Cheap and Fun Educational Toys for Christmas

Toys do not have to require batteries or be expensive for your child to enjoy them. This Christmas season why not give your child a quality, educational toy that will stimulate their brain and not drive you up the wall with annoying bangs and whistles. Here is a list of some wonderful educational toys that will please your child, your wallet, and your sanity.

A Toy Doctor's Kid. Yes the good old fashioned toy doctor's kit is a classic. Most come with a toy stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, fake shot, and band aids. You can find them in most toy stores or from places like amazon.com or educationaltoysplanet.com.

Wood Blocks. Wood blocks are a great, inexpensive toy for young children. Kids love to build towers, houses, and even cities with wood blocks. You can also turn it into a true learning experience by having your child count the blocks or even buying the blocks with numbers or the ABC's printed on them and asking your child to identify what is on the block. You can also buy colored blocks and have the child identify the colors or sort the blocks by color. Blocks can be found in the toys section of stores like Target, Dollar General, and Wal-Mart.

Arts and Crafts. They make great stocking stuffers. Arts and Crafts materials could include crayons, paints, finger paints, chalk, water crayons, and coloring books. Crayola even makes a mess-free product called Crayola Color Wonder. All of the products are nontoxic and the markers and paints can only work on special Crayola Color Wonder paper. It is slightly more expensive that the typical markers and paper, but it might wind up saving you in the long run by not having to clean marker off the walls and furniture.

Bean Bags. Wonderbrains.com offers a variety of bean bags that include shapes, numbers, colors, and the alphabet. You could use the bean bags for a variety of identification lessons and tossing games. They cost around $29.97 per set.

Nesting Cups or Blocks. Discovery Toys offers a fun and colorful set of nesting cups called Measure Up! Cups. They come in the bright colors of red, yellow, green, and blue and can be nested or stacked. They are also numbered on the inside and have a picture of a different animal on the top of each one. They cost $10.99.

Shape Sorters. A Shape Sorter is a wonderful toy for improving fine motor skills. Try to find a Shape Sorter with different colored shapes so that you can teach colors along with shapes. Many Shape Sorters are not electronic (and therefore not annoying ) and can be found in the toy section of many grocery stores for under $10.

Lacing Beads: Melissa & Doug makes a wonderful set of toy lacing beads. The beads come in many different shapes and are colorful and large (too large to be a choking hazard) . The set can be found wherever Melissa & Doug toys are sold or on Amazon.com.

Play-Dough. Have you ever met a kid that did not like play-dough? You can buy it at almost any store that sells toys, or you can make your own. By making your own, you can customize the color to your child and even add fun elements like scents. Wrap it up with a fun cookie cutter such as one shaped like a dinosaur or butterfly and let the fun begin.

A Big Box. Everyone knows that kids play with the box more than the toys on Christmas morning. You can go to almost any appliance store and ask for the boxes that the washer and dryers came in. With a little imagination and some crayons or paint that box can become a rocket, a ship on the ocean, or a fort.

As you can see, not every toy that your child owns has to have batteries or make noise. The best part about these toys is that you can really interact with you children, which is the best gift of all.