Educational Kids' Toys

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Educational Kids' Toys

Many children spend most of their day playing, so it's only natural that their parents would want to surround them with educational kids' toys. After all, playing and learning are a kid's job. Luckily, there are a wide variety of toys that are both fun and educational.

Infants and Toddlers

For very young children, most experts agree that "the classics" are still the best educational toys. "The classics" include toys that have been around forever, such as shape sorters, lacing cards, puzzles, and picture books. To help your child develop language skills, use picture books featuring life-like photographs, such as those found in the board books by DK Publishing. Just talking about what you see in the book will help build a little one's vocabulary. To build fine motor skills, find some wooden puzzles with large pegs to hold onto. Assist your toddler in getting the pieces in the correct spaces, again talking about what pictures you see. This way, a puzzle becomes both a fine motor activity and a language development activity.

There are many electronic toys geared toward infants and toddlers. To play with most of these toys, the child presses a button and the toy makes a noise or says something, often naming the object the baby pressed. Many of the manufacturers want parents to think that these toys will make a baby smarter, but most experts agree that children learn best while interacting with a real person, rather than an electronic toy.

Preschoolers

Preschool children love to express their creativity. Toys like Magna Doodles that enable kids to draw and then describe their work to others are great. Many preschoolers are becoming interested in pre-literacy activities like what letters are in their names and what each road sign says. Reading books about the alphabet, or any books at all, will help foster this important interest. Encourage their curiosity by buying magnetic letters to put on your refrigerator. The Leapfrog company makes a toy called Fridge Phonics. It comes with 26 magnetic letters and one magnetic holder. When one of the letters is put into the holder, it sings a song about what sound that letter makes. A play desk is another great educational toy, particularly for a little one who is anxious to attend school.

School Aged Children
By the time many kids enter school, they have caught the electronic game bug. Whether you have a game system in your home or not, eventually your child will probably become interested in these toys. A great alternative to the typical electronic games are the new educational game systems. There are a few to choose from, including the V-Smile by V-Tech and the Leapster by Leapfrog. Both offer games for a wide variety of age levels, starting with preschool children and going up to fifth grade. Many of the games feature popular cartoon characters including Dora the Explorer, Sponge Bob, the Disney Princesses, Spiderman and Batman. The games target important skills such as letter recognition, phonics, grammar, math facts, and even reading comprehension. If your kids are going to spend time playing with an electronic game, they may as well learn something from it.

Educational Kids' Toys Summary

For more information about educational kids' toys, check out the following books: The 2006 Report on Educational Toys and Discover Educational Toys for Children by Hilary Werdel.


 


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