Educational Toys
Vince Gowmon once said that you could not make people learn, and instead, you can only provide the right conditions for learning to happen. This thought process is especially important when it comes to child learning and development. You can use some educational toys to help you not only entertain your young one but also to enable him or her to develop and improve various skills, including imagination, creativity, logical thinking, and problem-solving, among others.
Thus, how can you know the right type of educational toys to buy? We offer you a list and reviews of the top ten best educational toys available in this competitive market. The information here presents you with the features, pros, and cons of each product, which will allow you to identify the qualities that you need and ultimately purchase an educational toy that satisfies your child’s requirements.
Reviews
The Play22 Activity Cube features construction using toxic-free material that ensures you have a safe product that your child can comfortably handle. The durable design also allows you to use the item for a long time and save n expenses since you will not have to buy replacements frequently. Further, this educational toy measures 8.4″ × 8.4″ × 7.7″ and gives you a compact size that you can conveniently place in any room for your little one to play.
Moreover, this educational toy incorporates five activities that are ideal for toddlers who are one year or older, which helps to entertain and educate your young one during his or her formative years. The multifaceted activities enable your child to develop color and shape recognition. In addition to this, the toddler can expand his or her vocabulary and improve creativity skills. Your child can learn to recognize and match various shapes, which enables him or her to build fine motor skills while fostering problem-solving capabilities.
Pros
- Five activities to play
- Toxic-free material
- Enhances hand-eye coordination
Cons
- Could be heavier for more balance
This educational toy comes as a counting pie containing sixty pieces of fruits that have five different colors. This colorful product enables your child to learn colors and develop number skills as he or she counts through the fruits. Additionally, the educational toy also features jumbo tweezers in its package that your little one can use to pick up or move around the fruits. Such activities assist in reinforcing fine motor skills, including the fine motor pincer grasp.
Besides this, the educational toy provides visual cues and patterns that allow your child to develop his or her visual processing and problem-solving skills. The plastic pie plate and the removable divider also enable him or her to learn the organization as he or she plays and categorizes the fruits, making the educational toy fun and productive. The cover of this product allows you to store the item neatly after use without creating clutter in your surroundings.
Pros
- Develops fine motor skills
- Plastic pie plate with cover
- Enhances visual processing and problem-solving skills
Cons
- The lid could close more securely
This educational toy features robust and durable construction that provides you with a long-lasting product that your child can use to play without worrying about damages, fading, or peeling. This product offers you a set of Popsicle toys with each item measuring 4″ × 1.25″, making it easy for a child to handle as he or she plays. The educational toy comes with uppercase and lowercase letters marked on the pops that enable your young one to match them accordingly, by sticking the magnetic pieces together.
As well, the product comes with different colors for the different letters, which help your toddler to match the letters correctly to each other using the colors provided. This educational toy not only increases coordination skills but also enables your young one to develop an imaginative play that fosters creativity and critical thinking. Further, the markings of the pieces are durable and allow your child to play with the educational toy for a long time without the letters fading.
Pros
- Double-sided markings
- Alphabet and color matching
- Increases coordination and imaginative play
Cons
- Storage in direct sunlight can lead to discoloration
ETI Toys presents you with a quality educational toy that includes building blocks in its design that enable your child to develop social skills from a young age. The engineering of this product encourages your young one to work together with other children, which helps to create teamwork and interactive play as they combine to build various creations. Besides, this educational toy also features 101 pieces that promote logical thinking and problem-solving skills that foster creativity and imagination.
Your little one can also enhance his or her fine motor skills using this educational toy because the building of the pieces requires hand-eye coordination, which keeps the child entertained while learning. Furthermore, you can conveniently clean the STEM engineering blocks to ensure your little one always plays with a clean and hygienic product. This educational toy also includes a detailed instructional eBook that can help you and your little one to start or move to advanced levels.
Pros
- STEM engineering blocks with 101 pieces
- Convenient to clean and maintain
- Detailed instructional eBook
Cons
- Could have a better wheel design
This educational toy provides you with a quality 150-piece set that includes 36 square pillars, 66 colorful gears, two crank handles, eight interlocking bases, eight pillar connectors, and one plastic tub. The tub enables you to store the pieces after use in an organized manner, enabling you to remove clutter while keeping track of the small pieces. This educational toy also includes an activity guide in its package that allows you and your little one to know how to use the product in a fun and productive way.
Moreover, the gears help your child to develop and strengthen his or her problem-solving skills as he or she looks to connect the pieces. This educational toy offers versatility that assists in boosting imagination and creativity because your child can build various types of creations with the same gears. The product supports STEM learning since your young one applies some physics as he or she sorts, counts, groups, constructs, and designs the pieces.
Pros
- Supports STEM
- Colorful 150-piece set
- Boosts fine motor skills
Cons
- The connecting pieces may fit too tight for some users
This quality educational toy functions using 2 AAA batteries that provide you with a quality operation for extended periods. The package includes the batteries upon purchase, which helps to reduce the costs that you would otherwise spend on buying the additional accessories. Besides this, the educational toy incorporates an auto-off feature in its design that automatically switches off the product after 45 seconds of inactivity, helping to preserve the item’s service life.
As well, this educational toy comes with two different volume controls that your toddler can use according to his or her preference. The included on and off switch enables your little one to operate this product with ease during playtime. This educational toy features more than 50 music and songs about numbers, animals, and colors, which help your child to learn accordingly. The accompanying lights produced by the product are not too bright, making it safe for your child to use.
Pros
- More than 50 sing-along songs
- Easy to operate
- Auto-off energy-saving feature
Cons
- No option for light without sound
This educational toy from Skoolzy helps your child to develop and improve his or her recognition and memory skills. This product comes with 36 counting bears in black, pink, and white colors, with three matching cups available in small, medium, and large sizes. Apart from this, the item also provides you with three dice for color, preposition, and size. The positional dice and colored bears give your child the ideal preposition game that helps to develop his or her social and learning skills.
The educational toy offers the versatility of activities that assist your child in learning to count and sort colors using the bears and colored die, respectively. You can also upgrade the games to target kindergarten children and help your young one to enhance speech, literacy, language, social, and cooperative skills. This educational toy can also enable you to stimulate your child’s mind using math concepts, including subtraction, addition, and multiplication.
Pros
- Features math concepts
- Size and color sorting skills
- Non-toxic and durable material
Cons
- The bears could have better grip
This premium educational toy presents you with a colorful 192-piece gear set that provides your child with a wide range of activities that help him or her develop various skills. The pieces feature quality engineering that enables your child to learn to build different creations such as a cranking tower, winding gear train, and other interlocking contraptions. Besides enhancing creativity and imagination, your little one improves his or her fine motor skills while putting together the various pieces accordingly.
Moreover, the attention to detail that goes into the creation process enables your young one to enhance his or her hand-eye coordination. The design of this educational toy promotes social development, cooperation, and teamwork because your child can use this product to play with other kids. The manufacturer used non-toxic and BPA-free material to construct this educational toy, which ensures your child can safely use the product.
Pros
- Promotes STEM learning
- BPA-free and durable material
- 192-piece set that fosters creativity and imagination
Cons
- It may be a bit challenging for toddlers
Kidzlane offers you a quality educational toy that features 12 eggs in a carton that will help your child to learn how to count, match, and sort. Each plastic egg comes with a different number and color, and the corresponding holes and pegs enable your little one to have fun organizing the items accordingly. The ergonomic design of this product makes it easy for your kid to click the eggs together or pull them apart, adding to your convenience during playtime since the child can work independently.
As well, this educational toy allows your toddler to grasp the product with ease because of the smooth finish on the eggs. The colorful product helps your young one to develop dexterity, fine motor skills, and color recognition from an early age. You need not worry about the safety of your toddler since the toxic-free materials used to design this product ensures your little is always safe. The plastic case provides you with a sturdy item that you can conveniently use to store the eggs after the game.
Pros
- Child-friendly design
- Convenient to store
- Improves dexterity and color recognition
Cons
- The numbers could have better visibility
This educational toy from Learning Resources provides you with a set including 100 cubes that enable your child to develop different math skills. You can efficiently use the pieces to help your little one learn to make a comparison, count to 100, skip counting, graphing, addition, subtraction, to identify shapes and colors, and know non-standardized measurements. The educational toy features a variety of colors that also allow your kid to develop matching and patterning skills that also improve his or her fine motor skills.
Furthermore, this educational toy includes geometric shape cutouts that offer your child tactile and visual STEM learning. Your little one can develop his or her hand-eye coordination and motor planning as he or she continuously plays with this product. The educational toy also features an ergonomic design that snaps together with the cubes on all sides, allowing your little one to create and learn from more complex patterns and activities.
Pros
- Fosters the development of math skills
- Geometric cutouts that support STEM learning
- Develops fine motor skills and color identification
Cons
- Little ones may find it challenging to snap together the pieces
Conclusion
By reading through our reviews of the ten best educational toys provided above, you can have a better understanding of the characteristics of each item. This knowledge can help you to make suitable decisions swiftly as you maneuver this busy market. Hence, you will be able to buy an educational toy that fits your needs while making it fun for your little one.