Best Toddler Educational Toy?

[Lucky13]

My 18mo DD loves books, but we have so many now that i want to buy her something different.

I'm trying to teach her numbers and colours at the moment and would like an alternative to books or flash cards.

What have you found to be the best educational toy for your toddler?

I don't think you need to worry about how educational the toys are and concentrate more on playing, especially imaginative play like role play. Talking to your child about the world around them and reading lots of books will help them pick up numbers/colours/shapes naturally and in a more interesting way. 'Educational' toys at these age are more problem solving/logic like shape sorters and puzzles.

You don't need to 'teach' your 18 month old.

what she said

Sorry don't mean to come across as a pushy parent - I am soooooo not - don't worry, i don't force 'teach' her each day -

She has shape sorters etc, i was just trying to find something to play with that was different, but had educational value.

anything that she plays with will have educational value
children learn by actively playing, it doesn't really matter what they play with. A child can learn just as much from 2 cardboard boxes as they can from a all flashing all singing expensive electronic gadget. Actually, I think they might learn more from the boxes.
The best educational toddler toy is an interested adult.

Guys - forget what i said about numbers, colours and education!!!!

Can you just tell me what you think the best toddler toy is please?

I was only being chatty - i don't need a lecture on learning!

Well, only you will know your toddler, and as they are all different, it would be hard to pick one out.

What does she enjoy playing with?

Lucky my DS is 3 and we have too many loads of 'educational toys' which were bought for us and TBH most of them never get touched.

Wooden building blocks are good and you get different shapes and colours in the Tesco pack. Can do so much with them and they are simple which is always a plus.

Tomy Hide and squeak eggs are fantastic too.

Again simple and can be used to learn colours, role play, shapes and recognition skills. We've had them since DS was 1 and they are still going!

Only you know your child. My dd gravitates towards playing with the dustpan and brush, boxes, the laundry basket, wooden spoons etc. She is currently pushing a cardboard box round the room 'shopping'. When finished she will get back in the box and 'drive' it home. All the flashing exciting toys in the world will not distract her from her cardboard box.

At 18 months she liked building blocks, her toy hoover and any paints/crayons/chalks she could get her hands on. She preferred a bucket of water and a cloth with which she could clean the car/floor/herself/any visitors. She also liked to bake, tidy, sort washing, dance, sing, climb, run, read, pretend to be an animal/car/giant/insert other daily whim. Toys were of limited interest really.

Oh yes things that fit inside other things are good. But doesn't have to be cups and shapes and bought things. Tupperware boxes are hours of fun. We had a pack of 10 bright different coloured plastic cups. DD would have tea parties, play with filling them up and pouring, take them in the bath, fill with gravel, stack them, roll them. So, again, not a toy. At 18 months she knew their individual colours including turquoise and silver so she picked up things just through playing.

Oh yes things that fit inside other things are good. But doesn't have to be cups and shapes and bought things. Tupperware boxes are hours of fun. We had a pack of 10 bright different coloured plastic cups. DD would have tea parties, play with filling them up and pouring, take them in the bath, fill with gravel, stack them, roll them. So, again, not a toy. At 18 months she knew their individual colours including turquoise and silver so she picked up things just through playing.

fab for learning colours and numbers through play

great for teaching dexterity and for recognising letters and colours through play

At 18mths, DD loved jigsaws. She got a lot from them but mainly a lot of talking as she could talk about the pics. We'd often find her toys stuck in the jigsaws too so they were great for imaginative play too.

Melissa & Doug Shape Sorting Clock is great for numbers and colours but suitable from age 2.

Other than that there are various wooden number lift and look type puzzles that feature numbers. My kids still like them.

r

At 18 months DD liked best:
Our tupperware drawer
Plastic recycling box (full, naturally)
Variety of bags, purses and boxes to put smaller things in
Wooden building blocks (ELC do coloured ones)
Train track to build and dismantle (not for putting trains on until over age 2, as far as she was concerned)
Stacking cups for building/water play
Small-enough washing up brush so she could 'help'
Washable wipes she could endlessly fold and lay flat on the floor to wrap other things in
Music tapes/CDs for singing and dancing

at 18 months dd loved and still does pushchair and doll, little egg cup and spoon to feed doll, kitchen set from argos. i think she has learned a lot of new language since she started role play games.

Oh, also meant to say that a PhD educationalist-type friend of mine says the best thing you can get any kid is a climbing frame - gross motor skill development is, apparently, the mostly important thing you can encourage in pre-school age kids.

This was by far my ds's favourite toy at that age.

He spent hours and hours playing and experimenting with it. This phase lasted 6 months!

PMSL - DD, 3 next week, still loves ours (although not as posh a model as yours )

Any thing from the elc or toys2teach website works for me. We were given loads of 'educationall toys' at christmas/birthdays but found they never got played with untill we started circulateing them, leaving a small number of toys out and changeing them reguraly

Card boxes. Homemade play dough, saucepans, mixing bowls and wooden spoon. No games or toys are educational in themselves, it is how parents support children to use them that is educational.

DD loves her Megablocks. She had them for her first birthday and they are the one toy that is played with every single day. (She is nearly 3 now)
She also loves play dough, especially pushing things into it e.g. sequins, cut up straws, pipe cleaners, shells.
Making a drum kit with saucepans and wooden spoons always goes down well with her (although less well with us!) and she is starting to enjoy role play like making tea for all her soft toys.
We do things like counting when we are baking e.g. counting how many eggs, how many paper cases in the tin etc.

There's the one and only toy store in SA. I’ve been buying toys there for ages www.minimaslim.com/ . And before it had taken ages to find it.