Blocks And 3d Puzzles

It is a well known fact that children who have learned basic math skills do better when they enter school.  Here is one “game” to play with your toddler to give him/her a head start with his math skills.

Using toy blocks you can teach this simple lesson of kindergarten and preschool math measurement. Before you begin with the lessons, however, allow your children to just play with their cardboard building blocks without any rules. Creative play comes easy and you will enjoy watching your child make up his own activities when he is given building block toys.

Then, in a couple of weeks after your child has had a chance to explore the materials, he will be ready to use them in the structured activity that you will introduce to him. Remember that preschool learning toys for children are most often just open ended toys such as toy blocks that are just fun to play with; they do not need to know that they are really educational learning toys.

It’s lesson time!  Get out a hard covered book and three medium blue blocks sized 6 x 3 x 3 (we will show you where to see these blocks later on).  Now, line the toy blocks up against the book and pointing to each one separately count them 1 – 2 – 3.

Tell your child that your book is 3 blocks long. Repeat this visual activity of counting a couple of times.  Point out to your child where the first block is starting and where your last block ended; do not worry that your blocks are not the same exact length of the book. You could add a fourth block either now or in a week or so.

During your demonstration talk to your child about why you need to use identical blocks.  Have your toddler choose a book for himself and have him select identical blocks from his set of blocks and have him try to measure his book.

You can find more teaching measurement projects at: Kindergarten Lessons.com.

This “game” will help your children begin to get used to the idea that objects have different sizes and can be measured.  Go to All I Can Imagine to see a teaching tool to use for this and other math lessons.

This is a difficult question to answer because it depends on you and your situation. The truth of the matter is that homeschooling can be quite expensive, but it can also be quite small. It all depends on your family’s homeschooling needs regarding your time, effort and materials used.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others – When it comes to homeschooling, it really doesn’t matter if you’re using the same curriculum as another homeschooling family you know. Just because someone you know has spent $500 on her family’s curriculum doesn’t mean you have to purchase curriculum that costs that much or more.

Depending on what type of curriculum you purchase, home schooling costs will vary from family to family. There are many places where you can sell or buy used home school curriculum.

Some families choose to buy resources from many different sources, others enroll in umbrella schools and others choose to buy complete accredited homeschooling curriculum packages.

Buying a complete curriculum package may cost you more money, but you also will have everything you need to home school your child, saving you valuable time and eliminating the guess work.

Always Check the Fine Print!

Most often when you purchase a complete curriculum package for a specific grade, you will receive all the workbooks, teacher’s manuals, tests and answer keys for each subject.  As with any purchase you make, you will want to double check.

Sometimes you will need to purchase additional home school material or supplies for science experiments, or will need math manipulatives to use with your math curriculum or program. (Watch for our next article and get a link to printable fraction manipulatives.)  

Knowing everything you need before buying, will help keep your home schooling costs controlled, eliminating any surprises. When it comes to spending money you want to know what you will get for what you are paying.

You will want to read each catalog descriptions carefully. It is recommended that you place a call to a company’s customer service department to ask questions.  This is a great way to find out more information and learn about what additional items you will need when using their home school curriculum.

Doing your homework on the expected costs of materials and other expenses involved in homeschooling will help you and your family feel confident about your final decision of keeping your children at home and educating them yourselves.

Our next article will talk about finding quality curriculum.  Watch for it and while you are here remember to visit our website to see our children’s wooden toys including indoor playsets and wooden toy blocks.

Our toddler toys make great additions to your  home schooling lessons and will keep your children interested for a longer period of time.  You and your children can play together and make up games with the educational toys you supply them.

Blocks are one of the best educational toys you will be buying for your toddlers and come in a variety of materials.  Three of the choices I can think of are foam, wood and cardboard and we will briefly discuss each one today.

Actually, I could not find much information regarding foam blocks.  I did learn some claim to be surface washable and come in various sizes including large triangle blocks.  As with any blocks they can assist in your child’s fundamental positive growth.  Foam blocks have easy-to-grip, textured foam pieces and would be appropriate for one year olds. 

I found no information about how durable they are and if they had non toxic paints to color the foam.  Some did claim to have flame-retardant fabric covers for easy cleaning. 

WOODEN BLOCKS

Your toddlers and preschoolers will love to play with alphabet wood toy blocks which have numbers, alphabets or pictures printed on them. Although most blocks are commonly used for stacking activities, children can always mix these children wooden blocks with other kind of blocks and use them together to create a structure.

I have read that there are two sizes of ABC building blocks for kids: the ones sized around 1 inch, and the bigger ones (1.75 inches). The bigger ones may be more stable and versatile.

If you have a toddler, it is important to get an ABC wooden block set painted with non toxic and good quality paint. So that when they chew the cubes, the paint won’t come off. It’s also important to get the ones which have smooth edges.

When your child reaches a preschooler age, she will also be ready to play with unit blocks, or wooden building blocks which have different kind of shapes including prism, pyramid, cubes and long cylinder.

Archiquest is said to be the most educational architectural block set available and is most suitable for older kindergartner or school-age children.  These blocks are known to be beautifully painted and have different shapes and prints.

Lincoln Log and Frontier Log blocks are said to be popular wooden building toys for children and especially interesting since, as the name implies, your child will be able to build different kinds of log cabin using these child building logs.

If you have school-age children who think that wooden building block is no more their cups of tea as it’s getting too easy, then get a set of plank building blocks. These children’s wooden blocks are made of planks and children are expected to build a structure from those planks. They are undoubtedly very educational and are sometimes found in children’s museums or schools.

CARDBOARD BLOCKS

They are simple and loads of fun, and, if you get ImagiBRICKS, exceptionaly durable for rough housing and creative play. The boys like to build things to kick down, build forts, castles, ramps, steps, etc…they are great for the imagination. Girls  love to build “houses” and play with her dolls…just about anything a kid can think of to build, and they are light and easy to carry around.

Giant cardboard building blocks made by Smart Monkey Toys are called ImagiBRICKS and are the award winning kids building blocks your grandparents played with.  They are crush proof and now come with a drool-resistant coating.  Even with this coating they are not slippery and stack as high as your child can reach.

Kids love to stack these blocks and knock them down and they are a favorite of parents because they are a quite toy and won’t wake the baby when your toddlers knock them down.  Giant blocks are also great for helping your kids build muscle strength as they carry them from place to place and spend hours on end building and creating new structures.

Three choices, foam, wood and cardboard blocks; each has their own purpose and advantage and you will most likely be purchasing any or all three choices as your children grow.

Comments from parents and teachers about your favorite blocks will gladly be posted!

Toddler age children can be expected to be able to put on his/her own clothes. With help, they will be able to brush their own teeth, combine words, know over 50 words and use pronouns such as I, me, you and mine.

When children reach toddler age they will know their body parts, walk up and down stairs, kick a ball, jump up, and throw a ball over his head. His/her speech should be half understandable.

It is important to be aware of children’s stages of development so that you may better provide them age appropriate toys to help them along in their development.

Because toddlers can stack 4-6 blocks it is now time to provide them toy blocks.  We have pictured for you a set of giant cardboard building blocks that will help your children get started in building muscle tone.

These ImagiBRICKS, as they are called, have a drool proof coating and are crush proof.  Children can stand on them, carry them around and stack them.  And, because children love knocking down their stacked blocks these are the ideal toys as there are no sharp edges to harm them.

Smart Monkey Toys manufacturers these safe toddler toys from 50% recycled cardboard.  Visit All I Can Imagine, our website, to see all the other varieties of blocks for your boys and girls.

Keeping toddlers active is an important part of their development; specifically, their muscle development.  When your child has muscles that are on the loose, floppy side you may want to follow the link that we are providing in this post.

One of our readers asked the question “how fast can I see muscle definition”, in reply to our blog post  “Build, Jump, Crash – Fun with Blocks Toys”.  We thought many of our other readers may be interested in the answer so we are directing you all to a great website that may answer this question.

On this web page you will learn just what “low muscle tone” means and what you can do about it.  Toddlers need to build their muscular strength as well as their agility and this is why open ended toys that keep children moving around are so important.

Carrying around giant cardboard building blocks is one fun, safe game for young children. After  you read more at: http://www.babycenter.com/404_what-is-low-muscle-tone-and-what-does-it-mean_12189.bc why not visit our website and see all our ImagiBRICKS toy blocks.

Do you remember how much fun it was to build with large blocks?  They are so versatile you can build anything you want to.

Giant cardboard building blocks are still being made today for the enjoyment of a new generation of kids. As toys for toddlers you just can’t purchase a more enjoyable toy for your boys and girls.  No matter what the skill level of your child he/she will be able to build things, jump over the blocks, crash into them and even step on them.

Cardboard block toys stack into tall towers and when knocked down (which they will be) they not only won’t cause harm to anyone, they do not make noise and scare anyone or wake a napping baby (or mom).

Kids building blocks made of cardboard can safely be given to very young children.  At first they may only carry them around and put them in a wagon or a truck, but as they grow they will begin creating the own structures and towers. 

Children will develop muscle strength as they carry around their block toys.  Parents can use these blocks to teach basic math skills to children when they are able to begin learning math.  If you have sets of several colors they can also be used to teach colors.

Making up games to play with your blocks children will gain self-confidence as they complete the “task“given them.  For instance, you could ask the child to separate the red blocks from the blue blocks.  You could have the child stack into separate piles each different size or color.

For beginning counting and addition have your child take three blocks from a larger pile and put them in a separate location.  Then have the child add one more block and count and/or add it up.

Children may learn better balance when you set up the blocks (or let the child do it) in a maze.  Have your child walk quickly, or run through and around the blocks without touching them or knocking them down.  They will love this game!

These toddler toys are as popular today as when your grandparents were young.  Many grandparents are purchasing these ImagiBRICKS for their grandkids throughout the year for gifts. Our popular set of 40 pieces is pictured above.

A child’s brain is likened to a sponge and absorbs enormous amounts of a variety of information. Because the brain continues to expand as it grows it is important to expose your children to a variety of open-ended educational toys.

Not only are children exposed to a variety of toddler learning toys at home, there are wooden toys and toy blocks in their daycare, Sunday school and many waiting rooms. Where ever your children are becomes an opportunity for teaching opportunities.

You can help your children learn colors, for example, while sitting in the doctor’s office.  If you put down your magazine and observe the toddler toys available you could point out to your child a chair and say to him “this is a chair.  The color of the chair is blue”.

Quality education is most important to the mental health and growth of all young children and it is because of this that you will find it beneficial to surround your children with play sets, wood puzzles and other toys that have a variety of shapes and colors to keep your children interested in play and learning.

Visit our website and see a variety of large cardboard block toys.  Our 40pc set of ImgiBRICKS is a good starting point and will provide your children with 8 large red 12 x 6 x 3 inch blocks, 8 medium yellow 6 x 6 x 3 and 24 small blue 6 x 3 x 3 inch toy blocks.

Widely regarded as an essential developmental toddler toy, giant cardboard building blocks are kid’s building blocks that give your children a head start on physical development and coordination.

Kids love to stack their toy blocks.  They also like to knock them down.  When you get them giant ImagiBRICKS™  to play with no one will get hurt when they knock down their towers and structures!

Manufactured by Smart Monkey Toys, these award-winning toys for toddlers are the block toys your grandparents played with when they were children.  The only difference is that now they come with a drool-proof coating so they can be easily wiped down to prevent the spread of germs.

Another way younger children play with these blocks is to carry them around.  This type of play will help your children develop stronger muscles and balance as the carry them around and set them down.  As they get a little older they will begin building towers and other structures from their imaginations.

Being one of the best open-ended toys you can give your children giant blocks are great for individual play as well as group play.  Group play will help develop your child’s social skills as they work together with others to create, build and knock down their structures.

Nicely packaged in a box with an image of the blocks these are great Christmas gifts; all you have to do is add some pretty wrapping paper or maybe just a large bow so you don’t cover up the pretty box! 

Giggles will abound as the children run around and in and out of the towers while they learn to coordinate their little bodies as to not bump into the blocks.  If you purchase the Rainbow blocks which include red, orange, green and purple blocks you can also teach your children four new colors as they play.

Starter sets include 16 red giant blocks.  If you have more children you will want the larger sets or maybe even a small bulk quantity of 50 red blocks.  See many selections on our website, All I Can Imagine.

For one reason or another many people don’t think that teaching toddlers manners is that important. However, if you want to raise a well-mannered child then you must start when they are little. This is because toddlers learn things so easily. In fact, many of the things toddlers learn will naturally become automatic as they get older, which is precisely what you want when teaching good manners!

Children who have open-ended toys to play with, such as toy blocks, will have many opportunities for creative play as well as building social skills and manners.  Giant cardboard building blocks are exceptional educational kids toys for preschool children.

While parents monitor their children’s play time you can observe how the children interact and react to one another’s suggestions of creating structures and playing games with the toy blocks.  When necessary you can gently guide them in their manners and ability and willingness to share and cooperate with one another.

Building block toys can easily be stored up against a wall in your child’s room or your playroom.  Remember to keep the out in sight because children will gravitate to these large building blocks whether they are playing by themselves or when company comes.

The more children you have the more blocks toys you will need.  ImagiBRICKS have a drool proof coating and it is important to often wipe them down to prevent cold germs from spreading. 

Available online at  All I Can Imagine in starter sets of 16 large red blocks, 24 pc sets, or 40 pc sets.  Your children will also love our Rainbow blocks which come in red, green, orange and purple. Bulk quantities are also available.

These toddler learning toys are an ideal Christmas gift or birthday present for parents and grandparents to provide their boys and girls.

 Whether or not the structure they build represents any specific thing children are proud of what they create with their toy blocks. Children value their own block structures and will be encouraged in creative play when you ask, “Tell me about what you made”.

Kids should be encouraged to use their block toys imaginatively.  Parents can encourage their toddlers with a dialog and offer their children new opportunities to explore other ways to use their blocks  – thereby helping them gain self-confidence in their skills. Verbal skills will be another benefit as your child tells you about what he made.

Kids building blocks, such as our Timber Blocks, are large enough to help your children learn to build and stack. Strong, yet lightweight our toys for toddlers have no sharp corners and are crush proof and drool proof.

Beginning at the age of two, children will be using a variety of blocks for pretend play.  With large building blocks toys children can become life-sized actors in large block structures or use them to create dramas in miniature landscapes.

Timber blocks shown here are available online at All I Can Imagine. Sixteen large timber blocks (12″ x 6″ x 3″). The cardboard blocks are printed with non-toxic inks and are also available in bulk quantities.