Playing Is Educational

If you’re looking to purchase an educational gift for your young child, you will likely come across a wide assortment of available toys. Especially in the recent past, there has been a greater emphasis placed on the importance of these educational products. Therefore, they fill the shelves in greater numbers and in greater diversity than ever before. And while this is a positive step in the right direction, it can leave parents a little overwhelmed. After all, how do you determine which toy is best for your child?

The best tactic is to try a lot of different options. Start your kid with educational board games. If you find that they aren’t responding well to these kinds of games, move on to educational puzzles. Perhaps these are more suited to your child’s skill set. After all, the most important thing to remember is that educational toys are intended to teach your children something. If they aren’t learning from them, they aren’t of any use. And don’t be afraid to let your kid help you pick the toys. If your kid expresses an interest in something, he or she is a lot more likely to actually use that toy.

There is nothing quite as scary as becoming a new parent. You are suddenly presented with more responsibility than you’ve ever had before. But for many parents, once that initial fear wears off, there is still a more nagging fear that you won’t raise your children well. Especially since everyone you know is most certainly offering advice, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. What advice do you take? What advice do you disregard?Although it’s easier said than done, the best thing for new parents to do is relax. At the most basic level, children just need a loving, supportive home. Provide this, and your child is sure to flourish. Also don’t forget that an emphasis on education will give them a huge advantage in the world, both professionally and personally. Instill a love of learning early with various educational toys, and your child is sure to thank you in the long run.

A child’s early learning is enhanced by early childhood activities that promote imagination, from independent play to interactive play.  There are a wide variety of early childhood toys available to enhance their imaginative play. 

On a daily basis, your child see you prepare and cook meals.  There are many toys available for your child’s food play activities that will provide hours of educational play.  Pretend play food is available that ranges from fruits and vegetables to multicultural meals, such as, sushi from Japan, pasta pronto from Italy, and fiesta flavors from Mexico.

Have your child prepare you a pretend meal.  They can prepare a picnic lunch basket, have a pizza party, or set the table with plastic play dishes and have a fine dining experience.

What is your favorite pretend food play experience?

During the day, children observe their surroundings and then role-play their observations during their pretend play.  With the use of childrens educational toys, they can play out working in an office space, a supermarket, or an animal hospital. 

When your children engage in pretend play, they are also improving their problem solving skills, oral skills, and writing skills.  Their self-esteem will increase as they discover that they can be anything, just by pretending.

This human brain cross-section model is a valuable tool for teaching students about the complexities of the human brain’s anatomy. 

The cross-section model comes apart for hands-on classroom demonstrations.  One half  of the brain model is labeled with the parts of the organ while the other has letters for testing purposes.

Parts of the human brain and their functions:

Cerebrum / Cortex - Largest part of the human brain associated with higher thought and action, that is divided into the following sections:

• Frontal Lobe - associated with attention, motivation, reasoning, problem solving, planning, decision making, parts of speech, movement, and emotions
• Parietal Lobe - associated with movement, orientation, recognition, and perception of stimuli
• Occipital Lobe - associated with visual processing and recognition of the printed word
• Temporal Lobe - associated with memory, perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory, and speech

Other sections are also illustrated on the human brain model.

Do you want to provide your child with an educational toy that will increase eye-hand coordination along with shape and color recognition?  If so, we would like to recommend a shape sorting pounder.

As your child hammers away on the pegs of this shape sorting pounder, he will increase his eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills.  While hammering, you can help increase his color and shape recognition by repeating the name of the color or shape of the peg that he is hammering.  Take turns, ask him to tell you the color or shape that he wants you to hammer.

Guidecraft Magneatos are award-winning magnetic construction toys that allow children to experience the fun and mystery of magnet play, while at the same time build their imagination and motor skills. 

Magneatos magnetic playsets are packed with large magnetic pieces that are kid-friendly,  easy to handle, and safe to play with, yet these magnetic construction sets are more challenging then standard blocks and stacking toys.

How Magneatos Work:

A set of Magneatos comes with two basic pieces: magnetic balls and magnetic rods. The balls make a joint that can connect two rods. Put three or four rods together and you’ve got the base for a bridge, tower, or anything else that your imagination can come up with.

Award Winning Toy:

Guidecraft Magneatos won the prestigious Oppenheim Toy Award in 2005 and 2006, and also won its SNAP, Special Needs Adaptable Product, both years.  They were also featured in Money magazine and on the Today Show on NBC.

Magnetic play has never been so easy and fun, so if your child is ready for something more advanced than their ABC blocks, take a look at Magneatos.

Do you want to provide your child with an interactive early childhood activity that doesn’t require batteries, fuel cells, or liquid fuel, and promotes physical activity that is safe, inexpensive, and quiet?

If the answer was YES, then check out this PlasmaCar by PlaSmart!

The PlasmaCar is a unique active ride-on toy that is sleek and aerodynamic, just like a race car, and is easy to operate on any smooth, flat surface.

It is also built to last because it is made of state-of-the-art, high-quality ABS plastics, rugged and durable for your child that is on the go.  It features six wheels, a seat, footrests and a steering wheel.  That is all it take to operate your PlasmaCar - other than your child.  There are no pedals, no gears, and no batteries required.

The PlasmaCar is available in green, purple, blue, or red.

Your child will love how fast they can go on the PlasmaCar, and at the same time they will be physically active, increasing their coordination skills, and building upper-body muscle strength.

Here is how it works!

To propel the PlasmaCar, you rotate the steering wheel continuously from left to right.  It also works in reverse.  To zoom backwards, just switch the set of four front wheels around so that the larger ones are closest to the front of the car.  To stop your PlasmaCar, just cease rotating the steering wheel and, when the car slows, put your feet on the ground to bring it to a full stop.

The PlasmaCar can go 2.8 meters per second - that’s over 10 km/h, yet be safe for your child.  As with all bike activities, we also recommend the use of a child’s bike helmet.

The PlasmaCar is Pure Energy and Pure Fun! 

Unit blocks are the #1 must have early childhood toys because they are  imagination-building educational toys that are fun, creative, and educational.  When boys and girls build castles, villages, bridges, or  towering buildings, they are also building their imagination and fine motor skills.

Unit Blocks Marble Run, created by Guidecraft, provides for the combination of fun and lessons of marble runs with the traditions and educational foundations of unit block play.  They will be a instant classroom and home favorite.

This set can be expanded easily by integrating it with traditional classroom unit blocks.

We have all grown up with the familiar blocks called Lego!  These educational toys allowed us to increase our imagination and fine motor skills; building castles with towers and imagining who was in the castle made up part of our daily activity.

But, where did they come from?

In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a master carpenter and joiner, established a small business in the village of Billund in Denmark where he manufactured stepladders, ironing boards and wooden toys.  Then, in 1934, the company adopted the name LEGO for their products, formed from the Danish words “LEg GOdt” or “play well”.  Ironically, they later realized that in Latin the word means “I study” or “I put together”.

In 1947, the LEGO company dedicated itself to the toy business and purchased a plastic injection-molding machine for making toys.  Up to this point there were no LEGO bricks as we know them today.  The factory produced approximately 200 different varieties of plastic and wooden toys - but the predecessor of the familiar brick was created under the name of Automatic Binding Bricks; they were available only in Denmark at this time. 

By 1951, the plastic toys accounted for half of the company’s orders, signaling the subtle shift from the familiar wooden toys to the new and more popular plastic. Because of this, the Automatic Binding Bricks were renamed “LEGO Mursten” or “LEGO Bricks” - the familiar term we all know them by today.

Eventually the “LEGO System of Play” was released, allowing an owner of a LEGO System to expand and create without a strict set of guidelines to follow.

In 1967, LEGO released the DUPLO brand - a larger version of the familiar block but for children under five years old. In 1969, DUPLO was released internationally and took off like a rocket as parents everywhere take advantage of the opportunity to let their children play with the safe and creative early childhood toy.

Today, LEGO remains a family business, with grandson Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen currently at the helm.   LEGO has sold over 200 million sets in over 100 countries.
 
LEGO sets are used for early learning activities everywhere.  LEGO Sets range from Community Building Sets to Wild Animal Sets and even Fire Rescue and Hospital Sets.