Educational toys, so what? A short list of pitfalls.
Educational toys, next to the primary target, how much fun is, are to expand the toddler's knowledge and skills. In other words, blocks will be educational, because they teach spatial planning and thinking, and not a pony from a famous company, who only stands and has stars on his tail.
Simple? Theoretically yes. When buying educational toys, however, it is easy to overdo it or let manufacturers approach you, with a generous slogan "educational". It happens, that the producer will write, that the toy is educational and that's it. End of discussion. He might as well write, that is cool. WHY the toy is educational and what areas of activity it should support should be marked on the packaging. It should also be clearly specified for which age range it is dedicated. So, clearly, our treasures are over-developed and eminently capable, but is chess really a suitable gift for a two-year-old?? Yes, he will play with them; it will even be an educational game… will learn a lot: for example this, that chess is great, and the collision of the messenger with the glass ends in a brawl.
Really, it is not worth buying children's toys overgrown. Even if we are dealing with a real genius (which of course I have no doubts), let's remember, that toy, which will outgrow the child, or it annoys him, or it will seem boring. And he will definitely end up in a corner, and the toddler will start to play… with a box from her.
If we want to make a child of roughly one year old happy – toys should be big. The quad bike will be the best… no, then daddy will buy a toddler for his first communion. For now, let's focus on the simpler things. At this age, the little fingers do not operate very precisely yet, so blocks or other elements should be quite large and easily connect with each other. Apart from that – big, means safe. The little man also learns the world through taste, so she'll take EVERYTHING in her mouth, what will fit there. A doctor was telling me, that the biggest thing, which in his practice he had to extract from the inside of the child (so, from within) there was lipstick. Incredible, true? I suspect, that most adults wouldn't be able to swallow it, even, if it was a high-stakes bet. And yet the little girl succeeded.
Tracy Hogg, guru in the field of raising children and the world's first Super Nanny recommended, to remove everything from the baby's surroundings, which fits into a cardboard toilet roll. If anything goes that way, will also pass through a small throat.
For two-year-olds, the ideal educational toys for them are, for example, large puzzles (so, clearly, you are convinced, that little Einstein will solve the puzzle with 3000 items. Will arrange – in a few years). Educational cubes are great, teaching how to put appropriate shapes in holes and simple toys based on matching elements. Children of this age have a natural attraction to music, so it is worth buying them an instrument. If the kid isn't yours, only friends, you can go ahead and buy him a drum, your friends will be forever grateful, similarly, like their neighbors. For children it is obvious, that the louder they play, all the more beautiful.
Three-year-olds and older children are happy to play together. Hence, they will stack together, build, set up and create. At this age, kids also have clear thematic preferences, so there is a probability, everything will be in princesses or dinosaurs. Kids at this age are also more demanding, they get bored more easily, so they need more complicated toys (ale puzzle z 3000 Let your mom arrange the elements).
Children of all ages should also have access to manually developing toys: crayons, plasticine, farbki, salt mass everything, which will allow them to somehow create and express themselves. At the beginning, they will not be great works, but rather contemporary art. But, as you know, exercise makes perfect.