What do you usually expect when deciding to buy a toy for your child? It is not enough to give a child a toy to make him happy because he has a new gift. Parents need to guide children in playing and help children develop their thinking by forming the excitement of real participation when playing.
3 levels of excitement children will experience in learning through toys:
Level 1: pay attention and show interest. At this level, children really only like "new things" when they have toys.
Level 2: Actively participate and explore in your own way. At this level, the three lessons children begin to learn are imitation, memorization and experimentation
Level 3: Baby plays alone or invites someone to play with him many times. At this level, the child is actually doing a series of experiments to figure out what's special about the toy, calling on someone to participate multiple times is the child's way of being the "chairman" to control the play. This is the cognitive ability of process management.
The American Academy of Pediatrics once shared: When buying toys for children, you must understand:
1. Developmental characteristics of children at that age and how the item will help with these characteristics.
2. How do you use that toy to play with your baby?
3. What is the purpose of that toy? To entertain and increase positive interaction time between you and your baby; or for educational purposes (For example: teaching children thinking, mathematics, language or music). Both of these purposes are equally important. But, you need to remember: for children under 1 year old, toys should be aimed at entertainment and increasing active interaction time is advised. After 1 year old, you can choose toys with both of the above purposes.
INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO CHOOSE TOYS ACCORDING TO EACH CHILD'S AGE.
* CHILDREN 0-3 MONTHS OLD
DEVELOPMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS: Children are sensitive to sounds and contrasting colors. Some color pairs to choose: Blue or green, yellow, red, black or white. Furthermore, children like to look at big toys.
How to play: Parents can use these toys to interact with their baby after they breastfeed or after their baby takes a bath.
Toys at this time should make simple sounds (eg hand-held rattles), hanging objects with contrasting colors, mirrors so children can see their faces and stimulate them to increase communication skills. social contact.
* CHILDREN 4-12 MONTHS OLD
DEVELOPMENT CHARACTERISTICS: Children like to push, pull, lift and put down
How to play: When playing, encourage children to use their fingers
Toys should have wheels so children can pull and push them (for example, a car doesn't need to have a beautiful shape, it just needs to be big enough and have wheels to pull and push).
* CHILDREN 1-4 YEARS OLD
Developmental characteristics: Children begin to develop the ability to think independently and build analytical skills such as comparing big and small, medium or not. Furthermore, children also pay more attention to details than to the whole.
How to play: Encourage children to complete the play activities themselves. You should be the guide.
Toys should be divided into 2 types of purposes:
1. To entertain and increase interactive activities:
The toy has detailed models for disassembly and functionality. For example, you can buy some vehicles with functions such as fire trucks, bulldozers, police cars... when playing, you can introduce the functions of each vehicle to your baby and the traffic rules of each vehicle, such as Fire trucks and ambulances will have priority because they are on a mission to save lives. Babies from 15 months old can play with gender-oriented toys. Therefore, you can choose gender-oriented toys for entertainment purposes. For example, role play toys (teacher/doctor/housewife) or dolls for girls. Note, the doll should be able to change clothes at this time so that children can learn how to dress the doll themselves.
2. Aim to educate:
Orientation to develop analysis and comparison abilities (Simple puzzles and shape-pushing toys), orientation to mathematical development (pleasure toys) or orientation to develop fine arts (colored pencils and drawing paper ).
Picture cards (pictures of animals, objects) can be played with children aged 1-2 years old. The card should have a clear picture.
Letter cards or word cards with one picture side and one letter side can be introduced when children are 2 years old. Parents are advised to use picture or word cards as a tool to help children interact, without forcing them to memorize. Let your children feel excited when playing with you, then they will learn naturally.
TODDLED ANIMALS
Stuffed animals are a toy suitable for almost all ages. However, the role of stuffed animals at each age will have different values.
Children under 1 year old: Stuffed animals help children increase comfort when touching them, helping to develop their sense of touch on the soft material of the stuffed animal. Therefore, just 1 stuffed animal with soft material, no small parts, no buttons or metal is enough for this group of children.
Children from 1-2 years old: Stuffed animals can help children learn to name and remember the properties of animals. For example: The rabbit has long ears, the elephant has a trunk. If you combine these lessons both on stuffed animals and at the zoo, it will give children a comprehensive and interesting perspective. Therefore, this age group only needs about 3-4 animals, so there is a variety of types, no need to be fussy, just show the actual nature of the animal.
Children from 3-5 years old: At this stage, children can see stuffed animals as a friend to confide in and participate in other role-playing games. The stuffed animal can now be specialized for a cartoon character the child likes (For example: Pooh bear, or Bob in the Minion squad...). Almost all children go through this stage to perfect social communication skills and emotional regulation. Parents can see these stuffed animal characters as their children's friends and should also often mention them in games together. For example, "Say goodnight to Princess Cinderella, and goodnight to my princess too!"
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At Mykingdom, each toy is carefully researched and designed to help children develop all senses, encourage children to actively play, be eager to learn and explore, always ensure absolute safety and promote Developing different aspects of children is encouraged by play, giving them a safe choice when promoting learning and development in children.
Come to your nearest Mykingdom store and visit LEGO's colorful booth! For detailed information and how to order online, you can visit Mykingdom's website at: http://www.mykingdom.com.vn
