As a step towards ‘Education without Tears’ toys are great tools for providing fun ways of learning for children. By nature children are inquisitive. By nature children are playful.

Depending upon the natural tendency of the child, preference for toys may vary from child to child and from stage to stage for each child. Parents and educators may come to know about each child’s preference through observation. At the same time different toys help in the growth of different skills. So a child must have access to a variety of educational toys to develop different skills.

Irrespective of the purpose for which you give a toy to your child, educative toys teaches the child. This has positive as well as negative connotations. Sometimes, simple pebbles and sticks may make the children creative as they exercise their imaginations to create different characters to play. Repetitive use of some toys like guns may leave negative subtle impressions in the child’s subconscious.

Toys that have a toxic or allergic effect when put in the mouth should be avoided. Toys that may cause physical harm, like toys with sharp edge, should be avoided.

Now choosing the right toy depends upon the stage of the childhood. Babies between 0-6 months cannot see properly. Soft toys and toys with strong contrasting colours appeal to this stage of childhood.

Slowly their motor skills get refined after six months. ‘Building Blocks’ and other games requiring ‘slotting’, ‘fitting’ and ‘fixing’ will be very much useful at this stage. Toys that involve a lot of activity like walking, crawling and pushing will be beneficial for their physical development.

After the age of 2 children mature to ‘role playing’. They prefer group games at this stage with the use of their imagination. Toys that stretch their imagination and aim at the development of behavioral and communication skills will be most useful at this stage.

The cognitive faculty of the brain gets developed during 4 to 5 years of age. Hence educational toys at this stage should help improving thinking and problem solving skills.

After the age of 5 children move towards more group games and will eventually grow out of toys. However through the help of toys and games children can be taught social and moral values. They need freedom of choice at this stage and that should be provided, but not without necessary monitoring by the parents and teachers.

The right toy at the right time will not only provide the necessary education at the early stage of childhood, but also supplement traditional learning at the later stage.

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If you have a new born, no doubt you’ll be swamped with dazzling baby gifts that might not be used at all. However, finding the perfect baby gift is strenuous until you choose by occasion, age, recipient, kinds of toys and price.

There are dozens of important occasions for a baby including baptism, christening, first birthday and plenty more. Flowers can of course delight any occasion and special occasions of babies are no exception. Baby gift baskets with useful baby products can be an ideal gift for a new born. There are many personalised gift ideas that allow personalising the gift with baby names including teddy bears, mugs, photo frames suiting any occasion. Some online baby gift stores takes the hassle out by offering the choice of sending baby gift vouchers or e-gift certificates, which facilitates the recipient to buy whatever they wish from the online gift shop.

Considering the baby’s age is the key to choose any kind of gift, for instance a rattle is not a perfect gift for an 8 months old baby when there are other useful gift ideas such as walker or toy chest depending on your budget.

To conclude, whatever gift you buy for a baby, you should make sure that it meets all the above criteria and also the safety standards. The gift you buy should never have any sharp ends waiting to hurt them.