When buying this toy, you need to understand how it should be used and what it should develop. Mosaic promotes the development of imagination, figurative thinking, logical thinking, imagination and creativity, holistic perception of the world, fine motor skills, concentration and perseverance. You can always choose and buy a mosaic for children on the website www.indigo-kid.ru.

Varieties of mosaics

The main varieties of this game are the following:

• magnetic;
• thermomosaics;
• "ABC + Mathematics";
• outdoor for small children;
• with playing field and leg;
• self-adhesive;
• tetris mosaics.

Age from which you can teach a child

It is believed that mosaic is most effective for children from the age of three. However, now a large number of mosaic varieties are offered for babies from one year old. At an early age, parents together with the child can add only the simplest pictures. Older children are able to independently fold rather intricate patterns from different types of mosaics. It is important for parents to choose a toy according to age and play with their child.

Features of the mosaic for children from one to two years old

When choosing a mosaic for a baby aged one to two years old, you need to pay attention to the following criteria:

• parts should be as large as possible;
• the quality of the material should allow it to be used for small children; an extensive selection of colors;
• ease of joining parts;
• closer to the age of two, you need to pay attention to the logical mosaic and to the mosaic with legs;
• appliques are an excellent alternative.

Features of the mosaic for kids from three to five years old

At this age, the fine motor skills of children's hands are already sufficiently developed, so you can choose more complex toys. It is important to consider the following:

• the size of the parts can be reduced;
• you need to play with the image and plot;
• it is necessary to increase the number of parts in the mosaic set;
• should pay attention to mosaic stickers and magnetic mosaic.

Thus, the mosaic is essential for the development of children. It not only helps to improve fine motor skills of the fingers, but also stimulates brain activity and speech activity. The kid learns to think logically, formulate and solve specific problems.

What is a mosaic?

Mosaic is a special kind of creativity, it is a way of creating pictures, patterns, images using small pieces (details) of different colors. Pieces can be made of different materials (plastic, ceramics, pebbles, shells of mollusks and others) and are chips of different geometric shapes, almost flat or on a "leg", or three-dimensional figures.

What is the use of mosaics?

A child who knows how to correctly fold chips and make the simplest patterns on his own does not seem to be doing anything unusual.

But not everything is so simple! While rearranging small pieces of the mosaic, the child performs such different actions - from looking at the picture in the instructions to matching the details in shape and color and laying them out on the surface, that playing with the mosaic, in the end, cannot be called a simple "time wasting".

Folding a mosaic is fundamentally different from drawing. If a child thinks with a pencil in his hand almost lightning fast, and the image on the canvas (a drawing of a house, a sun, a man, a flower in an album) is created spontaneously, then when working with a mosaic, creating an image requires keeping attention for a longer period. The drawing itself may undergo some changes and, as a result, be somewhat different than in the instructions. In general, of course, this is drawing, but drawing is point-by-point (that is, with chips on points).

When playing with mosaics, a baby is stimulated to develop:

- setting a goal and striving to fulfill it;
- fine motor skills of the fingers;
- logical thinking;
- figurative thinking and imagination;
- artistic taste.

In a word, composing a picture from the details of the mosaic, the baby fantasizes. And this serves as a powerful tool in psychosomatic development.

The role of puzzles in the development of children.

Puzzles are multifunctional material for child development.

◊ Develop fine motor skills. The kid takes the details of the jigsaw puzzles with his fingers, shifts them, sorts them out, assembles them into a complete picture. This is the effect at the level of fine motor skills. Its development plays a huge role in the development of many of the child's skills.

◊ Development of logical thinking. Before putting a part in a particular place, your child thinks. And the more the child's brain is given the opportunity to think like that, the better.

◊ Development of spatial and abstract thinking. This is one of the main characteristics of puzzles. They contribute to the fact that the baby learns to imagine an object, a picture in space, without seeing it before his eyes. Thus, a child develops a fantasy when he is able to invent something or imagine something that is not currently in front of him.

◊ Learn to understand that everything in this world consists of parts, details. And if you put them together, correctly match one to the other, you get a real object.

◊ Develop the concept of more or less. That is, there are puzzles where there are few or many pieces.

The development of a child's brain depends on actions and manipulations in the world around him. Puzzle games for toddlers have many key features. Children learn to work directly with their environment and change its shape and appearance when they work with puzzles. It should be noted that many of the jigsaw puzzles are difficult and require repeated attempts in order to complete them. Puzzles can be put together in a group, it brings the participants closer, it makes them think, solve problems, make decisions collectively!

A mosaic for a child is a game in the process of which fantasy patterns are created from separate fragments (puzzles, chips, parts), pictures and images are restored.

Mosaic types

Modern parents believe that a toy should not only have an entertainment function, but also develop a baby, teach him and even educate him. And when there is demand, there is supply. The mosaic has become such fun. Children's mosaics are presented on the market today in a huge assortment. It will not be easy for an inexperienced parent to make a choice.

The main types of this game are:

Who is it for?

The mosaic for children from one year old should be large. Perfect for, say, a bathroom option. However, this division is very arbitrary. When choosing a toy, one should focus on the child's inclinations, his ability to concentrate and his type of thinking. Also, kids love to collect large, simple floor puzzles.

Mosaic for children 3 years old is preferable classic, with a perforated board, as well as on a magnetic base. Older kids like the 3D version, the alphabet mosaic and the application mosaic. Students opt for puzzles.

Which mosaic to choose?

In order to make it easier to make a choice, it should be noted what abilities the mosaic develops for children. This will help you determine what qualities you would like to improve in your child through play.

How to play?

How to start working with a child? It is unlikely that the baby will begin to create shapes if you just give him the toy. To draw the child's attention to the process of play, give him tasks gradually, starting with the simplest ones.

First, tell your kid about the colors of the chips. Then ask him to give you the element of the desired color. After that, you can form all the chips in groups of shades. After the child has mastered the colors, move on to the study of mosaics with geometric shapes. Tell him where the circle is and where the triangle is. When showing the detail, focus the baby's attention on the specific features of the figure: the sharp corner of the triangle, the ability to roll near the circle, the straight edges of the square. Then ask your child to give you a specific token. If you find that the puzzle is not fun for your child, put off the game for a month and then try to start over.

Your goal is to teach your kid to sort the chips by color palette and by their shape.

The next step is assembling pictures, creating patterns. Do not demand strict adherence to the scheme when assembling the mosaic, tell the kid the sequence of actions, but do not collect the chips instead. Analyze what he likes best, pay more attention to this activity, gradually complicating it. Over time, you will understand what the kid's favorite mosaic is. The game for children should take place in an atmosphere of expectation of something new, because children are very fond of acquiring skills.

Memory mosaic

Modern mosaics are so good for a child, and the finished works are so beautiful that sometimes you don't want to disassemble the model. If you want to save the composition created by the kid, please note that some sets come with a special frame for a perforated board, a thick sheet for gluing a cardboard puzzle. Take pictures of your work and the process of creativity, because these moments will never be repeated again.

The cost

The price of this game is not very high in any of its versions. However, the difference between certain species can be significant. On average, a mosaic for children costs about 150 rubles.

First, the puzzle game trains fine motor skills children's pens, and this directly affects active development of speech... Secondly, the baby develops in himself purposefulness and independence in decision making. Finally, the limitless possibilities of mosaics have a positive effect on artistic taste child and contribute to the development of fantasy. This is not just a set of colored chips that can be freely placed on the field. This is a special means of knowing the surrounding world.

Unlike drawing, the technique of which allows you to capture an image invented by a child very quickly (stick-stick, cucumber - and the drawing is ready), mosaic requires holding the image for a long time and putting it together from "points". Usually, this level abstract thinking appears in a child from 3 years old. But the variety of mosaics today gives the opportunity to play them for kids from 1 year old.

Mosaic for the little ones.

For babies from 1 year old there is mosaics without any special field... Round chips, which are connected by slots and projections, can be laid out on the floor or on a table. True, at this age, children are more likely to be interested not in creating drawings, but in how the chips are connected to each other and what color they are. Great, this is also an educational activity. Make a multi-colored "path" from the chips for toy animals or cars.

From about 3 years old, the child has an interest in creating more and more new drawings, and here it is already suitable mosaic with chips on legs... You can put almost anything out of them. Do not limit your baby to just the sun, a flower and a house. Tell a fairy tale with the help of a mosaic, lay out a kolobok or turnip, come up with an animal or a machine with which all sorts of adventures will take place. The main thing is that there are enough chips and the size of the field.

At the same age, you can offer the child magnetic mosaic... The game does not require complex actions to stick thin legs, and the chips hold well. Not to mention the fact that little ones are very interested in the very physical phenomenon of a magnet.

The most "mosaic-active" age occurs approximately from 4-6 years old... Unfortunately, many modern mosaics do not allow the creative potential of the child to unfold. Chips are often not enough to lay out a complex picture.

We also add that create images from samples, which are almost always included in the set for any mosaic, are available to children from 5-6 years old, but not earlier. Checking a drawing with a sample, counting the number of chips of different colors that are needed in order to lay out an image is not an easy task that prepares a child for school.

What to play instead of a puzzle?

Today you can find many different board games and activities, which in their shape resemble a mosaic. Although they solve other development problems, they can, on occasion, replace the mosaic. Applications, for example, are suitable for younger children, from 1 to 4 years old - it is easier to put together a whole from the existing parts than from a set of identical chips. Puzzles, inserts and composite pictures is also often confused with mosaics. These games develop, first of all, images of perception and logical thinking, and are most often suitable for children of the age 2-3 years.

It is important that the child's play environment is as diverse as possible. And mosaics, and puzzles, and applications are equally useful if they correspond to the interests of the baby and the tasks of development at his age. In the end, you can pick up pebbles, shells, buttons and other small items, and put together unique pictures from them. Thus, the child will be able to show his creative abilities not only within the framework of the plastic mosaic and will begin to perceive the surrounding objects, different in shape and material, as a mosaic.

Mosaic is not just a child's play, it is a kind of magic, in the process of which images of objects or whole plot pictures are formed from small pieces.

The benefits of mosaics for children

The mosaic game trains fine motor skills of hands, develops imagination, artistic taste and imaginative thinking. In the process of creating a picture from a mosaic, the baby brings up purposefulness, attentiveness and observation.

The child learns the consistency of movements, trains perseverance, develops abstract and spatial thinking. Mosaic teaches you to work according to certain rules, a model, to strive to bring an idea to a visible result.

And he introduces the smallest ones to the basic shapes, colors, developing visual attention and sensing.

How to choose a children's mosaic by age

• For the smallest children, a honeycomb or spherical mosaic is suitable. The elements in such a mosaic are large, so it is convenient for a child to pick them up and put them on cells. Pay attention to whether the elements snap onto the field, otherwise, with any tilt of the mosaic, it will crumble.
• For older children (from about 2 years old), a mosaic with elements on the leg is already suitable. For a two to three year old child, choose this type of mosaic with few elements and colors. Games with such a mosaic contribute to the development of creative imagination, because although a booklet with images is usually attached to the set, the child can assemble any pictures from the mosaic elements.
• At the age of 2-3 years, the child likes to play a compound mosaic puzzle. These are pictures of different objects cut into a small number (2-8) parts. The details of such a mosaic are large, so it is convenient to assemble it on the floor. The images on the mosaic should be understandable to the kid - animals, fruits and vegetables, toys. Some types of such mosaics are made of a durable elastic material that has the ability to stick to the surface when exposed to moisture, that is, you can use it while swimming.
• For children aged 5-6 years, more complex mosaics are suitable. For example, magnetic mosaic by numbers, which involves composing multi-color pictures from elements by number and color. It includes about 1000 elements, so it will be interesting to collect this mosaic even for adults.

In addition to assembling patterns and pictures, you can use the mosaic as an auxiliary material for teaching mathematics (counting the elements or inviting the child to give a certain number of chips of the named color), developing attention - lay out the pattern and invite the child to remember it, and then change the shape or color of the chips.

Sometimes, in the form of mosaics, sets of numbers and letters are made that will help older preschoolers in a playful way master the basics of counting and the letters of the alphabet. Chips, made in the form of letters and numbers, allow you to compose words and syllables, write examples on the playing field, and older children compose whole crosswords on the field.

Choosing from a wide range of children's mosaics inonline store of children's goods , pay attention to the availability of a quality certificate, sanitary certificates, instructions for using the selected products.

Prepared by Mariana Chornovil