Toys used just for fun, but they are also educational. A lot of children’s toys are designed to focus on memory, matching, colors, the alphabet, and imagination. Young children are very interactive and observant, and most of what they learn is from what they see around them. This is known as being a tactile learner.

Tactile learners, which most young children are, learn from life experiences such as taste, touch, and smell. There are learning toys designed especially for tactile learners. Activity tables usually include three of the best tactile learning toys that your child will benefit from. Three great tactile toys are: an abacus, busy beads, and manipulatives. Activity tables usually include all three types of toys, but they can also be purchased separately. Manipulatives are also easy to make on your own with supplies from your home.

An abacus is used for counting and simple math problems. They are similar to busy beads, but are used mostly for counting. They also look very different because an abacus is a frame with straight wires used to move the beads from one end to the next. This is why they are also called counting frames. The abacus has been used for centuries to teach children how to count and use basic arithmetic. It was invented before there was a standard numeral system. Not only is the abacus a great learning toy for young children, it is still used in different parts of the world by merchants.

Busy beads are designed to improve children’s dexterity skills, or hand and eye coordination. Busy beads are used by moving the patterns of beads around to other areas of the toy. The wires that the beads are on move in different directions, and aren’t vertical like the abacus. Young children can be entertained for hours by moving the beads around; it is a hands on experience. The toy is engaging because the beads make different patterns from their bright colors and different arrangements.

Manipulatives are also used to learn basic math, like the abacus. However, you can make almost any item a manipulative. Puzzles are also categorized as manipulatives because children have to use their hands to place the pieces in the correct places. A manipulative is any toy that requires a child to manipulate the toy in some way with their finger and hand/eye coordination.

What happened to toys that last? If you are over 50 then perhaps you remember that the toys you had as a child lasted many years. Even those that are in their mid to late 30’s may even still have one or two toys from childhood that they can pass down to their kids. But how many children’s toys do you see today that you can say the same to?

With the every growing need for higher profits and lower spending, most often you will find that toy you buy your child is made in some other country like China. But what kind of quality are those kids toys? And although plastic can take many years to break down, the structure is often compromised quickly and rendered useless. Furthermore, with the electronic age, expecting your digital toy to last a few generations is just not going to happen.

What makes a toy attractive to a young child? If you have a beautiful wooden truck or pull along toy, what a child likes and needs to see is some color. The perfect children’s toys are brightly colored. These wonderful wooden play things will allow for many hours of fun for your children and last long enough so that all of your children can enjoy them. However, you must be careful that the paint used doesn’t have any traces of lead or other harmful chemicals.

The best way to do this is to check the product label, or if you’re painting it yourself, check the label on the paint to ensure it is child safe. Most young children will not only play with their toy, but also check out how it tastes and feels in their mouth. Therefore, in order to have safe wooden toys, either purchases them from a company that specialized in these types of toys or paints them yourself.

Regardless of how you buy these safe toys, it is always good to remember that wood is a great way to go when buying toys for a large family. You can get pull toys, beautiful puzzles, great wooden trucks and tractors, and the list goes on. You will be amazed once you look into how many wonderful children’s toys you can find that are made out of wood.