By giving some thought to the kind of toddler toys you pick, you can give your little one a head start on learning. With the right toys a child will not only be absorbed with an interesting activity, he or she will actually be picking up educational concepts unconsciously. This could actually help your toddler when they enter the preschool atmosphere.
1. Stacking or Nesting Toys
These will attract a small child at first because of the bright colors. Slowly the child will be able to grade the objects in order of size. In the process the child will learn concepts of first and last, big and small and the right action producing the right result.
2. Jigsaws
Simple, self correcting two to five piece jigsaws can be fun and challenging for a child. The child can put the pieces to create a picture, the face of a cartoon character and more. Many simple jigsaws will help a child correlate the digit to the number of objects, the alphabet to an object and even help the child grasp concepts such as colors, opposites and so forth.
3. Shape Sorters
Shape sorters will not only help a child identify squares, triangles, star and heart shapes it will also improve eye hand coordination and improve manual dexterity.
4. Activity Gym
The colors, fun sounds and various textures will keep baby happily occupied for long stretches of time. in the meantime the child learns nursery rhymes, new words and learns to identify colors, patterns, and so on.
5. Slate or White Board
Give your child creative freedom to draw, erase, redraw and generally give full reign to their creativity with an easily erasable slate or white board. At first it may be that your child cannot even grasp the pen or chalk stick properly but this activity is laying the foundation for future writing, drawing and other activities.
6. Windup Toys
Windup toys also keep a child engrossed because they give a child the opportunity to manipulate objects and make things happen; learning about effort and reward and cause and effect.
7. Interactive DVDs
A lot of thought goes into educational DVDs and CDROMs for kids. Kids can learn the alphabet, numbers, simple math, spelling concepts, rhymes, stories and more.
8. Flash Cards
Flash cards are another great way for kids to pick up basic educational concepts – the alphabet, grasping the relation between digits and number of objects, colors, shapes and more.
