Choosing Great Educational & Creative Toys

This is my 5th post on this topic and is largely a repeat of my 4th annual post about choosing great toys for kids (it's repeated in the hope that you can see these ideas earlier than usual!). The post is about selecting toys that teach, challenge, stimulate and encourage creativity and learning.

It doesn't negate all that I say in other posts about the many varied ways to help kids play, learn, solve problems and develop creativity that cost nothing.

I've outlined previously some basic principles for choosing toys which stressed that children don't need expensive toys to learn, that play in and, of itself, stimulates learning, problem solving, language development, creativity and so on (see for example my post 'The importance of simple play' here). In short, many activities require few or no bought materials within the child's world.

As well, even a single purpose toy that brings great pleasure but doesn't teach a lot can achieve more if adults are engaged to some extent with the activity. For example, a game like Hungry Hippos besides helping with basic counting, can also help children to learn about turn taking, being gracious as a winner and a loser and so on.

But, if you are planning to spend significant sums of money on toys for Christmas or as part of other celebrations I would be aiming for toys that offer multiple purposes and varied areas of learning. My test for toys we buy would be:

• Do they stimulate creativity and learning?


• Do they encourage language use?


• Do they require varied skills and multiple abilities?


• Do they encourage the integration of many forms of learning?


• Do they help children to develop interpersonal skills (if it is a multi-player toy)? 


• Do they require children to collaborate with and, play well with others?


• Will the toy last (i.e. not fall apart)?


• Is the toy good value for money?


• Is the toy fun, interesting, challenging?


• Will it sustain your child's attention beyond a few uses?

So, while you don't need bought toys to stimulate children, in this post I will talk about some of the bought toys that I find interesting and which have worked with our children and grandchildren. I'm not trying to be  comprehensive just offering examples of good toys that meet some of the criteria I outline above.

1. Scientific toys for older children

Here are some examples of the many wonderful scientific toys around for children aged 8+. Most range in price from $20 to $40 AUD.

a) The Museum of Victoria has some wonderful kits. One that I like helps children to explore 'Crystals and Minerals'. The kit helps them to discover the amazing qualities and features of minerals in everyday life. Many of these are available from the CSIRO site (see below).


b) CSIRO Science Kits - The CSIRO has some wonderful kits for children. One I like is 'Biology Madness'. This is a comprehensive science kit with 26 fun and interesting experiments. The kit includes all the main scientific equipment required for the experiments, plus an interactive DVD featuring five filmed experiments, and a 68 page full colour booklet which includes fun facts and further experiments. You can also 'Make Your Own Volcano',  do astronomy experiments using the 'Double Helix Astronomy' kit or build their own 'Solar Powered Planaterium'. There are many kits that come in a range of categories including flight, dinosaurs, chemistry, rocks, construction and more.


c) Geoworld also has many wonderful options including a 'Mammoth Skeleton Dig' kit so you can unearth a museum quality replica approved by Paleontologists, a 'Glow in the Dark Solar Mobile' kit and many more.
   
d) Green Science also has an interesting kit called 'Weather Station'. It allows the child to experiment with static electricity that causes lightning, make clouds, watch air currents that
produce wind, and study the greenhouse effect and acid rain. It has many other options including 'Solar Robot' that allows children to learn how to make a robot that moves under solar power.


e) Kidz Labs (4M) also has some wonderful science kits. One of my favourites is 'Forensics' which helps children to explore basic techniques like finger printing, handwriting analysis, fibre evidence, making plaster casts of footprints, identifying 'strange' powder. Another great kit from Kidz Labs is the 'Animation Praxinoscope' that allows kids to rebuild a 100 year old optical toy that demonstrates modern animation techniques. 

2. Timeless construction toys

No family should be without a couple of toys that encourage children to make or construct things. These toys help to develop good hand-eye coordination, encourage creativity and problem solving and can help to develop mathematical and spatial intelligence.  There are many types of construction toys that  children can use from a very young age. Here are a few examples:

Above: Father & son play with Knupferli (see below)

a) Wooden blocks of some type At our house our grandchildren still use the same set of blocks in their original walker that our children did 30+ years ago (suitable for ages 6 months to 3 years).

b) Lego

Probably all three types/sizes will be useful. Our children's Lego is now  played with by our grandchildren (suitable for age 6 months to 1 years). The themed sets for 'Harry Potter', 'The Hobbit', 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Super Heroes' are some of the sets on the top of many kid's gift lists and give hours of creative story-telling fun.

c) Mobilo is one of my grandson Sam's favourite toys. It can be used with childen aged 1-10. It is a durable tow that allows creativity to reign. Sam and I build space stations and star ships and engage in battles around the house.

d) Other more challenging connector toys (e.g. Knupferli)

There are many sets that allow children to do creative construction. I used the soft plastic Knupferli
materials (see picture above) when I was in Kindergarten(!) and only just rediscovered them again (ideal for age 5-10  years). You can use them to make a simple necklace or a complex 3D shape.

e) Meccano

Newer meccano sets (see right) are different from those I grew up with, but they still combine all the old skills and interest of the metal Meccano I had as a child (age 5-15 years).

You can do many things with construction toys. Yes, you can build simply things like towers or shapes. You can make houses, cars, anything (in the case of Lego).

In combination with other objects (e.g. plastic animals or people) you can  tell stories - zoos can be created, aquariums, farms, space invaders  and dinosaurs can invade villages etc. In some cases your children can learn how to follow instructions and design plans (e.g. Meccano, Knupferli & Lego).



What's great about construction toys is that they:

• Help to develop hand-eye co-ordination


• Encourage creativity and problem solving


• Can help to develop spatial and geometric skills

Above: A family favourite, 'Zoob'

3. 'Toys' that allow you to create

These are not all toys, some are materials, but all allow children to be creative. Here are a few of my favourites:

a) Modelling clay

You can buy cheap multi-coloured modelling clay for $2-3 per pack, or  you can make Play Dough. I've written a post on the creative use of modelling clay (here). Suitable for all ages.

b) Magnetic learning boards with letters and shapes (age 12 months to 5 years), see picture to the right.

c) Magesketch (or some other variety) of this magnetic sketching board, age 12 months to 4 years.

d) Felt boards - there are many products of this type on the market (many of these are very cheap), age 2-6 years.




4. Model people, animal and objects


There are many wonderful examples of toys that consist of people, animals, dwellings, and objects that go with them like dolls houses, castles, forts, arks etc. These allow children to engage in creative play either alone or with others for long periods of time. These simple objects can  allow children to amuse themselves in a world of make believe and fantasy at home, in the car, at other people's houses etc. They are a wonderful way for children to create (verbally) their first  narratives.

Some of the simplest are perhaps the best:

a) Keep a box of animals

Depending on the child's interests these might be farm animals (under  12 months), African animals, sea creatures, dinosaurs and people. These can be used alone or with other toys (see the shot of Sam above with his Lego 'zoo').

b) Commercial sets like the Little People  series and Sylvanian Families are wonderful for young children - we have a set based on Noah's  Ark
to which we've added other animals. This has kept all our  grandchildren
 engaged for hours (0-3 years).

c) A doll's house will keep boys and girls engaged in creative play for ages and there
are modern variations on  the same theme with medieval castles complete
within knights and  dragons (age 2 -8).



5. Mathematical or Spatial Skill Toys


a) Perpetual puzzles - these are puzzles designed by Makoto Nakamura. They add a new level of creativity by allowing the child to change the shape of the overall puzzle that is based on continuous and interlocking shapes.

b) Blokus is a relatively new puzzle game with simple rules, but it can keep adults and children stimulated for ages. The purpose of the game is for each player to place his/her 21 pieces on  the board (or at least the maximum number of pieces) in a continuous span unimpeded by other players' pieces. It can be played by 2 or 4 people.

c) M-Tic  

This is a brilliant and simple construction type game that consists of multi-coloured plastic pieces with magnetic ends. The purpose of the game is to create geometric shapes. It is excellent for developing geometrical and spatial knowledge. If you can't find this version there are other similar examples at good toy shops (see the picture below).

d) Puzzles of all kinds - puzzles are brilliant for developing memory, patience and a variety of spatial skills. Young children can start with simply puzzles that require them to insert an animal or shape into a single hole. Later they can move to simply 6-20 piece puzzles then much more complex puzzles as they develop their skills.

6. Other categories

There are many other toys that allow children to have fun, learn, manipulate and develop fine motor skills. Here are just a few examples that I spotted at my local Toy Shop this week. If you live in Sydney Monkey Puzzle Toy Store is worth a look, it's one of the best toyshops I've seen. The owners know and are passionate about toys. Find a good local toy store where the owners choose, sell and enjoy toys.

a) Magnetic (Mudpuppy) Dress up Figures - these come in a metal box and the mannequins vary (e.g. sports model, pirate, ballerina, monster, mermaid etc).

b) Chicken Socks craft sets (Klutz) - These are cheap and have a variety of separate packets including 'Crayon Rubbings', 'Fun Felt', 'Simple Sewing', 'Hand Art' etc.

c) Puppets - every house should have a puppet or two, there are many different 
types of puppets including finger puppets, hand puppets, shadow puppets and string 
puppets.


d) Card games of all kinds. There are so many wonderful card games today that encourage language and mathematics and also encourage sharing and collaboration. Some recent favourites include 'Rush Hour' and 'Story Cubes'. 

There are obviously many great toys that I haven't mentioned. In my home I'd always want to have puzzles, lots of writing implements (crayons, pencils, chalk, varied papers), toys that teach numbers and letters, toys that train hand-eye co-ordination (through threading, putting things in holes etc), percussion instruments, Thomas Trains and cars (especially for boys), a dress-up box and so on.

The Importance of 'Simple' Play

The erosion of time for play

As I wrote in a post last year, children's play is seen by psychologists, educators and paediatricians as so important to optimal child development that it has been recognized by the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as a right of every child. But in a clinical report to the American Academy of Paediatrics, Kenneth R. Ginsburg concluded that many "....children are being raised in an increasingly hurried and pressured style that may limit the protective benefits they would gain from child-driven play."

Major child rearing agencies, early childhood associations, paediatric groups and government agencies with responsibility for children and families have been raising serious questions about declining spare time, and in particular unstructured playtime for young children. For example, in a recent edition of the Belfast Telegraph a report from 300 teachers, psychologists and children's authors claimed that the erosion of "unstructured, loosely supervised" playtime is dangerously affecting young people's health.

In our 'time poor' age where all parents want their children to be successful in life, there is a temptation to concentrate children's spare time on structured activities. But this may not be the best thing for them. The growth of programs like 'Your Baby Can Read' (reviewed on this blog here & here) is just one example of how this is happening. The program seeks to teach children to read from as early as 6-9 months. Play is critical for children's development; it isn't an optional extra in their lives.

The loss of 'simple' play

There is also a tendency in our age to buy children lots of complex toys that don't necessarily add much to their development anyway. Louisa recently made a useful comment about this on the 4th part of my earlier series on play (here) that I did last year. Far too often, modern toys that are lavished on most children in developed countries do little to develop creativity, problem solving and knowledge. Notwithstanding the fact that you buy wonderful educational toys that can stimulate development, unstructured and spontaneous play offers the best opportunities for the development of creativity, problem solving and learning.

In an interesting article, 'The Play's the thing: Styles of playfulness', Elizabeth Jones has argued that:

In their play, children invent the world for themselves and create a place for themselves in it. They are re-creating their pasts and imagining their futures, while grounding themselves in the reality and fantasy of their lives here-and-now.

In the article I referred to earlier by Kenneth Ginsburg, he concludes that:

• Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength.
• Play is important to healthy brain development.
• Through play, children at a very early age engage and interact in the world around them.
• Play allows children to create and explore a world where they can achieve a sense of mastery.
• Through play children can also conquer their fears while practicing adult roles, sometimes in conjunction with other children or adult caregivers.
• As they master their world, play helps children develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence.
• Undirected play allows children to learn how to work and create with others, to share, to negotiate, and to resolve conflicts.
• When play is allowed to be child-driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace and discover their own areas of interest.
• Play is essential for the building of active healthy bodies.

A simple example of creative unstructured play

I've shared many examples on this blog of unstructured and semi-structured play (check out all posts on play here). A recent example occurred just last week. I was visiting my daughter's for dinner and had a couple of hours to play with her three children (my grandchildren). My wife Carmen had bought two inexpensive packets ($2 each) of multi-coloured modelling clay with some adhesive eyes in the packets. I simply asked all three grandchildren would they like to make something. I joined in (as I often do). This is how the activity unfolded.

All three children chose some colours (I limited them to three sticks of clay at first to share the two packets three ways). Rebecca (5) and Elsie (almost 3) started making animals (a turtle, sheep, snake...), while Jacob (7) began making an invented animal with special body armour. Jacob's animal inspired me to make a strange space creature from a long thin sausage of clay; I called it a "Squiggle Monster". This led Jacob to create another even more unusual fox-like space creature. This led me to build a laser canon "for protection" against all the space creatures. The girls continued to independently create their animals. Rebecca wandered off to play another word game and Elsie kept making (and re-making) more animals.

Above: Rebecca's animals (left) and Elsie's (right)

Jacob and I had now developed quite a collection of strange space creatures and soon their destinies began to merge as we chattered about their bodies, dangerous protective weapons, sounds and so on. Barricades were built, several laser weapons positioned, force shields activated. And then...the battle began (with the demands of dinner all the while pressing in on us as we played on the dining table!). This simple activity generated lots of stimulation for all three children but in particular (on this occasion) for Jacob and Elsie. There was lots of creative thought, problem solving, hypothesising, rich language being used and so on:

"What colour can a Squiggle Monster be?" (Grandad) "Any" (Jacob)
"See these three eyes. They can see 500km." (Jacob)
"How does a Squiggle Monster die? I know, he just unravels." (Grandad)
"He's spitting acid." (Jacob)
"What's this animal Grandad?" (Elsie)
"Do you know why he can't get through the force field?" (Jacob)
"If I make this bigger will it stop them?" (Grandad)
"Look at mine Grandad". (Rebecca)
"See his rotating antennae?" (Jacob)
"What's a laser Grandad?" (Elsie)

Play doesn't need complex toys or structured activities for learning to occur, in fact, there is good evidence to suggest that play of the above type does more for creativity, problems solving, language and learning than lots of expensive toys.

Some quick practical implications from the above

So play is critical to children's development, and time is essential to create 'space' for play. There are challenges here for parents and teachers. How do we resist the temptation to structure children's life in and out of school so much that there is little opportunity for play? As well, how do we encourage children to spend time with other children engaging in play? Here are some quick suggestions:

• Parents and teachers need to create and promote regular opportunities for free play.
• Play should be as active as possible and where possible encourage interaction with others.
• Remember that simplicity usually works best (remember the tendency of the baby to like the box rather than the toy!)
• Play needs to be as child-centred as possible, not teacher centred or parent centred.
• Try to provide access to materials and simple toys that stimulate imagination, creativity and problem solving.
• Parents, teachers and caregivers should try to provide as much spontaneous time and play as possible.
• Make good use of story, most play involves some type of inventive story telling.
• Parents, teachers and care givers need to spend more time being good listeners and observers of children at play and be prepared to respond to, assist, offer materials, engage and ask questions rather than simply correcting, redirecting and controlling such play.
• Parents, teachers and care givers should sponsor and support children having a range of interests that can be the springboard for play and learning.

Evaluating your child's play

If you wonder whether your child has sufficient good opportunities for play you might ask yourself the following questions:

How often does my child (or my children) have time for spontaneous play?
How often do I direct the play rather than responding to or supporting it?
How varied are my child's opportunities for play?
How often does my child have the opportunity to interact with others in creative play situations?
How often do I provide materials for creative play?
How often does my child's play stimulate creativity, problem solving, language use and learning?
How often do planned activities lead to creative play (e.g. TV or a story leads to play. Or, a lesson on some topic leads to playground play)?

What are your thoughts? Any ideas that seem to work?

Related links and resources

All posts on Play from this blog (HERE)

A recent post on creativity (mainly for teachers) HERE and another (mainly for parents) HERE

All my posts with relevance to creativity (HERE)

Elizabeth Jones article 'The Play's the thing: Styles of playfulness'

Kenneth R. Ginsburg's report on play

Key Themes in Children's Literature - Problem Solving

Many children love to solve problems. Children's authors are smart enough to work this out and tap into this interest as one of many ways to engage children with books. There are many forms of problem solving that authors have used. In this post I'll outline a few examples.

1. Solving mysteries by cracking codes or using deductive logic

This is one of my favourite forms of literature-based problem solving because in cracking codes, the reader is being invited to use varied problem solving skills. The contemporary master of this genre is Graeme Base. While some of his books also fit into some of the other categories that follow, my favourite examples are where he requires the reader to use language codes and deductive logic to work out an important part of the storyline. His latest wonderful example is 'Enigma: A magical Mystery'. In this multi-layered story Bertie Badger helps his grandpa (alias 'Gadzooks the Great') to solve the mystery of what has happened to his top hat, cape, wand and magic bunny rabbit, which have all been stolen. While at the narrative level, Bertie resolves the problem with a special new type of magic show with the delinquent rabbit; the reader is left to solve the mystery of what happened to all the objects throughout the story. Who stole them and where were they hidden? Only by cracking a code, using it to decipher a new language and searching the illustrations page by page, can the reader solve this additional layer to the mystery.

Another example of this genre is Graeme Base's 'Eleventh Hour: A curious Mystery'. When Horace turns eleven, he plans a birthday party at a grand house. He invites eleven friends and makes an eleven-course feast to be eaten at eleven o'clock, but only after playing eleven games. But when it's time to eat the feast, it has vanished. The reader is invited to turn back the pages, and look at each picture for clues to solve the mystery. Who is the guilty one?

2. Mathematical puzzles and problems

There are many examples of books that also use maths or basic physics to encourage engagement.

a) Counting puzzles - Some authors embed the need for repetitive counting as part of the book. Peter Pavey's wonderful book 'One Dragon's Dream' is typical. While it is essentially a counting book, on each page a new number is introduced. But by adding a mass of creative detail he encourages the reader to look closely at every page. The complexity of the objects increases from page to page with every item there in the quantity that corresponds to the number in focus.

One dragon had a dream
that two turkeys teased him
three tigers told him off
and four frogs seized him

Children love to enjoy the rhythym and language as they inspect each page to make sure that they can find, for example on the page for the number '4', each of the four frogs, four trees, four penguins, four bottles and so on.

b) Physics and logic - Other books encourage the reader to solve a basic physics problem. Pamela Allen invites her readers to consider why the water is flooding the floor in 'Mr Archimedes' Bath' as each animal hops into his bath. Mr Archimedes climbs in with a goat, a wombat and a kangaroo. In amazement he observes that the water continues to rise and eventually ends up on the floor.

"Can anyone tell me where all this water came from?"

And of course eventually, "Eureka!" he cracks the mystery. He exclaims with joy:

"We make the water go up."

Another wonderful example of this type of book is Rod Clements' 'Counting on Frank' in which Frank spends his life trying to solve problems to do with area and capacity. Frank speculates about many things. How many dogs identical to his own would it take to fill his room? How many of his Dad could he squeeze into a television? How long it would take to fill his entire bathroom at bath time? Frank one day puts these skills to a very practical use with a good outcome.

3. Solving a real life problems


Some stories simply encourage the reader to consider how to solve a practical problem. In Ronda and David Armitage's 'The Lighthouse keeper's Lunch', Mrs Grinling has a big problem. Each day as she sends her husband's lunch along a flying fox from her home to the lighthouse, some pesky seagulls steal the food that she has carefully packed. How will she keep them away?



That evening Mr and Mrs Grinling decided on a plan to baffle the seagulls.

"Tomorrow I shall tie the napkin to the basket," said Mrs Grinling.

Similarly in 'Alexander's Outing', Pamela Allen invites her readers to work out how Alexander (a duck) can be extracted from a hole that he falls down as he roams around the city. The solution? Just think about water and ducks. How would you get him out of the deep hole?

4. Spot the inconsistencies or hidden details

This is an even more basic form of problem solving. Sometimes it involves hunting for details, usually in the pictures (sometimes in the language). This in effect helps children to want to turn the page, to predict what will come next, to anticipate. These are foundational strategies for reading comprehension (see my post on comprehension here).

A good example is Janet and Allan Ahlberg's 'Each Peach Pear Plum'. The story works at multiple levels. There is a simple narrative line throughout that involves the reader going on a journey of discovery; a type of 'I Spy' adventure through a land of familiar nursery rhyme characters. The Ahlbergs have relied on children's knowledge of common rhymes and stories ('The Three Bears', 'Cinderella', 'Bye Baby Bunting' etc) and played with connections between the characters, rhymes and stories (a simple use of intertextuality). The book ends with everyone together at a picnic in the forest. The back cover blurb makes the intent of the book clear:

In this book
with your little eye
take a look
and play 'I spy'

Another variation is the quest for hidden details in a book. Probably the most famous example of this is Martin Handford's book 'Where's Wally?' (or 'Where's Waldo?' in the USA) that led to a series of books that have been popular for over 20 years. The books consist of a series of complex full-page illustrations with hundreds of tiny people doing many things. The aim in each book is to find Wally which is always difficult as he is well hidden. Wally always dresses in a red and white striped shirt and beanie (hat). He carries a wooden walking stick and wears glasses. Readers are also invited to find items that Wally loses in each scene, including his walking stick, backpack, binoculars, books, camping equipment and his shoes.

A different variation on this type involves the author/illustrator inserting things that don't make sense, that simply don't match reality. 'Wacky Wednesday' by Theo LeSeig (Dr. Seuss) is a classic example where on every page the young reader scans the page to find the crazy things that are happening. As they hunt for the next weird thing that are practising basic visual recognition skills as well as having heightened engagement to simply persist with the reading and to want to turn the page.

The benefit of these books

The great benefit of books that focus on problem solving or logic is that they offer another way to engage children with books. As well, they teach many language concepts, reinforce basic mathematics and science and encourage inquisitiveness and creativity. Teachers will find that books in this thematic area are wonderful springboards for other learning, including artistic expression, drama and writing. For example:

Children will love creating their own 'Where's Billy?' or 'Where's Skye?' books.
They will have fun creating their own 'Wacky Wednesday' (or Tuesday!) books.
The will spend hours working out Graeme Base's codes and then after decoding the examples in a book like 'Enigma: A magical Mystery' will enjoy creating their own code and writing secret messages.
They might like to come up with other solutions for Mrs Grinling to solve the problem of the seagulls.

There are endless possibilities that spring from books of this type. One final thing. Boys love these books so they offer yet one more way to heighten their interest in books and reading.

Related links

Remembering Literature on World Maths Day (here)

Previous posts on Key Themes in Children's Literature (here)