Unstructured play is the most beneficial type of play for toddlers and young children. Play rooms where there are a variety of giant 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.
Children can learn about energy, where it comes from the many ways to conserve energy in their everyday lives. Children will be inspired to become environmental stewards during Conservation Quest at Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta.
The Home station will allow your kids to explore energy uses and choices from electricity, heating, and lighting to transportation, waste and recycling. Computer interactive screens will help your children make green energy choices with electricity, appliances, heating and cooling, recycling, transportation and more.
Stacking blocks will be a fun activity your children can participate in to learn about the amount of electricity various appliances use and they will also learn how to reduce electricity use.
Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta is a smart place to play and is a non-profit organization that offers a family-friendly space filled with interactive, educational exhibits and programming for children ages eight and under.
Conservation Quest is a special display and will be open until September 12, 2010. Visit their website for more information: www.childrensmuseumatlanta.org.
We do not know what size toy blocks your children will be stacking at this display but it is a good idea to have a set of giant cardboard building blocks at home for your children to build, stack and carry around. Large block toys will help your children develop their muscles and help them to play creatively by themselves or with others. Your kids will love building tall towers and knocking them down, and because these toys are cardboard they will fall quietly.
Is your school providing large toy blocks for your children to play with? Every classroom should include plenty of blocks for their preschoolers and also provide a safe place for block play.
Giant cardboard wall building blocks are one of the best creative learning tools teachers can give their children. Ideally, there should be enough room for the structures children have built to remain standing so that the children are able to go back and continue building at a later time.
Provide children with a three-sided classroom area, appropriate for noisy activity, out of the way of other classroom traffic, and thirdly, big enough so the children’s structures can remain standing. Children will be proud of the structures that they create with their own imaginations and will love telling you about them.
Block play are one of the best open-ended toddler learning toys and offers limitless possibilities for children to create, learn spatial awareness, develop math skills and use their imaginations.
When the toy blocks structures do need to be taken down storing them on eye-level shelves or stacking them against a wall will help you provide space for other activities. Giant cardboard building blocks should be organized neatly so that children are invited to use them independently.
When you want quality built wall building blocks that will hold up for many years and are safe for children to stand on you will want to check out ImagiBRICKS by Smart Monkey Toys. Manufactured in Wisconsin from at least 50% recycled materials these crush-proof kids building block toys are available in bulk quantities for your school classrooms.
It has been said that “complex block-play is linked with advanced math skills in later life”. Toddlers as young as two years old should have several sets of toy blocks to play with.
Whether your child has foam blocks, cardboard blocks or wooden blocks to play with he will have a toy that will provide him open-ended play time. They will be able to create their own structures into their own play scenarios.
A set of blocks can help your child develop such things as language skills, social skills, creative problem-solving skills, spatial skills as well as motor and hand-eye coordination.
Toy blocks and other construction toys are among the best developmental toys that money can buy. An investment in quality wooden kids toys can’t be over emphasized. One such kids toy is Toy Store in a Box, by ImagiPLAY.
ImagiPLAY’s owner believes that the single most important toy a child can have is a set of blocks. Every block set they manufacture us multi-functional and is designed to inspire hours of imaginative play.
Toy Store in a Box is the ultimate developmental toy for ages 2 up. There are 28 stacking/nesting boxes of various sizes and they all fit into one another. They all stack in such a way that they can be stored in the largest block, the green, 9” x 9” cube.
Kids will love the feel of the wood and the bright colors, red, yellow, blue and green. This is one wooden kids toys you must see!
Because of the continuing decline in literacy rates some educators are suggesting parents begin teaching their children to read at an early age. But, not all children are ready at the same age.
In past years it was thought that children should probably begin learning to read at about six years of age. But this opinion is being re-thought and educators are thinking that if a child starts to learn to read at an earlier age they may learn to read better.
There is a wide diversity in each child’s individual learning speeds and styles. A child’s interests and temperament also play a major role in helping parents decide when it is best to begin teaching their child to read.
It is important that children see their parents reading; it is also important to read to your child every day. By doing so parents will learn if their child is intrigued by the new ideas in the stories that are read to them. Parents need to pay attention to learn if their child exhibits a genuine interest in the stories they are reading.
If you find your child is showing interest in the stories and the new ideas then he/she is probably ready to begin learning to read. It is a fact that some four year olds can’t wait to begin reading, yet other children as old as eight are not developmentally ready.
Each child is unique and spending time with him/her will help a parent know how to proceed. Even before you introduce a book to your child there is a toddler learning toy, Little Reader Blocks, that your child can play with – and during play, begin to recognize the first 100 basic sight words. These toy blocks are available on our website, All I Can Imagine.
You will get the following 3″cube cardboard building blocks:
3 green noun blocks (18 nouns)
5 blue verb blocks (30 verbs)
5 red pronoun blocks (30 pronouns)
3 yellow adjective blocks (18 adjectives)
2 white preposition blocks (12 prepositions)
If you are a teacher or run a day care center and order three or more sets let us know you read about the Little Reader Blocks on our Blog and you will receive a discounted price.
Besides an hour of unstructured play each day toddlers need at least one half hour each day of structured physical activity. Taking time off from your household chores will benefit both you and your toddler.
Playing with your child helps you to get to know one another and you can watch how your child is developing. Playing open-ended games and make up activities so that you will not have to discipline your child for a while and just have some fun together.
Plan to do several activities each day and to stretch each activity to 10 minutes or longer if your toddler’s attention span will allow. Play in a safe area away from furniture with sharp corners.
One idea you may have fun with is setting up an obstacle course. Use pillows to climb over, then a cardboard box to crawl through. Set up an object such as a foot stool to circle around and then you could dash through a doorway and slid into or jump onto an old mattress.
You could use crepe paper on the doorway to create a “finish line” that they have to break through if there are several kids and a race is in process.
Obstacle courses can also be set up with building block toys such as ImagiBRICKS giant toy blocks. These are crush-proof and come in three different sizes. Each sized block is a different color and they are lightweight so that young children can lift and carry them. Let them make their own obstacle course to run through.
For their unstructured playtime they will love building structures and knocking them down. These building block toys are coated with a drool-proof coating so they can easily be kept clean and sanitized.
You will provide your children a world of fun learning and creative building opportunities when you give them giant toy blocks. Children learn through play and blocks are one of the best toddler learning toys on the market.
When children reach for, pick up, stack, or fit blocks together, they build strength in their fingers and hands, and increase eye-hand coordination. Around two, children begin to figure out which shapes will fit where, and get a head start on understanding different perspectives — skills that will help them to read maps and follow directions later on.
Cardboard building blocks help kindergarten and primary grade children develop skills in design, representation, balance and stability.
ImagiBRICKS™ are the award winning toy blocks your parents used to play with and are available in various quantities. You can get a set as small as 16 pieces in all red, 40 pieces in three colors and sizes all the way up to bullk quantity blocks. See all our other sets at All I Can Imagine.
Our toddler learning toys come with a drool-proof coating and are crush-proof.
One thing toddlers love to do is jump. To keep them off the furniture you could place large pillows on your floor; or, if you have an old mattress that is even better.
Go for walks on different types of surfaces. Walking on grass, gravel, or sand and uneven surfaces will not only challenge their balance it will help muscles develop.
If you have stairs let them practice climbing up and down when you are watching and standing close by. If you do not have stairs it is a good idea to have a set of giant cardboard building blocks called ImagiBRICKS.
These toy blocks can be stood on without crushing. You can place them around the room in a maze like formation and have your children walk around them as well as step up on top of them. They will learn to balance, step up and down and use a variety of muscles while having a great time playing.
Of course, as with any set of building blocks they will stack them up and knock them down. They will carry them around and put them in wagons. All this play is open-ended and will allow for many hours of creative play to help build confidence and self-esteem.
You will be providing your toddlers and young children with one of the best toddler learning toys on the market when you provide them with a set of ImagiBRICKS.
Your grandparents had ImagiBRICKS™ toy blocks when they were growing up. You won’t find them in stores but they still can be purchased online.
Parents, educators and doctors all recommend giant building blocks for toddlers and if you want the award-winning toy blocks you will have to pay a little more. Be careful when shopping in toy stores and on line, there are imitations that look like ImagiBRICKS™ and they have the same “brick design”, but they are not as strong and would crush if your child stood on them.
Toddlers and young children love to build tall towers and knock them down. They also love to carry things around. Because ImagiBRICKS™ are both strong and lightweight your toddler will build muscle strength by building structures as well as lifting and carrying the blocks.
As toddler learning toys, these giant building blocks also help teach math concepts and spatial awareness. Try a starter set of 16 pieces or our popular 40 piece set that includes three sizes of blocks, large red, medium blue and small yellow.