How to Choose Learning And Exploration Toys For Toddlers

Learning and exploration toys

As you enter a toy shop you can see a huge variety of toys and playthings you can buy for children of any age, including toddlers. It may actually be a challenge to buy toys that toddlers will most benefit from and have fun with at the same time. Because at this particular age children learn by doing, so they become little engineers and explorers.

That’s why it would be the best idea to choose learning and exploration toys for them.

How to do it? Read and find out!

A lot of toys for toddlers have a lot of lights, buttons or music and sounds. They are sold as “developmental” because they have so many different functions. However, this often has the opposite effect for toddlers. The more toys do, the less children have to figure out. So, when all toddlers do is just sitting and watching the toy perform, it becomes pure entertainment rather than education. What’s more, these toys can be confusing to children who are learning cause-and-effect.

If a toy starts making sounds randomly, or it is unclear which button turns on the lights, then a child is not learning which of his actions produced the lights and sounds. The more children have to use their intelligence and bodies to make something work, the more they learn. So when you choose playthings for a toddler, choose learning and exploration toys.

Opt for toys that grow with your child

It sometimes happens that children get bored with new toys after a day or two. That’s why it’s a good idea to buy toys that can be fun at different ages. For example, action figures are fun for a toddler who might make a shoebox house for them. While an older child could use them to act out a made-up story.

These kinds of toys incluse: dolls, stuffed animals, plastic toy animals and action figures, toddler-friendly dollhouses, trains and trucks and other vehicles.

Choose toys that can be used in a number of ways

Toddlers like to build up, add on, take things apart and then put them back together. Opt for toys that are “open-ended” i.e. the ones that children can play a lot of different games with them. For instance, interlocking blocks can be used to make roads, bridges and other structures.
Toys like these aid toddlers’ imagination and make them develop logical thinking and problem-solving skills.
These include: blocks, interlocking blocks, nesting cups, and toys used for water and sand play.

Go for toys that encourage exploration and problem-solving

Play gives children the chance to practice what they have learnt over and over again. Playthings which give toddlers a chance to figure something out without or with a little coaching encourage logical thinking and help them be determined problem-solvers.
It’s also important to choose toys which help children understand how things go together. Support their hand-eye coordination and their fine motor skills
These kinds of toys include: shape-sorters, puzzles blocks, art materials like clay, paint, playdough or crayons.

Learning And Exploration Toys

Seek out toys that support your toddler’s imagination

At the age of three children develop their creativity and can pretend to be someone elsa (take on a role) and imagine that a particular item is in fact something else. That’s why it’s a good idea to buy toys that could be used to act out stories. Pretend play is really beneficial for kids as it builds their language skills and their ability to put events in a logical order.

Look for toys that make your toddler active

Toddlers feel stronger more confident with their bodies, so they are caplable of doing all kinds of physical skills. Look for toys that help children practice their current physical skills and develop new ones.

Such toys include: moving boxes to make tunnels to crawl through, balls of different shapes and sizes, tricycles or three-wheeled scooters with protective gear, plastic bowling sets, pull-toys (on

So while choosing toys for toddlers remember, the more children have to use their minds and bodies to figure things out, the more they learn.

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