Educational toys are useful for more than just entertainment and play. Educational Toys Planet’s selection of toys helps children learn new skills, develop their minds into lifelong learners, as well as encourage kids to explore what they might find interesting in life. Choosing the perfect toy for a child is never easy, especially when they are of different ages. Toys can be used to stimulate and teach children in various ways such as teaching them about letters or numbers, helping with their development skills like puzzles and stacking blocks, or even inspiring creativity through arts-and-crafts kits.
Toy manufacturers often market toys according to these three categories: “educational” which focuses on developing specific mental abilities; “interactive,” where playtime results from interaction between people (e.g., board games); and finally there’s something known as an “entertainment” toy that aims solely at providing amusement without any other educational benefits whatsoever! Educational Toys Planet is a store that puts the emphasis on educational and interactive toys, which are two categories of toy our customers want most.
How does playing with toys help to raise intelligent children?
Playing with toys has many benefits for children, including improving their coordination, social skills and language. Playing in a child’s developmental years has stronger effects on the brain than almost any other activity. What we see in the early months of life dictates how our higher order cognition will develop and what connections form between neurons that govern our thinking, memory and personality. Physical play trains emerging neural pathways to be more complex rather than functionally simplistic allowing for richer memories, better controlled thoughts, and improved concentration skills. Socializing with other children improves empathy making them better able to understand others’ emotions while also enhancing communication skills that come into play later as they learn to read and write words or act out simple math problems. The finer motor control needed to manipulate the different parts of a toy (like putting together Legos or playing with a bead maze) improves dexterity, which is critical for writing skills to be effective and efficient. Several studies have also found that those who use their hands more often in play are better at school-type activities like drawing pictures or using scissors when compared to children only exposed to such tasks during school hours. Researchers agree, “It seems clear that if you want a clever child—or adult—you had best start early”. Therefore, it’s very important to encourage parents and teachers to provide an adequate amount of toys and stimulation for young children (especially boys). Choosing educational toys for 3 years old toddlers help them develop fundamental life skills they need as adults. By working with toys, toddlers explore and learn how the world works. Toys are great motivators that will engage them in learning and practicing new skills or trying out things they couldn’t do before.
Parents, it is important that we play together with our kids!
Dear parents! In our effort to make the most of every opportunity for children to gain knowledge and skills, let us play with our kids! We encourage parents to provide opportunities for their young child’s cognitive development so that they become more successful with reading, writing, language use, math concepts and critical thinking skills. Playing is not only fun but is good for growing brains. Whether you call it playing as therapy or using toys as a tool for improving critical thinking skills…the message is clear: Parents need to get down on the floor and play with their toddlers! Playing with their children is one of the most important things parents can do to help their children develop. Playing is an action, not a product, and it’s all about the process with toddlers. For example; pretending to eat dinner from a bowl (when in fact no food sits there), encourages young children to expand their understanding of what they are pretending about, prompting them into thinking about how other people feel or how various aspects of objects work. The act of playing involves talking, asking questions, observing and listening – all the activities that encourage learning at this age.
25 cases to use educational toys and games to raise intelligent children
- Introduce children to the concept of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) from a young age by playing with toys such as building toys, math toys, marble runs and toys that encourage exploring and creative thinking.
- Encourage your child’s creativity by giving them art supplies or other materials that will help them express themselves creatively. Encourage their creativity and show support for whatever they create!
- Role play scenarios where they have to make decisions about dangerous situations or unsafe behavior (e.g., crossing the street).
- Play board games to teach them strategy skill and improve mental math. This can be especially helpful for children who struggle with abstract concepts like fractions or decimals in arithmetic, since the mathematical equations found in board games have more of a concrete representation than what is typically used during school hours. Playing board games not only teaches your child valuable life lessons that will stay with them forever but also helps build up those crucial brain cells!
- Educate your child about the environment and how to care for the Earth by engaging them in in pretend (and real!) activities such as gardening, recycling or collecting non-toxic trash to dispose of. The Earth is a beautiful place which we need to take care of for future generations. If you want your child to grow up being happy and healthy, then it’s important that they learn about what the world has in store for them. One way is by teaching them how gardening or recycling helps keep our planet clean and safe. The environment should be cared for so that people can enjoy its beauty now as well as into the future. Teach children these values through activities such as gardening, recycling or collecting non-toxic trash with their parents’ help!
- Introduce your kids to puzzles to develop their problem-solving skills. Kids love solving things, and it’s not just for their parents; anyone of any age is a potential puzzle solver! You might be thinking “but my kid likes video games,” – but there are plenty that offer an interactive challenge instead of points or victory screens (cough cough Candy Crush). Puzzles require careful thought, creativity, and patience; these properties will come in handy as children learn more about the world around them.
- Teach them to read early by playing with educational toys that have letters and words on them. It’s never too early to get kids excited about reading. You can help them build a foundation for literacy from an early age by providing the right environment with toys that include letters and words on it like alphabet magnets, puzzles, bookshelf blocks, word cards etc. By playing educational games at home they will have more exposure to reading which is vital in their development process as well as preparing themselves for school years ahead of time! They may also lean faster than other children who don’t receive this kind of guidance because these exposures helps develop vocabulary skills needed when learning how to read fluently later on down the line.
- Introduce toys that help improve children’s motor skills e.g., nesting or stacking toys, even bath toys, so it will be easier for them to improve their hand-eye coordination in the future. Children will continue to be curious about the world around them and their motor skills are a natural way of exploring. Helping your child improve his or her hand-eye coordination now can go miles in preparing him for future success! Here is one toy that might help: stacking toys, such as blocks or building sets. Some children even prefer nested shapes so they’ll have an easier time improving their dexterity with age.
- Educate kids on how to be healthy by teaching them about the food pyramid, the importance of fruits and vegetables, etc. by playing with pretend food. Kids can learn all about healthy eating by playing with pretend food. The kids will adopt habits that keep them away from junk and unhealthy foods, knowing how to assemble a well-balanced meal for themselves at home or on the go. Educating children is an important way of imparting knowledge – especially when it comes to being healthier! Kids who are educated know which fruits and vegetables make up each category in the Food Pyramid; they also know what kinds of things their body needs more than others so as not to get sick while maintaining good health (e.g., dairy products). Playtime becomes educational time as your child learns through hands-on experience, making decisions based upon logical choices instead of impulse decision-making where fast food chains “reign supreme”.
- Play with your kids to develop their physical strength, cardiovascular health and coordination. (e.g., tossing a ball, jump ropes). Kids love to play, and playing with them is a great way for you to strengthen their body. Games are also good ways of helping kids develop hand-eye coordination skills.
- Play with toys that will help boost their communication skills. Toys in the playroom should be used to increase a child’s communication skills. Role playing games such as make-believe doctor, teacher, firefighter are excellent ways for children to experiment with new dialogues, have conversations about their feelings, solve problems together by talking things through rather than fighting physically or emotionally like many adults do without even realizing it! Toys that promote creativity can also provide a good outlet of expression when kids get overwhelmed at school because they feel trapped inside these rigid bubbles called classrooms where there is no space left for them express themselves freely outside of how teachers want them to behave – which may not always match up perfectly with what makes sense given each individual kid’s personality type!
- Improve their creativity and building skills by letting them play with toys and games like building blocks, constructing, play-doh, designing etc. The best toys for encouraging creativity are ones that mirror the skills involved in creative activities. For instance, building blocks help to learn spatial reasoning and how create three-dimensional shapes using a two dimensional plane; drawing helps children visualize their thoughts as they see them on paper without even having to use words or sentences, which can allow more complex ideas than just simple drawings of animals and landscapes. These types of games provide vital lessons about STEM disciplines such as architecture (building), engineering (construction) design studies etc., while also helping kids grow into empathetic people!
- Play games that teach social skills which will help your children learn how to take turns (e.g., using toys with more than one person). Play your children games that will help them learn how to take turns and share with others. Hide-and-seek, tag, capture the flag; these are all good ways for kids to practice being a team player while having fun! Finally playtime can be just as much about playing together than it is about what you’re doing separately. Games like hide-and seek or tag allow players of any age group (regardless of skill level) an opportunity to work together towards achieving goals in order win – which means everyone wins!
- Introduce your child to electronic learning by allowing them to play with electronic toys that will improve their motor skills and ability to think logically.
- Teach to understand and love nature by growing plants by themselves with toys such as a plant pot and gardening tools. It is important to teach children about the importance of nature, and one way we can do that as parents or teachers is by growing plants with them. There are many options for materials ranging from houseplants in pottery containers all the way up to a garden outside your home! The more hands-on experience they have learning how it feels to grow something themselves will be invaluable later on when making decisions about what products they buy like food. It’s never too early (or late) in life to learn more about our natural world around us and start developing an appreciation for things that aren’t made out of plastic resins so much – think flowers, trees, bugs, vegetables grown at home.
- Encourage your kids to interact with each other children and toys at their level, not an adult’s level, to help develop their social skills. Kids will never learn how to play well together if they don’t have anyone who is at the same developmental stage as them interacting with them on a regular basis, which can be difficult when there are adults around all day long always telling young ones what do next!
- Encourage your children to use toys in different ways by giving them toys that can be built or used in multiple ways. This can be achieved by providing the building toy materials for their next masterpiece- from toy cars that have interchangeable parts, constructing towers out of Lego bricks or even making an art project using rubber bands as if it were clay.
- Stimulate your children’s imaginations by giving toys that let them make up stories on their own. Crazy toys are a great way to make children’s imaginations go wild. One toy that lets kids create their own stories is the fire truck which encourages them to play out scenes about rescue missions or fighting fires and such, while doll houses let little girls engage in lots of imaginative role-playing as they pretend with friends who should be living there instead. Animal figurines, dinosaur toys work well for both boys and girls – from farm animals like cows and pigs all the way up through predators like lions or bears! Toys can help stimulate your child’s imagination by giving them some options on what kind of story it might take off into (e.g., dolls house where they have tea parties; imaginary zoo).
- Encourage your kids’ creative thinking skills, problem solving skills, memory or spatial reasoning skills. The best way to teach kids about how their brains work is by giving them building blocks, sorting sets, or puzzles. Building block toys can help children learn the rules of cause and effect as they see what happens when they take a toy out from under another object. Sorting set games may encourage your child’s memory skills while also teaching her observational abilities. Puzzles introduce spatial reasoning concepts that will be important in math later on down the line!
- Kids love to get creative with their inventions and ideas. Give them time in the day where they can paint, draw or build something without any pressure of expectations. This will help encourage your kids’ creativity skills! They also might come up with some new solutions for everyday problems too!
- Give them toys that will help teach them to follow instructions. Repetitive play is great, but what about when you want to teach your kids how to build things? Toys that will help them follow instructions with a set of directions are perfect! One example would be Lego.
- For the geeks among us, there are tons of science toys to improve your kid’s scientific knowledge. For the future scientists, there are always tons of science toys to improve your kid’s scientific knowledge.
- Play toy musical instruments with your kids to improve their ability to concentrate and improve their sense of rhythm. It doesn’t matter if you can play an instrument or not. Kids love to make noise, and getting them involved in making music at home is a great way to help them boost their concentration skills while having fun too!
- Give toys toys that will teach them to count numbers (e.g., abacus, counting animals, stackers, number puzzles). Be a teacher for your little ones with these awesome toys! You can teach them to count from one to ten in English, Spanish or French. They will also learn how many pieces there are on each puzzle while they build and play at the same time.
- Play educational matching and memory games with your kids so they can improve their memory and reflexes. Play with your kids so they can keep their minds sharp. When you are playing these educational games, have each child take turns making a move in the game and when it is time to turn over cards or identify objects for memory exercises make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to win by not letting one person dominate all of the moves. This will help them develop reflexes and improve patience while still having fun together as a family!
What are some types of age-appropriate educational toys?
We recommend using different strategies to encourage cooperation, altruism, compassion, empathy and social skills by providing age-appropriate opportunities around new challenges as well as a wide range of materials with which to problem solve. Browse our selection of educational toys for children who are interested in developing their minds into lifelong learners or exploring what they might find interesting in life!
0-1 years
Some babies enjoy being introduced to toys with bright colors and interesting textures while others are more interested in sounds and shapes that can be sorted or stacked. It really just depends on the child’s preferences. One of the best ways to figure this out is through observing how your baby reacts when you show him new things.
1-2 years
It can be tempting to pamper your child and buy them toys galore, but this is not the best idea for 1 year olds. They aren’t ready to understand anything more than light, sound, and touch yet. So it’s best to keep things simple for now. For a fab start in life consider books for all those other senses!
2-3 years
2 year old toddlers get really into toys that have sounds. They love to push buttons and hear the bear laugh, or turn a wheel and watch it go round and round! They’re just getting their sense of hearing activated so they might like music too. A lot of times, toddlers are bored of painting because they want to “finish” their art, but they still enjoy using crayons or markers. Finger paint is also ok as long as you keep an eye on them if you don’t want your walls destroyed!
3-4 years
A three-year-old is one of the fastest learners on earth. They are ready to read, write and start to add up simple numbers! Let your child’s natural interests be a good guideline as to what type of toy they should have. Do they like music? Invest in a drum set with some percussion instruments! Do they like construction projects? Buy them some Legos or try building. Consider purchasing an art kit, musical instrument or dress up clothes so that your child can explore their artistic side just as much as exploring through play time.
4-5 years
For children between 4 and 5 years old, 3D puzzles are a great option. Puzzles help maintain motor skills and hand-eye coordination while also providing hours of fun entertainment. The children get to learn spatial relationships as they put the pieces together, which is recommended for age 4+ according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
5-6 years
First, know that there is no “right” kind of educational toy for 5 year olds. That said – there are quite a few! Here are just a few examples of some developmental toys that work well for children this age: National Geographic Animal Puzzles The puzzles offer an interactive experience and help reinforce problem solving skills and hand eye coordination. Kids will enjoy exploring these fun animal puzzles on their own or with others.
6-7 years
For a 6 year old, educational toys can range from games, puzzles, early science kits and building sets to stuffed animals. It’s best to check with the child – they may enjoy the most simple developmental materials such as blocks or cars. As a parent it is your job to find out what stimulates them most for playtime – remember that it doesn’t always have to be something specific!
7-8 years
It’s a good idea to think about your 7 year old learner. What kind of learner is she: visual, auditory or kinesthetic? Try some pretend play-type toys like cookware sets for those that are auditory learners. For those who are more hands-on and kinesthetic in nature, try Legos — the possibilities are endless! And be sure to incorporate some type of supervised reading with educational apps as an engaging way for her to learn something new.
8-10 years
We would suggest puzzles, books, activities that require drawing skills. Also construction sets, magnets and kits for science learning. Also Lego products for engineering skills (Lego is a not only great for creativity but it will also increase spatial understanding). At this age kids can also begin to learn to code. Arts and crafts are always a good idea!
10+ years
When buying educational toys for kids aged 10 and up, the best thing to do is ask them what they are interested in. You can also look at their reading level and hobbies to find toys that will suit their interests. Some great options are Lego sets, art kits, chemistry sets, computer games or programs for programming software like Scratch – some of which are very hands-on. If your kid says they’re into sports-related stuff, a skateboard is a well-known option too!
Create a happy life for your child!
The best way to create a happy life for your children is by encouraging them early on! Encourage them in anything they’re passionate about, whether it be math, music, science or art. Our toys will help you to channel their passions and their energy into something which may one day will make them successful and happy.