Best Educational Toys for Kids

Children love playing with toys, so why not let them learn as they play. In this article, I will list some of the educational toys that you may want to invest in for your children. The toys in this article teach a variety of things: letters, sounds, shapes, colors, ABCs, writing, reading, math and etc.

Educational Toys --Learn by Shapes and Colors

LeapFrog Hug & Learn Baby Tad Plush.

Laugh & Learn Learning Pots & Pans From Fisher Price.

Fisher Price's Peek A Blocks: Shape Sorter.

Shape puzzles.

Baby's First Blocks from Fisher Price.

Laugh and Learn Learning Birdbath from Fisher Price.

Fit-A-Space From Lauri (game).

Educational Toys That Teach ABCs and 123s

Number Express from Lauri (game).

Laugh and Learn Learning Puppy from Fisher Price. This cute puppy not only teaches counting and the ABCs, but he will teach your child parts of the body too.

Laugh and Learn Learning Phone from Fisher Price.

Fisher Price's classic toy -- Counting Corn Popper Push Toy.

Counting House Animal Party from LeapFrog.

Baby Learning See and Learn Driver from MGA.

Baby Counting Pad from LeapFrog.

Educational Toys That Make Reading and Writing Fun

LeapFrog's LeapPad. Not only does the LeapPad teach your child to read, but different books with cartridges can be bought to teach other skills too. In addition, the books with cartridges range in age groups.

English Learner Notebook from IGG Factory Inc.

Link N Spell Phonics Word Endings from Learning Resources.

Magnetic Poetry Kids Story Maker.

Alphabet Big Book from Learning Resources.

Educational Toys: Math and Beyond

Teaching Cash Register from Learning Resources.

Pizza Fraction Fun Game from Learning Resources.

Spin and Discover Globe from Vtech.

Time Telling Game from Learning Resources.

Brian Quest Know the States Game.

Clever Catch Multiplication (game).

Learning Without Educational Toys

It's true kids love toys, and educational toys make learning fun, but there's also times when kids love to spend time with their parents by enjoying activities together as a family. When you just want to spend some quality time with your children and still make learning fun for them, then here's a few activities that will give you that quality time while you still make learning fun for your children. In fact, your children may not even realize you're trying to teach them in the process, because they'll be caught up in the fun they're having with you.

Children love to sing and dance, and singing and dancing can make spelling fun. Why not sing and dance while spelling words. Singing and dancing can also make mathematical equations fun too. And for the really young children, you can teach them their phone number and address by singing and dancing to those as well; don't forget to include the area code in the phone number.

Bake some cookies together. This will teach your children fractions and measurements. It's also a great way to teach your children how to count. Have them count out 12 cookies as they drop them onto the cookie sheet, and then tell them that 12 equals one dozen. Once the cookies are done, you can all enjoy a delicious treat!

Set up a pretend store in one room of your house using items you already have lying around. Have your children take turns being cashier, and use a pencil and paper instead of a calculator to add up the items and figure out how much change to give the customer.

If the weather is nice, take your children outdoors and have a treasure hunt. Treasure hunting can be really fun. If the weather is gloomy, rainy or snowy, you can always treasure hunt indoors. But how can treasure hunting be educational? There are many ways treasure hunting can be educational. For example, have each child search for things that begin with a certain letter, or have them hunt for things of a certain color. You can even add counting to the game by telling them to find a certain number of items that begin with a certain letter. Or, put it all together in one by having your children search for X amount of items that are green and begin with the letter G.

Plan a trip to a science center. This can teach your children all about science in a fun way. It can even be fun and educational for you too. Science was never my favorite subject in school, but when I went to a science center one day, it became my favorite subject. Being shown how science works and seeing it in action makes it fun and interesting. A trip to the science center could really be beneficial to your children.

Arts and crafts are not only fun, but they too can provide learning opportunities for your children. Arts and crafts will stimulate your child's imagination, teach colors, shapes, counting and writing; help the younger ones write and spell.

By being creative and using your imagination, you too could up with many other ways to spend time with your children and make the learning process fun. And don't forget, on your next trip to buy toys, pick out some of the educational toys mentioned above for your children's toy box. Toys are not only fun to play with, but they can be a learning tool as well.