10 Parenting Tips For Preschoolers

Author: Colleen Langenfeld

Preschoolers are amazing little creatures. They can go, go, go all day, absorbing huge amounts of information on the fly. Having helped four children of my own navigate this precious season of life, here are my 10 parenting tips for preschoolers.

1. Use your imagination.

Preschoolers do. Everyday, all day long. Their developing imaginations help them to make sense of their world and since they have limited experience, imaginations help them to fill in the gaps. Imaginative play helps them understand new concepts in a non-threatening way.

2. Why is the sky blue?

Preschoolers have a ton of questions and rightly so. As their parent, you are the resident expert on all things in life. What a wonderful position of influence! Preschoolers need simple and direct answers, so save the complicated, technically correct answers for their science class in a few years.

3. Be patient.

Preschoolers are eager to learn about everything around them. However, they have limited attention spans and vocabularies. This can lead to frustration! One of our daughters at this age was interested in information she couldn't articulate yet. Sometimes she would sit crying while we would play a guessing game, trying to figure out what she was wanting to know. Over time and as her verbal abilities developed, she grew into an extremely descriptive person. Your ability to stay patient will help your little one develop patience with herself, too.

4. Sympathize with their struggles.

Along the same lines as being patient is to sympathize and empathize with your preschooler's struggles. Let them know you understand how tough some things are for them and that you are on their side. This age group really likes the idea that someone is their champion; it will help them listen to you even when they don't like what you have to say.

5. Play grown-up.

Preschoolers are wonderful imitators of all things adult. Providing a dress-up box filled with your cast off treasures is one of the best things you can do for your little one's play habits. Read a good book, then act it out together and you'll be your preschooler's best friend for life.

6. Boundaries with a bit of freedom.

Your young child needs to know where the limits of behavior are in your family. So tell her clearly and firmly. Then enforce those limits as necessary. This gives your child a tremendous sense of security and establishes you as a leader in her life; both concepts she will need as she grows. Include a bit of freedom within those boundaries; "you can play anywhere in your playroom or bedroom with those toys, but not in the living room." Such boundaries allow her to practice making small decisions and to learn self-control.

7. Active is best.

Preschoolers need to be active! They are driven to move and explore. So make sure you include plenty of active time in each and every day. Television is not an active time so keep it to a minimum.

8. Educational toys are more fun.

Look for action-oriented toys that go along with your preschooler's action-oriented drive. One-use toys are simply boring at this age. Aim for toys that can be turned into multiple things and imaginative toys that require play-acting.

9. Enlist your preschooler's cooperation.

Appeal to your little one's sense of 'big girl' or 'big boy'. Ask him to help you carry the groceries inside or put the laundry away. Show how to fold clothes and set the table. If you start these simple tasks now, they will be habits by the time your child is old enough to do them well.

10. Sleep is good.

Make sure your preschooler gets an adequate amount of sleep each day. Some kids at this age still need naps, some do not. Your little guy or gal will function better, be more cooperative and enjoy each day more with the correct amount of rest. Make sure there is a quiet time in your home each evening that will signal to your preschooler that bed time is arriving. There you have my 10 parenting tips for preschoolers. Enjoy this special time in your child's life as she literally absorbs the world around her. It is a magical time for children and parents alike and the relationship you forge with your child at this stage will stay with you both a long, long time.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/10-parenting-tips-for-preschoolers-643143.html
About the Author:Colleen Langenfeld has been parenting for over 27 years and helps other moms enjoy mothering more at http://www.paintedgold.com . Visit her website and grab another 10 parenting tips today.

Preschool Educational Games For Math, Easy As 1,2,3

by: Victoria Welch

Preschool educational games for maths are so important, children learn more, and at a greater speed, during their preschool years than at any other time.

We need to show them the positive side of learning, that it is not Work, but Fun to learn.

Children love the magic and mystery of playing with numbers, they will delight as they begin to grasp number, and its fundamental meaning, but this is not something that will happen over night, it will take time and patients.

Singing number songs is a great start to introducing your child to numbers. There are many number songs, and also many CDs and DVDs, that can help you if like me you are not a natural born singer. But it is the enthusiasm you put into the songs, which will have your child asking for more!

Children need to do hands on activities such as Sorting and Matching before they will understand that counting is actually referring to sets of items. We can encourage our children through a wide range of activities so that they can understand and enjoy learning maths. Some great games can include learning maths with shapes, ordering and sequencing and games for counting and recognising numbers up to 10.

Preschoolers naturally want to sort things by colour, shape, and size. When you are watching your child play, you will see this tendency in action, as they try and make sense of the world around them.
They naturally sort their cars by colour and their blocks by size. Watch a child with a handful of crayons and they will often separate the crayons into the different colours that they see.
You can use this need to sort things to make learning early math skills exciting for preschoolers.

Learning to distinguish between things is a major accomplishment for your little preschooler. Whenever possible, let your child help you sort things around the house.
In the kitchen you could sort the fruits and vegetables by colour or the spoons by size or when doing the laundry, sorting the socks by size and color.

Putting things in order or sequencing is a basic maths skill that some children will do naturally, they may put objects in a certain sequence based on size or arrange items of clothing in colour. Your child may arrange his cars in a line from the smallest to the largest.
Ordering can be a fun game, as children begin to think about the sequence of their day, and gain an understanding of the calendar and seasonal timetable.

You can make your own activity cards that your child can put in order, for example, pictures of your child getting out of bed, cleaning his teeth, having breakfast, going to nursery, having dinner, having a story read before going to bed and your child asleep.

Doing simple picture activities like this is a fun way for your child to look at his day, and also understand the order of the day.
Another great picture ordering activity is one of growing up. A picture of a baby, child, adult and an old lady. Talk to your child, about where they are in the order. Children love talking about themselves and this is a great way to talk to your child, and help them learn about ordering.

There are some fantastic learning games for preschoolers to help them learn about shapes, there are also plenty of free activities that you can do at home.

Simple craft play will help your preschooler learn shapes easily and naturally.

You could make small cards with colourful shapes on them, so that when you talk about shapes you can point to them and make comparisons with every day objects, such as round like a plate or square like a window. This will make your child see everyday objects in a new light and firmly place these fun ideas in their memory.
Another idea for a learning games for preschoolers would be, to make you own play dough, and ask your child if they can find shaped items around the house to use as cutters, perhaps using the shape cards, to help him remember what shape is what.

Whatever games you are playing remember to keep talking to your child about each shape, has the shape got corners?, how many sides has it got? so that he learns the important words and phrases to do with shapes.

Dont forget to do 3 dimensional shapes to!
Books that focus on shapes and color are a great way for your preschooler to learn.

A brilliant collection would be the Mr Men books, your child will gradually begin to recognise the shapes the more you read the books. Point to the shape and let your child trace their finger over the outlines. The more you show your child, the faster he will learn and understand the differences in both 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional shapes.

Of course play is the greatest way to learn, other learning games for preschoolers could be a simple Block Building game. Try building different shapes with the blocks and ask your child to find a block of the same shape.

Even tidying up gives you more opportunity to teach, instead of just putting things away try asking your child to pick up all the squares or all the triangles first. You can also do this with cardboard boxes from around the house, kitchen towel cylinder tubes, cereal boxes, or even make your own box!!

There are also many Shape Sorter Toys available that will teach your child all about shape and color, you can even get Shape Dominoes and Shape Bingo learning games for preschoolers.

Art is a brilliant way to teach your child about shapes, these painting and sticking games are great fun and help to reinforce your preschoolers creativity at the same time.
Have fun making houses, rockets or even a robot out of squares, circles, triangles and rectangles. Put your collages up on the wall and talk about the shapes you have used.

All children develop their numeracy skills at different speeds, so it is essential that each child is given the opportunity to develop at his or hers own speed.

Before your child learns to count they need to understand that one equals one item, two equals two items and so on. This is a difficult skill for your preschooler to learn, so have patients, and encouraging your child, will go along way.

You can help your child by doing a small daily activity.
Laying the table is a good idea, as it gets done every day, which is good practice for your child. You could do this in a play situation, do a teddy bear picnic, and let your child share out the sweets or cakes to each of their teddy bears.

Use very small numbers to start with and as your child gets his understanding of association number and quantity, start adding another one at a time.

As you count objects together touch each one. This helps children to understand that they are counting one thing at a time. A good way of doing this is at story time; The Three Bears is a good one to start, as it repeats up to three, many times. Then gradually as your child successfully does it by himself, give a more challenging book.
It is important to build your childs confidence so that he is not uncomfortable with numbers.

To help your child understand the order of number and number symbols, you could make your own number cards, with the number symbols on one side and the number of spots on the reverse.
Lay out the cards with the spots on up to five at first, and ask your child to put them in the correct order. When this is achieved you could make the game a little harder by taking one of the numbers out and see if your child can tell you what number is missing.

Educational toys games for preschoolers will make them a step ahead of the rest, with confidence in themselves and dealing with numbers.

About The Author

Victoria Welch
I have spent many years working with children of all ages, from nursery through to high school, and have also spent a lot of time with children with special needs.

During all my time working with children, one strong pattern began to emerge. Children who had experienced structured play with their parents and guardians seemed to have a strong bond, felt loved and appreciated.

Their carers also seemed to be benefiting and had an understanding of the child’s uniqueness, enjoyments and development needs.
Educational-Games-For-Kids.com was set up to drive this message home and help parents choose the right educational games and toys for their little ones.
http://www.education-games-for-kids.com

Equip yourself With Knowledge Before Buying Educational Toys

Author: Andrew Regan

If you're looking for children's toys online, you'll find a range of sites that specialise in toys designed to help infants and toddlers develop their learning skills. However, with such a vast range of educational toys to choose from, it can be difficult to establish which are right for your child. If you find yourself in this situation, it's best to first equip yourself with some important knowledge: namely, which toys exercise which parts of your child's brain, and what area of their learning skills need to be developed the most.

For instance, if you're looking for educational toys for babies, it's a good idea to buy products that will help them identify sights and sounds. So, books and toys that help your baby distinguish sounds and recognise colours should be high up on your list. Similarly, toys that help your baby match certain shapes together, or create patterns, are designed to stimulate their capacity for learning and prepare them for future learning activities. Simple puzzles - including path finders, jigsaws and card games - fulfil this objective.

As your child gets older, teaching them how to identify letters and numbers becomes paramount. There are numerous educational toys that revolve around reading and writing: for instance, giant flash cards for three to six year olds help your child learn how to count and how to spell. These learning aids can make a great deal of difference to your child's learning potential, and can complement their daytime learning activities - whether in playschool or primary school.

Moreover, most educational toys combine thinking and having fun into one package. Buy your infant some magnetic numbers or letters that can be stuck to your fridge and you'll be able to help them learn how to count and make words while you're going about your daily chores. And if your child is showing a quick grasp of numbers, why not experiment with some more challenging educational toys? For example, how about a simplified version of Sudoku, the popular number puzzle game, which can help introduce your young child to the daunting world of problem solving.

You can also buy your child an interactive map to help him or her learn about the countries and landmarks of the world through a series of fun activities. By making your little ones aware of the world in which they live at a young age, you'll be introducing them to basic geographical principles while encouraging their reading skills at the same time.

With a simple set of guidelines regarding child-development, you can equip your child with appropriate - and fun - toys which will help them learn and grow to their full potential.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/equip-yourself-with-knowledge-before-buying-educational-toys-142253.html

About the Author:
Andrew Regan is a freelance online journalist who lists travel and rugby among his list of interests.

Educational Toys Versus Edutainment Toys

Author: Laeke Gebre

Today's parents feel pressured to use technology to begin their child's education in utero. For example, the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System promises to "give your baby a headstart" by playing rhythmic patterns to help stimulate early learning. It is time, therefore, to step back and evaluate the true value of toys that incorporate technology to teach.
Toys that are formed from high-tech electronics embedded with semiconductor chips are generally known as edutainment toys. The quality and substance of their play may be limited by the number of buttons a child can push. Some promise to challenge a child by allowing him or her to interact with the educational content to learn it. For example, V.Smile offers a Baby Infant Development System aimed at introducing interactive learning to kids 9 months to 3 years. They can watch educational videos with this system or push buttons on a tray to influence what is happening on a television screen.
Some older toys are also adding electronic bells and whistles to appeal to the current technologically sophisticated generation of children. Dolls now interact with the Internet. Wooden Brio trains make electronic sounds and can be controlled by infrared remotes. The classic Fisher-Price Rock-A-Stack now also comes in a Dance Baby Dance version whose center rod lights up and plays songs when the rings are stacked on it.
Open vs. Closed-ended Toys
An open-ended toy encourages free play with an unlimited number of outcomes. For example, a building set can be used to construct a variety of different structures. A closed-ended toy, on the other hand, has a limited and often soon exhausted number of outcomes.
Not all closed-ended toys are bad. After all, a stacker is a classic closed-ended educational toy: it can only be put together correctly in one way. However, to solve a stacker, a child must develop and use logic and fine motor skills. The child benefits from the repetition of playing with the pieces of a stacker, manipulating them with his or her fingers over and over and thinking about how they fit together until the solution is mastered and then repeated for pleasure.
A closed-ended edutainment toy, on the other hand, may only require a child to press a few buttons. Eventually, it leads to a dead end and the child grows bored and tosses the toy aside. As Martha B. Bronson notes in The Right Stuff for Children Birth to Eight, although a child can have a rich play experience with any toy, basic, open-ended toys encourage this type of experience more than rigidly programmed toys with only one or two functions do. This sort of edutainment toy is not timeless. It is meant to be replaced sooner rather than later by the next big product in edutainment that uses the latest in technological innovations.
Often people assume that toys that use new technology are more innovative and educational than non-technological educational toys. In fact, childhood specialists such as Jane Roberts (president of Young Media Australia, a consumer advocacy group), question how educational and interactive high-tech edutainment toys really are, noting that "[p]ressing buttons and having items do things for you is fairly limiting in terms of how children learn." Furthermore, many traditional toys are themselves becoming more innovative about stimulating a child's imagination and creativity without having electronics in them. For example, the blocks in FoxMind's Cliko game can be used for a variety of games that are challenging to children and adults alike.
Negative Impacts of Edutainment Toys
Overall, parents might not want to encourage children, especially younger ones, to use too often edutainment toys that involve televisions and computer screens. The authors of "Effects of Preschool Television Watching on First-Grade Children," found that preschoolers who watched more television than their peers did worse in school and were not as well socialized when they entered first grade. Researchers Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis found that babies watching Baby Einstein DVDs and videos scored lower on language skills than babies who had never watched them at all.
In addition, Allison Sloan notes in Shopper's Guide to Healthier, Greener Toys that computers and television sets emit EMFs, "invisible forcefields whose possible health effects, from headaches to sleep disruption to cancer, are the subject of heated debate." Children's developing brains are in the greatest danger from such outside influences.
A final caution about edutainment toys is that they can foster in children an acceptance of a disposable consumer culture. A timeless toy such as a set of wooden unit blocks will hold up under heavy use for generations and can be played with at the same time by children (and adults!) of a variety of ages. Edutainment toys, on the other hand, are usually played with by only one child at a time, and they generally have a shorter playtime and life span. Children quickly master and get bored of them, or their high-tech components break, rendering the toy useless, and then they are discarded, releasing toxic chemicals and metals into the environment.
What Parents Can Do
As technology and the Internet permeate society and people's lives more and more, it does make sense to introduce children to computers and other inventions that they will need to use as they grow older. A toy is not necessarily bad or useless because it incorporates technology. That said, smart parents should examine the stated purpose of an edutainment toy, evaluate how and what it teaches, and determine if their children could receive equal or greater value from a simpler, classic toy. Roberts warns against the dangers of a parent using high-tech toys as babysitters, substituting interaction with a machine such as a single-player computer game for what should be "the best learning for young children-real-life experience when they model, create, explore, and develop their own initiatives through play."

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/educational-toys-versus-edutainment-toys-571602.html

About the Author:
About Kids Toy Club
Kids Toy Club is an online provider of educational toys dedicated to adding value to the money its customers spend. Understanding that the purchase of educational toy is an investment in a child's future, Kids Toy Club makes the effort to provide quality products and useful information about the relationship between toys and child development .

Guide To Choosing Educational Toys For Children

by: Eugen Lisov
Educational toys for children
In the last few years, parents started getting more and more interested in choosing all sorts of educational toys for their children. Because a parent wishes the best for his child, a toy that is labeled as educational is very likely to be bought easier than others.
But what is an educational child toy?
Well, there is no definition of the term "educational toy" from what I know. However, what I do know is that an educational toy is a toy that helps a child learn something good, something that will help in the future. Play is the most important activity of any child. Learning thru play is a reality; it can and it is done unknowingly every time your child plays. The parent must however control the play so that it remains on an educational course.
There are also toys that aren't exactly educational for children … Toy guns and other such toys that somehow tend to violence and other bad behaviors are not recommended. You must avoid such toys. Although these toys may be a good source of fun for youngsters, on the long term they will only do harm.
How do educational child toys and games work?
A I said above, play is a child‘s main activity. During the play, a child learns many new things. Toys and games must be integrated into the play to make their job. This is not hard, because play consists of several games that require using toys. Any toy can be educational, as long as it does not develop a bad behavior, and it is used in your child's play. A toy must be used in order to be educational for a child.
To be clearer about how educational child toys and games work, I will take one example: Hide and seek.
Let's take a look at Hide and Seek. You do remember this game, right? Can you remember the rules? Ok, I will still list them here, and comment on them and explain its educational side.
The first rule is that every player must obey the rules. I know, I know it's obvious, but if players would not respect the rules, would there be any point for the rules to exist? Every child must learn and obey them, or else they are not allowed to play the game. The educational part of this is that the child learns to accept the fact that he cannot do everything he wants, that there are some limits and he must not pass them in order to keep his privileges.
One of the children in the group is chosen to count to 100 at the home tree (this helps young children learn the numbers in a pleasurable way, not like in school), without peeking (this educated the child to use fair play in all areas of the life). Meanwhile, the others must find a good hiding place, one that is both hard to discover and close to the home tree. This stimulates the child to think fast to the best solution to a given task.
After he finished counting to 100, the child says "Ready or not, here I come" and then he must search for the other players. He must be very careful. Once he finds a player hiding, he must run back to the home tree and shout his name. He must be vigilant so that he can hear any sound that might indicate the position of the other players.
The players who are already spotted must not tell where the others are hiding. This too educates children to use fair play.
The first player spotted is the next one to count to 100.
You'd never think that hide and seek, one of the most common games in childhood, could be so educational, right? Yes, it is a very educational game. And it's not the only one. Pick any game you liked playing when you were a child, and analyze its rules, as I did above. You'll be amazed.
Hide and Seek is oriented mainly towards developing fair play and physical skills.
Here's another example of educational child game that helps developing more advanced skills: Monopoly.
I won't bore you with its rules. This game introduces your child into the basics of modern business life. Acquiring high value properties, negotiation, taxes. Yup! This game educates your child to become the biggest businessperson on the Wall Street. Monopoly has rules that are more complex and it requires greater concentration. Specific jargon and names that mean much to the entrepreneurs get your child closer the world of business.
Toys are amongst the first objects a child gets in contact. Understanding how things work is a direct result of solving problems with toys like "Why this fits there?", "Does that fit here?", "How big is that?". Toys help your child learn to grab, pull, push, synchronize the movement of the head with that of the hand.
Toys are indispensable when playing. Playing with a great variety of educational child toys helps your child develop his imagination, understand that different objects have different properties, and learn how to combine them to create other interesting objects.
Read the whole article on choosing educational child toys.

About The Author
Eugen Lisov is the creator of Child-Toys-Guide.com, a site focused on helping parents worldwide to choose the best toys for their children. If you offer your child a bad toy, it's the same as if you don't offer your youngster any toy. Please feel free to browse my site; it will only help you when choosing toys for your child.

Jigsaw puzzle teaches your child valuable lessons

Jigsaw puzzle teaches your child valuable lessons by Selene Marin

Trying to complete the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle is both challenging and entertaining. The challenge of looking for the perfect piece to complete the picture can be frustrating but fulfilling at the same. But connecting the different pieces is not only a past time, it is a training as well. This is best for young children who are just starting to learn how to coordinate their eyes and hands. Aside from this, there are also a lot of educational enhancements that it offers. It helps make a good foundation for your child. It is an effective way of preparing him for formal education.

Completing a jigsaw puzzle helps in the development of many brain functions. Your child's ability to reason is one. As he starts to put several pieces together, he'd think of a figure that would best make sense. Even if the part fits but the image it creates is not logical, then your child will try another piece. This activity will also help develop your child's analytical capability. As he is in the process of completing the puzzle, he would be imagining of a possible images for its output. By figuring out a possible image, it will be easier for your child to solve the puzzle.

A jigsaw puzzle will also help your child develop his organizational skills. This will help your child create a flow that he can follow systematically. Although he may not able to develop it the first time he attempts to finish a puzzle, he will be able to develop one as he plays along. By being able to create a logical flow to follow, your child will learn about the importance of order in finishing the game easily. Although he may just be solving a puzzle, this will help develop his ability to solve problems by using different approaches to finish the game.

Playing the jigsaw puzzle will also teach your child important values. He will learn to be patient because figuring out how the several pieces fit takes time. A child will learn that before he can get all the pieces together, he has to go through the sorting of the parts, trying to fit them together and redo the whole thing if it doesn't make sense. He will also learn about determination and fulfillment. He will know that if he works hard, he will be proud of himself because he has accomplished something. At an early age, he will know how fun it is to have completed something that he has really worked hard for.

Jigsaw puzzles are great toys to give your child because of the many educational values he can get from it. He will not only enjoy but will learn at the same time. It will not only prepare him for formal education but will also help develop his well being. It is a good way of teaching him about the different values that are essential in facing the different challenges he might encounter in the future.

For more tips and information about jigsaw puzzles , check out www.kids-jigsaw-puzzles.com .

About the Author

Selene is a great writer and she is expert in the matter

Different Toys For Kids Of Different Ages Help In Proper Development

Different Toys For Kids Of Different Ages Help In Proper Development by Victor Epand

There are lots of toys available in the market and you will get suitable toys for any age group you want. The toys are perfectly divided into categories for kids of different ages keeping in mind the mental status and ability of the child. If you have a toddler you will need to purchase something that will be of interest for your small child and also keep him busy. He must enjoy the game or play with the toy and have fun. At the same time, if you buy some sensible toys, you can teach him about the different colors, shapes and sizes, and make his concept clear about opposites like big and small, fat and thin etc. If you will tell at the store the age of your child, the salesperson will give you the information of what type of toys will be the best for your child.

For a child who is little bigger than a toddler say of age 1 or 2 years, then you need to buy different toys that will keep him engaged. Along with this it would be good to buy some educational toys so that the child learns lots of things while he is playing. You can teach him counting, ask him to search for the alphabets or numbers or teach him the nursery rhymes with the CD and lots more. But first of all you need to understand his behavior and interests so that you offer him the toy of his choice and the purpose of a support for him is also fulfilled. The child can learn to balance and get familiar with the motion if you buy him a rocking horse. You have to look after the overall development of your child without interfering in his fun and enjoyment.

When the child is a toddler, he grows very fast and the development of his mind is also very fast and needs to be molded into perfect direction. If the mind of a child is directed properly in the perfect age he will choose the right path always. Parenting is a tough and responsible job and parents have to be very careful in choosing the toys for their children of any age. Every age has its own demand of attention and care. The child also needs to be offered quality time of their parents and the perfect selection of toys for their mental and physical development. There are many types of blocks available in the market for different age groups of children. They are created keeping in mind the ability of a child of that particular age and you can assure yourself by comparing the game's involvement for your child.

Kids of different age groups have the capacity of doing things or solving puzzles quite differently. So there are levels made for any toy and if you think that your child can do better than those of his age group you can select a game of higher level than the average one.

About the Author

Victor Epand is an expert consultant about kids toys, stuffed animals, and dolls. You will find the best marketplace for kids toys, stuffed animals, and dolls at these sites for kids toys, stuffed animals, and dolls.

How to Choose the Best Educational Toys

How to Choose the Best Educational Toys by Matt O'Neal

The toy industry is a multi-billion dollar market and consumers often find themselves bombarded with the latest and greatest toys from the major players in the industry. While I have never had anything against toy cars or dolls, and in fact my children have plenty of both, I am always on the quest to provide something a bit more educational for them.

What I am about to write on comes partly from practical experience (buying and playing with toys with my own children), and partly from my experience as a former scientist and from being in the toy industry myself for a while.

There are many questions to consider when choosing educational toys for your children. Also, we have to keep in mind that what may be a great learning toy for one child may not be as worthwhile for another. Every child is different and learns at their own capacity and through their own best mechanisms. That being said, the following are some things for parents to consider when deciding what the best toys are for their children.

Is the toy age-appropriate?

Many of us fall victim to the rationale that our child is smarter than average, and sometimes ignore the age recommendations provided by the toy's manufacturer. Sometimes this is the right decision based on our own experience with our child, but sometimes this is wishful thinking. While the manufacturer's age recommendation is simply a guideline, we have to realize that it is a well-researched guideline and is often fairly accurate. That being said, I would never not recommend or not buy a toy because my child was one or two years outside of the recommended age. I would simply take a closer look at it before making a decision.

Does it serve my child's interests?

This is a question that needs to be answered on a case-by-case basis and as parents, we are most likely to be the ones who best know our children's interests. If a child is already interested in bugs, an ant farm or insect collecting science kit is probably a valuable toy for your child.

It may be natural for us to try to encourage a new interest in our children, but we should be cautious in not trying to project our own interests too strongly. Most children will naturally be attracted to the interests of their parents but this isn't always the case. I love catching bugs in the backyard with my son, but I don't expect my daughter (when she's old enough) will enjoy it as much as my son does. Maybe I'm wrong and I will certainly foster this interest if she decides to go down that path.

The best advice may be to go with your child's interests as often as possible, but occasionally introduce toys that introduce new subjects to them and gauge their interest accordingly. A child may never know how interested they are in ecology and plant science until they get a windowsill greenhouse and grow their own plants. A child may not have ever considered chemistry as something fun until they learned how to make their own bubble gum with a chemistry kit.

Does it arouse my child's curiosity?

Sometimes a toy will not only provide an immediate fun experience, but will start the child down a path of more advanced thinking. The same child who grew bean sprouts in the windowsill may wonder what the plant cells look like under a microscope. She may wonder how a simple seed can take water, nutrients from the soil and sunlight and turn into a much bigger plant with stalks and leaves. Next, she may wonder how a tiny acorn can grow into a huge tree over hundreds of years.

Granted, not all toys will naturally foster this type of analytical thinking, but some of the best ones do. So it's worth it to ask yourself this question when considering an educational toy. Will buying my son a simple chemistry set lead him down a path to eventually asking how plastic is made? Or why some plastic is brittle while some bends much more easily?

Any toy that arouses this natural curiosity in a child would be valuable to their growth. A video game may or may not cause a child to wonder who created the game and what programming was involved in making it. But a solar powered physics kit will undoubtedly make the child wonder how invisible rays from the sun can make a motor run. This curiosity is the unheralded foundation of a great education.

Who makes the toy?

I mention this question as simply something to consider as the safety of toys is something we are always concerned with. Be aware that just because a manufacturer is one of the major players in the industry doesn't mean that a particular toy is as safe as it should be. But also be aware that just because you haven't heard of a company doesn't mean that their toy won't be the one that sparks your child's interest in a subject that will serve them well for the rest of their life.

There are hundreds of quality educational toy providers that most parents have never heard of. Do a little research. If you find a toy that looks like it may be valuable to your child, search for that company's name and products on the Internet and see how many stores are selling their product. Of course this isn't a sure-fire way to gauge a toy's value to a particular child, but it can give you a quick snapshot of the reputation of the company that makes the toy.

Choosing an educational toy for our children can be as easy or as cumbersome as we make it. Asking these simple questions before buying an educational toy can go a long way in weeding out the toys that provide little value and deciding on a toy that might serve them well for a long time to come.

And lastly, remember that a toy doesn't have to be expensive or technologically advanced to be valuable. Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein never had a Sony Playstation. And they turned out okay.

About the Author

Matt O'Neal holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry as well as a master's in physics and an MBA. He is the owner of Atomic Elephant Toy, a store offering science kits and educational toys for children of all ages.

The Role Of Toys In Child Development

The Role Of Toys In Child Development by Jack Danger

In a dictionary, the definition of a toy would usually resemble something like this: an object for children to play with . However, contrary to what one might think, toys are not solely made to entertain children but also to help them develop physical and mental skills.

The first years of a baby's life are the most important for social and intellectual development, which is why it is really important to stimulate children from early on. Toys will play an essential role in this process. They will help children discover the world around them, understand their spatial environment and build relationships with other children.

There is a large range of educational toys and they all stimulate different areas of the child's brain. Some are very simple, other much more elaborate. A game as simple as playing with marbles for example can be very informative. The child will indeed discover that a round element will roll down by its own if it is on a sloping ground. Another easy game that can teach a lot is playing ball with another child. The children will learn how to control their body, how to handle a ball and at the same time they will develop their relational abilities.

Puzzles for example a bit more elaborate toys. As opposed to the toys mentioned above, they are less about discovering the world, although they are too, and more about thinking. The child will have to think about the shapes of the different pieces and find out which ones fit together. Puzzles will also stimulate the memory of the child since he or she will have to remember the picture the pieces formed before they were separated.

Since toys are so important in the child's development it is also important to choose the right toys and to be attentive to their quality. That is why we recommend you to visit the website of the toy manufacturers and designers Melissa and Doug on http://www.melissaanddoug.com/index.shtml .There are very nice puzzles to be found there. They are very colourful and made of nice solid wood. Melissa and Doug puzzles exist for children of all ages: from the easier ones with the big pieces and the little knobs for toddlers to the more difficult with 500 pieces for teenagers.

But that is not all they have to offer! Melissa and Doug have a wide offer of high quality educational toys that include puppets and plush animals as well as baby toys and all kinds of arts and crafts sets a child needs to develop his or her artistic side.

It is essential to remember that the purpose of toys is not only to amuse but also to teach, which is why every child should be given the opportunity to develop his or her social and intellectual skills since an early age by being given nice and high quality toys to play with. It is a parents responsibility to give each of his children this chance.

About the Author

Ready to answer your questions about building toys. For more tips and information about building block toys, check out http://www.my-learning-toys.com