Blocks And 3d Puzzles

Unstructured play is the most beneficial type of play for toddlers and young children. Play rooms where there are a variety of  cardboard building blocks and other open-ended toys available allow children to choose their own toys and activities that they want to participate in.

Too much structured play may prevent your children from many self-created learning experiences and free expression.  Although children can always learn from playing real games with others, nothing beats the free time for creative play.

When children reach school age they have been known to show stress in their behavior when they have been involved in too many structured group activities.  While these activities, such as T-ball, beauty contests, dance lessons and the like are not “bad”, too much too soon may show up as physical symptoms such as stomachaches, headaches or even hair pulling in your children.

Self-initiated play either indoors or out of doors can be one of the best educational ways your children will develop social skills and muscle strength. Whether running, jumping, climbing, pulling a wagon or building a structure with toy blocks your children will develop self-esteem and his creative instincts will flourish.

Did you know that large toy blocks, such as ImagiBRICKS, help children learn social skills?  Blocks encourage children to make friends and cooperate with one another.  Large block play may very well be your child’s first experience in playing with a group.

When a play room in your home or a preschool has enough large blocks available for multiple children to play together they will begin to interact with one another and plan activities all their own.  Block play has no rules and children are free to create activities, games and structures all their own.

Pictured above is our 24 pc set of ImagiBRICKS.  Also available in 40 piece sets and bulk quantities. See our 16 piece all large red blocks or our rainbow blocks.

Prewar parents were resigned to accepting the risks their children took in playing out of doors on their own. Nowadays, parents are being forced to accept this same risk.

Growing up I was told, “go outside and play”.  But in today’s society parents often feel it is not safe for their children to play outside without supervision.  Children who can’t play on their own will loose opportunities for innovation and invention.

When children can play on their own they learn to relate to one another.  They will also have opportunities to resolve their own conflicts (even if fights occur to accomplish this).

Nowadays, fears about children’s physical well-being are affecting their play opportunities.  Today’s children are not allowed to play on their own to the extent they once were. Much of today’s play is in an organized form run by adults.

These organized forms of play, while altogether not bad for children, tend to rob them of many opportunities to innovate and learn from their risk-taking behavior.

Because many children have to play inside for safety reasons it is more important than ever that they have non-structured playtime and open-ended educational kids toys to play with. One of the best learning toys are toy blocks.

When children have a set of ImagiBRICKS large cardboard blocks toys they can play either by themselves or with other children. They carry the blocks around or stack them thereby gaining muscle strength and coordination skills.

Older children will work together to create various structures and gain social skills. These are also good learning toys to teach basic math skills and are easy to stack up against a wall when play is finished.

Sets come in 16, 24 and 40 pieces. Bulk quantities are also available.  Some families prefer the Rainbow colored blocks. Available online at All I Can Imagine. This is the perfect gift for all boys and girls.

Counting numbers and objects isn’t a simple skill for a child to learn.  Counting involves enumerating units so that they arrive at a total number units.  It also involves giving stable, consistent meaning to each conventional counting word.

Insight into a preschoolers’ logical thinking has been a topic of research. Children’s cognitive tasks your child will encounter in his play involve counting and adding simple sums.

When counting several objects sitting on the floor a child may skip one of the objects; this is normal. The teacher or parent can help by touching the items as the child is counting to make sure he includes every object.

Sometimes a child will fail to match their numerical recitation to the objects they are counting such as when playing board games. They will begin moving their playing piece down the board at a different rate then they are counting.

Another common mistake a child will make when learning to count is using his words in a non-standard order such as “one, two, three, six, eight, ten”.  When they use one non-standard sequence one time and a completely different one the next time, they are not really counting.

To help child learn that numbers are in a certain order and adding a sum of objects must be counted in the correct order, wooden puzzles for kids are useful for teaching this skill.  Number puzzles that must be assembled in numeric order will show them how to acquire this skill.

Learn to count from one to ten.

For  instance, look at this 3d wooden puzzle.  It is a number puzzle that can only be assembled in order of 1-10. But to assemble the puzzle it must be done in numeric order.

Educational toys such as wooden puzzles will help impress on a child that numbers have an order that must be followed in order to count correctly and can help them learn to include each and every piece.

Most 2 year olds start to count a group of objects and will miss some of the objects right away. By four years of age most children will be able to count about five objects accurately before they begin making errors.  Twenty objects will be counted correctly by the age of 5 only if the objects are not in disarray.

Therefore it is important to have several puzzles of varying difficulty levels as they are learning to recognize their numbers and counting objects.  Until a child grasps the idea that 1 is included in 2, 2 included in 3 and so on they will not be likely to be careful about counting each separate object only one time.

The snail puzzle will stand up by itself.  Give this toy to a child 3 years and up.  Keep the puzzle safe by storing it in the wooden box it comes packed in.  See our other counting and alphabet puzzles on our website by clicking on the link in this article.

Children will use and develop fine motor skills and have fun with this Binocular craft and game. Explore nature and find exciting things in the park, zoo or your back yard.

Spending time in nature is a wonderful idea to help your kids develop their senses. Here is a craft idea you may like to try. I found this at: http://www.twigglemagazine.com/March-activities/binoculars-craft.html

Materials

• 2 toilet paper rolls
• Craft paper
• Crayons, markers, stickers
• Glue
• Scissors
• Yarn

• Directions:
• Cut a 2½ inch wide strip from craft paper lengthwise. Let children decorate the strip with crayons and stickers. Punch one hole at the end of each paper roll. Let children paint strip around the other end of the paper roll and let dry. Add glue to the middle of the paper rolls. Place strip colored side face down on the table. Place paper rolls one inch apart on the strip (see pic 1). Let dry. When dry, add glue to the strip (see pic 2) and wrap around the paper rolls. Place a book on the top to hold in place while drying. Thread a length of yarn through the holes to make a necklace for children to wear the binoculars.

 Tell children that they will be using their binoculars to look at specific objects inside the room or outside in nature. Encourage children to describe in detail what they see. Note: Instruct children not to walk while looking through the binoculars.