Learning Resources

all photos in this post courtesy of Learning Resources

I love toys that also teach, and I recently came across a neat website devoted to educational toys. I couldn't help myself; I ended up getting three toys for the girls.

The first item we opened was the Sweet Heart Sayings for kids ages 2-5. All three of the girls were fascinated by these hearts and loved adding them to the laces. I really like the way the heart colors indicate what kind of word is on the heart: pronouns are blue,verbs are yellow, and nouns are purple. The pink and green hearts have pictures to illustrate the nouns. I think this will become a great tool for teaching the girls how to construct sentences later. Right now, this is a great way for them to exercise their motor skills.

After they had thoroughly examined the hearts, we opened the next game - the Jump and Jam Jungle for children ages 3-5. This interactive mat features 5 games that will help your child learn to follow directions, identify colors, shapes, animals, and their sounds. I must warn that the music can quickly become annoying, and musical toys don't often annoy me.

The last game we got was the Pretend and Play World Traveler for kids ages 5-7. Ironically, of the three games we got, this is all three girls' favorite. They love the camera and binoculars that is part of the set. They also love the play money, wallet, credit card, and pictures of sights from foreign lands. I plan to use this kit to teach geography and history to the girls this year, and I know we will all have a ton of fun using this toy.

If you are looking for educational toys, you should stop by Learning Resources. If nothing else, you will probably get new ideas for games to play with your child.