Educational Learning Toys for Preschoolers!

Building blocks for motor skills and thinking

Building blocks are great educational learning toys for children from the age of 2 to the age of 6. Children usually love blocks. Building blocks stimulate creativity, develop thinking, logic and mathematical skills. They are also important for your child's motor skills (hand-eye coordination).

At a younger age, you can buy soft building blocks with no sharp edges that are safe for toddlers. They are usually made of different colors and present different patterns. We recommend the Verde Foam Building Blocks. They include 100 brighlty colored geometric blocks. There are made of soft high density foam and they can be used by toddlers to build structures of all shapes and sizes.

As they get to preschool age, you can buy your kid wooden blocks. There are building blocks with numbers and letters that are fun and that really can help your child learn. For example, the Fisher-Price Builders Stack 'n Learn Alphabet Blocks are building blocks with illustrated objects associated with a letter of the alphabet. Kids can build the alphabet, beginner words or just play stack up. There are many other kinds of building blocks that you can get. Visit also our building blocks page for more information. Blocks can be great educational learning toys and they can keep your kid occupied for hours!

Sorting and stacking toys for learning counting

Sorting and stacking toys are important for basic hand-eye coordination and for cognitive development in older preschool children. Sorting and stacking toys come in a wealth of varieties including stacking blocks, stacking cups and stacking rings and are more or less educational depending on the age. For younger children (age 3), these toys can teach the concepts of size, height, depth, sequence and colour. Children also improve their fine motor skills. We recommend the Tiny Love Musical Stack and Ball Game. This sorting and stacking toy can help your baby understand concepts such as size, sequence, and it can stimulate your baby's senses as it integrates lights, sounds and textures.

Melissa & Doug Alphabet Nesting and Stacking Blocks

Later on (ages 4-5) children can practice numeracy by counting the parts, adding or taking away parts. There are also stacking toys that can teach your kid the alphabet. You can play with these educational learning toys with your child and even make mistakes: your child will enjoy detecting your errors and discussing. Melissa & Doug has great stacking toys. One that we really recommend is the Deluxe 10-Piece Alphabet Nesting and Stacking Blocks. This nesting toy blocks can keep your little one playing for hours all while learning to recognize the letters of the alphabet.

Puzzles for hand-eye coordination and problem-solving skills!

Puzzles are fun but they also play an educational role. For younger kids, puzzles can help understand colors, shapes, letters and numbers. Puzzles help develop hand-eye coordination, hence they are very good for your child's motor skills. As they begin working on puzzles, kids see that there is a logic or a set pattern to how pieces should fit together. They become concentrated and focused as they look for the shapes that match together.

Puzzles can help develop your child's social skills too. Usually children play a puzzle game with a group of other children. Even a closed and shy kid will become more socialized as he has to work with other kids to solve a complicated puzzle game. If your kid does not mingle much with other kids, buy a puzzle game and have him play with other children (for instance your friend's or neighbor's kids). Soon you will see your kid discuss and strategize with other children about the best way to complete the puzzle.

For toddlers (ages 2 and up), we recommend the animal puzzle Ravenburger African Animals. This puzzle features a serene Serengenti scene of zebras, monkeys, elephants, etc, ideal if you want your little one to learn about animals. It's also made of large pieces and from the highest quality material. For preschool kids, we recommend the Melissa & Doug Jumbo ABC Chunky Puzzle (ages 3-6). A great first puzzle game, it helps toddlers recognize letters and learn about the alphabet. The thick chunky puzzle pieces are also specifically designed for small hands.

Melissa & Doug magnetic letters

Magnetic Letters and Words for Reading

There are many magnetic letter sets in the market that you can buy. Some sets even produce sounds so that the child can even hear the name of the letter. Your kid can use the magnetic set of letter in his bedroom (buy a board for that) or in the kitchen. There are also magnetic letters sets to help your child recognize high frequency words. Actually these sets were suggested by experts in order to help kid recognize thousands of words by age 5. You can find sets by theme (for instance: food words, school words, common sentences etc).

We recommend the Melissa & Doug magnetic letters (ages 3 and above). The letters are both upper and lowercase. They are large and like many of the Melissa & Doug toys, there are durable which is not often the case with other magnetic letter sets. The entire back of the letter is magnetic so you don't have to worry about the letters falling off. Your child will love playing with them on the fridge or dishwasher.

Construction toys for logic and creativity

Construction toys can be great educational learning toys and a nice way to spend some nice quality time with your kid. Kids find construction toys fun and parents can also have fun playing with these toys. Construction toys help develop hand-eye coordination, stimulate creativity and imagination and build up logic and mathematical skills. Your child can also practice his social skills as he works on a project with other kids.

There are construction toys for all ages and even for toddlers. Make sure that the construction toy that you are buying matches your kid's age. More advanced construction toys can teach kids about energy, electricity, electronics and basic engineering. As such they can also be great educational learning toys.

For toddlers and younger preschoolers, you can get interlocking blocks. Lego, Megablock and Duplo are some of the well-known brands. Younger children usually do not have fully acquired fine motor skills. Therefore, interlocking blocks for toddlers are usually big and easy to assemble and they will help your kid develop these fine motor skills. You can ask your kid to count the blocks or assemble the blocks by color. This will help enhance its color recognition and math skills!

We recommend the Lego Duplo My First Set. It is specifically designed for smaller hands. It also has a container which allows for easy clean up and efficient storage. This set can really spark the imagination of younger toddlers as it includes many shapes and toddlers can build towers, roads and bridges.

For older preschoolers, interlocking blocks are usually smaller, as at age 4-5 kids have acquired fine motor skills and are able to fit small pieces together. Your child's construction can now become more complicated and this will enhance his problem solving skills, logic and also math skills.

There are construction toys also made of wood or metal, with nuts, bolts, wheels, and other different pieces. There are also magnetic construction toys available in the market. It's good for parents to first pick a simple set that contains a few parts. You do not want to get your child frustrated. Then move your way up, buy a construction set that is a bit more complicated. There are construction toys available for all ages up to the adult age. These can become very intricated and even be motorized.

Construction toys are excellent educational learning toys for preschoolers who need to acquire fine motor skills and develop logic and creativity!

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