Top Ten Educational Gifts for Kids

Creative toys allow kids to use their imagination during play. It's been said that a child's work is their play. Children can learn a lot from the things they play with. Providing your child with educational toys is a great way to help them develop social and developmental skills that will lay a foundation for a life of learning.

1. Super Marble Works: Super Marble Works, from Discovery Toys is made up of brightly colored ramps and shoots, funnels and other obstacles. With this construction toy, your child is the chief architect. Kids can learn about gravity, cause and effect, and even trouble shooting as they build their structure to get their marbles from top to bottom. This toy is best for children 5 years old and up since some of the parts can be difficult for little hands to put together.

2. Wooden Blocks: Unit blocks are often a staple of a quality pre-school or children's museum. The only limit on wooden blocks is a child's imagination. Melissa and Doug make a relatively inexpensive set of unit blocks. A 60 block set costs $49.95 and are made out of Rubberwood. Building blocks allow kids to make their ideas into reality, stimulate imagination and exercise small motor skills.

3. Leap Frog Fridge Phonics: This clever product from Leap Frog brings learning phonics to the kitchen. Magnetic letters and letter reader magnetically attach to your fridge. Kids can put a letter into the reader to hear it's name, it's sound and a little song. Kids quickly begin to learn their letters and their sounds.

4. Hammer Away: Hammer Away is another great Discovery Toy. This darling ball pounder is shaped like a ship, complete with "Discovery Toy" flag and made in the bright primary colors. Kids can practice and develop hand eye coordination by hammering balls until they fall through the holes. The ball then makes its way down a ramp and ends up at the base on the bottom, where the child can take the ball and place it back on the hole. There are 4 colors with matching holes, so color recognition is another skill kids can develop using this toy.

5. Puzzles: Puzzles are a great way for kids to develop their hand-eye coordination, as well as their cognitive thinking skills. Melissa and Doug's all wood puzzles are brightly colored and sturdy. Younger kids can start with peg puzzles, where each piece has a "peg" handle. Once kids get to be pre-school age, give them some jig-saw puzzles, like Melissa and Doug's 12 piece puzzles. There are puzzles for every interest so you are sure to find one that will appeal to the child on your gift list.

6. Shape Sorter: The Rollercoaster Shape Sorter by Anatex combines the fun of "bead rollercoasters" with the challenge of a shape sorter. Toddlers will love to pick up the brightly colored shapes and try to fit them in the wooden cube. Kids will develop their logical thinking skills and motor skills as they fit the shapes into the correct holes. The caterpillar beads on the rollercoaster on top of the shape sorter will provide lots of fun and stimulation for any child and costs $24.95.

7. Busy Bugs Learning Set: Busy Bugs Learning from Discovery Toys, sells for around $17 and comes with a set of colorful cards and 26, cute and not-at-all disgusting bugs. This toy is great for a multitude of early math skills including sorting, sequencing, matching and counting. Some children will like to match up bugs on the sturdy cards, while others will just take the bugs and organize them in various different ways: by color, by species, by number of legs. Each set of Busy Bugs comes with a list of additional learning activities to play with your child.

8. Surprise Inside Elephant: This soft toy features lots of fun shapes that fit snugly inside a plush elephant. Each shape features a different texture and sound to excite your baby or toddler. Two peanut friends in a cup, a squeaking mouse, textured ball, a baby elephant and flower mirror will inspire lots of conversation between you and your baby. Using descriptive words to talk about things around you will help your child develop their vocabulary of words they understand.

9. Soda Pop Science Kit: This kit by Scientific Explorer will appeal to kids who even seem to shy away from science. Soda Pop Science allows kids to create their own soda flavors and colors. They can even experiment with their soda's fizziness. This kit also encourages kids to conduct taste tests and market and advertise their soda flavor. For $22.99, kids can even create flavors to mimic the big soda pop companies flavors which are top secret!

10. Cranium Balloon Lagoon: Games allow kids to practice their social skills and are a lot of fun too. Cranium's Balloon Lagoon offers a little something for everyone. The game set up is a simple puzzle which a 5 year old should be able to figure out with out too much trouble. Players choose their pieces and play carnival style games to earn balloons for their game piece. This game is fun for the whole family.

A great educational toy allows kids to be in control of their play and their learning. Most importantly, with a great educational toy, kids won't realize they're learning. Buying a toy that kids will love, as well as learn from is a great idea for holiday gift giving.