Which Educational Toy Is Best?

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Which Educational Toy Is Best?

by Deepanwita
(New Delhi)

Hi Annie,
I am Deepanwita.

I want to ask you which type of educational toy could be the best for children?

Is a calculator and an Abacus one of them?
Which do you prefer?

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Which Educational Toy Is Best?

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Parents are the BEST Educational Toy
by: Annie Desantis

Hi Deepanwita,

There are quite a few Educational Toy Reviews on our site, I'll pop some links at the bottom, but the best Educational Toy for Children, is YOU! Having lots of high quality fun times with parents is the best learning experience for children. Kids learn through play. When they are tiny, they are learning physical manipulation and to control their body, and then how the world works by playing with things that do something - like construction toys, empty boxes to stack, water play with different levels of water, floating things, measuring etc. Then as they get older they start to explore social roles through fantasy play.

Playing with your children and engaging them in the games they are exploring, helps them to extend their learning. By asking questions such as what would happen if we did this? or What color would that be? How do you think he feels? So open ended questions that they can explore possibilities. I am not meaning questions such as testing the correct answers to facts. There is plenty of time for that at school.

Tools like a calculator or abacus are great for learning to count or playing pretend shop - you can save empty cardboard boxes from your groceries and set up a pretend shop with paper money. Then you can be the person shopping and the child can be the shopkeeper - or swap roles. They could be the delivery person. Fantasy play is wonderful for children to get an understanding of how other people do things, or of roles in society.

Don't be too concerned with facts and figures, the more kids expand their imagination the more they will have options as an adult for an exciting future. Facts and figures can be found on the internet - imagination develops from within. Emotional intelligence is developed through experience and interaction with others. Learning empathy is incredibly important to be a well rounded successful adult. In my opinion schools often place far too much importance on academic subjects that don't equip children for much more than just fitting in. Our kids can be so much more if they learn to think for themselves and be creative about their futures.

There are however lots of wonderful educational toys and games available, and you can read my article in which I list my criteria for evaluating toys, and also lots of reviews from parents as to which educational toys they think have been the best for their children. It is always a personal choice for each family so reading what other parents think is really helpful when making a decision.

Then we also have lots of links to reviews of LeapFrog Toys and Games LeapFrog is a company who specializes in Educational Toys. This page will give you links to all the reviews. We will be putting up lots more reviews over the coming months so keep visiting us or subscribe to our newsletter to be informed of new pages.

Good Luck!
Annie Desantis

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