The Builder One

Play Guide

Infant 0-12 months

What’s inside your kit:

  • Drop Box

  • The Nest

  • Ring Stack

  • First Puzzle

  • Open Blocks

  • Big and Small - bilingual board book

  • The Builder One Play Guide

How to use this kit

In the first year, play is simple - and powerful.

Your baby doesn’t need many toys.

They need time, repetition, and your presence.

This kit is designed to support your child through early stages of development:

  • Awareness - noticing and observing

  • Control - learning how to use their hands

  • Coordination - beginning to interact with purpose

There is no right way to play.

Follow your child’s pace.

Every NURIA Play kit includes a thoughtfully selected bilingual board book that helps children connect what they’re learning through play to the world around them.

Start simple:

  • Introduce one activity at a time

  • Keep play sessions short - 5 to 10 minutes

  • Repeat the same activity over multiple days

Repetition builds confidence.

Stage 1 - Awareness

3-9 months

Goal: Help your baby notice, observe, and engage with the world.

3-6 months - First exposure:

At this stage, your baby is tracking movement, responding to contrast, and beginning to reach.

Introduce Big and Small shared looking - point to each image and name it.

Let your baby hold and mouth Open Blocks. Watch as you drop the egg into The Nest.

No structured activity is needed. Your presence and narration are the experience.

6-9 months - Active exploration:

The Nest

  1. Pick the egg up

  2. Place it in the cup

  3. Attempt to roll the egg

Builds: Understanding that objects still exist when out of sight . Early focus and anticipation

Drop Box

  1. Drop the ball in the top together, watch it vanish, then reappear

  2. Name the ball as it goes and comes back - gone, then here

Builds: Object permanence - the quiet delight of a thing gone, then found . Anticipation and early focus . Letting go on purpose

Open Blocks - First Exploration

  1. Place one block within reach

  2. Let your child hold, mouth, and examine it

  3. Knock over a small stack and let them watch

Builds: Curiosity . Tactile awareness . Cause and effect

Parent Tip

At this stage, your baby is discovering.

Even simple actions are meaningful.

If they repeat the same thing - dropping, knocking, reaching - that is the learning.

Parent Tip

Your baby may remove more than they build.

That is part of the process.

Disassembly is just as important as assembly at this stage.

Stage 2 - Control

9-12 months

Drop Box - Posting

  1. Hand your baby the ball to drop in themselves

  2. Let them watch it vanish and reappear

  3. Repeat - the cycle is the lesson

Builds: Intentional release and aim . Hand control . Cause and effect

First Puzzle

  1. Lift a piece and look underneath

  2. Try to place it back

Builds: Grip strength . Spatial awareness . Persistence

Ring Stack

  1. Remove the rings one by one

  2. Begin placing them back on the post

Builds: Hand control . Basic coordination . Understanding of size and sequence

Goal: Develop hand control and intentional movement.

Stage 3 - Coordination

12+ months

Open Blocks - Full Exploration

  1. Explore one function at a time

  2. Gradually introduce the next element

Open Blocks offer multiple ways to interact - nesting, stacking, fitting one inside another, exploring different surfaces. Do not introduce all functions at once.

Builds: Coordination . Early problem solving . Focused attention

Parent Tip

Let your child fully explore one interaction before moving to the next.

Depth of focus matters more than variety at this stage.

Goal: Encourage purposeful interaction and multi-step exploration.

The Book - Big and Small

Big and Small is a quiet visual book. Each spread holds a pair - two things that feel different from each other, placed side by side.

At this age your baby is building a visual vocabulary through contrast. The book gives them that experience before language catches up.

Before Play

  • Read slowly, one spread at a time

  • Point to each object and name it: “Inside. Outside.”

  • Let your baby look - do not rush the page turn

During Play

Connect contrasts from the book to what your baby is doing:

  • Inside/Outside → The Nest - the egg goes in, the egg comes out

  • Full/Empty → a container with blocks inside, then emptied

  • Open/Close → the book is open or closed; their hands are open or closed

After Play

Simple, calm repetition of the word pairs:

  • “Big. Small.”

  • “Full. Empty.”

  • “Open. Closed.”

No quizzing. No testing. Just language alongside experience.

Builds: Visual awareness and contrast recognition. Early language exposure. Connection between play and the world

Play Ideas

What a day can look like:

  • Morning: One simple activity

  • Afternoon: Repeat, or introduce a small variation

  • Evening: Light interaction - no pressure, no performance

There is no need to do everything.

What to Expect

  • Your baby may prefer one toy at first - this is normal

  • Your baby may repeat the same action many times - this is learning

  • Your baby may explore a toy in ways you didn’t expect - this is imagination at work

NURIA Play Philosophy

At this stage, less is more.

We believe:

  • Calm environments support deeper focus

  • Repetition builds confidence before complexity

  • Babies learn through doing, not stimulation

This kit is not about milestones. It is about time spent together, at your baby’s pace, with things that are worth holding.

Want to find this again? Your play guides are always in your NURIA Play account.

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