The focus of Indian education has already started to shift to play based learning of early childhood policy thinking. The National Education Policy 2020 and related foundational-stage reforms all have started focusing on the holistic development of kids. So learning through play is increasingly being used to build creativity, curiosity, and social skills in children.
But what happens in Indian households is that parents tend to place strong value on academic success, which might lead families to pick worksheets, repetition, and early literacy drills over play. And some families end up not finding play as learning as they think it might not add up to academic outcomes. What they do not realise is they do not need to “teach” in the school sense every time, but know how to invite children in to play, narrate stories to them, and respond as and how they explore.
There’s research that shows parent related factors like what their income is, what attitude they keep towards their children, and the quality of the time spent with the child, all decides their level of play and creativity levels. So play-based learning at home is not just a topic to be executed at home, but also about the quality of time, the space they keep, and the confidence parents have to support it.
And play at home does not just entertain kids. There has been Indian and International evidence that proves that play based learning builds a lifelong process of how the brain acquires the information, organizes it as per the importance, and how to use the knowledge accordingly. It also develops their ability to monitor their emotions, evaluate what they are feeling, modify their emotional reactions.
Play that will stimulate a child’s senses by making them feel what touch, sight, and hearing means are called sensory play. When kids interact with the world or are at a learning phase on how the world works, they can only do it through the five senses i.e., touching, tasting, hearing, seeing and smelling. So how their senses are shaped in interacting with the world also decides what and how they learn about the world around them. So picking sensory toys wisely is quite important as it can change the overall game play.
Below we have categorised the sensory toys suitable as per the age that you can shop from Mittstore:
If kids are given a chance to learn building stories, pretend play stories would be a great way to help them learn. It enhances the brain’s management system where kids start shaping their mental skills so that they plan better, build a focussed attention, remember instructions around, and juggle multiple tasks easily. It also shapes their ability to express their thoughts coherently and accordingly communicate with others.
Parents can introduce their kids to finger puppets, hand puppets, mini miniatures, story flashcards, etc, which helps them in understanding the different roles that exist in the world, role play them and accordingly build their communication skills.
To make kids physically strong where their body’s capacity gets stronger to perform tasks and their motor skills get developed while becoming healthy emotionally. The art and craft activities also sharpen the cognitive skills of kids where they are able to process, store, and retrieve information better.
Buying them boards or coloring books also builds their grip power and hand eye coordination. You can also buy quilling arts or mandala ones for them to build patience, concentration and focus.
STEM is an abbreviation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, which believes in hands-on experiments and play to strengthen these subjects and concepts that can be used in daily life then. It adds discipline to their thinking capacity where kids are actively able to analyze, interpret, evaluate, and synthesize information.
It also helps them scale their problem solving skills as they are able to identify the issues, understand the causes, and also build the confidence on resolving it further. There are a variety of curated best kids learning toys and parents can easily buy STEM activities for toddlers and preschoolers to build creativity in children.
Parents do not have to be professional musicians to create a musical home or teach kids music at home. It is just that instead of making it an academic subject parents just have to help kids get immersed in the interest of playing with musical instruments and ensure that they put it into their daily routine.
Get them Harmonium, guitar, piano, flute, drums, keyboards, and other musical toys for toddlers that you can get from Mittstore. You can also combine singing and playing the instruments with clapping, stomping, marching, or play interactive listening games so that they start differentiating between the high and low sounds or loud and soft sounds.
When kids are given interactive games that are appropriate as per their age then engaging them while building their essential skills becomes easy. While they play with the games thinking they are playing and having fun, parents are relaxed that they are not wasting their time but building all the relevant skills required. Especially the physical toys help them experience hands-on learning while keeping screen free development for their young ones.
Kids educational toys and games are a great way to improvise their academic skills while making them have fun.
Planning outdoor games wisely can help kids stay safe, not hurt themselves, while fully enjoying themselves. Parents might need to actively supervise the area and maintain a hazard-free play area for them so that there are no sharp objects, broken glass, or things that might hurt them.
At Mittstore, we have planned montessori outdoor toys like playhouses, swings, slides, etc., that keeps your kids excited and parents happy. The best part of our outdoor games is that we have child-friendly materials, creative colors, and comfortable spacing for kids to have the best of their time.
Games that don’t take up space, do not mess up the floors, are vertical and space-saving are every parent’s first choice. And wall mounts fall in this category of fun play stations that have the power to keep your kids hooked to the walls or one corner at your home.
Mittstore has all kinds of wall mounted toys like sensory walls, busy boards, etc. There can be simple wooden type of puzzle in it or bead mazes, latches, xylophones, moving gears, spinning drums, and more, so that children can build their sensory skills and start practicing activities that become helpful in their day to day living.
This might be the end of the blog, but not the end of the play based learning toys for kids at Mittstore. We keep introducing new products on our website almost everyday so that kids from all ages have the best of the experience in their childhood while parents do not have to sit and look for all the kids learning toys. We curate it for the parents and make it playful for kids too. Visit us at www.mittstore.com and look for the fun toys your kids deserve.
