I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

folk pedagogy, ethnopedagogy, national pedagogic heritage, folk toys and folk games.

In a modern sociocultural situation there is a revival of traditions of folk pedagogy. These processes can contribute to the formation of national self-consciousness at younger generation. In this connection, in science and practice there has increased some interest in the study of folk wisdom in educating children and stimulated the search for national-ethnic peculiarities of pedagogical influence on them, which suggests a significant increase in the development of these issues.

Folk pedagogy as an integral part of collective folk art presents pedagogical heritage reflected in folk games and toys. These have had educational value, served as a means of formation of character, giving the flavor of ethno-pedagogical educational environment. However, the study of regional peculiarities of folk culture indicates that recently folk games and toys began to disappear: folk games are presented as theatrical performances, and folk toys can be found only in museums. Nevertheless, the accumulated theoretical and empirical material allows one to form a pedagogical conception on the material of folk games and toys to justify ethnopedagogical culture.

The game and the toy as part of the spiritual culture of the people initially implied modeling and representation of relations in the game as the main manifestation of the spiritual world of the child. Toys and games served as the first means of educating and motivating the child for the future development of senses and the formation of mind. They represented the same educational value as folk poetry, legends, tales, sayings, riddles etc. The use of folk toys of ethnicity in educational process can be carried out through a specific organization of the subject-gaming environment, folk, didactic games and game-dramatization.