Inside: Go-To Learning Toys That Aid in Toddler Development. Collaborative post.
Children grow up playing games, through it the necessary skills develop: fantasy, thinking, logic. In this article, we have selected the best educational toys for children.
Up to one-year-old educational toys
In the first year of life, your baby learns to hold head, sit, crawl, stand, speak, mastering more and more new actions every month. Educational toys help kids learn new skills faster and explore the world.
Primary requirements
Take into account the following specifications while selecting toys for your baby:
- Safety: the product should not have small parts and sharp corners;
- Durability: the product must withstand bumps and falls;
- Appearance: it is desirable that the product looks like real objects or animals;
- Color: it is preferable to choose toys in contrasting and at the same time soft colors that will not strain the eyes (especially in the first months, when the baby’s vision has not yet formed).
Top toys:
- Baby mobiles. This is a spinning musical carousel with colorful hanging toys that is placed above the newborn’s bed. The carousel encourages the growth of auditory and visual, and subsequently – sensory perception. In addition, the toy encourages the baby to turn head.
- Baby stroller arch. As a rule, rattles are attached to the arc. The rattles also can be detached. At 2-3 months, the baby grabs, studies them, developing fine motor skills of the hands and coordination of movements. By the way, the kid does it with pleasure.
- Toy books. Soft books with bright pictures and musical elements assisting in the study of basic forms and objects and the learning of color distinction. Hanging toys develop tactile skills.
Toys that are beneficial for two-year-olds
It’s crucial to foster tenacity, logical thinking, and fine motor abilities in two-year-old children. Thus, choose educational games.
- Pyramid. The toy is suitable for children over 8 months old. Your baby should start with simple pyramids. For the successful completion of the task, it is enough to understand the difference in size and color.
- Educational building toys. Educational building toys should appear in the arsenal of children at 10 months. Nothing is more satisfying than trying to build and destroy buildings. By the age of 2, children become interested in creating new shapes.
- Finger maze. For kids older than one year, the toy is worth purchasing to help them develop their fine motor abilities. Nothing occupies the kids like moving balls and cubes around the perimeter of the labyrinth. The presence of complex areas forces kids to master finger grips and concentrate.
Toys for three-year-olds
Children start to develop creativity and logical thinking at the age of three. The child’s neural system, musculoskeletal system, and mental and physical stamina continue to develop. Children are getting more and more independent; they want to travel and learn new things.
Your children begin to ask a lot of questions and get the opportunity to evaluate the information that is given to them. Help children with this by using these toys. They foster the development of imagination, memory, motor skills, creativity, and personal preferences.
As a rule, the game employs many plots and roles. Children make an effort to consider the actions they are doing.
General recommendations
When selecting a child’s educational toy, take into account the general recommendations of teachers, psychologists, doctors:
- The toy should be suitable for the child’s age;
- Take into account the interests and needs of the child;
- What skills will help to develop a toy, as well as what a child’s toy can teach.
Tip: keep no more than 15 different toys in your child’s field of vision at the same time. Remove everything else, and after two weeks, swap the toys.
For outdoor games
Physical activity plays an important role in a child’s life. Running, jumping, pushing up and pulling up, they not only strengthen muscles, but also develop dexterity, coordination of movements, and reaction speed. For the full development of a 3-year-old child, balls or jump ropes are no longer enough, it’s time to expand the arsenal with new products. These can be:
- Swedish wall
- Jump rope
- Hula hoop
- Kick scooter
- Bike
Having run and relieved the accumulated tension, the baby will be happy to engage in calm educational games.
For mental development
Children at the age of 3 have already mastered many useful skills. They know how to talk, realistically assess the environment, think logically and fantasize. All these skills need to be improved. What toys will help with this?
- Mosaic. This practice helps children develop their fine motor abilities, willpower, and determination, and shows creativity. After all, it is not necessary to follow the scheme of a given picture.
- Lotto and Dominoes. Choose sets with a variety of thematic pictures, and then, in addition to the formation of logical thinking, mathematical abilities and the will to win, the baby will broaden horizons, learn to count faster and learn letters.
- Musical instruments. The drum, pipe, glockenspiel or xylophone have a very simple design. This allows your baby to quickly learn how to play a simple melody, feel the rhythm, and strengthen the baby’s musical skills.
- Do not forget about modeling and drawing kits, because most kids are creative individuals. Such activities train motor skills and stimulate imagination.
From the first days of life, a child learns the world through sensations: observes, touches, repeats, takes apart and tastes. So the baby learns that objects can be soft and hard, slippery and rough, flat and voluminous.
Toys help the baby to better assimilate this information, and some of them, for example, developing ones, help to form: motor skills, logic, the ability to distinguish important properties of objects – visually and by touch. Finally, toys occupy the child and distract from household items that may be dangerous for the baby.