Combine Learning with Fun for Your Little One: 10 Wonderful Educational Toys for Toddlers (2020)

Tots love pulling things apart, putting them back together, pulling stuff out and putting them back on, adding on or building things. Such toys like interlocking blocks, nesting cups, or water play toys or toys meant for beach play serve multiple purposes of playing different games. For instance, a plastic set of interlocking blocks or wooden blocks can not only be used to build a road, a spaceship, a zoo or a bridge but also enhance the toddler’s creative imagination, encourage their logical thinking, and also work on their problem-solving skills. You can also ensure to buy toys that can encourage your child’s growth through the varying stages of development. For instance, small plastic toys can be exciting for toddlers, but they can be a part of a much bigger story for an older kid like a plastic animal toy or action figure, stuffed animal or a doll.

Playing with toys allows a child to practice his or her new skills repeatedly, allowing the toddler to figure things out on their own with minimal supervision or prodding, thereby enhancing their logical thinking and problem-solving skills, also developing their understanding of how elements blend, their motor skills and hand-eye coordination. For example, art & craft items like crayons, paints, play dough, clay or puzzles, and shape-sorters. Look out for toys that your child can use while growing up and play-acting stories. This builds on the kid’s language and literary skills, logically arrange the events and develop problem-solving skills as well. For example, toy food and utensils, stuffed animals, dollhouse for toddlers can be used imaginatively.

As your toddler grows, he/she gets good at figuring out the real purpose behind an object’s functioning as in the case of a light switch or a television remote, a cell phone and more, which not only aids in the child’s spatial relations of how things fit together but also develops his/her motor skills. As the child grows, you should also factor in some ‘getting ready to read’ toys like books, magnetic letters, and art supplies to encourage the tot’s early reading & writing skills, by using real-life props like magazines, food menus or catalogs to look at or play with, making the toddler familiar with prints, texts, and letters. You’d also look at toys that help the child practice his/her physical strength and develop them more with toys like balls of different shapes/sizes, 3-wheeler scooters, tricycles, plastic bowling sets, pull toys and more!

A fun and interactive way of exploring early number concepts that include recognizing and counting numbers, the Number Lovin’ Oven from Leapfrog is apt for toddlers from the age of 2-4 years. The set includes an interactive oven, 4 pizza slices, 2 cupcakes, 3 slices of bread, a fried egg, a spatula, a baking tray, 1 skillet, and 2 plates. The game comes with a happy singing oven that warms up to counting, sharing, and vocabulary skills with over 30 phrases and songs that can be learned by pressing the chef’s hat. It is a portable toy that can be taken everywhere and fits everything well. Priced at Rs. 2,244, the Leapfrog Number Lovin’ Oven is available for purchase on ubuy.co.in.

The multicoloured, Mega Bloks Big Building Bag from Fisher Price is an 80 first builders’ block set, designed for hours of play, compatible with all mega block builder sets for countless building challenges, included inside a portable, PVC free zip bag to store the pieces. Priced at Rs. 1,200, the building set includes 80 building blocks that can be used to build, stack and explore multiple construction possibilities with different shapes to create tall towers, unique castles or funny animals and can just as quickly be taken apart, helping to enhance your child’s fine motor skills and creative imagination for an open-ended game experience. This interactive toy can be purchased on amazon.in.

The Fisher Price Farm Animal Puzzle introduces toddlers to alphabets, animals, their sounds, and different colours, music, and phrases that help stimulate the baby’s auditory, visual and physical senses, encouraging their grasping and placing skills in the correct slots. The puzzle includes a puppy button that comes up with fun phrases, an ABC song, and an animal song when pressed.

As the tot matches and places an animal to its correct place, he/she’s rewarded with the animal’s name, sound and a unique song for each animal. This also encourages the child’s eye-hand coordination, logical thinking, and problem-solving skills set. The use of bright colours, sounds, and music in addition to the puzzle pieces helping enhance the kid’s sense of sight, sound, and touch. Ideal for ages of 12-36 months, the Farm Animal Puzzle by Fisher Prices is priced at Rs. 1,259, and can be purchased from firstcry.com.

The Leapfrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set works on introducing toddlers to alphabets, by encouraging them to talk out oud to learn them. Ideal for keeping the tots busy, the magnetic school bus and letter tiles can be stuck easily to the fridge or any other magnetic surface, or the letters can be pressed onto the bus window.

When pressed twice, the letter will say a word that begins with the letter and is then used in a sentence. The kids can also touch a musical note to move and sing along to 3 learning songs with an alphabet song and the bus wheels. Apt for tots aged 2+, the fridge phonics supports alphabet knowledge inclusive of letter names and sounds. Priced at Rs. 1,529, this educational toy can be purchased from Flipkart.

The Funskool Chains Link and Activity Ball is a cool game for a toddler that encourages hand-eye coordination skills using vibrant and visually appealing colours, helping your kid recognize and work with both colours and also learn basic counting in the same breath. The links and activity ball work on a child’s awareness of colours, counting skills, and improve on the child’s ability to connect/disconnect the interlocking chains, improving on the hand-eye coordination, excellent motor skills, and other skills. Measuring 21.2 x 16.2 x 5.2 cms, the toys are compact and portable, easy to carry around, and made of high-quality plastic with no sharp edges and child-friendly. Priced at Rs. 416 only, the Funskool Chains Link and Activity Ball are available on amazon.in.

A popular and well-appreciated fishing game, the classic Fishing Game from Planet of Toys teaches a toddler the hand-eye coordination, where the kid uses mini fishing poles to try catching as many numbers of fish while the game base spins faster. While the board with the fish spins, the fish also opens and closes its mouth. It is best to begin with the smaller magnetic fish and then work on the non-magnetic bigger fish. Inclusive of 26 vibrantly coloured fish, this exciting fishing game comes with two rotating fish ponds and music, appropriate for kids of 3+ years. It measures 27 x 26 x 10 cm and is priced at Rs. 579, available on firstcry.com.

The Magna tiles construction toys are plastic pieces of varying sizes and shapes that snap together magnetically, allowing the child to build unique and varied geometric structures. Available on flipkart.com and priced at Rs. 2,498, the 3D premium Magna tiles have been designed as a magical construction game puzzle to encourage the child’s hand-eye coordination, creative imagination, motor skills, colour-shape-rhythm, and pattern recognition and comes as a set including 6 square pieces, 2 window squares, 4 triangle pieces, 4 half triangles, 4 right triangles, 4 rectangles, 3 H-shaped blocks, a big wheels set and an instructions booklet.

Promote your little one’s creative skills and imagination with the Glow Pad that’s ideal for making learning fun, especially for spellings, counting numbers, reading & writing skills. Without wasting any paper or ink, the Magic Glow Pad is environment-friendly and child-safe as well, with the front layer of the water painting mat made of a soft warp knitted rain-coat fabric and the rear side made of water-resistant nylon material. The pad is durable and not easy to break, can be folded compactly, and is excellent for both indoor and outdoor use. Designed with four neon-coloured drawing areas, the Figment Kids leaning pad doodle magic glow pad comes with two 3D glasses and is priced at Rs. 950 on ideacart.com.

Ideal for toddlers of 3+ years, the Shanbuyers Wooden Pattern Blocks and Boards Classic Toy comes with 24 design cards that can be used to create a beautiful design/pattern, or the child can create his/her own mosaic using the 130 colored wooden tiles. The game promotes the child’s motor skills with the finely crafted wooden set rich with flat block shapes and patterns, which are approx. 1/8 inch thick and can be easily placed, slid, rearranged or picked up, including large blue diamonds, red triangles, yellow trapezoids, red hexagons, purple squares, and small green diamonds. The pattern blocks and boards help encourage the creative and imaginary senses of the child. Priced at Rs. 494, this classic toy is available on flipkart.com.

Featuring 25 keys and 2 complete octaves, the Learn-2-Play Piano from Melissa & Doug is a creative playtoy which will allow your toddler to explore different low and high notes, loud and soft sounds and work on a brightly coloured Pink piano with a sturdy wooden construct, that comes with an easy to play illustrated songbook with English Lyrics, measuring 18" x 12.7" x 11.5" — priced at Rs. 4,478, the Melissa & Doug Learn-To-Play Pink Piano is best for kids aged 3+ years and available on ubuy.co.in.

Before you go ahead and allow your baby to indulge in different toys, it is best to ensure that the toys not only support his/her creativity and curiosity but also improve on their imaginary skills and encourage knowledge in a fun and exciting manner. Here are a few important points to keep in mind: