Learning Through Play - The Wisdom of Educational Toys

Long before your child is big enough to leaf through pages of a book or sit upright in front of a computer, he is already fit to learn - and learn he does. Toys that surround children make their own preschool.

It is no secret that babies are attracted to bright colors and toddlers are fascinated with moving objects. Parents may observe their kids' eyes follow around a fallen cookie jar rolling on the kitchen floor or get attracted to medicine boxes and even specks of dirt on the floor they crawl on. This leads some parents to thinking that just about any toy would do. But parents can think again with the advent of the so-called educational toys.

You might ask, "What makes a toy or any object for that matter educational?" Put in another way, what makes a shape sorter different from a plain rock or a piece of milk carton? Experts say the difference lies in how that toy promotes and enhances the developmental process in young children.

With the knowledge of the normal stages of biological growth [hand-eye coordination, psychomotor skills among others], experts believe that even toys should come on a certain schedule. Toy manufacturers then spend careful effort to ensure that the design of the toy is fitted to the capabilities of its user at any given stage thus the addition of age range on toy packages. When you see the sign "Not for children below 3" know that this beyond ensuring that hazards related to small parts in certain toys are avoided. It also says that only children 3 or above can fully utilize and make the most of the qualities of the toy design and can thus interact properly with the toy to develop certain skills such as, in the case of a shape sorter, color/shape familiarization. The goal is to allow a child to discover his capabilities and enhance them. This is a progressive process and ideally ensures that toys do not get too boring for your child. Yes, children do outgrow certain toys.

Seeing the instructional value of certain toys, one may then ask, "Who classifies toys as "educational"? Who decides the educational content or appropriateness of a certain toy for a certain age group? Independent groups of people from different backgrounds - scientists, educators, artists, librarians, parents and kids themselves make up toy evaluators. Organizations that employ evaluators choose them on the basis of their in-depth knowledge of toys coming from either a background on child development or involvement in the toy industry.

Evaluation programs among them the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, periodically hand out toy awards. Certain toys bear the label "seal of approval". One may also find annual guides to highly-rated toys. Parents can make informed decisions on toys to purchase guided by reviews and ratings from toy experts who examine both the content of the toy or "curriculum value" as well as the skills they develop or "cognitive value". More than just the development of the five senses, toys are judged on the basis of how they stimulate the brain and cultivate social, interpersonal skills.

In a nutshell, the basic thrust of educational toy manufacturers is that toys are teachers. Be it math, science, language or the imagination, educational toys are the best testaments that learning is definitely fun.

Nurturing Your Child's Development With Educational Toys

The role of toys in the development of your child's brain and motor skills cannot be overemphasized. From infancy, children are stimulated to recognize shapes, sounds, colors, and textures through the kind of toys they are presented with. A baby's imagination is nurtured by the objects they are surrounded with: the toys their hands grasp, the sound they hear, the shape and colors they see. Babies can associate objects to various things and events that surround them throughout their development. For this reason, parents are more often motivated to purchase educational toys for their children. It has long been established that your child's surroundings play a major role in the development if your child. The objects you surround your child with can highly influence his interests as he grows older.

Studies show that babies prefer high contrast colors. This is why most of the kids' toys and story books are always painted and printed with bright colors. When you buy your first educational play set for your toddler, make sure then that you pick out color themes that promise to enhance the child's visual recognition and perception. Do not be confined to the conventional thinking that toys should be shiny, attractive, and solely amusing and entertaining in purpose. Gone are those days when children aged zero to ten must restrict themselves to toys that do not satisfy their innate need to learn.

Nowadays, there is a growing patronage for educational toys as these truly nurture your child's brain development. Toys which stimulate your child's visual perception and brain potential usually have to do with puzzles and boards. But these educational board games are more for kids aged six to ten years.

For the younger children, particularly those aged zero to six months, the highly recommended toys are those which introduce varied sounds and colors: rattles which come in playful designs and sounds, brightly-designed and educationally-patterned floor mats which can get babies' attention as they learn how to roll over and crawl, mobiles and chimes which present babies with distinguishable sounds, and many more. For babies aged six to twelve months, shape sorter toys are quite the popular option.

Other educational toys for kids aged one to three years would include railway sets which can enhance your child's motor skills and resourcefulness. For the more girly babies, of course, doll houses also advance mental processes and nurture creativity. For kids aged three to five, drawing play sets prove to be very helpful in the children's creative and motor skills.

As the children grow older, they themselves will start to look for the educational toy that best suits their interests. Children are very much interested in a lot of things, and toys pique their interest much more. There is a wide selection of educational toys available in the market which parents may choose from, and all of these are guaranteed to aid your child's development. The practice of using toys with educational value rather than traditional, purely entertaining toys has been recognized globally. With this in mind, parents should still take into consideration the fact that children are different from each other and what one baby may like, the other may not. Nonetheless, they all share the inborn desire to learn and explore and this is more than enough reason to buy toys that will respond to those needs.