Children in pre-schooling a ge learn through various activities, mainly playing with toys that catch their attention quickly. These very toys then become an educational tool in the hands of adults to teach toddlers social and emotional skills. Most importantly, toys play a crucial role in developing minds in the right direction.
However, adults are sometimes directionless in searching for the right type of toys that contribute to improving the minds and skills of children. Any toy will grab any child’s attention as it is a new shiny thing for them. Still, a strategic choice of toys will help develop different aspects of a child’s physical and mental growth and fire up their imagination.
Here Is The List Of Toys That Contribute To The Development Of A Child’s Mind:
Puzzles
Solving puzzles is the best exercise for brain development. When kids are engaged with puzzle toys, the reasoning part of their brains becomes activated more often. They start building spatial reasoning skills. That is why they are part of every nursery curriculum.
Give a five-peg and board puzzle to a child. Then move to a 10-piece puzzle and next to a 25-piece puzzle toy. Kids aged 5 to 7 years can handle 60 to 120 puzzle pieces.
Bubbles
Bubbles are the most enjoyable activity for kids. They love to chase them, which promotes cognitive, and motor skills. You can either buy pre-made bubble toys or make toys at home. All homemade ways to create bubbles are safe for kids to jump and chase around.
Hula-hoop
Hula-Hoops are among the popular toys that children go in and out of, and they like to roll the hoop and enjoy it going back and forth. They often roll the hoop and then chase it, improving their mind due to the cooperative play around the hoop.
However, children aged 4-6 are more comfortable playing with hula-hoops. But choose the hoop height carefully. An average height of 34″ – 36″ hoop generally works well.
Building toys
Building toys help develop kids’ spatial and mathematical skills as they are engrossed in some constructional activity. Children need to find the perfect solution to build something and calculate which is the suitable toy to place at which right place. That requires them to activate their brain region responsible for creative thinking.
A preschool for kids has multiple building toys, including Legos, Lincoln Logs, Magnetic Blocks, and WEDGits. These and other toys come with instructions on how to explore pieces and build.
Sensory bin
A sensory bin is a box that contains fillers such as sand, colored rice, water, birdseed, etc. The point here is to stimulate the five senses. So, these boxes have fillers that children can taste, smell, touch, see, and hear. To excite kids, hide some toys in the sand so that they explore and dig them out. Your child can play with the items within the box without spilling them everywhere.
Costumes
Costuming is always an attractive play for children as they pretend to be someone wearing those fancy clothes. In turn, pretend clothing contributes a bit to developing cognitive, emotional, and social skills. Such clothing also is a great way to boost the imagination power of kids. Preschools have many dress-up ideas for children to bring them together and pretend play.
Craft Supplies
Children have their own ways of expressing themselves. Give them the craft supplies such as colors, paper, glue, stickers, markers, tissue paper, string, etc. Such open-ended play gives children the freedom to create and express what they have in mind.
But make sure you give multiple items so they can experiment and learn from manipulating. Do not worry if your kid gets messy, as that is part of learning.
Puppets
Kids love to see puppets and handle them with their own tiny hands. This is because puppets look funny to them and fire up their imagination. Note that puppets also are a way to sing in a silly way that children love to hear. You can make songs and read stories to kids using uniquely dressed-up engaging puppets. Such toys help kids express different emotions and feelings, contributing to the development of the mind early.
Conclusion
Kids learn from their several activities throughout the day. In preschool, the activities are conducted in an organized way using toys. A child should be exposed to different toys such as puzzle toys, hula-hoops, building toys, sensory bins, puppets, craft supplies, and so on. Such a variety of toys develops other regions of the brain for cognitive, emotional, and social growth.
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