Educational toys that your DC loved

[MmeLindt]

Do they exist? Or shall I just order a whole box full of cheap plastic tatt and keep them happy over the Christmas holidays?

How old are your DC's?

DS 5yo and DD 7yo

Am definitely going for the moon in my room.

Maybe a globe?

ooo whats moon in my room?

Moon in my room is still one of dd's favourite things- allaboutme it's a moon (d'oh) which lights up and shows the moon's phases.....have a look on ebay, I got dd's from there and paid about £12 brand new and sealed...they are a lot more in places like ELC.

This year, to stay in theme, I'm looking at Rainbow in my room (same thing, but obviously makes a rainbow) and a Solar System in my Room (the latter currently half price in Argos IIRC)

Dd also got a globe which she spends hours looking at....atlases, that sort of thing.

She is 6, and obviously also has house full of pink tat and "in my pocket" creatures, but the sciency stuff is well-played with too,

There is a brilliant website called curiousminds.uk (or something similar) I look on there, make notes, then look for the stuff on ebay.

Moon in my room

Love that.

Half price moon in my room £11

Oh, good deal there. I don't think that Argos deliver abroad, will go and look.

A globe sounds good as well, Bucharest. Did you get a childrens one or just a normal one?

Mine like their Snap Circuits kit, it is great.

She actually got 3 globes! A leapfrog learny globe thing, with a joystick that hovers over countries, and a little voice tells you something (that was an ebay bargain £4.99) a proper grown up globe that looks nice on the bookshelf and a 3d puzzleball jigsaw one....she is still fascinated by all 3 tbh.

OK, ordered the Moon and have my eye on a globe, but going to look in town first.

And a magnet, inspired by the recent thread about finding the tip of the knife in the stew with a magnet.

Thanks for the ideas.

montessori type stuff here

Some lovely things on there, thanks DB.

glad you like it.

we have no montessori nursery near us now and i'm a fan of it. i've got a few things for them to play with at home.

Our kindergarten back in Germany was not completely a Montessori one, but they were very influenced by the Montessori teachings. They used a lot of those kind of things.

My DS (7) had a world map a couple of years ago which is just by his bed. He can now tell me the population of China and most of the ex-Russian countries!

Lego and Meccano are also very constructive (pun intended) toys (there are versions for younger children too).

Word games, such as Scrabble, Upwords and Boggle are good. Oh and we have a wooden numbers game called Shut the Box or something, which involves throwing dice and working out combinations of numbers.

Telescope? Binoculars? A bug viewer and pocket book of different bugs?

Another game we often play is Pass the Bomb, where you have to think of words that begin with a particular letter, and also Scattergories.

Hi ds 7 loves this www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-History-Museum-Pocket-Microscope/dp/B0015X4Y5S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys&qi d=1258753329&sr=8-1 and although they weren't impressed at first they love this now www.brightminds.co.uk/top-toys/everything-else/polydron-megatub-126-pieces.htm . The moon in my room is fantastic, when ds2 aged 3 woke up christmas morning last year he was amazed to find santa had put it on his wall for him, its very soothing when he's going to sleep.

Just thought of another great success from last Christmas this. Basically it's a powerful microscope that you can plug into your television. Hours of fun looking at skin, insects, salt etc.

MissGB
I have just ordered meccano I am sure he will like that.

DS got binoculars and bug magnifying box last year.

Good idea to put the moon on the wall during the night. That would be exciting for him to waken up to.

The microscope is great, but DS is still to young for it and DD is not interested enough in things like that.

The Eyeclops is fab. Will definitely get that for DS, he will love that.

Thanks all.

MissGB- dp and I are going to get that eyeclops thing as well!

Hurrah for possibly a no-pink-tat-Christmas!

For educational toys take a look at;
www.squidoo.com/ShopSuperWhy