Guide to Children;s Fun and Learning -"Edutaining Kids"

Edutaining kids is dedicated to providing parents with reviews and recommendations of "edutainment" products and activities for children. The kids' products selected for inclusion on Edutaining Kids are designed to entertain and to educate simultaneously, and include children's software, educational toys, books, audio, video games, and videos.

Divided into age groups and subjects, EdutainingKids.com's feature articles and reviews help make sense out of web sites, activities, and the latest products available to children and their parents.

The reviews provided are based on feed back from kids, parents and caregivers, so you can expect to read impartial and objective reviews.

Most children's "edutainment" products are evaluated and graded (with A+ indicating products that are outstanding, A excellent, A- very good, B+ good, B average, and so forth), while others are evaluated as "Recommended". Often, a ratings bar graph accompanies a review, providing a visual overview of the product's merits, broken down into various categories such as entertainment, educational content, etc., each based on a scale of zero to ten. Articles help to provide comparisons and round-ups of products with a common theme, such as software for first-graders.

I have checked the site to see if software or oter edutainment products are available at reasonable prices or not. At software bargain page This page offers the latest offers, rebates, specials, discounts, and deals in children's software, video, DVD, video games, toys. Many software titles including Dora, Putt Putt were around $4.95.

You can search the guide by age group like 'toddler fun and learning' page provides product reviews and other offers for toddlers.

How to choose toys for your child?

My son is now 9 years old, and I can understand that his days of watching "cartoon movies" and playing with legos, bricks are gone. But still it is difficult to choose a gift for him. It is difficult for me to keep him busy when he is not doing his home work. But he has passion of making crafts out of recycle stuff. And I am happy that he himself finds enough material around the house to keep him busy most of the time.

This question is really important for every parent, which is "how to choose toys for a child?" Because not only toys are a good pass time for children, but they learn from it, developing theri skills at the same time.

Even the most expensive toys will be completely useless if they are not appropriate for your child. A good toy for one child isn't necessarily a good toy for another child. When you purchase a toy, you need to consider your child's personality, likes, and dislikes. In this article, we will answer all of your toy questions, including:

Children's Toy Safety

Every year hundreds of thousands of children get injured playing with the toys their friends and family have bought for them. Though there are manufacturer standards, your child's toys need to be further inspected by you for safety. In this section, we will give a list of safety concerns that you should consider before you bring a toy home for your child. From shocks, to choking, to burning, we will show you the hazards you need to look out for.

Age-Appropriate Toys

If a toy is beyond your child's level of development the child will quickly become frustrated and overwhelmed. If the toy is too far below your child's development level, they will become bored and lose interest. The right toy can also help your child's imagination and creativity grow and blossom. On this page, we will help you match age-appropriate toys to your child's age. From birth all the way through the third year of life, we will show you the toys that will be best for you child.

About the Author:
Alvin Eden, M.D.: Alvin Eden, M.D. serves as a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Weil Medical College of Cornell University in New York, New York. He is Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Eden is also the author of a number of child care book, including Positive Parenting and Growing Up Thin.
For full article link: How to Choose Toys for a Child

Suggestion for electronic and educational toys:

* Educational Electronic Toys

* Creative toys

*** At Best Child Toys you can get advice on how to choose the best toys and games for your child, and how to maximize the use of toys for your children's benefit.

Selectively chosen toys and games are hugely beneficial for your children. Not only they are good for boosting your children's development, they are also good in helping your children to learn. With educational toys and games in tow, your children will grow to love learning.

For each type of toys, you will find these following information:

- The benefits and drawbacks of each type of toy.
- tips and advice on how to choose a child toy with the best value.
- tips on how to maximize the play value of a particular toy 'beyond' the manufacturer recommendation.

FREE offer from the site:

* Get the FREE e-book "The Secret On How To Save Money And Time On Toy Shopping"
What you can read there at e-book?

- The secret of stress-free toy shopping.

- How to save money on child toys

- Sure ways to prevent overspending on toys.

- How to recognize toys which are not only fun, but can dramatically boost your child's development.

- How to recognize toys which are just a waste of money.
And much more ...

- Click on the link, enter your e-mail to get your copy: Toy Shopping Guide E-Book


* "Ape 2 zebra" is an online store from Campbellville, Ontario and this site is from parents who are concerned about helping children learn while having fun. Site provides some of the finest educational toys and products available to help their children learn while having fun.


Site also provides tips and guide on choosing toys to develop skills like:

- Toys to develop fine motor skills

- Toys for gross motor skills

- Social Developmental Toys

- Reading and writing

Get their newsletter: link

Related posts:

* Role of educational toys and games in skill development

* Review: "Dr.toy's Guide" --dealing in educational toys and products!

Role of educational toys and games in skill development

Educational toys are part of the modern educator's curriculum. These educational toys and games are fun to play while they help the child in skill development.

Wikipedia says:

Educational Toys In Child Development:
"Educational toys enhance intellectual, social, emotional, and/or physical development. Educational toys are thus designed to encourage reasonable development milestones within appropriate age groups.

For preschool age youngsters, simple wooden blocks might be a good starting point for a child to begin to understand causal relationships, basic principals of science (e.g. if a block falls from the top of a structure, it will fall until a surface stops its fall), and develop patience and rudimentary hand-eye coordination.

For a child moving towards elementary school, other, more sophisticated manipulatives might further aid the development of these skills. Interlocking manipulative toys like Legos or puzzles challenge the child to improve hand/eye coordination, patience, and an understanding of spacial relationships. Finally, a child in elementary school might use very sophisticated construction sets that include moving parts, motors and others to help further understand the complex workings of the world. Importantly, the educational value derived by the child increases when the educational toy is age appropriate."

In an article from "Creativity Institute" it says:
"Playing with blocks can be good for children with ADHD"

"Block play can be great for many ages. From simple stack-up and knock-over fun to imaginative building. Blocks teach problem-solving skills, because a child discovers how stacking and matching can produce different results. They can also become components of pretend play, because a child can fantasize what the structures are. There are also big foam blocks that are almost "life size" and let children create their own fantasy playhouses. These lightweight blocks are so versatile, they can be climbed on or tunneled under. Magnetic block and construction sets have pieces that connect in more ways than can conventional plastic snap-together blocks and allow even more imaginative opportunities. And don't forget the versatility of the classic wooden building blocks.
Blocks, like many traditional toys, have other educational advantages for a child with ADHD. The number of positive outcomes is limitless, so children can continue playing until they've reached a level of personal satisfaction."

* Nik Nak toys offers: Child Development Chart: It is Child Development Toy Guide for you to use when considering which toys to give to loved ones. This provides guidelines to development stages and then suggests appropriate educational toys.

Teachers can use this guide in kindergarten or pre-school stages, where you need to provide learning in a fun way.

Someone said "Education is what creates true motivated free thinkers." and there is no doubt that when learning is fun, you can get success in creating true motivated free thinkers.

* Find the right toy.com is online retailer of educational toys for all children. It guides you in finding the right toy for your child. This site is useful for both parents and teachers as it guides you to choose the toys, which might help in developing skill level in many areas like as "visual, sensory, social, emotional, and so on.

It showcases meaningful advances in child development and educational learning toys. From kids' mobility toys to visual learning and developmental toys, your leader in educational toys.
What they do?

"We do the legwork for you, sorting through the veritable litany of "developmental" toys and educational "learning" toys. We've taken professional experience in developmental therapy and put it to work, screening toys that make a difference in the lives of children and parents. When it comes to child development and occupational therapy toys, we're serious about success. From kids' mobility toys to sensory stimulation toys and improving hand eye coordination. Our collection of educational toys capitalizes on your child's strengths by using them to develop weaknesses. With developmental toys and more we've put the child back in child development."

* Creativity Institute deals in toys which bring out the creativity in your child. They believe that "Every child has creative ability just waiting to be tapped!"
What they say:
"We've selected toys we believe can help develop creativity in children, whether the creative process comes naturally to them or not.

Through our newsletter and articles featured on creativityinstitute.com, we do everything we can to try to help parents nurture creativity in their children with helpful hints, advice and suggested activities."
Their blog has many useful posts about creativity.

* Learning toy center says in "Why Educational Toys For Your Child?":

"Learning and developing new skills as a child grows can make a big impact on their life. Educational toys and games help stimulate a child’s creativity as well as their development. "

*** Sites providing educational toys and games for your child

Review: "Dr.toy's Guide" --dealing in educational toys and products!

The Institute for Childhood Resources, a not-for-profit organization has created this award winning site.

"Dr.Toy's Guide" is called world's first website to provide information on the best in toys and educational products, offers year-round, award-winning toy and children's product information plus timely articles, useful resources, links and much more. These include toys, dolls, games, puzzles, books, software, CDs, audio and video discs and tapes, creative materials, construction toys etc.

Behind the scene: The person or expert behind the site is "Stevanne Auerbach, PhD"

More about Dr.Toy:
Dr. Auerbach, an established speaker, consultant, and author, is trained in child psychology, education, special education, and child development. Dr. Auerbach has a well-earned title, "Dr. Toy", dating to her first assignment with "Creative Playthings" (1968) where she developed its first education marketing program

Dr. Toy, Stevanne Auerbach, PhD, has been for many years one of the nation's and world’s leading experts on play, toys, and children's products. With 30 years of direct experience, Dr. Auerbach includes educationally oriented, developmental and skill building products from the best large and small companies in her four annual award programs. Many parents, teachers and toy buyers use Dr. Toy’s guidance in making selections.

Dr. Toy has written 15 books and many dozens of articles about play and toys for national and regional magazines and newspapers, has been featured as an expert in articles by others, and has been a featured guest on radio and television programs throughout the country and outside of the USA.

* Dr. Toy's Tips on Selecting Toys and Other Children's Products
* You can also ask any question relating kids toys at thisLink
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Some of the Dr. Toy's favourite sites