Play with Purpose: Educational Toys that Make Learning Fun
As a parent, you want your child to learn and develop new skills through play. But with so many toy options out there, how do you know which ones are educational and fun?
The key is finding age-appropriate toys that encourage hands-on learning through play and exploration. By providing the right toys at each stage, you can nurture your child's natural curiosity while supporting their physical and mental development.
Le Voyage d'Olga Olga's Travels Xylophone (Moulin Roty)
This colourful xylophone encourages musical exploration and improves hand-eye coordination in toddlers and preschoolers. Tapping the keys introduces them to the concept of cause and effect, while also helping to develop gross motor skills and rhythm. The bright colours and fun animal shapes help to grab little ones' attention. By hitting the keys with a mallet, toddlers build arm and grip strength while listening to different tones. This open-ended musical toy sparks creativity and imagination too, with kids making up songs as they go!
Dino Colouring (Scrollino)
A fun colouring book that improves fine motor skills and sparks creativity in preschool and early primary school kids. It comes with six coloured pencils and 1.4m of acid-free heavyweight paper featuring cute dinosaurs. As kids refine their hand-eye coordination by carefully colouring the spaces, the variety of dinosaur pictures and schemes allow them to get creative in their colouring choices too. Meanwhile, the high-quality supplies mean less frustration and more time enjoying the colouring experience.
Storytelling Torchlight (Moulin Roty)
This unique movie-like reel introduces kids to the underwater world and the wonders of the deep. The hand-operated toy tells a fish's story as you rotate the pencil – watch as images appear and transition between one another. It’s a charming form of storytelling that introduces a novel twist to page-turning, combined with the reveal of sea creatures to create an immersive experience for the inquisitive mind. 
Scrollino For My Drawings (Scrollino)
A neat paper scroll that builds early writing skills and creativity in preschoolers as they doodle and draw. With 2m of plain paper children can draw on, they'll be inspired to draw, tell a story, and just let their imagination run wild. Having a blank canvas is the perfect invitation for young kids to hone their artistic skills. There are also refills readily available, so no need to hold back!
Arckit Greenscape Village Model House Kit (Arckit)
This building kit comes with different components that kids put together to build a community powered by nature, and helps to develop spatial thinking, planning, and design skills in grade schoolers. Combining this with other Arckit sets opens up endless building possibilities – even an entire universe! Kids also get a sense of accomplishment from constructing a unique sustainable village, while learning about environmental sustainability.
Educational toys can be a strong pillar in a child’s development, helping to foster motor skills, language, creativity, problem-solving, STEM abilities, and more. Also, they can help to cultivate certain lifestyle values and topical interests to explore in the future. Play can (and should) be fun and inspiring – providing a variety of toys tailored to your child’s age allows for richer learning and development across multiple domains.