Most children enjoy playing with wooden balls. They love rolling, catching and tossing these wonderful toys. Children can also benefit from playing with them because these are such versatile toys. Moreover, wooden balls are open ended toys which means children are not bound to just one playstyle. They can play wooden balls however they want. They can use them as cargo for their mini trucks or as materials for creative projects.
Wooden balls are simple toys but do not be fooled by their appearance. These toys provide considerable educational value as well. Wooden balls are already wonderful toys to begin with because they are so much fun to play and they facilitate learning and development in various ways.
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of playing wooden balls.
Sensory Play
Anything kind of play that stimulates your child’s senses is considered sensory play. Little children should develop their sense of touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight as early as possible. Sensory play allows children to refine these senses through play and having fun. It helps build nerve connections in the brain and foster development of other skills like fine motor and problem solving.
Wooden balls are good for sensory play. These toys often come in bright colours which is good for visual stimulation and colour recognition. They are made from wood and naturally have a wooden texture to them which is fantastic for tactile stimulation. Wooden balls produce sounds when they collide with other objects which is good for auditory stimulation. Wood is known for its natural antibacterial properties and most wooden toys are finished with non-toxic paint so you can have peace of mind even if your child puts these wooden balls into his mouth.
Hand Eye Coordination & Fine Motor Skills
Wooden balls encourage children to use their hands and fingers. These balls have the natural wooden texture so it feels so good to touch them. Most wooden toys are made with little children’s hands in mind so they can easily hold them. Picking the wooden balls up or throwing them help children develop their hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. These are important skills because they allow children to perform simple actions like buttoning a shirt or using a pencil to write on a piece of paper.
Imagination & Creativity
We have already mentioned that wooden balls are versatile and flexible. These characteristics allow children to explore different ideas of play and experiment with how they play with wooden balls. They can use wooden balls as accessories for their other toys. For instance, they can use small wooden balls for any kind of ball runs.
Wooden balls are also good materials for creative projects. Small wooden balls with holes in them are sometimes called beads. These wooden balls or beads (beading has many benefits) for accessories like bracelets and necklaces. Your children can also use these wooden balls as heads for their peg dolls. Some wooden balls come unpainted so your children can paint them using non-toxic watercolor.
