Archive for April, 2012
Kids love watching TV. This activity may seem interesting and fun, maybe even educational. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics has reported TV watching does not support learning for children under than 2 years old.
Children learn best, and thrive, when interacting with other children. Evidence suggests that screen time may actually interfere with a young child’s healthy development. Watching TV can encourage sedentary behaviors and poor sleep; both being habits implicated in the obesity epidemic.
Independent play, as it has always been, is a recommended alternative to TV watching. A child’s early years are critical to a child’s health development making it important that children have many opportunities to explore their surroundings and find out what they, themselves, can make happen.
Such play activities such as playing with puzzles and stacking block toys are always fun and great activities to “unplug” your child. Puzzle play as well as block play are activities children can do by themselves and do not need close adult supervision.
Allowing children to play creatively will help support their own creative, problem-solving as well as reasoning skills. And, get them moving.
Pediatricians are recommending children ages 1 to 3 get 60 – 90 minutes of physical activity every day. Preschoolers, however, need 90 – 120 minutes. Regular exercise helps children grow to a healthy weight, build and maintain healthy bones, muscles and joints, and will strengthen their hearts.
When back inside encourage children to keep moving. One excellent toy is large cardboard building blocks. A 40 piece set of ImagiBRICKS is a good starter set of block toys. No directions are needed because kids know blocks are for carrying around and stacking. Both these activities help build their muscle strength. As they get a little older they will automatically begin to build simple structures.
Children can play with blocks all by themselves and spend hours in creative play. Because there is no wrong way to play they get to build their self esteem and feel good about themselves. When other kids enter the scene they begin to work together and plan their activities together thus building on their social skills.
So, unplug your children and let the fun begin. See a 40 piece set of cardboard building blocks at All I Can Imagine.
Blocks are one of the best toys a child can have to play with. Cardboard blocks are one of the top choices for babies and especially toddlers.
Parents should make sure the blocks they select are safe and that they are age appropriate for your boys and girls. Your popular choices are wood, foam and cardboard and when shopping in your local stores wood and foam are plentiful.
However, for find quality cardboard block toys you will need the Internet. ImagiBRICKS, which are the award-winning toy blocks your grandparents played with, are not sold in stores. You will be able to locate imitations in the stores for about half the cost but you will find yourself replacing them.
ImagiBRICKS are made from recycled cardboard and made in the USA. 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. We then apply an additional clear ink coating to each block to make it water-resistant. Our blocks are also recyclable.
A 24 piece set or a 40 piece set of these childrens blocks include three sizes of different colored blocks and are a good choice for a family with young toddlers and a baby. The smallest size block is a blue block measuring 6 inches by 6 inches by 3 inches. A baby will begin playing with this sized block as when he can grasp it with two hands. As he grows he will gravitate towards the two larger sizes and begin to move them around and start to try his hand at stacking.
If there is no other child in the home you might wait until your baby is about twelve to eighteen months old to get a smaller set of the blocks made from cardboard even though the sets are recommended for 3 years old to get their full benefit.
Crush proof and coming with a drool proof coating, ImagiBRICKS offer many benefits to your children such as:
- Teaching creativity and problem solving
- Helping children learn social skills
- Block play helps children develop physically
Children naturally love creative play making blocks a perfect choice for babies and young toddlers. Playing with the larger cardboard blocks will help children develop muscle strength and they are just plain fun!