Busy board - A must-have educational toy that helps develop young children’ fine motor skills

Young children are curious learners. They learn through play, and they are eager to explore the world around them. They especially love to play with real things as part of imitating adults. But not every household item is safe for your kid to explore. A busy board is a great substitute for your kid to tinker, learn, experiment, and explore everyday objects in a safe and fun way. Let’s discover what a busy board can do and find out if it’s worth investing in a busy board for your baby or toddler.

What is a busy board?

A busy board, also known as a sensory board, is an activity board filled with everyday items. A busy board may contain:

• Doorknobs and Latches
• Bells
• Switches
• Shoelaces
• Zippers
• Locks and keys
• Wheels
• Clocks
• Belts
• Letters and numbers
• Fidget spinners
• Gears

Benefits of a busy board for babies and toddlers

A busy board is a great educational resource offering children endless opportunities to play and learn:

• Busy boards encourage sensory play as it requires children to touch, feel, see, or hear things. Through exploring elements on a busy board, they learn about different textures and characteristics, which are sensory attributes.

• Playing with a busy board can enhance early childhood development, such as cognitive growth, language development and social interactions.

• Babies and toddlers can refine their fine motor skills while playing with a busy board. Children need to use their small muscles (hand,fingers, and thumb) to explore each element on a busy board.

• Playing with a busy board also helps refine babies’ and toddlers’ problem solving skills. For example, they have to learn how to open a latch, turn a doorknob, or fasten a belt. You can help enhance your kid’s  problem solving skills by encouraging them to solve the problem rather than showing them how to do it. 

• A busy board also benefits parents as:

•  Every item is on the board so there is no mess around the house and cleaning up time is not a hassle. 
• It gives parents peace of mind as all the pieces are securely attached to the board which can reduce the risks of choking and injuries. 

Melli’s Kids’ customer playing with felt busy board while travelling

Is it worth it to invest in a busy board?

As busy boards greatly benefit children in many different ways, it’s definitely worth it to invest in a busy board for your child. It is a great long-term investment as a busy board is a multifunctional tool that is designed with a variety of elements suited for different abilities and ages. It means that your child won’t easily get bored and they can continuously develop their skills as they grow with the board. 

What age are busy boards suitable for?

Most busy boards are suitable for children from 6 months old and up. As soon as your baby can sit independently, you can start introducing a busy board to him/her with adult supervision. 

Types of busy boards

There are different busy boards available on the market depending on children’ age groups and most busy boards are made from felt materials or wood. Felt busy boards and wooden busy boards are popular choices for parents as they are made of non-toxic and eco-friendly materials, which are not only good for children but also for the environment. 

1. Felt busy boards

A felt busy board is made of felt/soft materials. It is a great fine motor skills toy as it’s lightweight, flexible, durable without any harsh corners. 

Melli’s Kids Felt Busy Board

This felt busy board at Melli’s Kids is designed as a handbag which allows your baby/toddler to easily carry anywhere and they can play anytime.

• Dimensions: 28*32cm
• Weight: 0.24kg
• This busy board is made of soft fabrics and felt so it’s gentle and safe for little hands.
• It’s portable and suitable for travelling: easy to carry on cars or airplanes. 
• This felt busy board includes 14 different varieties of buckles, snap pockets, shoelace, hooks, zippers, letters and numbers.
• It’s designed at different levels of difficulty to be challenging for different ages.

With this busy board, children can learn different skills from early years, such as dressing skills, colour, letter, and number recognition, and problem solving skills. It particularly helps promote young children’s fine motor skills, finger dexterity and cognitive skills. 

2. Wooden busy boards

While any type of wood can be used to make a busy board, plywood seems to be one of the most suitable materials due to its flexibility level and high impact resistance. Plywood is also eco-friendly, durable, lightweight, and cost-effective. 

Melli’s Kids Wooden Bear Busy Board

At Melli’s Kids, we are so proud of our wooden busy boards as they are one of our best sellers all the time. They are designed and made with child safety in mind so you can be assured that our busy  boards meet international safety standards and are safe for your little one. 

Our wooden busy boards are hand-crafted using certified plywood and water-based paints. We have different models available on our website to choose from. We value our little customers and we want to make sure they are 100% happy with our toys; therefore, if your little one, for any reasons, is not happy with our toy, we accept return and refund (terms and conditions apply) within 30 days of purchasing.