The Educational Value of Children’s Toys

Most parents overlook the importance of choosing the right toys for your child. Toys are considered one of the earliest companions for your child – even before they pick up language and speech to interact with others.

So, it is quite significant that parents carefully select what kind of toys their child is allowed to play with. Not all toys in the market are educational. Choosing the wrong toys can encourage unwanted behaviours and studies have shown that toys impact children’s behaviour in many ways.

Jeffrey Trawick-Smith, a professor at Center for Early Childhood Education at Eastern Connecticut State University found that “some toys have a powerful influence on children’s thinking, interaction with peers, and creative expression”.

It has been discovered that, ironically, toy stores are actually the worst place to purchase toys for children. Jenn Choi wrote in an article published by Quartz in which she described her experience of visiting the toy store to browse for new toys for her child. She found that the educational section of the toy store she visited was visibly “upsetting” as the section is filled with toys that did not encourage children to interact and inquire but supplied them with questions without even provoking children’s minds to seek for the answers.

Upon knowing how much of an impact toys have towards children’s development, it should be understood by all parents that toys should not act as babysitters to engage with their children while they are occupied with something else.

We need to change this mindset and agree that thoughtfully choosing the toys is similar to choosing the right education for your child. Good toys are educational investments.

So, parents must not stay idle when their child is heavily engaged and immersed during playtime. Parents who get and stay involved in their child’s playtime contribute towards making sure their children get the highest quality of play.

Professor Trawick-Smith claims that what sets educational toys apart from non-educational ones is its ability to prompt problem solving, social interaction, and creative expression in children.

Since toy stores have been ruled out as the go-to place to search for educational toys, parents have resorted to other platforms to seek for the best quality toys that benefit their children’s overall development. Such platforms include independent sellers who carefully design and create toys according to children’s current educational needs, as well as early childhood educational providers that sell toys in the form of subscription boxes.

It has been said that children’s educational subscriptions boxes are convenient and ideal parallel to educational toys as they offer the same benefits as educational toys do. Some even consider the learning tools that come with the subscription boxes as play tools since children find using them as equally entertaining and amusing as when they play with toys. These subscription boxes also make great gifts due to how presentable they look.

Here are 5 of the best kinds of subscription boxes that parents can purchase for their children to redefine playtime:

You may not consider cooking as part of children’s play but any activity that allows children to explore, be active, while learning or making something new is counted as a form of children’s play. ‘Foodstirs’ is a children’s subscription box that is perfect for parents who would like to cultivate a new interest for baking among their children.

Who would’ve thought that a love for gardening could be instilled from a young age? Well… at ‘Mud & Bloom’, teaching your kids how to grow their own plants is made easy through their gardening subscription boxes. The Mud & Bloom garden subscription box includes gardening and nature crafts which are perfect for raising those little green fingers.

Sewing is a great playtime activity that improves children’s focus, creativity, and fine motor skills. The ‘It’s Sew Me Craft Box’ is perfect for children who are particularly interested in making crafts – Through the materials and tools given in the sewing subscription box, children are taught a complete new way of crafting. Other than the usual cutting and pasting, they are shown how to weave, thread, and stitch.

Science for children has always been regarded as a form of play as it involves a lot of play-based activities such as doing, creating, experimenting, exploring, and discovering. The ALFA and Friends’ ‘Spark Kit’ is a children’s subscription box that allows children to carry out science experiments at home. Each box comes with a comic book and science experiment kit that educates children on the different themes and topics of preschool science.

Although not all children associate reading with playtime, reading subscription boxes transforms reading as a fun and exciting activity for children to engage in during their free time. ‘Pod in the Hood’ sells reading subscription boxes for parents who would like to incorporate storytime and books into their child’s playtime. This subscription box also offers educational games that accompany the children’s story books.

Children’s subscription boxes are usually sold in monthly or yearly subscriptions which makes it convenient for parents to constantly provide the best and beneficial form of entertainment and play for their children without needing to visit the toy store every so often. Overall, children’s subscription boxes prove that high quality playtime is not something that parents should find as difficult to provide and achieve for their children.