Kids Learning

It can be fun to buy a toy for your toddler, because they are so cute and you can imagine the smile on your child’s face when you give it to them. More and more parents are recognizing that not all toys they give their children should be just cute or cuddly.
They are looking for toys that are educational as well. There are many of these toys available, both online and in toy stores. So many in fact, that it can be difficult to choose which is the best one for your child. The toy stores alone offer a multitude of them and when you add the ones advertised online; it can truly become a mind boggling experience. There are toys that parents have found to be excellent learning tools and these are the ones that are the most popular.

Curiosity Cube.

This toy is great for toddlers because it helps them learn to recognize colors, shapes and sounds. It has many activities that will occupy your children for hours and educate them as well.

Building Blocks

Building blocks have been around for years and many parents can remember playing with them themselves. They now come in softer versions for children under 6 months. These blocks develop a child’s concentration skills and their ability to manipulate objects.

Chatterbox Telephone

A Chatterbox phone comes in different languages, allowing the child to learn basic language skills in their native tongue. It also teaches your child numbers and social skills.

Rollercoaster

The Rollercoaster is one of the most educational toys on the market and also one of the most popular. Some doctor’s offices provide them for the child to play with while they are waiting to be seen. The child plays with it by sliding shapes along a track and it helps develop the child’s ability to manipulate items.

Spin and Play Center

The Spin and Play center is another favorite of toddlers. It features toys that your child can spin, turn and slide. It has a suction cup at the bottom so it can stick to whatever surface you place it on and helps teach a child how to solve problems.

Ten Counter

This is a toy that will help teach your child number recognition and counting skills. It has numbered arches and each arch contains beads in ascending order, matching the number on the arch. It’s fun for them to play with and it’s a great teaching tool.

Puzzle

There are many puzzles designed for toddlers to play with. They teach your child reasoning abilities and shape recognition. They are also a great way to spark their creativity.

Buying educational toys for your toddler is very important. They help them develop their reasoning, manipulative and creative skills, giving them a head start before its time to send them off to school.

By: Gregg Hall

Popularity: 2% [?]

All kids enjoy gifts. Receiving a gift is a positive reinforcement for them and boosts their self confidence. Rewarding a child for being good with a small token can go a long way in promoting good behavior. Most children have a penchant for information and knowledge and love to explore. And therefore, one of the great gifts that you can give the child is the gift of knowledge and learning.

Today there are many mesmerizing ways that toy companies have developed with the help of research in designing educational toys. They have figured out how a child can learn while having fun. The standard trampoline has been modified to a talking one with the aid of technology. These sing along exercisers allow the child to learn while jumping. Songs include nursery rhymes, music that teaches the alphabet and numbers. Some even have animal sounds, memory games and sound recognition devices incorporated in them.

The Melissa and Doug learning tools help your young ones to learn with colorful shapes and letters. When your child picks up a letter and the appropriate sound is emitted.

The reasonability charts are one of the most amazing toys that you will ever see in the market. They teach the art of helping out with the daily chores at home, being polite to elders, sharing and not be a bother. The young tyke can decide what tasks he/she wants to achieve in a particular week and set out to accomplish them. The parents can track the performance of the child by using magnets which come in various shapes like flowers, stars, bears, balls and faces. On a particularly good week, the child can be adorned with a magnet which says You Are A Star or magnets can be personalized using the blanks.

The Sorting Clock aids in teaching to tell the time by placing the right colorful numbers in the right places.

Role playing tools can be of great help in developing the emotional quotient. Kid vacuum cleaners can be an interesting gift which will educate the child on completing chores while enjoying at the same time. These cleaners come with various hoses and they have real life working tools which actually help clean up. So let your tyrant who normally flings things in all directions help you clean up for a change.

Though the Bosch tool kits are amazingly bewitching and minutely detailed, you should be careful while deciding to buy any of these. You do not want your young ones to mount a repairing session on your perfect car or kitchen sink only to find that it does not work after they have finished with it!

By: Ken Snow

Popularity: 4% [?]

If you have kids (or even if you don’t), it’s relatively evident that no two children are the same. They don’t all have the same interests, they don’t all like the same toys, and they definitely don’t all learn in the same way. As adults, we need to encourage our children to enjoy learning, and it’s our job to figure out which way will work the best. One of the best means for us to encourage this striking of a creative chord is with educational toys.

First, let’s start with music. Music itself speaks to so many, and instruments help to develop necessary skills and confidence, and are a fabulous means of creative expression. Younger children will adore kazoos, maracas, and other “controllable” instruments that shake, rattle and roll. As they get older, throw in guitars, recorders and other “detailed” types of instruments that require a bit more skill.

Animals: Insect kits like ant farms, ladybug kits and butterfly environments provide children with the opportunity to learn the responsibilities necessary to care for animals and pets as well as to see what goes on in the daily life of such living things. With a butterfly habitat, the caterpillars arrive separately via mail so your kids can watch them grow, spin their chrysalides, and turn into beautiful butterflies.

Pretend Play has been a popular choice of both parents and children alike for generations. Kitchens, cooking and baking toys have continued to encourage creativity among future chefs and soccer moms and dads picking up a quick, yet somewhat healthy dinner for the family. Unfortunately many of the large corporate companies are trying their best to “brand” many of these types of toys to include their name, titles and logos throughout these pretend products, so keep your eyes open for the “unbranded” products.

Brain-teasers and multi-person board-games that make you think are once again gaining in popularity. These games help to develop critical math and logic skills. The ability to think quickly and under pressure is a large part of high school, college and the real world-working environment, so learning these skills during the elementary education years (and even earlier, if possible) will increase a child’s ability to problem-solve later in life.

Finally, electronic toys have been pouring out of the woodwork for a few decades now, but more recent advances have brought an educational focus to this genre of gadgets. Interactive play combined with learning and entertainment is a great recipe for educational toys in the new millennium.

By: Lisa Legrange

Popularity: 3% [?]