5 Great Educational Toys

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.