There is no doubt that every parent wants what’s best for their kids, especially when it comes to education and development. What better way to nurture skills and knowledge than making learning fun with educational toys? We have found and sorted out educational toys for kids of different ages for your precious kiddos to enjoy.
At different ages, kids have different developmental needs. For toddlers and young children, the focus would be on their physical development like motor skills or speech development. As they grow older and transit into their teenage years, the focus shifts to cultivating values, building character and growing interest in STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math.
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Image adapted from: Toys Central
At the toddler stage of development, kids are still figuring out their simple motor skills like how to grab things. To help them get a better grasp, literally, TOHIBEE’s Baby Sensory Montessori toy will come in handy with its multicoloured strings of different textures, grip shapes, and sounds when pulled. This helps kids learn simple causes and effects, fine-tune their motor skills, and allow them to explore colours and sensory experiences.
Price: $68.40
Get the TOHIBEE Baby Sensory Montessori Toy from Toys Central.
Other than being oh-so-cute, Le Toy Van’s Animal Stackers are useful in developing finger dexterity in children as your child works towards getting all the little animals stacked on top of each other without them toppling over.
Plus, depending on what kinds of wildlife your little munchkin likes, you can choose from various stacker sets based on habitats like the ocean or forest.
Price: $28.13
Get the Le Toy Van Animal Stackers from Amazon.
Image credit: Baby Corner Home Daycare via Facebook
The Colour Fun Fish Bowl not only teaches little ones colours but also puts their colour recognition skills to the test with it’s 2 modes – “Let’s learn colour” which lets the toddler know what colour fish has been put in and “Quiz mode” where the colour will be called out and your child has to put in the correct one. Other than learning the names of colours, it builds tactile skills and hand-eye coordination.
Price: $42.01
Get The Learning Journey’s Colour Fun Fish Bowl from Amazon.
Image adapted from: Learning Resources
While these irresistible-looking chocolate chip cookies are not meant for eating, they are a treat for your toddler’s brain. The Smart Counting Cookies set comes with a cookie jar and 11 cookies. This toy will come in handy when you want to teach little ones simple numbers and counting as the back of the cookies are numbered from 1 to 11, giving your child a visual aid.
Price: $32.73
Get the Learning Resources Smart Counting Cookies from Amazon.
Let your child’s imagination flow with Mideer’s Magnetic Geometry Block set that comes with a built-in mini whiteboard and a selection of 250 magnetic pieces of various shapes, colours, and sizes. For timed gameplay, instructions and example sheets are provided with the blocks to see how long it takes your kiddo to complete the design.
Price: $60
Get the Mideer Magnetic Geometry Block toy set from Shopee.
Image adapted from: Macy’s via Pinterest
Tired parents, rejoice, as we’ve got your back with the Colour Wonder Magic Brush which will leave you with minimal cleaning while your child paints away. This watercolour set is unique in the way that the colour only shows up on the special paper provided and will not stain clothing or your beauitful walls. Your little Picassos can select the colours using the brush that will light up the colour selected and go ham with their artistic expressions.
Price: $42.12
Get Crayola’s Colour Wonder Magic Brush at Amazon.
Image adapted from: Toy Time
With 120 different ways to arrange the Logical Road Builder by BONITOTO, your child will be entertained for hours having fun figuring out the route to get the car from one end to the other. The template with the different starting points and difficulty levels allows you to keep track of your kiddo’s progress as they level up.
This toy will challenge your kid’s patience, and resilience, and help improve their problem-solving skills.
Price: $13.75
Get the BONITOTO Logical Road Builder from Amazon.
The next stepping stone for every kindergartener is primary school where recess times means that they have to buy their food and pay for it. To make this a less nerve-wracking experience for you and your child, get them started with the Money Activity set. Provided in the set are toy notes, coins, a piggybank, and flashcards. The flashcards are puzzles indicating the cost of items for purchase and their matching piece has the correct value illustrated in the form of notes and coins.
Price: $37.88
Get the Learning Resources Money Activity set from Amazon.
Develop your primary schooler’s interest in science and technology by getting them the STEM Adventure Box set from TOYTAG. Your youngster will get to build their very own game console with the instructions given and learn basic coding in MicroPython.
Choose from 9 different sets, each with robots that teach different science concepts:
Price: $64.90
Get the TOYTAG STEM Adventure Box from the TOYTAG website.
The Monopoly Super Electric Banking Card Game by Hasbro is an upgraded version of the classic Monopoly board game most of us grew up with. The main difference is that instead of the paper money we are familiar with, it uses a card system to make payments.
Allowing kids to handle their own card in-game teaches them responsibility and decision-making skills as they decide how to spend their game money wisely. Monopoly also involves a lot of strategic thinking as the kids figure out how they can win the game.
Price: $42.65
Get the Hasbro Electronic Banking MONOPOLY from Amazon.
Similar to a game of Scrabble, the goal of Word game by Bananagrams is to form words and build crossword grids. Although the game can be played solo, you can turn up the intensity by getting the whole family involved to compete for the most number of words. This educational toy helps kids with their language skills by challenging them to use their vocab and spell out words.
Their range of word themes includes the ocean and Halloween. Plus, they all come in a cute banana-shaped pouch.
Price: $23.26
Get the Bananagram Word Game from Amazon.
I’m sure we’ve all played Jenga at least once in our lives. As many of you know, the goal is to slowly remove blocks one by one without getting the tower to fall. All the slow and steady movements needed and thinking required when choosing a block to remove are effective ways of teaching children patience and analytical skills. Plus, you can never go wrong with a classic.
Price: $23.51
Get the Hasbro Classic Jenga from Amazon.
Slow and ready wins the race.
Image adapted from: Shoppee
Looks can be deceiving regarding how difficult the Balance Transport Ball game is. The objective is to balance the board on the index fingers of all group members while keeping the ball on the board from falling and getting to the end point where there is a bucket to deposit the ball. Through this process, it teaches important skills like teamwork and communication. And you can easily pull this out during your kid’s next birthday party for all their friends to play.
Price: From $35.25
Get the Balance Transport Ball game from Shopee.
Image credit: aqua Dragons
Getting a pet is every kid’s dream. For parents who hope to fulfill their child’s wishes but not jump right into getting a dog or cat, Live Aqua Dragons is the perfect compromise. These little sea creatures that hatch within 48 hours of being placed in water teach kids about responsibility as they have to be fed every 2-3 days and their water has to be aerated with the dropper.
To make it extra cool, the tank lights up too.
Price: $49.76
Get the Live Aqua Dragons from Amazon.
Get your children involved in hands-on learning as they build, design, and erupt their own volcano with the Ultimate Volcano Kit by National Geographic. This fun scientific experience will likely nurture children’s interest in science and geography.
Plus, the kit comes with real volcanic rocks and allows kids to experiment with baking soda and vinegar, teaching them the basics of chemical reactions in a fun, engaging way. There’s also a guidebook with cool facts about volcanoes for those really into volcanoes.
Price: $27.10
Get the National Geographic Ultimate Volcano kit from Amazon.
Image adapted from: Amazon.sg
As the name suggests, the Magnetic Chess set is a magnetic chess board with magnetic chess pieces that secure it onto the board, allowing for gameplay without the worry of missing pieces or accidentally knocking them down. The board’s foldable frame means that you can keep all the pieces at the back too when you’re not battling it out.
Otherwise, this chess set is played like any other regular game of chess which teaches children how to think critically, strategise, think from other people’s perspectives, and fair play.
Price: $19.08
Get the Chess Armory Magnetic Chess set from Amazon.
Image adapted from: TOYTAG
Decrypto puts one’s vocab skills to the test as teens try to give clues to their teammates. The word clues have to be precise enough for their teammates yet still vague enough to make sure their opponents don’t get the message.
Other than teamwork and communication skills, Decryto can develop critical thinking, strategic thinking, and language skills.
Price: $32
Get the Le Scorpion Masque Decrypto from TOYTAG.
What better way to make art more exciting than to transform it into 3D form? The 3D Printing Pen works by heating and extruding a plastic filament that quickly cools, solidifying it into a stable structure. Teens can express their creativity by designing their own little projects or following stencils to build structures.
Price: $79.99
Get the 3Doodler 3D Printing Pen set from 3Doodler from Amazon.
If you think that solving a Rubix cube is no kick, try the Pagoda puzzle by True Genius. Similar to a Rubix cube, the goal is to turn the sections of the Pagoda and shift the coloured balls until they are arranged into columns of the same colour.
This encourages spatial reasoning, logical thinking, problem-solving, and critical thinking.
Price: $23.11
Get the True Genius Pagoda puzzle from Amazon.
Unsurprisingly, every piece from The Clearly Impossible Puzzle is clear. As if that doesn’t make it challenging enough, there’s no way to well the front of the pieces from the back of them and there are some false-corner pieces to throw your teenager off.
On the plus side, it’ll teach your child critical thinking, problem-solving skills, patience, and immense focus.
Price: $24.04
Get the CM Originals Clearly Impossible Puzzle from Amazon.
From building creativity with a 3D printing pen to learning about science through volcano kits, these toys make learning feel like play. So, whether you’re looking to inspire a young scientist, artist, or engineer, these educational toys are a great place to start. Plus, with so many exciting options, your kiddo will be entertained while gaining valuable knowledge that goes beyond the classroom.
For places to bring your kids to:
Cover image adapted from: @3doodler via Instagram, Amazon.sg, aqua Dragons
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