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Time and Space Educational Toys
Time and Space: If your child is moving from the toddler years to the preschool years, you may be hearing some new questions around your house. Is it time to go to the playground? When is it my birthday? Where is Grandma's house (3,000 miles away) and can we go there to play? In other words, your child's world is expanding beyond the immediate here and now. With these larger vistas of time and space come new puzzles. What is with Mommy when she stares at her wrist and shouts: we're late, it's time to go! What does Daddy mean when he says it's too far to drive to the North Pole? The Savvy Picks below, various as they might appear, are all devices that allow children to practice measuring time, space, or both, and should help your preschooler make sense of these elusive yet crucial concepts.
TIME AND SPACE TOYS
Quadrilla Basic Set
by Hape
For ages 3+ years (includes small parts not appropriate for children younger than 3)
The Quadrilla Basic Set is an elegantly simple wooden block set that allows kids to create magnificent marble runs. The set includes four wooden tracks and a full assortment of colored blocks, ramps, connecting pieces and the special ooh-and-aah-generating helix spiral, as well as 50 marbles. Kids are fascinated by the many different things they can build, some simple and some as elaborate as their imaginations themselves with a funnel and a see-saw and many drops and turns. The delight on their faces as the marble slaloms down the course will be your sign that this toy gets it right. I can't say that I remember feeling many moments of sheer, unfettered joy during physics class in high school, but perhaps if I'd gotten my start with the Quadrilla, it all could have been so different.. There are, of course, add-on expansion sets to complement this basic set, but the basic set itself is a truly wonderful toy.
Wedgits
by Imagability
For ages 2+ years
I know, you've heard it so many times before: your children will be so engrossed with this toy that you'll watch in amazement as they play quietly together for 30 minutes at a time.... You are rolling your eyes, already, I can see it. But seriously, I personally witnessed two preschoolers playing quietly with Wedgits at a party and I simply had to know more. It really is a fantastic toy. The rhomboid-shaped construction blocks fit together in ways you never would have imagined - they nest, stack, frame and are almost endlessly build-able. While the toy is especially appropriate for preschoolers, it can certainly be enjoyed by kids for all ages. Toddlers can stack the pieces (the pieces are easy to hold), older kids can build a variety of patterns - the pieces stack in such a variety of combinations, the possibilities seem innumerable - and you may easily find yourself constructing shapes and unique stacks when the toy isn't occupied by someone younger than you!
Explorer Globe
by Leap Frog
For ages 3+ years
This globe is one of those all-too-rare toys that truly works for absolutely all ages. We haven't met anyone yet, little person or grown-up, who isn't engaged by its tricks and educated by its trivia. The most advanced features of this globe won't be reveal themselves until your little one is a grade-schooler, but don't let this gather dust in the top of a closet until your child is .ready.. Even the littlest preschooler is ready to whirl the globe, tap the interactive pen on a chosen spot and hear what the world has to tell him about itself. Given the price tag, this is a special occasion present for sure, but it is also a gift that will delight for a decade (at least). A modern version of the beautiful mounted globe in the drawing room, and just as useful in plotting wild adventures in unknown parts, pirate launches on the open seas, and all sorts of trips to far off lands. This is a true treasure. (And this version is a much wiser purchase than the more constrained, much less informative Junior Explorer edition. The world is a big place and we don't think you should limit yourself, or your little one.)
Shape Sorting Clock
by Melissa and Doug
For ages 1.5+ years
One thing we Savvy parents look for in any toy is how long it is apt to hold a child's interest. Melissa and Doug's well-made wooden teaching clock earns particularly high marks in this regard. It captures the interest of young toddlers, and is a valuable tool for teaching number recognition and time-keeping to older preschoolers. The designers have thought of everything! Ingenious visual cues help children figure out shape sorting far beyond the standard triangles, circles and squares, and get a handle on their hours and minutes (i.e. colored wedges demarcate minutes in increments of five). In no time at all, it will be your little one pointing to the clock, White Rabbit style, and saying, "Mommy, we're late, we're late" (for a very important date)! And you will feel, like Alice, a bit disoriented by this new wonderland where your baby suddenly knows what time it is.
Magnetic Calendar
by Melissa and Doug
For ages 3+ years
Preschool on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Gymnastics on Tuesday, playdate on Thursday. And don't forget the birthday party on Saturday. The schedule of a mere three-year-old can sometimes be too much for a mommy-brain much less a preschool-brain to keep track of. And yet, preschoolers are of the age where they are learning not only to remember and recount the events of the past but also to anticipate future glories, like a birthday party, or a visit to the dentist. If your child is waking up every morning asking, "what are we doing today?" then this appealing magnetic calendar may be just the thing. Most preschoolers love magnets to begin with, so on the basis of its 139 illustrated magnets alone, this item is sure to be popular. There is one for every activity and holiday you can think of, and if some are not relevant to your family's routine, it is easy enough to restyle them. The calendar is undated, so with each new month, your kids can help you renumber the days and map out their fun-filled little futures.
Standard Unit Blocks
by Melissa and Doug
For ages 2+ years
These are your plain old, basic building blocks. They look a lot like the ones you probably played with as a kid. No improvements needed. Indeed, they are so basic that many of us overlook them as we wander through aisle upon aisle of more colorful, intricate toys. But, dear parents, do not underestimate the lowly block! If there is one toy that preschool teachers tell us is vital for our children's early learning and development, unit blocks are it. You will find a set in virtually every preschool classroom, and there's every reason to have one at home too. The pros at the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) don't generally weigh in on particular toys, but they do strongly recommend block play for our little ones' social, physical, intellectual and creative growth. In particular, because unit blocks are based on 1:2:4 proportions, they allow preschoolers to develop early math and geometry skills. And most importantly, kids adore the imaginative possibilities of block play well into elementary school. These are plain old, basic blocks – but, oh the things they can become in the hands of your child!
World Map and USA Map Floor Puzzles
by Crocodile Creek
For ages 3+ years
Puzzles, like blocks, are one of the toys that experts in child development all can agree are highly beneficial. As the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) website tells us, "puzzles help children build the skills they need to read, write, solve problems, and coordinate their thoughts and actions" as well as develop their mathematical and spatial thinking. Who knew? But what parents everywhere do know is the sheer glee and satisfaction that light up a child's face when he figures out how to put a jigsaw piece in the right place. These beautifully made map puzzles from Crocodile Creek will afford your little ones many such moments of joy in their puzzle-making abilities. And as they align the jigsaw shapes, they will be putting together some basic geographic concepts at the same time. What fun it will be to hear them say, Where's Mexico? Or, pass me Idaho!
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