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The BEST TOYS for TODDLERS and PRESCHOOLERS
Understand the crucial role that toys play in a child’s development and learn how to choose the best toys to support your child’s growth. Discover why toys are essential for children at whydokids.com.
The best toys can be used many different ways and are fun for all ages. Some examples of toys and activities that teach children are…
- Interlocking plastic blocks
- Wooden blocks with letters on the side
- Magnetic shapes
- Tent building materials – Sheets, tables, and interlocking flooring mats are great for building tents.
- Obstacle course – Play the floor is lava
- A large empty box – Many children like to pretend that it is a car.
- Dancing – Freeze dancing and Red light, Green Light help with impulse control.
- Water table – You can experiment to see what things float and what sinks.
- Sandbox – You can add trucks to the sandbox to make it more entertaining.
- Sensory box – It’s a container filled with dried beans or snow. It has containers for digging, and other small loose parts.
- Play dough – Children with a severe allergy to gluten may not be able to use traditional play dough. Children with an intolerance to gluten should be fine to use it.
- Art materials – Many children like plain paper better than coloring books.
NOTE: There is no wrong way to make art. When children are told to copy what the teacher did, this is a craft. When children do a craft it does not look exactly like the teachers, so some kids will get upset and say “Do it for me. Yours looks better than mine.”
DRAMATIC (PRETEND) PLAY
When preschoolers and school aged children do dramatic play with someone else you will usually hear them say, “Let’s pretend…” Dramatic play is one of the highest levels of play. It helps with resolving conflict, increasing their attention span, learning social rules, etc. Children use symbolic thinking in dramatic play. This helps with algebra when letters are used to represent numbers. When children play with baby dolls they are being nurturing which increases empathy. When they use multi racial dolls they are increasing their cultural awareness too.
Having the right type of toys is essential for children to do more dramatic play. Playhouses, action figures, baby dolls, phones, stuffed animals, cars, costumes, doll houses, cleaning set, tools, toy food and kitchen equipment are great for pretend play.
QUESTIONS ABOUT TOYS
Anything that promotes violence, romance, addiction, or reinforces stereotypes. Such as…
Any weapon, toy swords, and guns.
Candy cigarettes and gum that looks like chewing tobacco.
Video games where you have to kill other players or show sexual costumes/content.
Videos that show kissing, characters trying to hurt each other, or where people laugh when someone gets hurt.
Books that have pictures of cigars/alcohol, show spanking to punish children, or use violence to solve problems.
Play dough, a phone, puzzles, art materials, blocks, nesting cups, etc.
Climbers, yoga dice, slide, push and pull toys, obstacle course, etc.
Blocks, nesting cups, baseball, soccer, football, etc.
Puzzles, science experiments, sorting box, mirrors, etc.
Baby dolls, faces on toys that show emotions, empathy games, conversation cubes, etc.
Open ended toys are toys that can be used in multiple ways. Examples of open ended toys are: play dough, a box, blocks, sandbox, water table, dolls, stuffed animals, etc.
Self-correcting toys are close-ended toys. They are used one way and show children when they made a mistake. Examples are puzzles and matching games.
Sensory toys involve one or more of a child’s five senses (hear, taste, touch, smell, see). Examples include: play dough, sandbox, water table, fidgets, bumpy balls that make noise, slime, etc.
I WANT IT!
If a child tells you they want a new toy, you can tell them “We can get it when you ______” many children will forget about it. If they ask about it later remind them, “You didn’t do anything to earn it.”
Read books to children about financial literacy like the Moneybunny series by Cinders McLead. Remember that one of the most important things a child needs is loving attention from a trusted adult.