patterns in a checkered notebook. But here, too, there are “first discoveries”: seeing rulers, small squares (cells), which children simply do not pay attention to at first - the lines are too thin, the cells are small and therefore not noticeable.

The rules of the game here remain the same: from a feasible task that can be completed to an extremely difficult task that requires maximum effort. Don't be upset if it doesn't work out perfectly right away. In children, the development process is gradual. And it’s better if you don’t just draw, but also fantasize. For example, you need to draw a line with a pencil along a ruler in a notebook; Invite the kids to consider the ruler a bridge, and the one who knows how to hold a pencil close to the ruler all the time “does not fall into the river” and walks along the bridge.

Drawing a pattern, and even with colored pencils, requires much more time than folding it out of cubes, so give your child 2-3 times less drawing tasks. But here, too, you need to subtly feel when to start drawing, where to praise the child, when to offer to finish the game. Patterns can be drawn in different scales - 1:1, 1:2, 1:4 and even 1:5 (one cell is equal to the edge of a cube), and you need to start with what the baby can handle. To draw patterns, give your child a checkered notebook, on the cover of which the child can write his name in block letters if you give him a sample.

The game "Attention" helps a lot in the process of improving in drawing patterns. There you need to make an exact copy of the figure, letter or number you saw, and also find out the names of such figures as “square”, “triangle”, “rectangle”, etc.

Before sketching patterns, it is good if the child completes the preparatory exercises (Fig. 9).

1. Who can put dots in the cells?(in the center of the cells)? Place 2 dots, 3 dots, 4, etc. At the same time, the baby not only learns to draw dots, but also learns to count.

2. Who will be able to put points at the crossroads?, i.e. at the intersection of the lines? You can set a different number of points - from 2 to 10, and as a control exercise - the entire triangle of points, as in the figure.

3. Who can draw a straight horizontal line? of a given length exactly according to the ruler: 1 square, 2 squares, 3 squares, 4 squares long, etc.?

4. Who can draw a straight vertical line? in the notebook exactly according to the ruler; line 1 cell long, 2 cells, 3 cells, 4 cells, etc.?

5. Who can draw small circles with a diameter of 1 cell? Who will draw 1 circle, 2 circles, 3 circles, etc.?

6. The same thing, but arrange the circles differently (in a “column”).

7. Who will draw a small square the size of 1 cell?? Who will draw a square with a side of 2 cells, 3 cells, 4 cells, etc.?

8. Who will draw a square with a side of 4 cells? and fill it in with a colored pencil so as not to go beyond the outline?

9. Who can divide the square? with a side of 4 squares diagonally

10. Who can divide a square with a side of 4 cells into 4 equal squares? and color it in with different colored pencils?

We come up with patterns ourselves

Another type of working with cubes, the most saturated with creative elements, is creating new patterns, ones that are not in any of the series. In our family, we move on to this type of task when the child learns to fold almost all the patterns of series B.

The new pattern is easy to create. But it is important that it be beautiful, symmetrical, and reminiscent of some object in its appearance. Only such patterns can be considered worthy of attention. Kids are proud when they manage to put together exactly this one. And in order not to forget the new pattern, you must immediately sketch it in your notebook, otherwise the cubes will scatter and the pattern will no longer exist. This is how we came up with “Zoo” - the SU-D series, where almost all the patterns were invented by children.

You can make a whole series of patterns invented by your child and call it after the child. It’s okay if it only has 5 or 10 patterns; they can also be drawn on separate paper squares or rectangles, or they can be glued on by cutting out a pattern from colored gummed paper.

A baby can, for example, give such a series of patterns in a bag decorated with its own ornament to his mother on her or his birthday.

This is how it happened in our family: on their birthday, everyone gives their mother something made with their own hands. After all, it’s unfair when on this day everyone remembers only the newborn: they congratulate him, gifts - for him, a holiday - for his sake, but they somehow forget about the mother, who gave him life on this day. On such a day, the most expensive gift for mom will be something where everything is her own - both the idea of the pattern and its execution: “Look, mom, I’m growing, I can already do a lot!”

What is Fold Nikitin's Pattern?

“Fold the pattern” B.P. Nikitin (1.5 years - 6 years) A wonderful author's game by Boris Pavlovich Nikitin. The idea was gleaned from the American psychologist Koos (Kohs Cubes, Kohs Block Design Test), developed and adjusted. The game allows you to develop the child’s spatial and logical thinking, analytical-synthetic thinking, and imagination. You can start with the smallest ones, gradually moving from simpler to more complex tasks.

This game develops basic mathematical skills in a child, developing the ability to synthesize, analyze and combine. You can start playing it as early as one and a half years old. Consists of a set of sixteen cubes with multi-colored edges. Each cube, of course, has six sides, each of which is colored differently in four colors. This allows you to create a huge number of pattern options.

With the help of these cubes, you can teach and reinforce colors with kids, develop first counting skills, build single-color and multi-colored paths, and when the child can confidently cope with the task assigned to him, move on to more complex tasks. You can also easily study the concept of a pattern using these cubes.

Having mastered these stages, you can safely begin to compose patterns from cubes. Again, for starters, the simplest and easiest ones - following the example of an adult, then following the example depicted in the manual, and finally the most interesting, so to speak creative work - independently drawing up a new pattern.

The “Fold the Pattern” game will teach you to understand patterns, recognize real objects in abstract drawings, and create new combinations from existing elements.

Nikitin’s basic rules for successfully mastering games:

1. Rejoice at any, even the smallest, successes of the child, but at the same time do not praise.

2. Create conditions for the child to develop a desire to engage in play and never force him to play.

3. Do not, under any circumstances, allow yourself to make offensive remarks or harsh statements towards the child during the game. Remember that any offense always causes negativity, irritation in the child and, as a result, reluctance to think, rejection of the situation, including the game in general.

4. Introduce new games gradually, focusing solely on the growth of the child’s abilities, as well as his interest. Remember that an excess of games will certainly lead to their depreciation, so do not give many games at once.

5. Take care of games and do not put them on par with other toys. Everyone knows that the forbidden fruit is sweet. Select a place for them that is not very accessible, but at the same time visible. It is necessary to encourage the child to ask him to play with them, and not force him.

6. Create a relaxed atmosphere in the game and not restrain the baby’s motor activity.

7. You should stop playing as soon as a sign of loss of interest in this game appears, but be sure to emphasize that you will definitely return to it next time.

Buy Nikitin's game FOLD THE PATTERN

For wholesale supplies of Nikitin educational games, please contact us by email[email protected]

Game description

The game consists of 16 identical cubes. All 6 faces of each cube are colored differently in 4 colors. This allows you to create 1-, 2-, 3- and even 4-color patterns from them in a huge number of options. These patterns resemble the contours of various objects and paintings, which children like to give names to. When playing with blocks, children perform 3 types of tasks.

First, they learn to put together exactly the same pattern from cubes using task patterns. Then they set the opposite task: looking at the cubes, draw the pattern that they form. And finally, the third thing is to come up with new patterns from 9 or 16 cubes, which are not yet in the book, i.e. perform creative work.

Using a different number of cubes and different not only in color, but also in shape (squares and triangles) of the cubes, you can change the difficulty of tasks in an unusually wide range.

How to make a game

To play you need 16 wooden cubes measuring 30x30x30 mm (35 and 40 are possible). If they are covered with paper, then place them in a basin and pour boiling water over them. After 30-40 seconds the glue will become wet and the paper will come off easily. Lay the clean cubes loosely in one layer and place them in a closet or on a radiator to dry thoroughly. The next day, they can be cleaned with fine sandpaper to remove glue and paper residues, and especially the rough end faces. In the “Homemade Cubes” sets, they are not covered with paper, but you still need to clear them by moving the cube along a sheet of paper on the table.

Mark the clean cubes with a sharpened pencil, drawing the diagonals as accurately as possible. The diagonals lie on opposite faces, they are parallel, and they should not be placed at the ends.

The coloring order is shown in Figure 1:

the front edge is white (shown transparent in the figure),

the back edge is yellow,

right side is blue,

the left side is red,

the top edge is yellow-blue,

the bottom edge is red and white.

Rice. 1

It is best to paint cubes with nitro paints; they dry quickly(1-2 hours) and very durable. You just need to choose the color tonesclean and such that they match the color of the task patterns.

Technical oil paints take longer to dry (up to 1–2 days), but artistic oil paints must be diluted with colorless oil varnish (technical), otherwise drying will take months.

The assignment patterns in the book are made in 1:6 life size, and for preschoolers they need to be enlarged. It is better to increase the SU-A series to natural size so that the baby can cover the pattern with cubes, and the rest - up to 1: 2 or as the parents deem necessary.

It is convenient to make them on drawing paper, on separate sheets of 100 x 100 mm or 100 x 150 mm (for long patterns). The task patterns themselves can be drawn with paints, but it is better to stick on a pattern cut out of colored paper (appliqué method).

Separate series of tasks can be placed in bags made of thick paper with large letters A, B, C, D, E pasted or drawn on them, indicating the series.

If you want the order of tasks not to be disturbed, then you can make an accordion book from each series or from its parts. The simplest patterns-tasks of series A are made up of 4 cubes; they can be given to children starting from 1–2 years old. The complication of patterns occurs gradually, but this gradualness, of course, is relative, and the transition from one-color edges to two-color ones (you will see this when playing with your baby) is a sharp jump in the level of complexity. It can be smoothed, including tasks from other series, but with single-color edges, the patterns of which are easier to create.

In Fig. 2–8, you can choose this sequence yourself, knowing your child’s capabilities from previous games. From these drawings you can determine which of the patterns is lost and prepare a new one. On them you can mark those tasks that the child is already coping with, and see those that have not yet “obeyed” him. In the same drawings, some names of the patterns are given: “flower”, “saw”, “boat”, but it is not necessary to immediately tell them to the child. To develop the child’s imagination, you can show a pattern-task, put together a pattern of cubes and invite the child to think about what this pattern looks like. Kids prefer their “names” and, so as not to forget, they can be written down in the book next to the printed ones.

Rice. 2

Rice. 3

Rice. 4

Rice. 5

Rice. 6

Rice. 7

Rice. 8

We start to play

The method of play depends on the child’s age and level of development. Children aged 1.5–2 years have developed the ability to copy, to “become monkeys”, they love to do as their elders do. If I hammer nails, then Lyuba, who is 1 year 3 months old, pulls her little hand towards the hammer and says “Dam... dyam” (give me!) until I give her a small wooden or plastic hammer. Then she begins to knock with this hammer exactly like me, and sometimes even on the same board that I knock on. But she still doesn’t ask for a nail; small things, small drawings still don’t attract her. It’s this baby’s ability to grasp the big, the most important, the most noticeable thing that needs to be used.

In addition, you need to remember your first impressions of the game. It doesn’t matter at all how you poured the cubes onto the table for the first time.

If you open the lid in front of your baby and - boom! - they poured all the cubes onto the table at once with a roar so that they scattered to the sides, and the baby even flinched in surprise, then don’t be surprised later when the most favorite activity becomes exactly the same “thump!” cubes from a box, rather than building “trains” or “towers” of them.

Mothers sometimes even complain: “I don’t know what to do with Vladik. He just likes to throw things around. So he scattered the cubes and left, taking toys out of the box and scattering them around the room. I don’t have time to clean up after him.” And the whole point is that neither dad, nor mom, nor the teacher in the nursery where Vladik goes, thought about WHAT is stored in Vladik’s memory when he first encounters “the way to handle blocks” or toys. And this “method of scattering” is also reinforced every time Vladik scatters something himself, and his mother follows him and collects it. Therefore, we try not to demonstrate such undesirable ways of handling cubes. I can bring Lyubochka to the cubes that are already lying in disarray and begin to put things in order, or I take them out of the box neatly one after another and immediately build a “path”, or a square, or a “train” out of them. Lyuba is surprised: Dad’s “blue train” is working well, and I, doing “Too-too...oo!”, move it slowly to the opposite edge of the table or rug. And I don’t hide my joy if Lyuba also succeeds in “training” (even if not entirely successfully at first) or Lyuba has learned to find the red side on the cubes (for now, only one red side and no other) and puts all the cubes in the box with the red side up , without getting tired of repeating: “Kas-kas” (i.e. red). And if Lyuba managed to put even the last cube into the box herself (it can still be very difficult for a one and a half to two year old baby to do this), rocking the cube from side to side and pushing a place for it among the rest, then... grabbing my daughter’s armpits, I throw her to the ceiling itself and catch it on the fly. Lyubochka adores these upward flights and therefore also laughs, is also happy, and the next day, having again completed the task of laying all the cubes with the red side up, Lyuba herself, beaming joyfully, comes to me, raising her little hands and as if saying: “Dad, throw me up like yesterday. I put all the cubes in a box and it’s all messy.”

But if the child is already 3-4 years old, he knows colors and can find the right edge and appreciate the beauty of the pattern, then before giving him the game, choose the most attractive, in your opinion, pattern-task of series B or D and fold it in advance according to this pattern cubes in a box. When opening a box of blocks for the first time, your baby will admire the pattern with you.

– Do you think we will learn how to make the same beautiful patterns from cubes?

“Of course, we’ll learn,” he has no doubt.

Then place the “path” pattern SU-A1 in front of the baby and think out loud:

– I wonder how quickly you can cope with such a task or whether you will have to tinker for a long time? Make a picture out of cubes of exactly the same color!

- Fu... nonsense! There you go! - this is how most kids usually answer bravely, assuming that since the first task was easy, then the next one will be the same.

– Don’t you think that the path is shorter than in the picture? Let's compare!

And it’s better if in this case the baby takes the entire “path” of cubes at once and covers the pattern with it. The deficiency of one cube will be immediately visible, and he will correct it.

“Now it turned out exactly, without a mistake,” you praise him. And so, encouraging the baby, move from pattern to pattern, carefully noticing the speed of work, the accuracy of laying the cubes, and other advantages of his actions. The seeds of accuracy and precision in work, concentration and attention can sprout here, in the game.

- You're doing well! I did not expect. Well, that's enough for today! Tomorrow we’ll play again,” you gently suggest finishing, but... this is a touchstone. The main thing is how the baby reacts to the proposal. If he is upset and ready to cry because he “wants to play more,” give in and show the child 1-2 more patterns. If you usually keep your word and the baby believes you, then he will agree that “we’ll play again tomorrow.” This is the most successful outcome of the first game.

It’s not bad when the child immediately agrees to finish the game, but is also interested in:

– Will we play again tomorrow?

Be sure to find an opportunity to play “tomorrow evening”, and the day after tomorrow, and in 2-3 days... Such a “wave” of interest in the game, when the child plays with blocks for several days in a row, for example 5-7, is the most successful start. Firstly, during this time both you and the baby will be able to get involved in the game and feel some interest in it. Secondly, the baby will have time to go through all the tasks that are already feasible for him, and you will know his “ceiling” of capabilities at a given time. Thirdly, in a week you can learn to “feel the baby” (if you haven’t had to do this before) in a game where you can neither explain, nor prompt, nor help, but only watch his independent movement and progress and create conditions for him. And this ability to feel the baby is a very important skill for guiding development in any area. It will allow you not to overdo it with the dose of play, that is, not to bring it to the point of satiety, but to keep your baby a little “hand to mouth”, and, therefore, start and finish it on time. In addition, it will allow you to find out when the “wave” of interest begins to subside and, therefore, it is time to put off the game for a while – “forget” the game.

We play yesterday, today, tomorrow

Now you can pay attention to the connection between yesterday’s game and today’s and tomorrow’s. Interest in the game and success in moving “up the ladder” of tasks largely depend on this. Let’s say that the baby put together 8 patterns for the first time - 4 “paths” and 4 “squares” (SU-A1 - SU-AZ). Should I give the same 8 patterns the next day? Or move on to new ones? Practice has shown that it is best to use the “icebreaker” method here, that is, start each next game by stepping back a little. On the second day, you can give several of the same patterns: 2-3 “paths”, 1 “square”, and then new patterns-tasks of series A - as many as the baby wants.

So, each time “to accelerate” you need to put together several previous, already conquered patterns, and only then give new ones. The amount of “acceleration” must also be changed. If there is a difficult pattern ahead, for example, during the transition from one-color to two-color edges (this period is noticeable in all 3 series A, B, C), then the “running start” should be taken more, and fewer new patterns should be given, up to 1–2.

In general, the transition to making difficult patterns is a touchstone both for the art of elders playing with children, and a test for the children themselves. The easiest way to overcome it is to “forget” about it for a month or two. After a break, with new strength and taking “greater acceleration,” i.e., returning to relatively easy patterns, the baby can almost immediately take on a previously inaccessible pattern.

But another option is also possible. Vanya is almost 3 years old. He just can’t get “flashlights” (SU-A9). Every time he tries to fold them, he goes into overdrive and, having achieved nothing, says with disappointment: “No way!” Sometimes he asks: “Give me another!” And I get him 1-2 patterns from series B, which Vanya is good at (they are made of one-color edges). Not only mom and dad, but also older brothers and sisters already know about Vanya’s failure with the “flashlights”. They also sometimes play with Vanya, and with them he defeated the “saw”, which “ate, ate oak-oak - broke a tooth-tooth” (so says Vanya, moving the “saw” back and forth on the table), and “flashlights” They don’t give up at all.

“Soon you’ll get the flashlights,” we console Vanya.

- After all, both the “saw” and the “herringbone” are also difficult, and you’re already doing them. Several days pass like this, and I’m already thinking whether I should forget both the “flashlights” and the game for a while, when suddenly one evening:

- Dad! Dad! Come to us quickly! – excited 7-year-old Anyuta flew towards me. She grabbed my hand and pulled me along. And there, near the yellow “flashlight” folded on the floor, Vanya and 5-year-old Yulia are jumping for joy.

- Ulya, ulya! (Hurray!), Vanya shouts.

- Dad, write down that Vanya folded the flashlight himself. - By myself!

– Yulia jumped up, trying to shout over Vanya.

Of course, both my mother and my older eighth-grader brothers came to see Vanya’s “flashlight” and rejoice. Anyuta brought a notebook, where on a light oilcloth cover it was written in block letters: IVAN-VANYA (we give such notebooks-diaries to every child), they sat dad down on a chair and calmed down only when dad made an entry in Vanya’s diary about Vanya’s “major success”, and Anyuta drew a yellow “flashlight” there with colored pencils.

This event, firstly, raised Vanya to a new “wave” of passion for the game, and secondly, for several days in a row his older brothers and sisters again took up cubes and came up with more than ten new interesting patterns-tasks for our game. Such successes do not happen often, and they should be appreciated: they leave a very good and useful mark on the child’s life.

You can play by yourself

When a game becomes interesting for a child, he himself asks: “Let's play with blocks!” Let’s make patterns!”, then you can think about not just occasionally giving cubes for independent play, but also encouraging this independence by all means. The point here is not only that adults will have free time, but that by playing independently, the child learns to control himself, compare his results, evaluate his strengths and capabilities - this is the beginning of independent thinking, a very important aspect of creative abilities.

Independent play is especially effective when, after each meeting with the blocks, there is a noticeable movement, a new step forward, noticeable for the adult and for the child himself.

In our family, kids play independently from the time when they are able to put blocks into a box after playing and bring it to mom or dad.

Usually we do not refuse a child’s request to give him blocks, but we are interested in:

– What series of patterns will you make?

“Series D,” he answers, not without pride. And how can you not be proud if this is the most difficult and complex series.

In educational games, numbering and counting occur quite often, and children, by the way, can master them early and by the age of 4–5 they quite intelligently use counting up to 50, 100, and even beyond.

We give patterns-tasks of the G series to children from 2–3 years old. If you don’t make a secret out of the alphabet and numbers and consider the letters O or A to be as ordinary things as a ball or a table, then the baby will have no idea that there is any difference between them, and he remembers them in exactly the same way as everyone else. other words. In our family, by the age of 3, all seven of us already knew letters and numbers, and at the age of 3–4 they began to read. The ease with which letters were learned early was later transferred to the school curriculum.

You can compete with others

When there are several sets of the “Fold the Pattern” game, you can organize competitions. They are good to arrange if the strength of the participants is approximately equal, everyone is familiar with the game, or those who are less familiar with it are older than the rest in age, and if the participants themselves are at least 3-4 people. Everyone needs to choose a place at a small table, on a chair or on a rug so that from there everyone can clearly see the pattern-task, but so that the players cannot look into each other. One of the elders takes on the role of a leading judge, and the second takes on the role of a secretary. 5–10 new patterns of increasing complexity are selected from existing ones or prepared specifically for competitions (they draw or paste patterns cut out of colored paper on a white background - tasks on a large scale - 1:1 or 2:1). The secretary prepares a table with the names of participants and task numbers.

When everyone sits down and takes out the cubes, the presenter says: “Attention! Let's start!” - and puts or, better yet, hangs pattern task No. 5 at a convenient height, and he watches who is the first to fold the pattern completely and without mistakes.

- Julia! - he says to the secretary when he sees that Yulia was the first to fold the pattern. The secretary puts “1” next to Yulia’s name in column 5, i.e., notes that she completed the pattern the fastest.

- Dima! - and the secretary writes the number 2 against Dima’s name.

- Vania! - and the secretary writes 3 in the line “Vanya”.

- Masha!

- Anya!

Speed competition table

Name	Age	N o measure of task	S u m m a	M e s That
Name	Age		S u m m a	M e s That
Vania	4 year 6 months
Julia	5 years 2 m this month
Anya	7 years 1 m e syats
Masha	8 years 3 m this month
Di m a	6 years 9 m e syatsev

The rest is clear from the table. Whoever put together the patterns faster than others has the smallest amount and the best place in the competition. If kids cannot cope with all the patterns, then the speed of laying out does not necessarily have to be considered a decisive factor. In this case, it is better to take into account the number of patterns that the baby has mastered and their difficulty. To do this, they take patterns from all 3 series, and the difficulty of each pattern is assessed by a certain number of points, as, for example, in the following table: pattern A5 - 2 points, A10 - 3 points, etc.

Difficulty competition table

Name	Age	N o measure of task					S u m m a	M e s That
Name	Age		A10	A18	B20	B23	S u m m a	M e s That
Vania	4 year 6 months
Julia	5 years 2 m this month
Anya	7 years 1 m e syats
Masha	8 years 3 m this month
Di m a	6 years 9 m e syatsev

Then the presenter gives all participants the same time to fold, for example, 1 or 2 minutes, and exactly after 2 minutes he folds the pattern. And the secretary gives a “price” to everyone who folded the pattern, i.e., for example, for the SU-A5 pattern - 2 points, for SU-A10 - 3 points, and to those who did not fold it, he doesn’t give anything. In this case, the one who puts together more patterns will score more points and, therefore, get ahead of others.

For example, we bought prizes according to the number of participants and laid them out on the table. The one who took first place was the first to come to the table and choose a prize for himself. Whoever took second came second, etc.

Now let's draw the patterns

Even before the baby switches to performing a series of patterns B and C, he can copy patterns from the cubes. This is a more complex type of working with cubes that develops graphic skills. The child needs to learn to draw straight lines with a pencil and draw squares with colored pencils. It is convenient to draw patterns in a checkered notebook. But here, too, there are “first discoveries”: seeing rulers, small squares (cells), which children simply do not pay attention to at first: the lines are too thin, the cells are small and therefore not noticeable.

The rules of the game here remain the same: from a task that is feasible, amenable to completion, to an extremely complex task that requires maximum effort. Don't be upset if it doesn't work out perfectly right away. In children, the development process is gradual. And it’s better if you don’t just draw, but also fantasize. For example, you need to draw a line with a pencil along a ruler in a notebook; Invite the kids to consider the ruler a bridge, and the one who knows how to hold the pencil close to the ruler all the time “does not fall into the river” and walks along the bridge.

Drawing a pattern, especially with colored pencils, takes much more time than putting it together from cubes, so give your child 2-3 times less tasks for sketching. But here, too, you need to subtly feel when to start drawing, where to praise the child, when to offer to finish the game. Patterns can be drawn in different scales - 1:1, 1:2, 1:4 and even 1:6 (one cell is equal to the edge of a cube), and you need to start with what the baby can handle. To draw patterns, give your child a checkered notebook, on the cover of which the child can write his name in block letters if you give him a sample.

The game “Attention” helps a lot in the process of improving in drawing patterns. There you need to make an exact copy of the figure, letter or number you saw, and also find out the names of such figures as “square”, “triangle”, “rectangle”, etc.

Before sketching patterns, it is good if the child completes the preparatory exercises (Fig. 9).

Rice. 9

1 .Who can write about the checklists?(v c ent r e c l e t ok) ? Put p o2 dots, dots, dots, po4it.d.M a ly spr i t o m e t o n ot only teach you how to draw dots, but also teach you how to read.

2 .Who can put the dots “at the crossroads”, i.e. in front of the cross-section of the rulers? You can set a different number of points to - about t2d o10, as well as a control exercise - weight r e u g n i l ki z t o ch e k , k a k n a r i s u n k e .

3 .Who can carry out the direct south-horizontal yuline of a given length of line by line: length 1 cell, 2 cells, 3 cells, 3 4cell iit.d. ?

4 .Whos U n e t p r e v e s t i p d r a c t i m u v e r t i c a l n u i l i n u of a given length y o n o n op o l i n e k e ; lines y u l l o n g y v 1 cell k y , v 2 cells , v 3 cells , v 4 cells , etc. ?

5 .Kto su m e t n a r i s o v a t m a l l e n k e r c u r g e i d i a m e t r o m v 1cage? Who nari su e t1k ru zhok, 2k ruzhka, 3k ruzhka ait.d. ?

6 .Also, around the circle it is located differently (in the “column”).

7 .Kto onari su e tma lenki yk vadrati kve lichino yv1kletku? K t o n a r i s u e tk v a d r a t s o r o n o yv 2 cells, v 3 cells, v 4 cells, etc. ?

8 .Kto onari suet tk vadra ts ostorono yv4k letk i and paint those colors with a pencil about mtak, what do you usually do?

9 . with os t orono iv4kletk and p diagonal and will paint it with different colors and pencils?

10 .Who su m e tra z e lit k vadra t with os t orono iv4kletk and n a4 equalX k vadra t a And will he paint it with different colors and pencils?

We come up with patterns ourselves

A baby can, for example, give such a series of patterns in a bag decorated with its own ornament to his mother on her or his birthday.

This is how it happened in our family: on their birthday, everyone gives their mother something made with their own hands. After all, it’s unfair when on this day everyone only remembers the newborn: congratulations are given to him, gifts are given to him, a holiday is for his sake, and somehow they forget about the mother who gave him life on this day. On such a day, the most precious gift for mom will be something that has everything of her own - both the idea of the pattern and its execution: “Look, mom, I’m growing, I can already do a lot!”