Things we love- Toys

Hi Everyone!

I noticed we haven't been blogging about "things we love", and I wanted to attempt to catch up.  As a parent I find that sharing information about everything is extremely helpful. I hope that some of you can find some of this information useful with your children.

Tonight I want to talk about toys.

When buying toys for Eli I focus on his development and motor skills.  For example Eli is now interested in knobs, keys, opening and closing, cause and effect, and he's developing his imaginary play.  Overall I've made the switch to toys that require Eli to use his imagination or toys that he has to "figure" out.  Some examples are sorting/stackable toys, puzzles,  and train sets among others.  I also find myself buying more and more hand crafted wood toys.  They are extremely durable, and require no batteries.  A tip that I can give to any parent is that LESS is MORE.  I suggest putting toys away and rotating them to prevent the child from getting bored.  You'd be surprised how happy they get when they see an old toy they hadn't played with in a long time.

Currently I have two favorite brands for wooden toys.  The first is Melissa & Doug (Melissaanddoug.com), and Educo (http://www.educo.nl/en/index.php).  These toys are also very easy to store and don't create a lot of clutter. For example all of the small wood ones that you see above can be stored in baskets that your child can pull out and put away very easily.  I have a drawer that Eli can find some of his puzzles in and some of his stackable toys as well.

I only make a few of the toys available at a time. 

Eli playing with the "Melissa and Doug Farm Sound Puzzle".  It makes the sound of each corresponding animal when the puzzle piece is correctly placed on the board.  

Something that we also love are card board play houses that can be colored.  Eli's friend Tiago has one and we have been considering purchasing one for Eli since he loves it so much! 

I also on occasion "made" our own toys.  In the picture above I put beans into Rigo's socks.  I was teaching Eli "In" and "Out". We would take the "bean socks" and put them in and out of the basket. The feeling of the beans in the sock kept his attention for quite some time, until eventually he put himself in the basket with the socks!

Last but not least we love Crayons (Washable).  

The most important thing about any toy is to make sure that it is safe and age appropriate for your child. 

We hope you enjoyed this blog and that everyone is enjoying their weekend, till next time! 

Luv

Eli & Mommy