BALTIMORE, MD -- Nov 18, 2002 -- It's that time of year again and many parents will soon find themselves in the same dilemma - do they buy their children the most popular toys or the toys that can help their children learn.
While 91 percent of parents participating in a survey conducted by International Communications Research believe it is important to give gifts that encourage learning, more than half (55 percent) have trouble sorting through the choices to figure out which toys will truly help their children learn and grow.
"Knowing how to buy the right toys for your children is a skill that can be learned," states Richard Bavaria, Ph.D., vice president of education for Sylvan Learning Center. "Look for toys that are challenging but allow for success and also leave room for a variety of play. It's easy to be a good judge of the play value of any toy, if you know the skills that each toy can teach."
"A well-chosen toy can greatly benefit your child. Good toys nurture your child's ideas and imagination, while growing with your child's changing interests," states Bavaria.
Sylvan Learning Center offers parents the following suggestions to keep in mind when shopping for toys that are both fun and educational.
1. Building Toys. To most parents, LEGO's® Bionicle™ and Bob the Builder® were the must-have toys of last year's holiday season. But traditional building toys like LEGOs® and Tinkertoys® actually help children acquire the reasoning necessary for mathematics more quickly.
2. Computer Games. Last year, Microsoft's® Xbox™, Sony's Playstation® 2 and the Nintendo's® GameCube™ were the hot tickets with older kids. While video games are not often thought of as educational games, they help build reasoning skills and logic as children navigate the different levels of each game.
3. Board Games. Board games can be a fun way to encourage math discovery in children. In fact, many popular board games, such as Monopoly®, reinforce basic math skills. While children roll the dice and buy real estate, they also develop number sense and practice their basic math skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Even classic games like Connect Four® and Yahtzee® help with problem solving skills and computation speed and accuracy.
4. Projects. Project-based toys such as model airplanes, cars, ships and rockets are good for older children (ages 9-14), as they help children build motor skills and teach them how to follow directions. Science kits, chemistry sets and ant farms also enhance reading comprehension (instructions) and critical thinking skills. While popular Harry Potter® Snape's Potion Lab™ looks like just another toy, in order to make the potion, children practice following directions, measuring, mixing and analyzing the results through taste and consistency.
5. Pretend Games. Young children love to pretend, especially with child-size versions of everyday adult objects. Pretending can be both fun and informative for your child. For example, the ever-popular Easy-Bake® Oven introduces children to basic food preparation skills, how to follow a recipe and may help ease them into helping with kitchen chores. A toy cash register helps children understand math and making change with money.
Learning feels good™ at Sylvan Learning Center, the leading provider of supplemental education services to students of all ages and skill levels. With more than 20 years of experience and over 900 centers located throughout North America, Sylvan Learning Center is the largest organization of its kind in the industry. Sylvan's trained and certified teachers provide personalized instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, study skills and test-prep for college entrance and state exams. At Sylvan, students develop the skills to do better in school and the confidence to do better in everything else. Sylvan Learning Center is a division of Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc. For more information regarding the Sylvan Advantage™, call 1-800-31-SUCCESS or visit www.educate.com/info.
