Boost Your Child's Intelligence
Using Nesting Cups

These stacking toys are undoubtedly educational and can be played at different levels. Therefore, I highly recommend you to add these to your child's collection.

(Click here on how to choose the best stacking cups)

Now, let's see how they can be used to enhance your child's early learning. There are 4 skills which can be enhanced using these child toys:
Hand-eye coordination
Color recognition
Size recognition
Language skills

Using stacking cups to enhance hand-eye coordination. For children under 1 year old - Children under one year old do not yet have a proper hand-eye coordination. Therefore, for the first play using the nesting cups, place the cup inside one another and encourage your baby to take the cup out one by one. Once the cups are out, you can then ask her to place the cup back (inside of one another). Since babies at this stage haven't mastered the size concept yet, you will control the ordering of the sizes by choosing the cup that you give to her. You will hand her the big one first and then the subsequent smaller sizes until they are all put back together again.

Children over 1 year old - Nesting cups can also be stacked on top of each other. As your child matures (over one year old), you can ask her to stack the cup on top of each other. At early stage, you still have to hand her the cup for her to stack and help her to stack it since she may not have a good hand-eye coordination yet.

You will soon find that children like to stack the cups and knock them down afterwards. Your child will also realize that the stacked cups may tumble even before she finishes stacking all of them up. However, don't let your child think that tumbling equals to failing. Treat this 'tumbling event' as the fun part of the stacking game.

Using stacking cups to introduce colors.

Children under 2 years old - You can start talking about color to your baby, even when they are too young to understand. After many repetitions, your baby will eventually understand. At the early stage, start introducing color while you hand her cups for her to stack.

Children over 2 years old - If you keep on introducing color to your child, when she reaches two years of age, she may begin to understand the color concept. Test her understanding by asking her to choose between two cups, for instance: which one is the green cup ... this one or that one ? You can also ask her to give you cup of specific color.

When your child begins to speak (around 2.5 to 3 years), you can begin to test her expressive language by asking her the color of a certain cup.

Using stacking cups to introduce size concept.

Size and sequencing concepts are harder to understand than the color concept. So your child may not be able to stack correctly until she's at the age (around 3 years) where she starts understanding this concept. Here are some suggestions for introducing size concept.

First, as you hand the nesting cups to your child for her to stack inside one another, you can 'accidently' give her the wrong size. Then she will realize that she can't put a big cup into a small one. You can do the same when your child wants to stack the cups on top of each other.

Second, introduce the size concept through conversation. Start by introducing the word: big and small. Then you can show her two cups, and ask her to choose, for instance, the big one. When you first starts with this activity, try to compare the biggest and the smallest as the size difference is obvious. As your child gets older, she will be able to sequence the cups; from the biggest to the smallest.

Using stacking cups to enhance language skills.

Playing with your child and talking about the toy , even when they're too young to understand, can definitely enhance the language skill. At the beginning, you will have a one way conversation. At this stage, your goal is to develope your child's receptive language ability, i.e. the ability to understand. When they get older, you can test their understanding of a concept by asking them to respond to your request, such as to choose, or to give you something.

The nesting cups are ideal for developing the language skill since you can introduce colors, sizes and certain vocabularies, notably: up and down (while doing stacking activities). Moreover, nesting cups often have pictures of animals; hence giving you more things to talk about.

Expressive language can also be enhanced using this toy. You can ask something regarding the toy, for instance: the colors or the animals, and your child can answer.

Finally, nesting cups also provide an open-ended play. They can be used for activities in the tub or in the sand box, including for filling and dumping.

Nesting cup is a very good toy to buy for your child. Although inexpensive, this child toy give endless play possibilities at different level, fun and educational.

Ready to buy nesting cups ? Click here for guide on how to buy nesting cups.

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Related articles:

Stacking toys-related:

Guide for Buying Stacking Cups
Maximize the Value of Stacking Rings.
Tips on Buying Baby Stacking Rings.
Guide for Playing and Buying Stacking Blocks

Go to Stacking Toys Main Page

Links to other educational baby toys articles:

Guide to the Best Developmental Infant Toys for Babies 0-6 months
Guide to Baby Developmental Toys for Infant 6-12 months

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