Educational toys and life skills

Educational toys not only promote developmental skills in children. They also help children acquire and improve essential life skills. Creativity, self-confidence, independence, responsibility, and integrity can be cultivated through the use of carefully selected educational toys.

Creativity

A hallmark of educational toys is how well they support open and creative play. A wooden food tray can inspire a child to spend an entire afternoon running an imaginary restaurant or planting and harvesting crops on an imaginary farm. A set of blocks can be turned into a tower, a road system, a fort, a car, or even different animals. And the possibilities for a pound of playdough are endless! The more time a child spends exploring all the different things a toy can be turned into, the more developed the child’s imagination capacity will be. This fosters a mindset open to new possibilities that will help the child think of creative and innovative solutions to whatever challenges they end up facing as an adult.

Self-confidence

One way to develop self-confidence is through play that encourages the child to assert himself. Singing, acting, and performing in front of an audience helps children assert themselves both in the planning stage and during an actual performance. Children also learn to assert themselves by acting out scenarios or acting informally with their peers. Open toys, such as musical instruments and clothing and costume accessories, encourage this type of play.

Taking worthwhile risks will also build your child’s self-confidence. Susan G. Solomon, author of American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space, notes that “children need an opportunity to take acceptable risks, learn cause and effect, make decisions and see the consequences. If they do not learn to take risks, we will lose a generation of entrepreneurs and scientists.”

To take such risks, children must develop risk assessment and decision-making powers so that they can be sure that the risks they plan to take are, in fact, acceptable. The act of riding and controlling large toys, such as bicycles, requires children to calculate the physical risks. The logic required to play certain strategy-based board games like Monopoly, chess, and checkers involves a risk assessment, such as whether or not to invest in a property or risk a piece for a bigger profit in the future.

To improve their ability to calculate risk, children must also develop their decision-making skills. Science and engineering kits can help by requiring children to use observations and instructions to make decisions about how to conduct an experiment or build a working machine. Puzzles and building construction games can also hone this skill.

Independence

In general, allowing children to direct their own play and take charge of what to do during their free time helps them become more self-reliant and resilient. In particular, certain educational toys promote skills such as problem solving, taking charge, and leadership.

One aspect of being independent is being able to solve a problem on your own. Working with a system of construction toys allows the child to explore different solutions to the challenge of building various elements. The logical challenges you face on your own, such as figuring out how to use a set of pattern blocks to replicate certain complicated patterns, also develop problem-solving skills.

Another aspect of being independent is taking charge of a situation. This can be as simple as giving your baby two toy options and allowing the baby the autonomy to make their own decision about what to play with. Beyond that, you can also encourage the development of independence by allowing your child to direct the roles that you will take on when playing with your child or letting your child take charge of how a toy will be played. Giving your child open play sets such as farms, police and fire stations, pirate ships, tree houses, and train stations creates a situation where your child can control which scenarios they will perform that day.

A third aspect of being independent is taking on a leadership role. While unit blocks and communal building sets of large hollow wooden blocks, huge foam blocks, or sturdy cardboard blocks can foster cooperation skills, they can also offer opportunities for a child to guide others in a way. positive to build a specific construction that that child has. in mind. Educational toys can also help children motivate and direct themselves so that they can lead themselves toward achievement without always relying on outside support and affirmation.

Responsibility

To become good citizens, all children must develop a sense of personal, social and environmental responsibility. In general, relying on children to take good care of their toys, play well with them, and put them back when the game is over can begin to foster a sense of responsibility. At the most basic level, a chart like the Melissa and Doug Magnetic Accountability Chart can help your child keep track of personal obligations. Beyond that, specific toys can develop other types of responsibility.

When a child is provided with an open-ended toy, such as a construction set, that must be assembled by the child, he or she will take personal responsibility for following the instructions and ensuring that the toy is assembled correctly. This will enable the child to have a sense of personal pride and responsibility in whatever future work he is expected to do. And when a child cares for a fake doll or pet, they also develop a sense of personal responsibility for fulfilling their obligations to another person.

The role play of obligations can be extended to create a sense of responsibility towards society. When a child pretends to be a construction worker or a doctor, that child is practicing assuming adult responsibilities that must be fulfilled if people are to live together in communities. This role play socializes the child and allows him to get used to the idea of ​​becoming a contributing member of said community once he has grown up.

Finally, science kits that encourage children to study the earth can educate children about why people should take care of animals, land, resources, etc. Additionally, toys that are made from sustainable materials (such as Plan Toys) or bioplastics (such as Green Toys), or designed to use recycled materials (such as Uberstix Scavenger sets), promote respect for conserving natural resources. This, in turn, leads to a developed sense of responsibility for caring for the environment.

Integrity

Educational toys can also help children develop integrity. Using costumes and props for role-play situations such as the client and the server can help children practice courtesy and manners. Acting out situations like caring for a doll or injured animal can foster compassion and empathy. And playing competitive games fairly, taking turns and following the rules, develops a child’s appreciation for what is right and what is wrong.

The educational benefit of toys for child development cannot be underestimated. The childhood search for play and discovery continues into adulthood. Children develop a fascination for their environment by playing with toys and continue to acquire hobbies at the end of their adult lives.