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Carpets, Floors, Mats, Playmats, Floorcloths and Such
The carpet or surface that children play on can make a huge difference in the atmosphere of their play environment and can aid in child developmental skills. And for even more child development possibilities, you can take on a DIY Road Rug Playmat project and create your very own and unique play surface.
Child Development Skills
Creative
- Play helps each child develop creativity and imagination such as role-play, and imaginative play
- Creativity also fosters mental growth in children by providing opportunities for trying out new ideas, and new ways of thinking and problem-solving
Logical
- The process in which child uses reasoning consistently to come to a conclusion
- Problems or situations that involve logical thinking call for structure, for relationships between facts, and for chains of reasoning that “make sense.”
Language and Communication
- Including development of an ability to listen, to understand what is said, and to speak to others
- The ability to see and understand the use of conversation, written language and to write and read
- Language is a learned code, or system of rules that enables children to communicate ideas and express wants and needs
Social
- Social play are the best mechanisms for progressing through the different social stages
- Children learn social rules such as, give and take, reciprocity, cooperation, and sharing
- Children also learn to use moral reasoning to develop a mature sense of values
- To be prepared to function effectively in the adult world
Imagination
- Imagination is symbolic representation, the use of concepts and images to evoke or represent real-world entities, or the use of one set of real-world entities to evoke others (e.g. as when a child uses a banana as a phone in pretend play)
Road Rug/Car Carpet
To a young child, few batteryless things are as interesting as the mystical Road Rug. In part, this page serves as a resource for road rug retailers and for those wishing to make their own road rug/mat. If you didn't have one, your parents didn't love you.
Visit our Road Rug Page for more information on Road Rugs and such.
DIY Road Rugs and Mats
After reviewing the examples of rugs and mats above, you have most likely came up with some ideas of what you would like to have in your own rug or mat. And whether you have something in mind that just isn't available, or you are looking to same money, a DIY Road Rug project is right around the corner. Now you can see how others have approached making their own Road Rugs and Mats.
Visit our DIY Road Rug Page for information and examples of many DIY approaches.
Play Surface Scale
Proper scale doesn't seem to be that important to children and their imaginations should allow for everything to "fit".
If you are concerned about scale, there is a scale calculator in our Zen Mini Castles Page. There you can plug in your numbers and get whatever measurements you like.
Matchobox vs MicroMachines Viper
MicoMachines are just over N scale which is 1:148.
Hot Wheels were originally 1:64 scale. The 1970s Gran Toros were 1/43rd scale and the Hot Wheels Classics are 1:18 scale. They have also made models in 1:12 scale.
Matchbox regular size 1-75 series are often classified as 1:64 scale and ranges from 1:100 to much larger than 1:64 scale. The "King Size" Speed Kings or Super Kings series are 1:43 scale.
Outdoor Play Surfaces
Playsets are covered in our Playset Page
Outside Play Surface Safety is covered in our Outside Play Surface Safety Page
Sandboxes are covered in our Sandbox Page
Foam Floor Mats
2-Foot Sport Series
Designer Series wondermat.com
Carpeted wondermat.com
SoftTiles 2x2 Wood Grain Foam Mats
Capetet play mats and Puzzle mats
Activity Tables
These can be great fun, but is a discussion for a different page or site.
More information on activity tables can be found on our Activity Tables Page.
This page was originally made to cover various play surfaces for children, but the whole Road Rug theme just took over. Here are some other examples of play surfaces for kids.
3-D Play Rugs ohdeedoh.com Barbie house and yard
DanishbyDesign Interactive 3 Dimensional Play Rug - Dollhouse metromum.com.au
Our Somewhere Over The Rainbow Land Of OZ pinkandgreenmama.blogspot.com Craft Foam
Le Toy Van Castle Playmat creativityinstitute.com
DIY Fairy Tale Play Mat! rabbitthepenguin.blogspot.com
Please feel free to link to this site so that others can find it. It's easy to link to this site, just copy one of the texts below onto your web page:
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