Educational Toys are the best resource for learning.
If you didn’t know this by now, then you are hearing it from me. Educational toys are the best resource for learning. Having taught Science, I know first hand how great kids learn with you make it fun. Now I am a mom to 3, and I truly understand this concept even more.
What do education toys have to offer?
Educational toys are not only fun, hello ‘toy’ reference, but they also have an educational component. These components are age and grade-level specific. Another thing I love about these ‘toys’ are their ability to engage. They aren’t just sitting and looking at the toy. The toys actually engage your child and have them thinking. That is what education should be all about, right?
Now, on to my favorite educational toy resources.
Science is fun.
Ooze Labs: Colorful Crystal Lab . Explore the natural beauty and wonder of crystals by growing them yourself in many different shapes and colors! Set up your lab station — complete with beakers, test tubes, centrifuge, display dome, and more — and use safe, non-toxic crystal salts to conduct more than ten experiments in crystal formation. You can even make red, pink, blue, purple, and clear crystals using the spinning centrifuge!
Resources for Fine Motor Learning.
Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog. Spike, a best-seller from Learning Resources, helps kids build up hand muscles and fine motor skills as they replace the chunky, peg-shaped ‘quills’ within the holes that dot the smiling hedgehog’s back. Spike’s colorful quills also lend themselves to lessons in counting, sorting, and color identification skills. Kids can arrange the quills by warm or cool colors, work on sequences and patterns by alternating colors, or count up the quills with the help of numbers printed on the hedgehog’s back. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Hoot the Fine Motor Owl. A wise addition to the collection of fine motor toys for toddlers from Learning Resources, Hoot is here to help kids prepare for preschool success with four fun activities. Hoot is designed to build and strengthen the different areas of hand strength and coordination included in school readiness checklists. Kids practice the pincer grip, an essential pencil-holding skill, by spinning Hoot’s eyes – or they can build hand strength by squeaking Hoot’s nose and work on hand-eye coordination by dropping four coins into Hoot’s slot. Once the coins are inside, use scissor skills to flap Hoot’s wings and send the coins tumbling out his sides for interactive play! In addition to all of the fine motor fun, Hoot’s coins also offer an introduction to color, shape, and number recognition skills, and store inside of Hoot’s slot for easy clean-up. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Basic Geography.
Puzzle Globe: Spin your way into geography with the Puzzle Globe, which highlights landmarks and animals. Each puzzle piece is a continent and fits into one hole on the globe to make it easy for little ones to place. All 7 continents are represented (6 continent puzzle pieces plus stationary Antarctica). Kids ages 3-10 can practice geography skills, build fine motor movements and engage in tactile play! Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
STEM Learning
Coding Critters Ranger & Zip. Coding Critters™ are a kid’s first coding friends, a series of award-winning interactive toy pets that introduce preschoolers to early STEM concepts through 100% screen-free coding activities. With the help of fun play sets and two interactive modes, Coding Critters helps kids acquire hands-on coding abilities, while exerting critical thinking and problem-solving skills without the need for a phone or tablet. Using simple buttons tailored for tiny hands, Coding Critters allows kids to follow along the storybook adventures or design their own coding challenges to play fetch, have a dance party and more! Coding Critters is ready to code right out of the box, including a full-color 20-page storybook.
These puppy robot pals are ready for endless playtime fun as kids can program the brave Ranger and mischievous Zip to play with the included house, slide, tennis ball launcher, and more. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Tileblox Rainbow 20Pc Set
Discover the endless possibilities of Tileblox 20Pc set. With the step-by-step idea sheet, create one-of-a-kind masterpieces! A great set for beginner builders looking to explore and learn through play. Arrives with 8 Triangles and 12 Square in Rainbow colors. Each geometric shape contains magnets that let you build with endless possibilities! TileBlox is perfect for STEM education and when playtime is over, use the magnetic power to simply stack and store.
STEM Explorers MathLink Builders. With MathLink Builders, Kids enjoy hands-on activities that turn early math and design lessons into fun building projects during STEM-filled play sessions. This 100-piece building set features MathLink Cubes cast in 10 vibrant colors. Little designers can follow along with the included activity guide’s 10 building challenges, or design their own animals, objects, and original creations during imagination-filled open play sessions. The possibilities are endless! No matter what they build, kids will learn valuable STEM skills along the way, including lessons in symmetry, sequencing, perspective, and more. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
1-2-3 Build It! Robot Factory. Kids build their own twisting, turning STEM creations with the mix-and-match pieces of the 1-2-3 Build It! Robot Factory. Sized just right for little hands, this build-it-yourself toy’s chunky plastic pieces are ready to help kids design, build, and tinker with their own robot squad during open-ended play sessions. Build tall bots with squiggly green legs, add a few eyes to help your creation see, or snap on a propeller that really spins! 1-2-3 Build It! Robot Factory also comes with an Activity Guide featuring recommended builds, which helps kids learn essential STEM skills ranging from critical thinking and early engineering to following directions. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Letter Association
ABC Party Cupcake Toppers: Turn learning the ABCs into a treat-filled party! The ABC Party Cupcake Toppers features six pretend cupcakes that come ready to decorate with 52 letter and picture toppers that help kids work on learning the alphabet, mastering beginning sounds, building vocabulary, and other early literacy skills. ABC Party Cupcake Toppers supports imaginative and pretend play, doubling as fun cupcake decorations, and adding imaginative treat games of pretend or tea parties for imaginary friends! All 52 toppers store inside the 6 cupcake bases, turning cleanup from a chore to a delight. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Snap-n-Learn Letter Llamas. Kids will learn letter identification, beginning sounds and more with these adorable llamas that snap together. Each of this set’s 13 llamas come with uppercase and lowercase letters on each side of their saddles and help kids build color and matching skills. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Alphabet Acorns Activity Set. This fun and challenging matching game gives children multiple ways to learn and play. Children can match uppercase and lowercase letters as they put the acorns together, plus play hide-and-seek by finding a surprise inside each acorn. The object they find begins with the letter sound on the acorn. Colors correspond to letters, and little learners can even practice making words, learning their ABCs, beginning sounds, and more! At the same time, they can build fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Fun With Food
Learn-a-lot Avocados. The brand new Learn-a-lot Avocado helps kids identify and express their emotions with 4 pop-apart colorful avocados featuring spinning emoji-style faces that change with every roll. Kids can also build color and matching skills with the avocados’ 4 colorful interiors. Includes a storage crate for easy cleanup. Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Farmer’s Market Color Sorting Set. Right on time for the Fall season, the Farmer’s Market Color Sorting set develops color recognition and sorting skills with bushels of realistic, relationally sized produce. This set is not only perfect for imaginative and pretend play, it is useful for lessons in nutrition too! Available in select Target stores nationwide for your readers who may be interested in shopping in-store/pick-up!
Here’s to making learning fun and successful!
Learning can be easy or easier when it is made more enjoyable. Making education fun is the way to go in my opinion, all of of these educational toys are the perfect resources! Check them out for yourself and remember these also when it comes to holiday gifting this year!
Don’t forget to check out this additional Learning Resources’ Free at Home Learning Essentials resource that includes DIY activities, games, worksheets and product bonus content for kids 2-10! Learning Resources’ Free At Home Learning Essentials
Hugs!
More posts about educational resources:
https://www.thesproutingminds.com/great-at-home-resources-for-kids-plus-recipes/ https://www.thesproutingminds.com/easy-halloween-alphabet-bingo-boards/
