For example take the wooden steam train sold by www.GreenOwlToys.co.uk.  The cargo on its wagon is separate to the wagon. Inside is a bell and ball which is perfect as a rattle. This is great for 6 month baby to hold and manipulate.  It also provides stimulation to sound and movement. As the baby grows you can introduce the train.  By 18 months your child will be able to say “choo-choo” and have endless fun pushing/pulling this gorgeous Wooden train around. Plus it has an interesting way of moving. Have a look at this video: Wooden Steam Train in motion.

Another type of growing toy is the window stacker, sold by the same company, has a starting point between 18 months to 2 years. First of all its a stacker. This type of toy develops the childs hand-eye coordination. Then it aids in language: saying and recognising colours.  All the while it is a great alternative to the standard building blocks.

Children love to play. Playing with toys encourages their imagination to develop. But what else can it elicit? It can do wonders to help with their social skills.

While Babies and Toddlers are playing they are continually learning about the toy and the environment they are found in. Playing with their toys have different persons have different social environments. A toddler playing an adult gives your toddler plenty of practice to feel confident and to naturally interact with you. Listening to him and praising him builds their confidence. Being confident encourages social skills and language. Play time with an adult encourages good behaviour and better playing skills.

Babies playing with babies is particularly a rare thing to witness. Toddlers are only interested in playing with other children at 3 years old. Prior to this they are very happy playing and entertaining themselves and find no need to interact.  But by 3 years old it is important for toddlers play with their peers.  Playing with other children teaches them about society, their role in society and more importantly how to get people to listen to you and the importance of listening to others. These skills are very important in life as good friendships are based on these very fundamental skills. The topic of : “social skills for preschoolers” is a topic that is taken very seriously at Preschool and Nursery.

Toys that elicit interaction are most toys but mainly fall on role play toys, for example, work benches, toy kitchens, fireman sets, cars and dolls.  Games can encourage turn taking where they learn that every person has a chance and that sometimes you get earn a point, sometimes you don’t.

However, the scooter now has a challenger…the balance bike!  It made me wonder what was all the hype behind balance bikes? I stopped a couple of mothers to understand a little more:

“Jake had very little confidence on his cousins bike when he first tried so we bought him a balance bike. He loved it! He could keep his feet close to the ground for reassurance without the pedals getting in the way. He soon got used to the “wobble” which happens on both kinds of bike.  When we bought him a proper bike – it took him 2 or 3 tries and off he went! “ – Lisa mother of 2.

“Oh Sally has had a balance bike since she was 2. When she was 4 she went straight to a bike without stabilizers and had no problems riding it. But as you can see she still loves her balance bike and rides it on lovely stretches like this.”  – Natalie mother of 2.

I did not hear any negative views about the balance bike. So I did some further research.  Most balance bikes are made of wood and generally bought over the internet.  When you search there are quite a few to find and its difficult to decide which ones to buy.  The 4 categories to consider are: from which age, seat, weight, and design.

Age: I would suggest to go for the smaller bikes with adjustable seat height ( where the lowest setting of the seat is 30cm from the floor).  In this way your child can grow with the bike and not wait to grow to the height of the bike.

Seat: Aha! I think this is what defines a good balance bike to a mediocre one.  Here is where the reviews of products on the internet come in very handy. Some seats on balance bikes have a wooden base on which a padded seat is placed on. The wooden base seems to make the seat wider and makes the childs’ legs stick out the sides.  It might be a thought to find a seat without the wooden bit.

Weight: Wooden bikes feel great to ride but wood is not light, aim for the lightest possible bike.  They are only young .

Design? Well, there are many designs to choose from and I think this is up to personal taste.  Maybe to keep in mind: the bike needs to be slender for their legs to sit naturally on both sides, keep it looking fun for children and possible easy to get on and off.

There are many balance bikes out there for everyones tastes but one thing is for sure every child reacts with the same, sheer excitement and eagerness to ride their very own bike!

“Children with a history of reading problems at school entry scores significantly below average on reading in year 5.  As well, children that shows very low interest in books and story reading before age 5 also scored similarly low on sentence reading in year 5. ”

J Learn Disabil. 1999 Sep-Oct;32(5):464-72. found on http://www.child-development-guide.com/

So how early do you start?  Well, good question! There aren’t any good guidelines but I would start to introduce books when they are still fun and easy to follow because of all the lovely pictures. All the early years books have got pages mostly with pictures, or beautiful pop ups or touchy-feely pages.  These kind of books make these static pictures fun and interesting. As they grow older and the books have more words and less pictures they will be hooked onto the imagination books inspire and create. Books are great fun and its easiest to show them from a young age.

When reading a book, (this is best with books you have read many times) –  don’t actually read the words but talk about the pictures.  Create a conversation where you ask questions about the figures in the picture and let your childs’ imagination run away with the words he/she knows.

Or play charades!  Yes, there are now games geared for the younger children and even younger who haven’t learnt how to read yet!  Its great fun watching them laugh and giggle because they cannot say anything.  And even their proud faces when you have guessed something they are trying to express! Now you might think how is this improving language well … how to explain… it is a fun way to reinforce their language they already know.  Making them to think how to solve a problem or different ways to express the same word. They are practicing and learning without knowing it.

Be prepared to work hard in not saying the answer to soon so that they work hard on the word.

Sustained shared thinking involves the adult being aware of the children’s interests and understandings and the adult and children working together to develop an idea or skill.  The adult shows genuine interest, offers encouragement, clarifies ideas and asks open questions. This supports and extends the children’s thinking and helps children to make connections in learning.

The interaction can be fun and a great way for the parent to realise how their childs’ mind works or how much they can really comprehend. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much they understand and how developed their analytical mind is.  Typical games you can play with toddlers are memory games (memo), peg boards, puzzles and board games.

The article “Puzzles for kids – how do they benefit” gives more information about which puzzle is best.

Great toys that exhibit these qualities are stacking toys.  There are many types of stacking toys that is with or without a central stick – The Carmen Stacker is a great example of a wooden stacker with a central stick. Please see this great video of the excitement she brings.  Or you can get stacking toys that fit one into another like the Rocket or Pyramid. They need not be simple stacker with only method of stacking them. Variety is very good seller like the Clown stacker.

But for them to learn what they really mean, they will need a lot of repetition. Encourage them to count with you to get the word formation correct and the numbers said in the right order (1,2,3,4,5  and not  1,6,7,4,9!)   Using nursery rhymes is very effective.  It  makes it fun to sing and it reinforces what children are taught in PreSchool.  There are so many new things to learn but if words are linked to a melody it is so much easier to remember.  The most common counting nursery rhyme is “One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Once I caught a fish alive”.  A fun nursery rhyme is “One, Two Buckle my shoe”

One, two, buckle my shoe.
Three, four, shut the door.
Five, six, pick up sticks.
Seven, eight, stand up straight.
Nine, ten, a big fat hen!  (cluck, cluck, cluck )

If you are looking for something new:  this is a good nursery rhyme with which you can practice counting and have a visual representation of the numbers: (found on http://www.brighthub.com/education/early-childhood/articles/77949.aspx)

Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed (children hold hand in a fist)
One grew, two grew, so did all the rest. (put thumb and fingers up one by one)
They grew and grew (raise hand in the air very slowly)
And did not stop,
Until one day
The pod went POP! (children clap hands together)

Here is another good poem I found in a “BookStart” booklet given to UK Parents of 2 year old children. I think it is a great way of showing that numbers is all around us and is easy and fun to practice:

Numbers are fun!

Do some counting every day
It’s a clever way to play.
Numbers are fun so count with me
let’s start slowly, 1, 2, 3

Two bright eyes
and one little nose
How many fingers?
How many toes?

Count the flowers by the gate.
Count the peas upon your plate.
Count the ducklings near a boat.
Count the buttons on your coat.

Keep it easy 1,2,3,4
As I get bigger add some more
If we do counting as I grow
what big numbers I will know.

Happy singing!

For example, my first child takes forever to eat a meal but eats all types of food. My second child will eat quickly but is very selective to which food to eat. How is this possible?  I thought that maybe this selective eating habits was because they went through slightly different process of getting onto solids. Or maybe my approach was a bit different to the second child, trying to compensate for the falls of the first child, that I have now ended up with eating habits so different.  But by talking to other parents I am not so sure.

A few years ago, a friend of mine continuously complained that her child never ate vegetables. I thought “how strange” but then I had a few evening meals with them and noticed that they themselves did not include vegetables in their meals.  Then you wonder from what example did the child have if their parents did not eat vegetables. The child might think “well, if they don’t, why must I?”.   Another family complained that their child claimed not to eat anything white. So… no potatoes, no rice, no pears, no apples…. “Wow!”, I thought, “That is quite a profound statement for a 4 year old”. Then I met the child’s grandparents and they said that their son (child’s father) never liked the same things. And then the penny dropped.  Children learn by example.

So now I am back to my second child, what am I doing that shows that eating vegetables or fruits is bad? Myself and my husband eat everything I cook – and I try to have a carbohydrates, proteins and vegetables present at every meal. I eat fruit most days too.  So where has this behavior come from? Have I ever said anything wrong? Or is it like the doctors say that “if the child:  isn’t ill and/or doesn’t look unhealthy and/or functioning well – all is well and you should continue as you have been.  When the body will need the extra vitamins then the child will start to eat vegetables and fruit”.

Well, as a mother I cannot live on that theory alone or else I will live in a bottomless pit of guilt at every meal time.  So I try every now again to introduce vegetables and fruit on the plate with meals.  In between that, I hide the vegetables in the potatoes and pasta – it works 90% of the time. I am now introducing smoothies with fruit in it. I am trying but I don’t know how long can I go on like this…?  I am starting to think this is not a habit of my second child - just … I have a VERY picky child on my hands.

Continue at least with the same ones. In the beginning, your baby will enjoy the melody and as he/she grows he will join in with the actions.  It is good to reinforce the songs and nursery rhymes with pictures. By just over 2 years they will show definite interest in the books and sound some of the words. All of this is great for reading and language development.

As your baby grows and begins to manipulate puzzles, you can develop their logical skill while repeating the bedtime stories. There are so many puzzles out there, you might as well choose one that best suites your personal experiences like nursery rhymes or bedtime stories. You can build the puzzle and talk about the story by asking questions. You can even try to make strange events happening making the story funny and eliciting your child to use their imagination.

But do by all means, keep children interested in books – they are the basis of word building and hearing the melodies sentences make. It will create a good base to  help them throughout Preschool and first years of school. Start from the very beginning I always say!

I started the process of deduction (as one would when concerning puzzles), you have the beginners puzzle that are in the shapes of cubes.
Then there are the first jigsaws made of 3 pieces. These usually attract the attention of 2+ year olds.
The next level are 9 and 12 pieces – these fill in the age group up to 3.
But then I had to stop myself, because puzzles are the same as learning a language or learning to write, you need to practice building them. By repeating the process over and over again, we become more confident and quicker to solve problems. If a child is introduced to puzzles but then does not have many opportunities to play with them, then he will not be able to move onto the next level as quickly as another child would do.
Anyhow, if we continue to think that the toddler in question does practice building the jigsaw enough times then by the age of 4 he/she should manage a 40 piece puzzle with ease.

And here I stop again because the next number of pieces in a jigsaw is 100. This is a large jump for such a young person.  When searching the Internet there are only a few 60 piece puzzles out there.  The question is “Where are the inbetweeners?”.  Do we have to wait until our children are old enough to have the patience and concentration to tackle a 100 piece jigsaw or do we ask the designers to create more puzzles for 4-6 year olds?

As a supplier of toys – I will look into it but don’t wait around!  I am not sure I will manage to get the processes in motion quick enough for our young ones not to out grow the 60 piece ones.

As your baby grows and as her skills and abilities develop to be able to do many more the things, the way you play with your baby will adapt to her needs – from quiet visual games when she is newborn to noisier active games by the end of her first year. Not only will your baby improve her physical skills but her comprehension of the world around her will increase.  Through play and guidance from you, she will find her confidence and understand interaction with others. Most importantly of all, she will develop a sense of fun. Playtime will be something that both you and your baby can enjoy.

Toys are a great instrument to encourage play and give both of you a medium to create different ways of playing. For example a farm yard, can offer endless varieties of games from being the farmer to singing nursery rhymes.  A pushstick to encourage walking and to have fun on walks to the shops.  Its important to encourage visual stimulation in either toys or day-to-day objects we see in the house or out-and-about. We need to keep talking to our little ones. Even if it means just talking what you are thinking.

At school, we have been using the rubber triangular grip to help develop neat handwriting whilst using pens. Now there is a great new pencil for the younger ones. The Groove Pencil by Lyra is triangular in shape. It is a thicker pencil so it is easier to hold. The Groove Pencil can be sharpened in the usual thick pencil sharpener and it has these great shallow grooves carved out of the pencil. These grooves are placemarkers for the little fingers to clasp in the classic three finger pincer hold (can be used for both left and right handed children).

The importance of holding the pencil with only three fingers where the thumb is placed a little lower down on the pencil than the index finger and resting the side of the pencil on your middle finger is enormous. The less fingers we use, the less your brain needs to coordinate their movement. At such a young age as 5 or 6 this makes a big difference. The clasping method of holding the pencil  allows the wrist to have the maximum movement to create good curved or straight lines.

Its important to start with a good habit. It will follow him/her all through life. Some research shows that you define a persons personality through handwriting. Who knows it just might define their career!

Think about it. At this precious age of between 18 months and 2 and a half years old, toddlers do not have many words that they can pronounce properly and when they say such a simple, short word: “no” it has such a profound effect on the person that leads their lives: the parent. For example, you are feeding the same lunch meal for the 4th time in a row.  You are already feeling guilty of your lack of inspiration or energy to give something new. Your toddler is tired of this and says “no”. You, for obvious reasons, say “Oh sorry sunshine – are you bored of this? Oh Okay I understand I will make something new”.  Your toddler has said something short, sweet and easy to say and you have answered with a whole new sentence and doing something completely new for him to eat. Wow! So many new things are happening.

Toddler saying no by wagging finger

This doesn’t mean that you are doing something wrong.  If you decide not to react and continue with the lunch you might still get your way and make him eat the old lunch through perseverance.  However, if he is actually bored of the meal you might not get the entire meal consumed anyway.  So there is this fine line of knowing that you should enforce your better judgement but also common sense that he/she is also human and can have a choice. In other words, it might be best if you just take a little caution how quickly you react to a “no” answer – just so that he/she doesn’t think you are so easy to change your mind towards his/hers.

These are powerful, new words for children but not so great for new parents and not so new parents. We all wonder how we might get around this “why” question or “no” answer. Well, to be truthful, its not that easy.  We (parents) will have to bring out or polish our skills of debates or discussions in order to get the result we need.

The way we get to the end result might be on how we decide to approach the topic at hand…for me there is always one of 3 ways for the “why” question:

1. We must remember, children of this age are new at asking questions and being able to disapprove.  We as parents do not have to answer or react with great complicated sentences. Children of this age will not be able to store all the information you give.  Simple sentences are best.  For example -” how are babies born?” a possible answer can be “they grow in your tummy and when they are ready they pop out of mummy’s tummy”. You will surprised how many say “Oh – Okay”.

If your child asks you “why” and you give the full explanation, they will not be able to absorb all the information you provide or even to relate to it all.  However, if you wish to squash all future “why” questions this might be the best approach. But I don’t think is your aim. You would like your child’s brain to grow and understand the world around them.

2. Possibly ask what your child thinks. Why do you they think it happens or looks like that. For example, “why do fish have fins?”.  The answer may not be 100% correct but encourage their opinions and maybe suggest what you may think but never say they are incorrect. For example if they say “its where they have extra bones”, you could answer “well yes, fins can be hard but when they move the fins it helps them move in the water”.

3. (this one is great if you don’t know the answer yourself) Go and find the answer together! Google is great for plugging in the question and it comes out with wikipedia or other related links that you can find.  For the younger, not so patient but very curious ones, you can enter a phrase into Google, and select Images.  Google will show you all the images that have been tagged with your word/phrase.  Here you can talk about the topic. It might not answer the question that was asked to the end but that doesn’t matter because you have answered many other questions by just talking about it.

Please bear in mind, the “why” question are great insights to what or how your kids are thinking. Sometimes it even answers your own ”why” questions. Why they are not eating (too cold or too sweet).  When you ask what they think, you may receive an answer you thought would never be logical but for an innocent mind there are no boundaries.  It is beautiful to see a world through their eyes with a different angle or logic to a topic or an idea.

All this pressure but as always there is somewhere, something on the Internet which a parent who feels the same as you has created just the right thing to get you out of a muddle. Green Owl Toys has found just that party box to create the party that will run smoothly and filled with lots of laughter.  There are even 3 different themes to choose from! The Circus, The Enchanted Kingdom Party and the Superhero Party.

Try it out! It has all the checklists, plenty of different ideas for games and to liven up the party. The games are set to the theme of the party box you choose. The games awaken the imagination of children and the innocent nature they have to laugh, giggle and have fun.  The Party boxes even include party bags to go home with! Just add a bit of the goodies that were left over from the table and hey presto! The party is rounded up with a neat little bow and not an expensive entertainer in sight.

There are heaps and heaps of puzzles out there. Many companies only sell puzzles and do well but how do you know which one is a good buy or which is the best for my child?

Firstly, puzzles are great for the imagination, creativity and logic.  They also create a medium for conversation and language building.   Doing simple tasks correctly at an early age gives the child success. Putting a few pieces together will bring confidence in their own abilities. There are different types of puzzles depending on your child’s age.

The very first type is cubes with pictures on them.  Here the toddler learns that a picture can be made by putting pieces together. Cubes make it easy to create logic and make the first type of understanding about puzzles. The wooden cubes are simple and involve one type of thought process: make a picture. The pictures should perhaps be what the toddler is learning to sound or speak . Nothing too complicated. Pictures of farmyard animals is usually best.

The next step is to put one, two or three pieces together that resemble actual puzzles pieces. This adds another dimension to puzzle building: make a picture and to make the pieces fit.   Here again, keep to simple pictures and ones that your toddler can recognise.

After this you need to build up to more and more piece puzzles. All the time he/she will need your guidance:  How to put them together? Why did you think this piece goes with that piece? What is in the picture and then to talk about the pictures.  Encourage your child to talk about what he/she is thinking while you watch or interact. This will build self esteem and one-to-one time with your child.  Children love it when their parents are praising them and helping them with activities. It will encourage him/her to do more and say more and help you create experiences together.  Here are 3 great puzzles that have pieces just the right size to put the pictures together but has enough to challenge your child. These are called “Beneath our city / country / seaside” and are all available at www.GreenOwlToys.co.uk.  It also has a few things that are easy for parents to talk about but will open your child’s eyes to the world around us.

All children start out with their own language called: baby language and do not say proper words. How to change all those lovely sounds into something that you can understand is not that easy.

Here are a few ways that you can help him/her to hear the sounds so that they can interpret them into words:

• have one-to-one time – take turns listening and responding to one another.
• reinforce eye contact when you have some one-to-one time.
• repetition – research shows: the repetition of words and phrases helps reinforce the neural pathways in their brains that link sound into speech. Repetition accelerates language development.
• talk to your child what are you doing. Especially when changing nappies, getting dressed or bathing. (Here you are practicing body parts.)
• sing nursery rhymes – this will improve their vocabulary and creativity
• try not to correct his/her words. If your child says a word which is almost the full word or does not say the syllables in the correct order - do not correct it. Praise instead. The more practice he/she gets with the beginning of the word the quicker the complete word will be said.
• Once you have established a word/sound (like “moo” for a cow) start to reinforce that a “cow” makes the moo sound. This shows that words are related to one another.

Research shows that once your child reaches 50 words their vocabulary will explode!  However, this will only be true if you continue to talk to your toddler. The quantity of words addressed directly to children between 1 and 3 makes a difference to her vocabulary and verbal IQ.

A few suggested games which makes it fun for you both:

• Children love to play hide-and-seek games. Take their favourite toy (their cuddly toy or car) and hide it behind something and say ”Where’s bunny? Where’s bunny?” “Oh there is bunny hiding under your leg/behind your ear/behind Mummy’s head/behind the chair”.    Let your child hide the bunny too. If you ask “Where’s bunny?” they will most probably show you and eventually say where!
• Read story books that are mostly pictures of animals. Children love the noises the animals make and often repeat them. (this also improves concentration)
• Make believe shopping games. Take fruit and vegetables (toy or real) and a shopping bag. Pretend to go shopping a put things in the bag, naming each item as you go. Go to the till and take them out again and beep them through (as if you are at the supermarket) and again naming them as you take them out of the bag.
• Have a play farm.  You can create many scenario’s with the farmer and his animals. Either a farm where you paint yourself (boosts creativity) or one done for you!  Practice the names and sounds of animals.

Look Mum! I can do it too!

Great practice of hand-eye coordination and concentration.

Learning should be fun. Preschool children do not recognize the difference between working and  playing or playing and learning. All learning is embraced with enthusiasm as long as a child enjoys what he is doing.

Children learn about the world through play but they don’t always know how to organize or direct their play. The toys direct their play and they are even better if you join in. Talk, laugh and gossip as you play together, and offer guidance when it’s needed. Research says ”the more words children hear and are directed at them, the better their vocabulary and IQ scores”.

If your child begins to misbehave or being silly during the game, it would be better to put the game aside and say “maybe we play it another day, you are might be more interested in …”. Pushing your child to enjoy a toy is counterproductive.  Research suggests that young children who are pushed too hard, either in school or at home, often underachieve.

Most toys are educational without you even intending them to be, but with your direction the value of the toy is increased. If your child struggles or responds badly to a toy, stop it and try an easier version, think of of what your child might enjoy. For example if he does not want to count the building bricks, he might count his toy cars. Let the games stimulate your imagination too.

The following day I get the labour intensive task while my husband goes out with the kids.  I am in charge of making the decision which toy goes to the loft, which one stays and which one goes to charity. I find this task very difficult as its not my toys but theirs and what if I make the wrong decision? What if they are not “over” this toy or have not learnt enough from it? Are the puzzles really a “been there, done that” puzzle? (So now there is the 4th pile: keep them separate for a while just in case they ask for it).

Its not easy, all I have to say is…to all those mothers out there…Good Luck in trying to clear out and not hang on.