Do You Think Toddlers Need Lots Of Educational Toys?

I think Tod­dlers need an equal amount of edu­ca­tional toys and inde­pen­dent envi­ron­men­tal expe­ri­ences. It’s amaz­ing the things you can enter­tain a tod­dler with! At 16 months they love to dance to music (maybe edu­ca­tional songs), musi­cal instru­ments, Play­dough, they love to read, Puz­zles are great, bub­bles, bean­bags, crayons. Any­thing that stim­u­lates motor skills at this age is appro­pri­ate. They should be learn­ing how to color, kick, attempt­ing to jump, rock­ing on a toy horse, the idea of bal­ance (bean bags on head), throw a ball/bounce a ball, using a spoon to eat, just to name a few.
I use to work with one year old’s in a pre-school envi­ron­ment. We would also use our imag­i­na­tions a lot. Imag­ine what you can do with a box. Pre­tend your row­ing a boat, rac­ing a car, Pup­pet shows.
Explor­ing out­doors is most impor­tant, this is where they learn about the world, sun, sky, grass. Mag­ni­fy­ing glasses are neat, any out­door explor­ing toys, or just a bird feeder, so they can watch/explore birds. Just some ideas, hope it helps.
Good Luck,
Ace

I agree with the book “Unplugged Play”. Check it out at your local library.
Every toy can be edu­ca­tional and with this age…you can turn just about any­thing into a toy. I think that part of this generation’s prob­lem is that they have been enter­tained by all these mod­ern toys that don’t require think­ing.
An easel is great… there is much ben­e­fit to table writing/painting as well. Puz­zles are won­der­ful because the ones with pegs tend to use the nat­ural “pose” for writ­ing. Rhythm instru­ments are wonderful…but you can also make them with your grand­baby. Stack­ing cups are great and can be used in many dif­fer­ent ways… pegs and a peg­board is nice, large lac­ing beads, wooden blocks for stack­ing and knock­ing down, var­i­ous types and sizes of balls. A farm set and a tea set are used the most here with our lit­tle ones! We use sen­sory mate­ri­als a lot with just basic cups/spoons. I find that a col­or­ful assort­ment of beans are a big hit with this age. Of course they need super­vi­sion since some are pretty oral!
Again… a lot you can do with­out spend­ing a bunch of money. Think back to what you used with your chil­dren or even what you used as a kid your­self! Those are the good toys!

no.

I don’t think kids need a lot of toys. You might look at the book “Unplugged Play” It has a great index in the back with a list of good items to have to encour­age cre­ative and inde­pen­dent play.
If I had to pick a top few, I’d go Melissa and Doug brand toys, with the plain wooden blocks, small wooden dolls with a doll house, a few balls of var­i­ous sizes, and some music instru­ments (mara­cas, drums, recorder). In a few short months, go for sand boxes, fin­ger paints, crayons or mark­ers and LOTs of paper.

Uhh not really! there are a lot of toys you can use that will help a chil­dren learn and explore with­out spend­ing any money. Like pots and pans or like a bucket, sponges, and tongs. The bucket, sponges, and tongs will help strengthen the child’s fin­ger and will help then learn to use scissors.