Educational Toys in the First Years of Life

The first five years of life are the most critical and important in a child's development, both mentally and physically. This is when the brain develops the fastest and it is the best opportunity to lay down the foundation on which a child's learns for the rest of his life.

This is why it is important to select educational toys as they promote learning, creativity and use of a child's imagination. Safety is also a top priority. Ensuring the toy is certified safe by the manufacturer will give you piece of mind that you are providing the very best for your child in terms of learning.

Starting with educational baby toys, rattles, and soft first toys that engage babies are essential. In the infant stage, a basic red, black and white toy helps stimulate with the high contrasting colors as baby can only see in black and white for the first few weeks of life. A soothing mobile in these colors or a crib bumper toy can help achieve this. Then as baby grows you can introduce colorful toys like fill and spill toys, and those that encourage crawling and hand-eye coordination like stacking rings.

Toddlers are curious and this is the time to stimulate their brain with quality educational toys for toddlers. First puzzles, building blocks, stacking toys and nesting toys help develop fine and gross motor skills as well as thinking and logical skills. With the onset of greater curiosity comes creativity and imagination. Promote creativity and imagination with dress up clothes, costumes and pretend toys.

During the preschool stage starting from 3 years, there is a prime opportunity to help children develop their fine motor skills, language skills, math skills and thinking skills in preparation for school. Turn to classic educational preschool toys, that help further develop important learning skills through letter toys and counting toys. Puzzles are a great way to develop fine motor skills for writing as well as language skills. Lacing toys enhance fine motor skills and teach patience. Develop a preschooler's sense of creativity with arts and crafts, like painting, coloring and using craft kits. Dressing up helps develop important social skills in children as well as spark their imagination. Dress up costumes can create a world of wonder and fun. So be sure to keep a dress up box full of fun accessories like hats, scarves, capes and more to add variety for girls and boys.

When selecting educational toys for your own children or the children in your life, be sure to pick those that are open-ended. In other words, it has many ways to be played with. Open-ended toys helps a child to get creative and find new ways to play with those toys, and this is what leads to a better play experience and in turn a better learning experience for children. Shop with confidence knowing you can buy the best educational toys for kids online at BabyScholars.com!