All children love to have fun, play and use their imagination. During that time, there is a process of learning going on. That process of learning can best be seen when they’re playing and selecting the best educational toys can help your child’s growth and potential. Anytime your child is entertained and learning is a good thing. The concept of an educational toy does not simply mean number games or letter rearrangement activities. Toys that encourage the development of the necessary skills like motor, vision, eye-hand, cognitive, creative, imaginative, social, emotional, hearing and listening are valuable to developmental play time.

According to Drs. Dorothy and Jerome Singer of Yale University, there are six essential elements of developmental play that can be seen throughout age-appropriate educational toys and they help give us a better understanding of how to select toys for our children.

Six Essential Elements of Developmental Play

Motor Development: This is the enhancement of gross motor skills that use large muscle groups for activities such as kicking, balancing, running, jumping, lifting, climbing, hopping and swinging, and the development of more delicate fine motor skills such as the pincher grip of thumb and forefinger. For gross motor skills, look for toys that require large and controlled movements to allow him to gain better muscle control. These include wagons, play strollers, tricycles, ride-on-cars, jump ropes, hula hoops and hopscotch sets.  For fine motor skills, look for toys that allow your child to pick up and manipulate small objects such  puzzles, play foam, keys & locks and craft related activities.

Vision and Eye-Hand Development: This involves the expansion of keen powers of perception and of the ability to use the eyes and hands together in coordination to perform a task. Look for toys that involve scooping, digging, throwing, stirring, pouring, squirting and picking up small objects.

Cognitive Development: Skills of this nature involve the advancement of the ability to learn new knowledge and to understand and apply this knowledge. This will allow your child to improve his or her capacity for mental activities such as evaluating, reasoning, judging, interpreting, comparing and contrasting, inferring, predicting, sequencing and visualizing. This skill helps your child master specific content knowledge relating to vocabulary, mathematics, science and more. Seek out toys that require the use of logic, finding solutions, solving problems and identifying patterns. These include board games, like  River Crossing or Railroad Rush Hour, science and nature kits, building or model sets and things that have pieces that need put together.

Hearing, Listening, and Voice: This comprises the promotion of skills related to the senses and communication. Development of this area allows your child to discriminate between different types of sensory input. Look for toys that appeal to your child’s senses, such as maraca shakers, pennywhistle, ukulele and  jinglebands.

Social and Emotional Development: Skills of this kind include the improvement of how your child interacts with others and how the child behaves.  Toys to seek out include balls they can throw back and forth to other children, board games, and card games.

Creative and Imaginative Development: This involves the advancement of skills relating to pretending about the world and using the imagination to explore new ideas and possible solutions to problems. Toys to look for include arts and crafts, costumes, props and pretend toys.

Zingo! 1-2-3 - What better way to build a child’s reading and counting skills than with Zingo! 1-2-3, the newest game in the award-winning Zingo! product line. With Zingo! 1-2-3, players must match their numbered tiles to their corresponding challenge card. The first player with a full card wins the game by yelling “Zingo!” Two levels of play focus on counting and addition. WINNER! 2010 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award; 2010 National Parenting Center Seal of Approval! Buy Now

Zingo! To Go - Now you can take Zingo! zaniness on the go! Everything you love about original Zingo!, now in a fun, portable package. Just shake the Zingo! Zoomer car to expose the two dice. Got a match? Turn over the corresponding stop light on your game board. The first player that turns over a completed Traffic Light wins! With no loose pieces and a snap-together game board, this Zingo! is designed for family fun on the go! For ages 4 and up and 2 to 9 players. Learning Skills: Reading and Spelling, Memorization, Matching Skills. Buy Now

Solitaire Chess – If you like Rush Hour, you will LOVE Solitaire Chess. Solitaire Chess is a single-player logic puzzle that uses traditional chess moves on a 4×4 game board. Players exercise sequential reasoning skills as they plan ahead to eliminate all but one piece. Buy Now

Zig-Zag Knot – This “cousin” of Gordian’s Knot is elegant but cunning. Untangling Zig-Zag Knot is not as easy as it looks! Slide each piece in the correct sequence of 37 moves to take Zig-Zag Knot apart. With every move you make, one or more pieces will move easily —but there’s only one right answer. It’s up to you to determine which move is the right one! Included solution guide shows complete solution as well as full instructions for putting Zig-Zag Knot back to its original form. Brainteasers can help boost intellectual skills that can bolster the mind in the same way that physical exercise protects and strengthens the body. Buy Now

Visual Brainstorms – At home or on the go, this whimsical stack of cards keeps minds of all ages thinking “fun.” More than 100 zany visual puzzles, logic problems, mazes, math challenges, encoded messages, and more will test and amuse players for hours. Great for solitary or competitive group play. Visual Brainstorms offers solutions to each problem—plus Bonus Questions on every card for twice the fun and challenge. Learning Skills: Abstract Thinking, Problem Solving. Buy Now

TipOver – Nominated for Specialty Toy of the Year in 2006, the sky is the limit with this game. Players set up their game board to match the challenge card and then must create a path to the red crate by using the red tipper man to tip over the blue, yellow, and green crates. All without allowing the Red Tipper Man to jump over any crate – or touch the game board. Players must choose each move carefully, because every action influences the next. Learning Skills: Spatial Reasoning, Problem Solving, Strategy Development. Buy Now

YBIKE

These cool balance and coordination bikes for kids are designed to help improve motor skills. YBIKE’s are engineered for safety by using a tough injection molded construction, which eliminates weak points and offers more design freedom, hence the sleeker curves and smooth, superior finish. When it comes to kids, safety is the main concern. For this reason the front wheel is considerably further forward, affording a bigger turning circle, which reduces the risk of falling over the front when turning. The back wheel is also covered to stop children from riding over their feet. The YBIKE body is designed for better clearance of obstacles and the larger wheels produce a safer ride on uneven surfaces. The YBIKE was awarded the prestigious Oppenheim Toy of the Year award for 2010. Comes in orange, blue, green and pink.

YBIKE EXTREME

A great new balance bike for kids. Constructed of a lightweight aluminum body with injection molded plastic front fork and large rubber tires, the YBIKE Extreme is a great first bicycle for toddlers. Already a massive success in Europe, balance bikes are quickly becoming a worldwide trend. Tests have shown that the use of balancing aids such as training wheels actually stunt the gross motor skill development of a young child. The YBIKE Extreme is tough, easy to use, and easy to assemble. 9” rubber tires allow for high ground clearance and a fast smooth ride. Comes in orange or pink.

Pewi Walking Buddy & Ride-on

Pewi is a new innovative “Walking Buddy/Ride-on for the toddler market”. Beginning with children as young as 9 months, Pewi is the coolest, sleekest walker around. However, unlike traditional Walkers on the market where the child is typically sitting in the walker, the Pewi actually enhances body and space awareness. In a traditional walker a child does not learn to fall as he or she typically just sits or hangs in the unit. With the Pewi, the Child stands freely in front of Pewi using it only as an aid. They can easily let go of Pewi and sit on the ground or knock other items themselves. This freedom of movement at a young age has proven to stimulate body in space awareness, a key for balance and motor skill development. Comes in red, pink and blue.

Warmer weather is here for many of us, and for those of you “up North”, the days will soon turn balmy for you as well (I promise!).  With warmer weather we get to enjoy budding plants, more outside playtime, and (our favorite) BUGS!

Exploring the world around us should be an integral part of growing up and learning.  Studying nature and the outside world allows children the opportunity to learn more about how we, as humans, work and live with and in the environment, taking care of our planet and the inhabitants thereof.  Through nature, children can explore patterns and solve problems.  They can learn to make decisions based on how that decision affects others around them, and they can observe life cycles of other creatures to learn more about themselves.  And, nature is simply COOL.  Bugs included!  Just ask any child what a worm or a beetle is, and they can certainly tell you!

WonderBrains offers a variety of products to promote observation of living creatures in a safe way – safe for children as well as the creatures!  Products, such as the Bug Explorer, are perfect for safely “catching” a variety of insects and observe them in a non-threatening way.  And, the insects can be released back into their natural habitat.  Or, look into products such as an ant farm or ladybug farm to bring insects that might be more difficult to capture into a safe observation area.  One of our favorite insect-toys in our family is the butterfly habitat.  With it, my boys can send off for caterpillars that the boys then watch as they grow and metamophosize into beautiful butterflies.  We then release them in our own back yard, where they can be spotted for quite some time afterward. 

Whether using store-bought product or making your own collection system (jars with holes in the lids, plastic containers, nets), bugs can be easily observed and recorded.  Even little tikes love to draw pictures of what they see.  Simply stapling a few sheets of paper together to make a journal or record book can open up many doors and opportunities to learn.  Encourage your child to ask questions, to look for answers, and to write or draw what they see.  Keep a journal of types of bugs found in your backyard, and encourage your child to keep track of the numbers of each kind they see and find.  Take photos of different insects to use as a reference when looking for more information at your local library or online.

As with any type of creature, teach your child some safety tips when handling living things.  Try not to touch any creature so as not to harm the animal (or have the animal harm your child!).  Always ask an adult before attempting to capture an animal/insect in order to make sure that the child is being safe and aware of the surroundings.  Try not to disturb the animal’s habitat, and be sure to release the animal back at the same place it was found so as not to confuse it.

Bugs can offer a multitude of learning opportunities and adventures!