I would love to get my daughter an educational gift for Christmas. Something like a leap frog?? She loves books but also LOVES movies. She is my first and I sometimes feel like my husband lets her watch too much TV. But she is very smart and I just want to push more educational fun. Let me know if you have a toddler that loves his or her leap frog or other toys.
thanks
Educational toys? Whatever happened to books as educational toys? They're fun, they're something she can do by herself - sort of - or with you, they help her with her ABCs, they introduce her to art (if you buy the ones with good illustrations), they make for a great quiet time, they aren't connected to a television set, and they don't require batteries. :^)
Books and puzzles are great at this age! The Leap Frog is okay, but she will probably get tired of it and it's not exactly easy to carry around.
I would see if you can get a series of books that are linked to a t.v. show that she watches. My son is a little older, but loves Max & Ruby. We took out a bunch of the Rosemary Wells books (original author) from the library and he adores the stories and illustrations. In fact he likes them so much that we purchased several of the books b/c he didn't want to return them!
Same thing with the puzzles. Check out the "Imaginarium" and "Melissa & Doug" toys. They are high-quality toys without the "bells & whistles" so your child has to actually DO something rather than simply push a button and be entertained.
My son also loves play-doh which is great for motor development. You can buy the "sets" at the toy store, which come with several cans of doh and some of the tools. We also bought my son an inexpensive plastic place mat to play on with his doh so it doesn't get all over. My mom uses a cookie sheet when he plays at her house!
Check out TRUCE website. It has some great suggestions on educational toys that allow kids to use their imagination, etc.
The site as a whole has a very distinct agenda, but their toy guide is wonderful!!
http://www.truceteachers.org/toyactionguide.html
Try a Leap Frog Tag Jr. It's a "reader" that is especially made for small hands and the books for it are board books. We're getting one for my daughter's 2nd birthday. Good luck!
Melissa and Doug toys are wonderful!
all toys are educational at that stage. They are learning spacial development and thier place in the world. I would try abc blocks. She can build towers and you can drill her for the alphabet. Puzzles and puzzle type games that train them to use thier noodle are good. Right now they are learning to learn - not necessarily memorizing stuff.
Take a look at this site:
Amazon also has a great selection of educational wooden toys from Melissa and Doug -kitchen and food sets, etc.
I DO NOT work for them (don't want this pulled), but I do order a lot from them! Both of my children have really enjoyed the items I've received. I would steer clear of most electronics for a 2 year old. They really need manual stimulation, hand-to-eye coordination and beginning ABCs, shapes, colors, drawing and art, numbers -that sort of thing. Their little brains need to develop from a tactile and sensory perspective without the intrusion of stuff like Leap Frog. I'm not anti-Leap Frog by any means -my 4 year old loves his TAG system books and his Leapster, but he got those for his 4th birthday. Books are great -wonderful that she's already into them! Creative play is HUGE for this age, and very important. Train sets, doll houses, dolls with clothes/strollers/bottles she can dress and "take care of" -sets that call upon a child to imagine like Weebles or some of the Imaginext stuff are all great. Playmobil is fantastic, but most of their stuff is for the over 3 crowd. Lego Duplo blocks and Mega blocks are also wonderful! She would probably LOVE a play kitchen with little utensils and play food. I've never seen a kid -boy or girl -who didn't!
i would hold off on the leap frog - my kids didn't really get anything "educational" out of them until they were 3-4.
go for gorgeously illustrated books instead. nothing like them to mesmerize a 2 year old
Hi,
Leap Frog items are at the top of my list. My children range from 2 to 5. They are all very interested in the Little Leaps interactive video game. Not the biggest fan of promoting video games but they are real excited about it and are constantly asking if they can play "learning". I think it is cute. We also have the Leapster Explore. I handed it to my 5 yo and he can already use it better than I can.
We also purchased a set of videos when my oldest was a baby. They all still love watching them.
My Baby Can Read. You can get the whole program from Wal-Mart right now for $70 ($120 value) Comes with dvds, flap books, and flashcards.
Or got to www.YourBabyCanRead.com for details.
Good Luck
I've always loved the Parent brand toys they sell at Target for my kids when they were that age. My SIL got my daughter a vet set once, it was so cute! But they also have musical ones and so on.
Fisher Price computer laptop is great
