Archive for the 'Toy Blocks' Category
While your radio is softly playing in the background take a moment and listen to how your kids are playing. You will find opportunities to gently guide your children as they are playing with their toddler learning toys.
Children who have open-ended learning toys will have opportunities for creative learning fun and as you listen to them “plan” and “work” together you will notice that their social skills are developing. When you take a moment to “tune into” their play you will be able to provide guidance in their social development when and where needed.
While children are playing with such toys as cardboard blocks and building towers and other structures you will notice which children take leadership in the planning. You will begin to notice if there is a child being bossy or how he accepts suggestions as another child offers his own ideas.
Toy cardboard blocks, such as a set of CityBlocks by Smart Monkey Toys, is a fun toddler learning toy and provides your children an opportunity for creative play and work that builds important social skills they will need all through their lives.
Children playing together are not only creating reality in play, they are also adapting to new realities, work, and therefore it is important to allow children many opportunities for unstructured playtime every day.
Your child will love games played at their level, on the floor. You and your toddler will have plenty of laughs when you get down on the floor and play with them.
With or without “props” you can laugh yourself silly and kids of all ages can participate. Play peek-a-boo by crawling around furniture (watch the sharp edges of tables, please). You could set up pillows and cushions around the room and have races around the objects.
Have a make believe zoo and each person is a different animal. Talk about the animals and how they might relate to one another. Before you plan this you could do online research and get some simple facts about several animals; find some that do well together and maybe some who can not co-exist.
Bring out your son’s trucks, earth moving equipment trucks, police cars and fire trucks and make up some games. If you have large toy blocks such as ImagiBRICKS cardboard building blocks you can “build” garages, police stations, fire stations and such.
Giant building blocks are also good for crawling around while playing peek-a-boo. Weaving in and out of a maze of blocks helps children learn balance – they aren’t supposed to knock the blocks down while maneuvering around each set of blocks.
Wind down the fun by playing something quieter such as putting puzzles together or coloring. Maybe you will all fall asleep for a little nap right there on the floor. Just grab one of the pillows and snuggle up with your toddler.
Lions consume a wide variety of prey, from wildebeest, impala, zebra, giraffe, buffalo and wild hogs to sometimes rhinos and hippos. They will also feed on smaller animals such as hares, birds and reptiles. Lions are also known to attack elephants when food is scarce.
Both male and female lions roar, and that roar can be heard over five miles away!
The lion population in Africa has been reduced by half since the early 1950s. Today, fewer than 21,000 remain in all of Africa.
Though lions used to live in most parts of Africa, they are now found only in the south Sahara desert and in parts of southern and eastern Africa. Historically, in addition to Africa, lions were found from Greece through the Middle East to northern India
The only social member of the cat (Felidae) family, lions live in large groups called “prides,” consisting of about 15 lions. Related females and their young make up the majority of the pride. A single male, or sometimes a small group of 2-3 males, will join a pride for an indefinite period, usually about 3 years or until another group of males takes over.
We hope you enjoyed reading about the Lion, one of our favorite animals. And, if you have children two and up you may be interested in a wonderful wooden kids toy, our Safari Stacking Blocks (pictured above). Buying open ended educational childrens toys will open up many teaching opportunities as your children play, learn and increase their self-esteem.
More and more people want children’s toys made here in the USA. Did you know that kids building blocks by Smart Monkey Toys are produced in Wisconsin?
Cardboard toy blocks by Smart Monkey Toys are made in the USA using recycled corrugated cardboard. The toy blocks are made of at least 50% recycled cardboard. The actual amount varies with each run, but is never less than 50%.
The trees used for the remainder are all farmed. The wonderful thing about corrugated cardboard is that it is strong, yet very lightweight, making it a wonderful choice for preschool play. The cardboard is printed with water-based, non-toxic colorful inks and an additional clear ink coating is added to each block to make it water-resistant. The coating is not slippery because we want our blocks to stack.
The blocks are also recyclable. Every component of the block sets are made right here in America. They are produced in Wisconsin, where there is a large paper industry. The warehouse is near the plant where the blocks are produced. By keeping everything close, Smart Monkey Toy cuts down on the fuel needed to transport materials and providing much needed jobs to American workers.
The paper industry in our country has been struggling with many companies buying their cardboard from China. China has to import their raw materials from the U.S. or Canada to make their cardboard. The lumber is transported from North American to China, made into cardboard and then transported back to North America. The cost of this inefficient process is lost jobs, and much greater use of valuable fuel.
Parents and educators love giving their toddlers and young children giant cardboard building blocks. ImagiBRICKS, now from Smart Monkey Toys, are toy blocks that are made from recycled cardboard.
The wonderful thing about corrugated cardboard is that it is strong, yet very lightweight, making it a wonderful choice for preschool play. The cardboard is printed with water-based, non-toxic colorful inks and an additional clear ink coating is added to each block to make it water-resistant. The blocks are also recyclable.
Giving these giant kids building blocks to young children is recommended by doctors, parents and educators. Kids will carry them around and their muscle strength and coordination will begin to increase.
As they get a little older they will begin making simple towers. Knocking them down will be just as much fun as carring the toy blocks from place to place and their creative little minds will soon begin making simple towers and structures.
Groups of children will gather around the cardboard building blocks and begin to work independently (if there are enough blocks to go around). If you have a limited supply of blocks and there are several children around you will want to help them “work” together to build a small structure.
If you own a preschool or children’s play zone it is recommended to own a bulk quantity of at least one hundred cardboard toy blocks.
I remember that it was my birthday and I had just received my birthday present from my grandparents. I was so excited that I had to open that one first. I opened the box as fast as I could and saw just flat red and white cardboard.
I told my mom that I didn’t like my present. She got down on her knees and said to me that all it needed was to be put together. At my age, I wasn’t very happy if I couldn’t play with a toy right then. My mom and sister sat down and put all of the toy blocks together for me.
It took what seemed like forever, but when all the cardboard building blocks were put together, I ended up having a blast with them. I got to make my own chair out of them. The chair was more like a stool, but at that age I didn’t care. I could even sit in it with out breaking the blocks or even bending them.
I thought that was so cool at the age of six. I could play with the blocks for hours. I think my grandparent got me the 36 piece set of these blocks, but you can also get them in a 16 piece or a 24 piece set.
Yes, parents and educators and preschool’s can still purchase these amazing kids learning toys. Manufactured in Wisconsin by Smart Monkey Toys there are sets of 16, 24 and 40 and bulk quantity cardboard blocks are also available. Also available are City Blocks sets and Castle Blocks sets, Timber Blocks as well as Construction Blocks.
Kids love to play with toys that have a variety of sizes and shapes. Building blocks toys that stack or fit into one another are even more fun.
Add an assortment of bright colors painted on solid wood blocks and you have a toy your toddler will quickly gravitate towards. Wooden children’s toys bring back the feeling of nostalgia for parents and create memories for children. Toddlers love wood toys too. The simplicity and effectiveness of a well made toddler toy will make them a winner for both boys and girls.
Giving your toddlers and preschoolers activity toys is the perfect way to keep your children out of mischief and will allow creative play to help your children gain self esteem. Open ended toddler toys are stress-free and allow your toddlers to express themselves in their own ways.
Features of Toy Store in a Box (pictured)
- Ages: Two (2) Years & Up
- Carefully proportioned
- Open-ended
- Colorful Stacking & Nesting Box Set
- Rugged & Sturdy 28-Pieces
- Stores Neatly Inside the Large Green Box
- Hand Crafted of Rubberwood an Earth-Friendly Hardwood
- Child-Safe Hand Colorization on Toys
- All-Natural & Non-Toxic
Available online.
Unit blocks may not be as sophisticated as some toys we find in stores or on TV commercials, but they are ideal for learning because they involve the child as a whole — the way she moves her muscles, the way she discovers how different objects feel in her hands, the way she thinks about spaces and shapes, and the way she develops thoughts and interests of her own.
Unit blocks vary in name and material by manufacturer, but they are all based on the proportions 1:2:4. These blocks must be sturdy and accurately cut so that children of all different ages and levels of learning may use them to create, solve problems, and challenge themselves.
Giant cardboard blocks may be given to children at an early age. They will begin by moving them around from place to place. From there they will move to stacking and then building structures.
Building blocks toys are one of the most important educational kids toys you will provide your children and they should have as many as you can comfortably afford and have room for. Children of all ages will play, create and build together and you will see many of their social developments occur.
Intellectually, building blocks toys help children learn across many academic subjects. Young children develop their vocabularies as they learn to describe sizes, shapes, and positions. Preschoolers and kindergarteners develop math skills by grouping, adding, subtracting and eventually multiplying with cardboard building blocks. Older children make early experiments with gravity, balance, and geometry.
Children value their own block structures whether or not they represent specific things. Rather than asking a child, “What did you make?” say, “Tell me about what you made.” This will encourage a dialog and offer the child new opportunities to explore.
When giving a younger child his first set of building blocks toys he will move them around from place to place and stack the building blocks. As he gets older and more creative the structures he creates will be all his own and you will soon know that this is the one of the best educational kids toys he will own.
Reading begins with play and Little Reader blocks are cardboard blocks you will find useful and fun. Teaching kids their first 100 sight words and primary colors is easy with these toy blocks from Smart Monkey Toys.
Kids love playing with educational childrens toys and will play with them longer than other toys. They love to stack their toy blocks, count them and move them around from place to place in their wagons and trucks. As they do so you as parents and educators will have perfect teaching opportunities to help your children learn sight words in a fun, stress-free atmosphere.
Two game suggestions to use with these cardboard toy blocks is to roll them like dice and have the child name the word or color. Or, you could pull out of the stack two or three blocks that you know make a short sentence and have the child arrange the blocks into that sentence. Examples: “this is a red fish” or “he laughed”.
Little Reader Blocks are available online and ready to ship for Christmas gift giving.