Would you buy an educational toy?
Recently I have been fascinated with educational toys. My daughter, a former school teacher, prefers such toys for her children. I always gave the loudest, most fun plastic I could find. I wanted the WOW factor. My daughter wants the educational factor. She wants her children to use their imaginations. It took me a while to come on board. Every gift, I gave my grandson, ended up with tape across the voice box. I finally gave in and started looking for something that would not get defaced.
When I developed my children's books website, I included a number of links to educational toy stores on my Robins Cottage Directory page http://www.robinfalls.com/boutique.html.
What do you think, would you buy an educational toy?
April Robins
www.robinfalls.com
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 91
Any toy has the ability of being educational. I think that many parents are lead to believe that if they spend more money on this toy or that that they will be giving their children a better shot at some sort of silly academic goal. The most important developmental task in early childhood is social emotional development. A child gets that from interacting with other and can intereact with someone with a bowl and a spoon.
My biggest toy pet peeve are the leap frogs. Where there is a book on the contraption and it "OMG" READS to the child. I hate those commercials with the parents standing in the doorway watching little Emily being read to by an electronic device. It gives me the creeps. Children learn to read and learn to love reading in the laps of the people who love them the best. Not because they spent a ton of money on a piece of electronics.
The best toys for development: blocks, puzzles, paper, pencils, playdoh. Anything that is open-ended. I don't consider books toys. For my toys are optional. Books are essential.
I guess where I am going with all this, is that I believe in exposing our children to ALL kinds of experiences. They are a generation that will need to learn more quickly and "broadly" than any generation before. May fun and education go hand in hand!
That said, some of the science-y kits are pretty good, from the ones that teach you how to build simple circuits to the pyramids you can "excavate".
It's not the toy, it's the interaction that occurs with other human beings.... Even a game like peek-a-boo teaches a young child that although the object is not seen, it's still there. Object permanence. It's more important to play WITH your child than buy them the most high-tech, "educational" toy.
My kids have a few electronic/educational toys, but most of their toys are creative play-based (i.e., legos, blocks, train tracks, dressup clothes, musical instruments). I have found that the more bells and whistles a toy has, the quicker a child will tire of it. It's the same thing every time - and they have very little control over what that "thing" is.
Then again, my son is outside right now beating on his playhouse with a branch. So maybe I'm not the best person to comment on this. :o)
I'll never forget visiting my cousin who has two boys - one my son's age (5) and one around 8. The older boy had a very elaborate lego space station that his dad "helped" him construct sitting on his floor. When my cousin went to move it, it completely disintegrated. Her husband went ballistic. This is a toy?
Yes. I would buy an educational toy.
This is a strange question, since anything can be educational if you make it that way.
My favorite "toy" was a large, cardboard box when I was small. I was second in my HS graduating class and graduated college summa cum laude. How did I ever manage without educational toys? Sorry to be a downer, but I think that building stuff and being outside in nature are the best learning experiences for kids, besides reading and imaginary play.
I agree with the many comments that any toy can be educational with the right supervision, but certain toys lend themselves to "teaching" better than others.
I personally struggle with what the educational value of a Bratz or Barbie doll might be, while it is easier for me to see how certain games like Monopoly overtly teach some principles that might be useful.
I know some people are insistent on buying certain types of toys over others and they have toy stores that refuse to carry vapid commercialized merchandise (like the aforementioned Bratz or Barbies) in favor of toys requiring assembly, or skill or tied to teaching science or vocabulary.
Personally, I don't think I was SEVERELY damaged by all the non-educational toys I played with (toy guns, fighting robots etc.) but my ex is adamant my kids not have any of those things...
PC wins again :)
My son has a Leap Pad and I don't care for it. We did get it used but I find if the page isn't laying absolutely flat, you may very well get the wrong answer. And on 1 page of the math book, the Leap Pad gave the wrong answer to one question no matter the position of the page!! That's why I stay with my son when he uses it - to be sure he is learning the correct answers.
I can't tell if this is a legitimate article or one that you're using to sell stuff from your website. I sure hope that it's the former and not the latter...
No one has to look at the web link in order to participate in the discussion. It is just supportive material.
Bottom line, I really wanted to know if people buy educational toys over conventional plastic, noisemakers. Many articles I write and read are used in our business decisions.
Actually, it takes away from the article when someone strays away from the question - Would you buy an educational toy?
I was just throwing in something new that I keep reading about. The concept that demonstrates how to teach a "baby" to read. I just think that is too premature.
I guess I am going to have to be more careful in my responses. I appologize. Thank you very much for pointing that out to me.
I thought the response was fascinating. Were YOU surprised by the quantity and QUALITY of the responses? I was. A good surprise!
yes I would and I did buy educational toys!!