SensoryEdge Kids Furniture and Educational Toys Blog


Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Winter Vacation from School: Know What?


The holidays are meant to be fun for kids and adults alike, but before you rush out and buy the latest and greatest toys this year, stop and think. You want to choose toys and games your kids will love, but since these may make up the bulk of his playthings for the coming year, you want them to have some educational value as well.

Don't worry, you can find great gifts that will stimulate his brain without being blatantly educational. Your kids won’t even know the difference!

Our favorite kinds of toys for both learning and hours of fun?

Memory Games: These can be as simple as a few cards with various pictures on them, or more complex versions made from a variety of materials and with dozens of numbers, shapes, colors, and pictures for kids to find. This not only enhances memory, but is a fun way to get more than one child involved for some healthy competition.

Blocks and Stacking toys: Kids can use these to create any number of things, encouraging healthy imaginations while enhancing hand eye coordination and find motor skills. They also begin to learn the difference between sizes. For instance, large blocks are better placed at the bottom and smaller blocks on top.

Sorting games
: There are several varieties of sorting games to choose from, many of which offer a variety of ways to play. Kids can sort items based on color, numbers, shapes, letters, and other things. This will help your child improve memory and get them ready for beginning school.

Writing and Drawing Sets: You can choose writing sets that are designed to help children learn numbers or letters, or drawings sets which help their imaginations take flight. Both are excellent options for young children because they provide hours of entertainment, while also improving fine motor skills and a sense of creativity. Additionally, studies have shown that children who participate in the arts also have higher math and science scores than those who don’t. So encourage your Picasso to get creative!

Waiting Room Play tables: Whether sand, beads, or water, play tables are a fun way for kids to use their imaginations. They are also perfect for families with multiple young children since larger models can accommodate up to 6 children. Bead tables are also a great tool for teaching colors, counting, and other important skills.

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Monday, September 07, 2009

Enhancing Education with Sensory Toys


You can help kids get the most out of their classroom experiences by providing them with fun, hands on, toys to play with both during and after school. With so many flashing, blinking, singing and dancing toys on the market today; it's hard not to get sucked in. However, these more technologically advanced items do not give kids the same kind of stimulation that classic toys provide. In fact, they may even hinder your child's development in some areas--such as hand eye coordination.

Here are several better (and less expensive!) options that children have loved for generations.

Blocks

Whether big or small (big if the kid is under four!) blocks are a childhood favorite! They not only give kids an excuse for making a mess and breaking things, they also help with motor skills. Kids learn how to balance and stack items, how to tell the difference between large and small items, as well as use their imaginations to create. Blocks also encourage kids to use their imaginations. Unlike with modern toys, where a flashing car is just a flashing car, blocks can be made into a house, car, trees, bridges, or people. It's all in the way kids look at them. Some of our favorites are the line of standard unit wooden blocks by Barclay Wood Toys. They are sturdy, basic and come in sets large and small for multiple kids can play.

Stacking Toys

Colorful connecting toys or stacking toys are the more playful cousins of blocks, but with added benefits for early development. For starters, kids can learn colors by naming the color of each piece. They also excite kids from infant to kindergartner, so if you have kids in varying ages this is a great option to get more fun for your money. Aside from this, stacking and connecting toys offer the same benefits as classic blocks. Snap Blocs by Learning Products are just the right size for little fingers, colorful and full of fun!

Wire and Bead Toys

Always a hit in doctors offices, they also transition well in school rooms, waiting rooms and bedrooms. Although no one may ever quite figure out the mystical appeal of colorful beads on a loop of wire, kids will be entertained for hours on end with these! Kids can learn colors, shapes and other bits of important information while entertaining themselves for a change…without the use of a television. For added benefits, bead mazes also teach problem solving skills as well as encourage imaginative play. We like the Beads in the Barnyard Bead Maze because it also features a variety of animals for kids to learn!

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