Best Construction Toys

Research conducted by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission offers insights into child development and the types of learning toys and games that are appropriate for kids at different levels of development.

Having moved beyond the preschool years, kids in the 6-8 age range have new abilities which affect the kinds of learning toys that interest them. Understanding this stage of child development can help parents make… Read the Full Story…

Learning toys offer a lot more than just fun for kids. Play time for kids is like work time for adults. While most adults, don’t think of kids play time as being productive, it actually offers kids many opportunities to learn and grow physically, mentally and socially.

So if play time is actually like work time, then learning toys are like work tools. The right toys help kids get the most… Read the Full Story…

Parents might not spend a lot of time thinking about the make-believe learning toys they provide to their kids, but maybe they should start. A closer look at play time shows that different types of toys stimulate different types of child development.

For kids, play time is more than just fun and games. Play time provides kids with a safe way to experiment and learn about the real world without all… Read the Full Story…

Age Range
Rokenbok is recommended by the manufacturer for ages four and up. While younger children will probably admire the push-button aspects of the automated toys, most children playing with it and fully utilizing the remote control aspects are six to ten years old. Lincoln Logs are recommended for ages three and up, and are typically enjoyed by a full range of players from three year olds up… Read the Full Story…

Building with construction toys like Lincoln Logs, Legos and Mega Bloks help kids to develop many different skills including cognitive, physical and social skills.

Cognitive skill development is one of the primary benefits. Even though adults might not see all the factors at work, research shows construction toys go well beyond play to help kids develop many different cognitive skills. Making a three-dimensional… Read the Full Story…

Construction toys are a perennial favorite for parents and children. From preschoolers to older children, these toys promote creativity, physical activity and problem-solving. Kids love to imagine and build, with the results varying across individual interests and ages. Open-ended construction toys offer long-term play potential since the creations just get more elaborate or realistic over time. This article identifies some of the educational benefits that come by playing with these toys.… Read the Full Story…

Every year there are more new high-tech electronic toys. They come, they get a lot of attention but then they are gone the next year. Meanwhile, there are some tried and true toys that have been around for a very long while and continue to enjoy great success. In the long run, kids get more play from these more basic toys than from the latest greatest high tech gizmos.

Construction toys are a great example… Read the Full Story…

An infant or toddler’s brain is constantly growing and expanding. For this reason, the early years of child development are the best time for parents to provide their kids with helpful aids to stimulate and facilitate mental development. So what is a parent to do?

Infants and toddlers learn primarily from hands-on activities, exploring and playing. They are not quite ready for reading books or surfing the Internet, but it won’t… Read the Full Story…

Wooden building blocks can promote learning and develop physical skills in young children. They are one of the oldest and simplest of all toys; carved from wood, in various shapes and painted different colors. Most of us remember these from our own childhood. Our parents, grandparents and many generations before that would also remember, fondly, the hours spent building with these toys.

Though wooden blocks toys are… Read the Full Story…

Research conducted by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission offers insights into child development and the types of play toys and games that are appropriate for kids at different levels of development.

Having moved beyond the preschool years, kids in the 6-8 age range have new abilities which affect the kinds of play toys that interest them. Understanding this stage of child development can help parents make better toy selections for their children.

Physically, large… Read the Full Story…

The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission reports there were a whopping 232,900 toy-related injuries resulting in emergency room treatments in 2007. There were also 18 toy-related deaths among children under age 15. To help prevent these hazards, the CPSC has developed mandatory safety standards for manufacturers in the $30 billion play toys industry. The manufactures have added to these standards with their own voluntary standards. Together these standards have greatly reduced risks of choking, lead… Read the Full Story…

The Consumer Products Safety Commission reports there were an average of 162,500 toy-related injuries among children under age 15 during the three year period from 2005 to 2007. During this same three year period, 71 children under age 15 died as a result of their injuries. These figures include 26 kids in 2005, 27 kids in 2006 and another 18 in 2007.

Ride-on toys account for over 25% of all injuries, making them the leading… Read the Full Story…

In every preschool classroom, there is the blocks corner.  For many kids it is a favorite place to play, for these are no ordinary building blocks.  These special preschool blocks are big cardboard bricks, enough of them to make structures they can actually sit or stand inside of.

The youngest preschool set will need help playing with these blocks.  The 1-3 year olds usually do not understand very well how… Read the Full Story…