Preschool Educational Toys

Preschool Educational Toys

My child is not in school really, is it really necessary to have

preschool educational toys

?

Children will definitely learn no matter what. They will not go in to Kindergarten crawling. Yet the learning that is happening in their minds and in their fine motor muscles is not as visible. We have to remember though that young children between the ages of 2 and 5 will learn while playing. Their learning is not necessarily math and science, though it can be, it is preparation for learning those things later on in school. They need to play. They need to imagine and create. It is in these experiences that learning takes place. You can give a girl a baby and a boy a truck and they will do some learning and some playing. So, why not take advantage of that playing that they will do anyway and provide some

preschool educational toys

that will extend their minds and their physical skills?

Preschool educational toys

can range from playing with a pretend kitchen to crafts. A child that is given imaginary toys will develop muscles in their brains that help with vocabulary, parts of a story, problems and solutions. A child that is given appropriate children's crafts toys will develop skills of cutting, sorting, creating, taking what is in their mind and placing it on a piece of paper. They will also make significant improvements in scissor control and pencil control.

So are

preschool educational toys

really necessary? Well yes they are, if you desire to prepare your child for school. They will probably be okay when they get to school if they have not had

preschool educational toys

, but how easy is it to give them a toy with a little more thought and direction? Give their play time some purpose and watch as they start school that learning can be enjoyable.

Imaginary Play: Housekeeping Station

Imaginary Play: Play Cleaning Set

How many times have you been trying to get your house clean and your young child keeps asking how he/she can help? Then you try to encourage that desire and give them something to do and find that it only makes you have to do their "job" over again.

An imaginary

play cleaning set

is a great solution to this problem. As you are moping or sweeping, your child joins you and you both sweep the dirt into different places at least making it look like you have cleaned. :) Lets face it, young children are not the greatest deep cleaners but it is good to encourage your child's desire to clean and help. Our temptation is to say "no" and get it done faster, but trying to include them is a good idea.

You can even take this

play cleaning set

, which is sized for your little one, outside. You can have them sweep the porch. You can even make it a fun summer or nice day toy by getting a bucket of soap and water and let them mop the driveway or the garage. When they are moping have them mop some shapes.

It is also really hard to learn how to sweep in to a dust pan. You can take the dust pan from the

play cleaning set

or a coffee can and lay it on the floor. Have your child sweep a play ball or some plastic food, or even a pretend bug in to the can or dustpan. What great clean fun!

One of my preschool students' favorite things to do when cleaning up the classroom is to sweep. Unfortunately, it will not take very long for the desire to clean in your child to disappear, so try and make it fun and take advantage of it. With a

play cleaning set

and a little bit of luck, your child will learn some fine motor skills, some cleaning tips and will desire to do it for a bit longer.

Imaginary Play: Telephone

Imaginary Play: Telephone

You would be surprised how many children enter into grade school and do not know their phone numbers. It is not a necessity to enter into grade school knowing that information but it sure does make a parent relax a bit and it never hurts to learn it as soon as you child can retain that information.

Telephone toys

are a great tool in helping a child retain that information. Letting them see the numbers and play on them helps for the child who is visual. Hearing the button sounds and how they associate with the numbers helps the child that is auditory. The action of pushing the numbers helps the child who is kinesthetic.

Telephone toys

can help all that happen without calling folks you didn't mean to call. Now in most cities you have to know the area code in addition to the 7 numbers of your phone number, so a little extra practice never hurts. It is a long number to remember for adults sometimes. So giving a child all different types of learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic will help make that number memorable.

This is a great

telephone toy

because it even allows the children to program in numbers and record messages. The children can write the numbers, which is a great skill to practice, on the notepad. You can also teach your children phone etiquette and how to call 911. Remember that even if you have an old cell phone that doesn't work any more and has your SIM card removed - 911 still works if the battery is in it. So be sure and teach that skill on a telephone toy instead of your cell or real phone.

In my preschool class I bring in

telephone toys

and you would be amazed at how much they love to play on them. I give the children numbers to call by writing them on a piece of paper. It is a great way to match the numbers. You can also take it up a notch and give them a number on a piece of paper to dial a few times and then cross one number out that so they can not see it anymore. See if they can remember it. :) Have fun with this and even do it with more numbers each time.

As with most preschool educational toys, you don't "see" them learning or you may not see immediate results, but give them the right toys and a little guidance and you will be amazed when it does click one day. And most likely it will click in the right situation. Children always rise to the occasion!

Blocks & Construction: Castle Block Set

Blocks & Construction: Castle Block Set

Kids love blocks.

Blocks for kids

are fun to play with and build too. It is so fun to have a big set of blocks too. You can pull them out and the children can actually build things that are bigger than they are. They make a great toy for rainy days. We have found that if you take these and put them in a big trash bag and store them until rainy days, it makes a big, fun surprise! If you allow children to play with blocks, you will allow them to develop fine motor skills. The stacking of the

blocks for kids

and making them stay in place is a great developmental skill for kids to develop. Not only are they developing skills but they are having a great time. Another thing that develops is their imagination. When they are building a castle or a house or even an office building if they like, they are engaging their imaginations and taking those thoughts and turning them in to a reality. They love the accomplishment of seeing what is in there mind become real.

Take the

blocks for kids

a step further and have the children build the arches and the bridges and talk about how bridges work. You can even ask them to stack the blocks in sets of numbers and have them make the stacks the same or different. Also take the blocks and give them a letter and have them make the letter with the big blocks.

Blocks for kids

do take up a lot of room and may make a big mess, especially when they are big like these, but they are so fun and can provide tons of entertainment and learning possibilities.

Classic Toys: Lacing Sneaker

Classic Toys: Lacing Sneaker

All children need to have a

lacing toy

. It gives them the practice of holding something with their pincher fingers and develops those muscles. It also helps children with hand and finger coordination. It takes a lot of work to take the string and lace it through a whole. You also need to do it in an organized way which develops critical thinking and direction.

Our

lacing toy

is a lacing sneaker. Not only will this toy help younger children lace and practice that fine motor skill, it also allows them as older children to actually practice tying their shoes. This is a great two in one toy!

You can take this toy even further and enable the children to practice direction. Ask the child to lace "up" or lace "down". You can also ask them to lace across, like real shoe laces. Don't be discouraged if this takes awhile. This is a hard skill, not only are they lacing but they are having to direct the lacing in a certain direction. Most children will enter in to Kindergarten with that skill pretty well developed when they use a

lacing toy

.

Lacing seems like a silly task but it develops and builds the muscles in a child's brain and hands so that they are ready for the school tasks. So make sure you give your child the chance to lace shoes as well as pictures - shoes make it a bit more fun!

Imaginary Play: Tool Kit

Imaginary Play: Play Tool Kits

Both boys and girls love to experiment and pretend that they are "grown-up".

Play tool kits

are a great preschool educational toy because it enables kids to not only play imaginatively and develop their minds, but it also allows them to develop some fine motor skills.

It is very important to allow your young one to practice putting things together with the nuts and bolts of this play tool kit. They end up using their fingers to pinch and develop muscles to get them ready for the tasks of school that will be required later on: cutting, writing and lacing.

You can even take this toy a step further and as they are playing with it have them match the toy version of the tool to the real version of the tool. Also ask them to explain what the tool looks like. Children sometimes have a hard time describing things and this is a good tool for encouraging that. Another option is to have them sort the tools by color, by size, or even by function.

Of course the most obvious way to play with

play tool kits

is to allow them to just imagine. There is a cartoon out now called

Handy Manny

and they can even watch this cartoon and play with their tools at the same time. Cartoon time can also be interactive. Give them some soap or some foam blocks and allow them to bang and build, they will have a great time. This would be a great time to also talk about appropriate tool use and projects. How many of us wish our fathers would have taught us more about tools and projects now that we are older. Start now with

play tool kits

and give them a taste of learning more!