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5 Great Educational Toys

20 Mar 2011 by admin

Everyone knows that children learn by play. So it stands to reason that we all want our children to get the most out of their play. There are many great toys around, and so why not combine a great toy that kids love with a learning tool.

Here are five great educational toys for children and why they are so good for your kids

1) Wooden Blocks

Wooden blocks have been around for ever and there is a simple reason for that, children love them. Kids of all ages and genders love playing with wooden blocks.

They are great learning toys for kids because they teach them about:

  • Shapes: blocks come in a variety of shapes with flat surfaces for stacking, arches, cubes, pyramids and domes.

  • Feel: wooden blocks aren’t cold or too hard to the touch. Wood is soft, and won’t do much damage in an accident.

  • Colours: wooden blocks are usually multi coloured. This gives a parent the opportunity to teach a child about colours and for a child to enjoy the beauty of colours.

  • Fine motor skills: a child will learn how to handle blocks, as they grow older, they will learn to stack them and line them up. The older they get, the higher their towers, bridges and cities grow.

  • Cognitive skills: Some children might like to sort blocks into groups of colour or shape or size. A parent can also introduce a child to discover this recognition of groups and like items using simple blocks.

  • Imagination: A child can build anything with blocks; their imagination is their only limitation. Blocks provide a great outlet for children exercise their imagination.

2) Puzzles

Puzzles teach children so many wonderful skills. There are puzzles suitable for all ages and levels, from two and three piece sets to multi piece, more difficult ones.

  • Cognitive Skills: A child will learn how pieces can fit together to make a whole and how to find and place these pieces. Some puzzles use simple shapes to create an image or shapes to fit a board, or cubes to form a picture but most puzzles are complex images on irregular shapes that come together to form an intricate picture.

  • Fine Motor Skills: Little fingers will gain pleasure from fitting into position these simple shapes. Smaller pieces will make this more challenging as they get older.

  • Patience and Social Skills: A child can learn patience from puzzles as they take time to master, and learning to take turns build better social skills.

3) Books

Children will learn many things from books that will serve them well into their older years. They learn about allegory, rhyme, rhythm and repetition. They learn listening skills and observation skills. Eventually they will learn reading skills but most importantly reading to your children provides them special time with their parent or loved ones.

4) Shape Sorter

Shaper sorters provide a child with many hours of entertainment and provide them with an opportunity to practice their fine motor skills, by fitting pieces into holes and cognitive skills by learning to recognise the different shapes and visual skills by learning about different colours.

Learning to take turns with siblings and friends teaches children important social and negotiation skills.

5) Role Play

Toys like doll houses, pirate ships, shops, garages or castles that consist of perhaps vehicles, dolls, people and various items will help to teach your child role play. Role playing, is when the child uses their imagination to create characters and a story using props. Boys might prefer cars and fire engines or pirate ships, and girls might prefer dolls and shops.

Kids toys so often combine fun with learning, and it is not hard to find the toy for the right time for your child to actively learn about their world.

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Educational Board Games – Play Your Kids Smarter

17 Mar 2011 by admin

Educational board games are a worthwhile investment, both in time and money. Children today are technological wizards and it can be difficult to pull them away from their electronic gadgets. However, it is important to develop family connections and learn life skills, which can not be done when a child sits alone with a remote control. In this article we give you five reasons to add educational board games to your family time.

Number One: Educational Board Games Get Your Children Away From The Computer And Television

How many times have you found yourself saying to your kids, “It’s time to get off the computer,” or “No more TV for today.” Wouldn’t you like to give them a fun and educational alternative? Board games are a fantastic way to engage their minds and get them out of that electronic coma. Human beings are communal and need social interaction. Educational board games can bring families together and teach your children many important skills. We know that letting our children spend hours watching TV or playing computer games is the easy solution. It may take more time and effort to play a game with your kids but the rewards are priceless. We have had many occasions where our children have said, “I don’t want to go to bed. Can we play one more time?” These were the same children who said, “I don’t want to play a game tonight. Can’t we just play the Wii?”

Number Two: Develop Family Connections

Educational board games give your family a time to be together. The unexpected surprises in game play bring about much laughter and bonding. Although these experiences may easily be forgotten by parents, they leave lasting impressions in our children. Many times our children have said, “Remember when such and such happened? Wasn’t that funny?!”

Number Three: Educational Board Games Are A Fun Way To Learn Life Skills

Lessons learned when playing board games can transfer to important life skills. It is easier to teach a child how to share pieces on a board game than the trucks in a sandbox. Kids also learn patience as they need to wait for their turn. In addition, games usually have one winner. Winning the game builds self esteem. Losing the game gives children the opportunity to learn and adapt for the next game play. It is important to teach them that even though they may have lost this time, there will be a next time and they can apply what they have learned. This will give them a better chance to win. As children get older, they begin to learn how to focus and strategize. For example, when playing Chess you need to make every move count. This is an equally important lesson in life.

Number Four: Your Kids Are Learning Without Even Knowing

When you are so immersed in the enjoyment of playing, you don’t realize all of the skills that you are learning. This is what is so great about educational board games. You learn the rules, learn the game play, you start playing the game, and then you adapt. All along your mind is active and you are thinking and learning as you try to out do your opponent. You get so caught up in the fun, you pick up the skills with ease.

Number Five: Educational Board Games Are Fun For Kids And Parents

Ultimately, why do we play games? To have fun. Educational board games are fun to play with others. Your children learn by watching you. Don’t get too competitive. Instead, work with cooperation and enthusiasm. Make it fun. Your children will have more fun and will learn the joy of playing games as a family.

Relax and enjoy the time you have with your family. Pull out a board game and create some memories.

Anamarie and Cory Seidel are Authors, Parents of four children, and Consultants. Our passions include helping parents, camping, playing with our kids, protecting the environment, fine wine and cheese sticks, and enjoying the arts.

Educational Board Games

Board Games Make Kids Smarter

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Best Educational Toys For Children

29 Nov 2010 by admin

Kids spend lots of time playing, but why not find a toy that helps them learn while having fun?

So what is the best educational toy for children? Well first we need to see what kind of activities will be best for helping them learn.

A good educational toy should help spur the kids’ imaginations. Far too many toys these days are prebuilt. They are purchased, and children are unable to manipulate them in any way to help them develop new ways of thinking.

Good educational toys should also teach kids about problem solving and design. Again, prebuilt toys simply cannot do this. For example, if you buy a toy car, it is already prebuilt. The best the kid can do is move it around on the ground.

So what’s the best educational toy to fulfill these needs? Construction toys are by far the way to go, whether it’s LEGO, Technic or K’nex, all of these toys offer tons of creative possibilities for kids.

All of these toys come in a standard set of parts that don’t look like anything at first. They are pieces to a puzzle. But once combined together, they can turn into anything, whether it’s an airplane, a car or a helicopter. It’s all up to the child and his imagination. That’s why construction toys are so great.

K’nex is one of the best educational toys for kids. They use larger pieces than LEGO and Technic, and are made of a slightly softer plastic. In addition, they are designed with three dimensional creations in mind, so there are many things you can build. They also come with gear mechanisms, so children can learn math as well!

Build and share models made with K’nex. Find K’nex instructions for ball machines, guns, vehicles, programmable robots, cranes and more!

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The Benefits of Educational Toys

07 Nov 2010 by admin

Today it seems like a natural part of life for children to watch TV and play video games all day. However, Unless the television show is an educational show that won’t bore the child, or the video game is one that involves a certain degree of strategy, they’re not getting too much out of these activities. More importantly, they are not using their imaginations which is very important to do in the world we live in today.

Studies dating back as early as 1940 have shown that a child’s IQ can be increased by more than 50 points through the proper stimulation in the first 6 years of life. Your child already has certain natural skills, but you can help further develop those skills through the power of play with the right developmental toys and educational games. You possess the power to help improve your child’s skills such as memory retention, reading skills, motor skills, eye-hand coordination and math skills.

There are a variety of educational toys that are available for children as soon as they are able to grab things. An educational toy can be something as simple as a puppet or matching shapes. These toys prompt the child to think and the colorful pieces that come with these toys make the activity interesting. What can makes these activities even more beneficial is when the parent is involved and takes time to praise the child when he or she is successful.

The most important factor in selecting learning toys for your children is choosing a toy that is appropriate for your child’s age. You should start by determining the child’s current developmental needs, both physically and emotionally. Then, look for the educational toys that are appropriate for your child’s stage of development.

For example, an infant that is just beginning to learn to focus and grasp things with their hands would benefit from a toy that develops hand-eye coordination. Toddlers, on the other hand, would require toys that focus on stacking and pulling, pre-dressing, and language basics.

Years ago, toy manufacturers started out by making educational toys that covered everything from preschool through high school. These toys confused some children and did not appeal to most. However, through the years, the top educational toy makers started to make better use of research and technology, and have done quite a good job creating quality educational toys and learning games targeted to a child’s age group and skill level.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant about kids toys, stuffed animals, and dolls. You will find the best marketplace for kids toys, stuffed animals, and dolls at these sites for educational toys and stuffed animals.

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Educational Toys Help Children’s’ Learning

27 Oct 2010 by admin

We live in a day and age where children are watching TV and playing video games all of the time. Sure, it may seem as if video games and television stimulate a child’s brain, but many times kids are sitting there like zombies. Unless the television show is an educational show that doesn’t bore the child or the video game is something that involves a certain degree of strategy, they’re not getting too much out of these two things. Most of all, they are not exactly using their imaginations in a world that requires its occupants to be imaginative in order to survive personally and occupationally.

As convenient as television and video games are at keeping the kids busy and behaved, it is time for parents to rebel. The revolt begins as the child develops by using such things as educational toys. Adults use puzzles, brain teasers, and other things that require thought to keep their minds sharp. It has been shown that adults who stay on top of their game with activities that make them think are taking an active measure toward preventing Alzheimer’s. By incorporating such things into a child’s life and keeping those activities as part of their life, a parent is taking an active role in ensuring that their child’s mind stays sharp. It is also important to emphasize to that child how important such activities are as an adult so that they can take a preventive measure toward diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Educational toys

Educational toys come in many different types and are available for children as soon as they learn how to grab things. They can be something as simple as a puppet or matching shapes. The child is forced to think and the colorful pieces that come with these toys make the activity interesting. What makes these activities even more interesting is when the parent is involved and praising the child when the child is successful.

Starting these activities early means that the child is going to get a developmental head start and will be using strategy easily by the time he or she begins kindergarten. Your child will have the mental maturity needed to make it through the world if you start stimulating their brains early and making it fun to learn. When kids don’t have fun learning is when they have learning difficulties throughout their entire lives. This isn’t always the case, but it has been known to happen. Many children loathe learning for one reason or another, so using educational toys can make it fun and rewarding.

Keeping it up

There are educational toys for children of all ages, so it is good to always make sure there are fun educational toys around the house that are age or intelligence appropriate. And yes, there are some wonderful brain teasers and other educational games on video game systems and computers. When the child reaches a certain age, using these as learning tools can be great. There are also great television programs that make a child think and make learning fun. It is just a matter of placing restrictions on how much time is spent using these electronic tools and making sure there is plenty of time that you and your child are doing fun learning activities together. By taking a time out and doing these activities with your child, you are not only stimulating their brain, but you are actually stimulating your own. The two of you are also spending quality time together in a world that makes quality time very difficult. So it is easy to see how educational toys can benefit you and your child in more ways than just learning.

Mastermind Toys offers a wide range of children’s toys and educational toys for kids of all ages.

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