Succumb to the force of habit and buy another nice packed toy?
Or maybe treat playing as an investment in the child?s future and look for toys that both amuse and teach?

These are the questions that modern and up-to-date parents more and more often ask themselves. The idea to base upbringing on fun is continuously gaining popularity, particularly with parents who want to comprehensively and harmoniously raise their kids. This trend is increasing in strength, especially as imported toys that mainly come from China are usually made of toxic materials

- Discovery that first few years of life are of decisive importance to the emotional and personal development of children has changed parents? attitude towards early childhood ? says child psychologist Aleksandra Wilkin - Nowadays, they usually want to make the best use of the time when child?s brain is most absorptive and equip the baby with skills it may find useful in the future.

 

Parents are becoming more and more conscious of the fact that they should stimulate development of their kids. Buying blocks is no longer just fun, it became a conscious choice intended to serve the most complete development of abilities dreaming deep inside children. Toys change, just like the reality in which kids are living does.

- I don?t want to deprive my baby of fun ? says Ania Tomczak,, mother of one and a half years old Kacper. . I?m not going to stop buying toys, but I simply want to contribute to the identification and then the development of my son?s predispositions. Lots of my friends are young mothers and we all are looking for the same ? inventive and creative toys that will give us a chance to play together with our kids in a wise manner.

One may say that the toy market will quickly meet these expectations. So it does, but in USA, Germany, France and Scandinavia, where shelves are sagging under the weight of ?educational? or ?creative? labelled toys. Polish parents and their children, unfortunately, are not so lucky, since our market of educational toys is yet not as developed as in other countries. But we quickly make up for lost time.

Domestic manufacturers have sensed the increasing demand and thus are continuously broadening their range of products. They advertise the products they make as ones that perfectly support visual/physical coordination, make recognition of colour and shapes easier, and develop perceptiveness. These toys enjoy a good reputation, win contests organized by parents? magazines and make an increasing segment of the entire toy market.

All kinds of games, jigsaws and strictly educational toy are the products usually available on the market. Cartoon convention based CD applications to learn foreign languages are another part of the offer.
Also Edukacja Polska has launched the first and test batch of educational toys.

Where to look for educational toys? First of all, they can be bought at toy shops. However, a wide range of products is also available at online shops.
It happens that there is no special place for these toys in smaller shops, so one must pick them out from the mass of other toys. Nevertheless, the number of special sections devoted to ?creative? or ?educational? toys in larger stores is constantly increasing.

According to salespersons from one of the shops located at Smyk (a large toy shopping centre in Warsaw), LEGO blocks, traditional / foam puzzles, and games are most popular of educational toys. Plastic toys dominated until recently, since parents had greatest confidence in just this material because of sanitary and safety reasons. However, environmentally friendly wooden toys are now growing in popularity.

It results from conversations with the staff of many shops that price still remains important to many parents. Of course, that should not be a surprise. But people start to attach greater attention to educational and functional aspects of toys and more carefully read instructions as they want to learn about the toy?s functions. We are prone to pay more and be sure that the toy we are buying will turn out a good investment.

This point of view is worthy of promotion. Let?s take the nationwide action ?All of Poland Reads to Kids? as a good point of reference. For its initiator, Irenie Koźmińskiej, ? the chairman of the association named the same way, it has become a dream to restore the habit of reading with children as a peculiar antidote to the predominating culture of comics and computers. So it has become our dream to launch a nationwide campaign to promote the habit of having a wise time with children. It would be the best if we use to that end toys that both give fun and teach.

The first 3 years of child?s life are decisive to its emotional and personal development, and until the age of 6 a child gains almost 80% of information about the surrounding world that it will acquire throughout its entire life.

 

It?s worth buying:  

 

First letters (manufactured by Edukacja Polska S.A.)  

Very liked by children and popular with parents educational toy that helps learn to read and write. This set firstly shows how to write letters and then helps to reproduce them. First letters are a great support for children at risk from dyslexia, especially as exercises skilfully done under parents? tutelage may eliminate problems with mastering the art of reading and writing.
Folded, magnetic tablet and drywipe marker attached to the set makes it easier to correct defects and errors without the necessity of rewriting or crossing off the text. The set of specially prepared stencils helps write by ear or by memory, and at the same time gives a chance to do a series of exercises that develop visual/physical coordination and manual competence.

 

Portraits ? we get to know emotions (manufactured by Edukacja Polska S.A.)  

This set gives children practically unlimited playing opportunities and in an attractive way stimulates kids to learn and differentiate basic emotional conditions, as well as facial expressions we use to communicate our feelings. The set of foils that represent particular parts of a human face and a flat table on which these parts can be arranged help children create portraits resembling persons from their closest environment or characters from their favourite fairy tales. The set includes also a drywipe marker that gives a child the possibility to draw particular parts of the face on its own.