With Christmas just around the corner, people are starting to ask what the kids want for presents. We aren’t a fan of useless toys, although they can have their place if the children are really interested in them, we like to choose toys that have some sort of educational value. This could be anything from the lego where you use your imagination and architectural skills to an easy bake oven where you are measuring out the ingredients to make treats. It doesn’t necessarily need to be an obvious educational toy, it just needs to add value to their minds.
Educational Toys That Need An iPad
Leap Frog Piano –A small keyboard that can hook up to an iPad via Bluetooth connection to learn piano.
Osmo – A collection of iPad toys that allow you to bridge the gap between toy and electronic. You use actual pieces to complete activities on the apps. We personally enjoy the coding, letter, and number. There are tons of other great add-ons though!
Codeable Robot – Not all codable robots use iPads, but the ones that we have use the iPad as the screen to program the robot through an app.
Toys That Need Batteries
Circuit Set – You can get different kinds of circuit kits for children but the idea is generally the same. You use the wires to complete different circuits and start different things, for example, making a radio play music.
LeapReader – The pen allows the kids to either read the book with the read-along feature or play little built-in games within the books. There are also other compatible things that aren’t books, such as maps and fact cards.
Cash Register – You can get some pretty amazing toy cash registers that you can actually scan food. They are super interactive and they provide so much fun. The kids are often using math and not even realizing it!
Non-Electronic Toys
Logic Games – These are games that can be played by yourself. You have a set of task cards and you simply need to complete a challenge to win. The brand ThinkFUN makes most of the logic games we have played.
Playdough – I don’t really need to tell you what playdough it, but I can tell you that it allows endless possibilities and so much imagination!
Magna Tiles – Little square and triangular tiles that you can build with. So many possibilities, so many things to be made.
Kapla Blocks –These wooden blocks are all exactly the same size and yet you can build almost anything with them from buildings to bridges to boats.
