I think that education toys are very important for toddlers. They are at the stage where they love to play with toys. They pick up on things so quickly that I believe that all of their toys should be educational. When I shop for toys for my toddler, I make sure that there is at least some educational value with every toy.
Since I don't have a toddler any longer, I can hardly know what I'm talking about, but I do have 2 Grandkids, 1 of which is a toddler. Educational toys are important, but keep them away fromt he television. The t.v., I bleieve, does not offer much education. Education is easier when you are doing it yourself. Like sorting blocks. You learn much quicker sorting the blocks yourself, than say watching someone sort blocks on t.v. It is also very important to interact with your toddler. Don't just give them some toys & expect to ahve the afternoon to yourself. You need to get down ont he floor & play with him/her and have some fun while your at it! You will connect & bond with your child on a deeper level. Have fun & enjoy the toddler years!
One of the cool things about kids that age is that almost every non-passive experience is educational. Toys that are labeled as educational are no more educational than a cardboard box. Educational toys usually have a limited range of uses. I think it's better to get them things that encourage them to use their imagination. Like Priscilla says, you need to interact with them a lot. Treat them like they're real human beings who have interesting ideas.
I do agree that some learning toys are appropriate, but a child also needs to be a child. If parents constantly shove learning down a child's throat, the child may become resentful of learning and do badly in school. A child can learn by playing with normal, everday toys, like we had as children.
As a grandmother, I do buy some "educational" type toys, but I mostly just buy the good old fashioned type toys. I can turn any toy into an educational experience by the way I play with my granddaughter. I read to her and have her "read" to me. We discuss colors, numbers, letters, and objects of all sorts. For three years old, I think she is pretty darned smart. Plus she has a great imagination, which most kids these days do not have because they don't get the chance to be a kid.
Buying toys for toddlers is pretty much a waste of money because they will play with anything they can get their grubby little hands on. As far as being educational, let them have blocks to stack and knock down. Let them have crayons and paint the walls with kilz when they get to be "big kids" of four or five. let them dress up in old clothes or in pieces of cloth. I spent $12 on two yards of sparkly cloth for my daughter and she played with it for five years. What toy can you buy for that?
Let them play in the dirt and the creek and point out the tadpoles and the frogs and the bugs and the birds and ferns and any other wildlife that might be brave enough to come into the presence of a terrible two. Get a cat or a dog, and teach your child how to behave around animals. In fact, they say that two animals will help your child not to be allergic, whether it is two of the same kind of animal or not. However, hatchling turtles are not reccomended or even legal to buy for that matter, being carriers of salmonella, and being small enough to put in ones mouth. .
Take your toddler out into the world and let him or her show you what wonder is, a car, a train, a bus, a bicycle, a skater, a squirrel, a cat, a flower, a leaf, a spider's web. Let them look at the patterns in sidewalks and at rocks and sticks and pieces of string. If you let them make their own toys, they won't ever be bored. Plastic has to be recycyled. Sticks and rocks are already organic.
Take them to a safe place with other toddlers and let them run and run and run and run. They'll sleep better and they'll be used to moving around. Don't encourage them to be chair potatoes any sooner than necessary.
Talk to your kids. tell them stories. Let them tell you stories and then write down what they say and read it back to them. Let them draw pictures. It doesn't matter if you can tell what it is...let them draw and then let them say what it is about. It might be about red or about circles and zigzags.
Read to your kids. Books wear out but only through use. A child that is read to will read, maybe not until she is seven or so, for her own pleasure, but she won'r remember learning to read, and that in itself is a big start to being "gifted" in school .
Play music and dance--hip hop today and Beethoven tomorrow, Clapton on Friday and Sprinsteen on Saturday. Play it all and learn to like it all. Dance like no one is watching you and revel in your toddler's discovery of the joy of dance. Do exercise with your toddler, using him or her as your baby-lfex machine, lifting him or her and listening to the squeals of delight. My daughter used to love being lifted up on my feet, and sitting on my belly while iI tried to do situps. I was strong then. Mostly from carrying her around. I dont think her feet hit the floor until she was four or five.
But don't plunk them in front of the TV. No matter how "educational" they will either learn to stare at it in boredom or find something more interesting and probably quieter than the TV to do while you are distracted from watching them.
The main theme here is don't expect a toy to raise your child. your attention will do more to educate them than anything else. And so will your lack of attention.
The best toys for a child are a parents hands a cardboard box a ball of string abag of closepins and a roll of scotch tape..Oh! forgot the pots and pans.
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Comments: 10
It is also very important to interact with your toddler. Don't just give them some toys & expect to ahve the afternoon to yourself. You need to get down ont he floor & play with him/her and have some fun while your at it! You will connect & bond with your child on a deeper level.
Have fun & enjoy the toddler years!
As a grandmother, I do buy some "educational" type toys, but I mostly just buy the good old fashioned type toys. I can turn any toy into an educational experience by the way I play with my granddaughter. I read to her and have her "read" to me. We discuss colors, numbers, letters, and objects of all sorts. For three years old, I think she is pretty darned smart. Plus she has a great imagination, which most kids these days do not have because they don't get the chance to be a kid.
Let them play in the dirt and the creek and point out the tadpoles and the frogs and the bugs and the birds and ferns and any other wildlife that might be brave enough to come into the presence of a terrible two. Get a cat or a dog, and teach your child how to behave around animals. In fact, they say that two animals will help your child not to be allergic, whether it is two of the same kind of animal or not. However, hatchling turtles are not reccomended or even legal to buy for that matter, being carriers of salmonella, and being small enough to put in ones mouth. .
Take your toddler out into the world and let him or her show you what wonder is, a car, a train, a bus, a bicycle, a skater, a squirrel, a cat, a flower, a leaf, a spider's web. Let them look at the patterns in sidewalks and at rocks and sticks and pieces of string. If you let them make their own toys, they won't ever be bored. Plastic has to be recycyled. Sticks and rocks are already organic.
Take them to a safe place with other toddlers and let them run and run and run and run. They'll sleep better and they'll be used to moving around. Don't encourage them to be chair potatoes any sooner than necessary.
Talk to your kids. tell them stories. Let them tell you stories and then write down what they say and read it back to them. Let them draw pictures. It doesn't matter if you can tell what it is...let them draw and then let them say what it is about. It might be about red or about circles and zigzags.
Read to your kids. Books wear out but only through use. A child that is read to will read, maybe not until she is seven or so, for her own pleasure, but she won'r remember learning to read, and that in itself is a big start to being "gifted" in school .
Play music and dance--hip hop today and Beethoven tomorrow, Clapton on Friday and Sprinsteen on Saturday. Play it all and learn to like it all. Dance like no one is watching you and revel in your toddler's discovery of the joy of dance. Do exercise with your toddler, using him or her as your baby-lfex machine, lifting him or her and listening to the squeals of delight. My daughter used to love being lifted up on my feet, and sitting on my belly while iI tried to do situps. I was strong then. Mostly from carrying her around. I dont think her feet hit the floor until she was four or five.
But don't plunk them in front of the TV. No matter how "educational" they will either learn to stare at it in boredom or find something more interesting and probably quieter than the TV to do while you are distracted from watching them.
The main theme here is don't expect a toy to raise your child. your attention will do more to educate them than anything else. And so will your lack of attention.