Toys can teach as well as entertain!
by Khushi Mohunta
Introduction
You would know if you ever marvelled at the look of concentration on a child’s face while they were putting one block on top of another that it is a serious business that requires their best effort. It is a serious business, where toys act as a tool for trade. “Toys that are engaging enable them to practice social skills as they play.” As a parent, you would undoubtedly want to channel your child’s energy into something “constructive” and “creative.” Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with a plan B! Here is a list of interactive toys for kids to keep them busy throughout.
Interactive Toys for Kids
When selecting a toy for your child, you should be aware of the two major battery types that the toys use. The first type is battery-powered, and the second type is baby-powered. You may be baffled now by what these kinds of toys are and how they can be powered by batteries as well as babies. Here’s what:
When a child engages with a battery-powered toy, they will press a button as they wait to be entertained. Baby-powered toys offer opportunities for growth, problem-solving, challenge, and achieving goals. Here is a list of some gender-neutral toys suited to the varying interests of every age group and pocket size.
- Big Feelings Pineapple: Manufactured by Learning Resources, Big Feelings Pineapple is a pineapple with a lot of feelings in it. It is a very effective way to teach your child about feelings. It also allows them to transition from being a child to becoming an adult who is aware of their surroundings. This unique product is manufactured by Learning Resources. It works on the principle of switching the twenty-six different changeable pieces of the pineapple’s mouths, eyes, eyebrows, and hands in the pursuit of self-discovery and awareness of the self.
2. Color Chemistry: Crayola’s Color Chemistry Set comes with an interesting twist on crayons. It offers a set of colors, crayons of course, but in a different state. The crayons in this set are not solid but rather in liquid form. Yes, you read it right! With brightly coloured melted crayons, the set also includes sixteen fun, out-of-the-box activities and fifty with common household ingredients. So, this not only makes your child explore volcanoes, but also the color mystery through chemistry.
3. GoCube – Not Your Ordinary Cube: This cube is not the normal cube one finds in stores across the country, but it comes with an extraordinary surprise attached to it. This Bluetooth-enabled Rubik’s Cube is installed with smart sensors inside the beautiful, glowing cube that gets connected to a companion app on the owner’s phone and senses where each block is positioned. This smart cube helps solve problems easily by counting down.
4. National Geographic’s Break Open Geodes: Geology doesn’t get more exciting than breaking open rocks and finding crystal treasures! This earth science kit provides a hands-on science experiment that you and your children are guaranteed to love. National Geographic’s Break Open Geodes can prove to be a great learning and interactive tool for mineralogy and geology enthusiasts out there.
5. Sensory Bins: Sensory Bins are soft, stickable felt pieces and felt houses that promote receptive and expressive language as kids go on to narrate a story about their own imaginary home. This unique product is manufactured by Faber-Castell. Parents can use this technology tool as a convenient way to teach their kids the “Wh-questions” (like What, Where, Why, and How).
6. Tangrams: Akin to building blocks, tangrams help parents teach kids about spatial relationships. If promoted as an interactive toy for kids in their early years, it may help them classify shapes, acquire a precise vocabulary for manipulating shapes (like “grasp”, “rotate”, and “flip”) develop an interest in geometry, and gain a stronger grasp of spatial relationships. By using tangrams as a play tool, toddlers begin to develop a spatial vocabulary with words like angle and parallelogram.
Toys are used as a pedagogical resource in the development of a teaching-learning resource that has the potential to transform classroom pedagogy. Educational toys help boost creativity, improve concentration, and encourage social and emotional connections. Albert Einstein once said, “Play is the highest form of research.” Introducing kids to learning and interactive toys in their formative years will help them get a better understanding of the world as they grow into responsible citizens.
