Christmas is just around the corner. If you’re like me and tend to leave all the gift shopping to last minute, there are some things to consider before buying toys for those little ones on your list. Before buying the latest video game or digital toy, remember that when children play, they aren’t just entertaining themselves – they’re actually developing critical vision and developmental skills. “Does this toy over-stimulate children?” or “does this toy help develop a child’s imagination/fine motor skills/critical thinking?”. If you’re unsure, there will be a list of toys at the end of this blog that help build these important skill sets.

The reason digital toys and video games are not recommended is because they often over-stimulate children and don’t allow for true thinking and processing to occur that are required for skill growth. This is not to say that all digital related toys are bad. Robotics clubs and toys are becoming more popular now a days. The idea is to supplement the robotics with brain-building toys that develop other skills important for child development.

As kids play, they explore with their hands and develop important thinking skills that help them navigate the world on their own. It’s the same thing with vision development. As kids play, they develop important visual skills (hand eye coordination, fine motor control, visual perception/visual thinking, and imagination). If the only thing our kids play with are games on a screen, it doesn’t allow them to develop these important skills.

Toys according to skill development and age range are listed below.

Building Toys

• Building Blocks (ages 1+)
• Mega Bloks (1+)
• Lincoln Logs (3+)
• Tinker Toys (3+)
• K’NEX (3+)
• Legos/Duplos (4+)
• Magformers (3+)
• Roller Coaster Challenge (8+)
• VEX Robotics (8+)

Fine Motor Skills Toys

• Finger Paints (1+)
• Kinetic Sand (1+)
• Pegboard and Pegs (3+)
• Coloring Books and Crayons (3+)
• Dot-to-Dot Activity Books (3+)
• Play-Doh/Modeling Clay (3+)
• Chalkboard Easel (3+)
• Large Bead Stringing (3+)
• Lacing Cards (3+)
• Lite-Brite (4+)
• Silly Putty (4+)
• Rainbow Loom (5+)
• Jacks (5+)
• Stencils
• Spirograph
• Origami (8+)
• Paint or Color by Numbers
• Bead Craft Kits
• Models (car, airplane, ship, etc.)

Space Perception Toys

• Jumpin’ Monkeys (5+)
• Don’t Break the Ice (3+)
• Ants in the Pants (3+)
• Egg and Spoon Race (4+)
• Fishin’ Around (4+)
• Flippin’ Frogs (5+)
• Pick-up Sticks (5+)
• Marbles (5+)
• KerPlunk (5+)
• Operation (6+)
• Door Pong (7+)
• Jenga (8+)
• any outdoor sports games (frisbee, ring toss, dart games (velcro), Elefun, etc.)

Visual Thinking Toys & Games

• Gears!Gears!Gears! (3+)
• Thinkfun Laser Chess (8+)
• Thinkfun Shadows in the Forest (8+)
• Kanoodle (8+)
• Uno (7+)
• Spot It! (7+)
• Jigsaw Puzzles (3+)
• Bingo (3+)
• Tangrams (5+)
• Perplexus (8+)

Memory Games

• Guidecraft Memory Caps (3+)
• Memory Game (5+)
• Loopz (7+)
• Hypderdash (7+)
• Simon (8+)
• Chicken Cha Cha CHa (4+)

Balance and Coordination Toys & Games

• Sit and Spin (1.5+)
• Hoppity Hop (3+)
• Foam pogo jumper (3+)
• Hoola hoop (4+)
• Jump rope (5+)
• Twister (6+)
• Trampoline
• Bicycle

Hopefully this gives you lots of options for the little ones in your lives. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us 🙂