Once your child reaches early school age, he or she will have already become fairly self-sufficient and will only become more so. Each day provides new opportunities to learn, explore, and discover more about the world. The educational toys that kids at this developmental stage play with enhance the skills that they’re learning in school.
Fine motor skills
As kids learn to read and write in kindergarten, they’re also developing the fine motor skills required to hold a pencil properly and carefully trace letters and numbers. Toys that allow children to practice drawing shapes and images in fine detail are ideal.
At ages 5 to 7, kids’ gross motor skills have developed to a greater degree, allowing them to perform a series of movements smoothly. With improved hand-eye coordination, they can enjoy common sports and physical games. Kids this age are better at playing catch even with small balls.
Communication and cognitive skills
In the early school years, children develop better speaking and listening skills. They have more patience for longer stories and may enjoy making up stories themselves. At the same time, they’re learning the basics of reading, writing, and math. Educational toys reinforce these fundamental skills. They have advanced enough to begin understanding and enjoying board games with the family.
As children go through school, they learn to better react with other children and consider the world from a less ego-centric view. Games that encourage social interaction, fair play, sharing, and taking turns are useful for developing kids’ social skills.
If your children are just learning how to read, then you understand how important it is to encourage them to practice and develop reading skills. It’s helpful to look for ways to incorporate reading lessons into everyday situations—for instance, asking kids to sound out words on billboards as you’re driving… [more]
For school kids ages 5 to 7, the best educational toys disguise learning as fun and games. We found the following 10 toys to be exceptional for such qualities as… [more]