Baby Educational Toys --
What You Should Get and Why
Baby educational toys are powerful ingredients in making a 'smart baby'.
BUT before you buy any of those, you may want to ask:
What are they ?
Do they work ?
Do educational baby toys really make a baby smarter ?
Baby Educational Toys - Do They Work ?
Research has shown that educational baby toys help to give the baby's brain a head start. By having a good brain to start with, hopefully your baby will grow to be a smart person.
But why educational infant toys are so powerful ?
Let's first see how the baby's brain develops during infancy.
It is known that the brain grows more during infancy than at any other time, doubling its volume and reaching approximately 60% of its adult size by one year.
As the brain grows, nerve cells called neurons, which resemble electrical wires, rapidly proliferate. The infant is born with much of the wiring unconnected. During the first year, these neurons learn to work better and connect up to each other to make circuits that enable baby to think and do more things. Every baby's new experience and interaction with the caregiving environment will add some more connection on the baby's brain.
The bottom line is:
- The more stimulation your baby has,
- the more nerve connection your baby makes.
- The more nerve connection your baby makes, the better the brain develops.
- The better the brain is ... the smarter the baby is.
In order to optimize the nerve connection your baby makes, baby needs to be stimulated via its five senses: hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and touching.. This is when baby educational toys come into play.
These toys are designed exactly for that. They are designed to provide a multi-sensory stimulation. You will soon find that:
.....Baby Educational Toys + Attentive Care Giver (you !!) = Smart Baby .....
How Educational Baby Toys Stimulate Your Baby's Development
Let's see in details how baby educational toys can stimulate your baby.
1. Sight.
Research has shown that baby's eyes are immature at birth. Since they have trouble focusing, babies, especially the newborn, can only focus on contrasting color with black and white as the favorite. Later on they enjoy bright primary colors. The developers of baby educational toys know exactly that babies need contrasting color and bright primary color for them to look at. It's not surprising that all infant educational toys have bright colors. (Click here to read tips on how to do infant visual stimulation in fun ways)
2. Tactile.
Touch is an important sense for your children well into the preschool years. Fiddling is endemic in children. If it is there, they will touch it. Therefore, introducing different kinds of textures to a baby will stimulate its touching sense. You will find that baby educational toys have different textures for a baby to touch and explore.
3. Sound.
Although baby's hearing is immature, infant can actually respond to sounds. In fact, music can help soothe the baby during uncomfortable times. In addition, some research have found that exposure to classical music can help the brain to develop, a phenomenon called the Mozart Effect. In response to this finding, some baby educational toys manufacturers quickly incorporated classical music to their toys.
In short, baby educational toys should have these following features:
- have bright primary colors to see
- have different texture to touch
- have different sound to hear.
As a parent, I find that not all toys available in the market are designed this way.
So, why waste your money buying ordinary baby toys ?
Use your hard-earned dollar to buy only the best for your baby -- the baby educational toys.
Below are some recommendation on what I think is the best educational toys for baby in the market today. Please bear in mind that this is only my opinion and it doesn't necessarily correspond to the 'hot baby toys of the year'.
You can buy these toys in local toy store. But if you want the convenience of shopping at the click of a mouse, then there's plenty of online stores which carry these toys. I like Genius Babies because it has a competitively priced toys, and it has a plethora of toys which are hard to find locally. Even among online toy stores, I found that this store is impressive in its educational baby toy collection while in the same time
is small and selective enough as to not overwhelm the potential buyers.
My other shopping place for baby stuff is Amazon. They often have good price. Often. Not always. It all depends on who fulfills the order. But the navigation can be somewhat nightmarish because this site is so huge.
Below, I provide toy recommendation and direct links to both Genius Babies and Amazon. I hope that this will help you in your shopping adventure.
1. Baby Mobile and Other Infant Visual Stimulation Toys
First on the list for infant visual stimulation is the infant nursery staple - a baby mobile.
For a basic baby mobile which does an excellent job in providing infant visual stimulation, I recommend the Infant Stim Baby Mobile
This is an award winning mobile, which was designed based on infant visual stimulation research. There are a variety of cards for attachments. So you will get cards with black-white-red graphic and pictures of human face which is ideal for a newborn as well as attachment with primary color graphic for older babies. Unfortunately, this newborn mobile does not have music and is operated by wind (or you). You can get this at Genius Babies as part of Wimmer Ferguson visual stimulation set or individually. Amazon also carries it at a slightly lower price and you can buy it here
.
If you would like the fancier kind, then try Tiny Love Baby Mobile.
I actually like Symphony in Motion by Tiny Love as this battery-operated baby mobile has been the best baby mobile in the market for a few years with many attractive and developmentally-appropriate attachment. Sadly, it has been discontinued and the only one available
at Amazon is offered at an exhorbitant price. Fortunately, Tiny Love has its 'replacement', the newer Sweet Island Dream. It has all the features of Symphony in Motion (good number of attachment toys with bright colors, music and movement). However, it has more movement and music option than
than Symphony in Motion since Sweet Island Dream has multidimensional movement as well as more choices in music and volume setting. If you're looking for a developmental infant toys which does a good job in both stimulating and entertaining your baby, this is the one. You can get this either at Genius Babies or here
at a slightly lower price.
2. Infant Visual Stimulation Toys
For a newborn up to 6 months, I recommend the Genius Babies deluxe infant stimulation package which contains all baby educational toys you need to stimulate your newborn baby: black and white baby mobile, flash card, black and white jingling toy, and baby rattles (hand, wrist and booties rattle).
NOTE: You can only get this package in this store since those products are exclusive to this store.
However, if you don't like their black and white baby mobile , you can get other infant stimulation package which does not contain any baby mobile and then buy the mobile separately.
.
3. Baby Rattles:
Few week-old babies will like the wrist and foot rattles like these famous Lamaze Garden Bug Wrist Rattle/Foot Finder Set
It stimulates her eyes and ears while at the same time encourages her to lift her feet and arms.
However,at around three months, your baby will appreciate a rattle which can also be used as an activity toy. After looking for so many rattles in the market, I decided that Lamaze Peekaboo Clutch Cube has the best value in terms of the fun aspect, play, and developmental value. You'll find that this rattle can be used for many things, like for peek-a-boo play (because it has a flap which reveals a mirror when opened), texture and sound exploration, as well as a teether and a rattle. It's also engaging visually. In short, this educational baby toy is fun and so developmental you can use it for at least a year. It is available here
.
4. Baby playmat/activity gym:
For playmat/activity gym, I recommend Gymini Super Deluxe Light and Music by Tiny Love because it is developmental and will grow with your baby. The baby educational toy is fun and has many activities to accommodate each growth stage. When your baby is young, she can enjoy the crinkly and squeaky sound of the playmate during floor time.
When your baby is a bit bigger, then she can enjoy the tummy time with the mirror and peek-a-boo flap on the playmat. In addition, she will be excited to kick and reach a a number of fun toys which can rattle, spin, jitter, etc, on the arch. Finally, the playmat plays the music a when the music touch pad is kicked, hit or touched by your baby.
This educational toy is available from here
at a very low price (33% off MSRP).
5. Baby mirror
Babies love seeing faces, and what better faces than her own. When looking at her face at the baby mirror, the baby's practising to focus her vision to see herself.
When shopping for a baby mirror, two things you have to make sure is that it has accurate reflection (not all mirror has accurate reflection) and it fits your needs. It means that if you wanted a mirror for both tummy and crib time (i.e. for hanging), then buy a mirror which is designed for that purpose. Not all baby mirrors can be used for both tummy and crib time.
For an interesting and relatively cheap baby mirror which can be used for both tummy and crib time, I recommend Sassy Me In The Mirror.
The frame is decorated with bold color fabric and has some cute animals stuck on it. When the mirror is shaken, there's a rattling sound coming out of those animals.
This is not the most sophisticated baby mirror because I'm aware that there are other more expensive baby mirror loaded with music and light to entertain the baby. However, I don't think you need that kind of features for a baby mirror.
Also, if you already has a baby mirror embedded in other baby toys, then you definitely won't need this toy. If you haven't, and are looking for a good and relatively inexpensive baby mirror, this is the one. This educational baby toy is available here
6. Nesting Cups.
Nesting cups consist of cups of different colors and sizes which can be either stacked or nested. These inexpensive toys are among the best baby educational toys available since they grow with your child and can be used in a variety of ways. For instance, you can use them to introduce color and sizes, practise hand-eye coordination, for supporting pretend play, as well as for scooping and pouring activities. The best ones are made of plastics of different solid colors
and consist of more than 5 cups. It should be available locally, but if you have difficulties locating them offline, you can get them online inexpensively here
.
7. Stacking Rings
Stacking rings consist of rings of different sizes and colors placed in a cone. They are very educational and as versatile as the nesting cups.
You can use these baby educational toys for introducing your baby to different colors, size recognition activities, hand-eye coordination practice and for pretend play. The cheapest ones - made from plastics - are
available in manylocal department stores. If you prefer a wooden stacker, you can get Melissa & Doug Rainbow Stacker
instead. Just be aware that with the wooden stacking rings, the paint can chip off. The rings can also get stuck to each other when stored in humid place. Finally,
if you want a more fancy stacking rings which also contain other fun developmental activities, then look no further than Tiny Love Musical Stack and Play, available
at Genius Babies (an online
baby toy store, specializing in educational and award-winning baby toys) or here.
8, Soft Baby Building Blocks
The most obvious benefit of a baby building block for an infant is to improve fine motor skills. Baby will learn to grasp, lift and manipulate the toy building blocks using their little fingers.
Baby building blocks are fun and truly are one of the best baby educational toys available since they are used from infancy to at least toddlerhood. The best baby building blocks for this
age group are the soft ones. You can increase their play value by choosing blocks which have other activities embedded in them. One such blocks is
IQ Baby Knock Knock Block.
The blocks are colorful and some of the have black and white strips. Some of the blocks have rattles inside, and the material will crinkle when squeezed. They also have peek-a-boo flaps which can be the source of excitement for babies in this age group.
You can get them from
Genius Babies
or
here.
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Do you want learn more about baby educational toys ? Check out these following articles:
Choosing best developmental infant toys for newborn - 6 months
Choosing best baby developmental toys for infants 6 month - 12 months
Advice on choosing and shopping for toys for any age groups:
Toy shopping for other age groups :
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