Educational Children’s Products

I wanted to share some of my favorite educational children’s products. As a teacher, I care about giving my children the best products available to help encourage learning. When I reviewed some products over the last year, I was impressed with the educational component of some company’s items. All of the items have an incredible use as an educational tool. If you are interested in reading more about how I used these items in my home, simply type the item’s name in my toolbar and you will find the full review. While parents get their children prepared for the new school year, I wanted to remind everyone that education extends into the home where you can enrich your children’s education with some awesome products.

Rock N Learn DVDs

Rock N Learn is an educational media company founded by a couple who has a background of working in schools. During the past year, I’ve sampled several DVDs from the company. Teaching my daughter with the curriculum has been a positive experience. I’ve been able to watch my daughter grow in her education, while developing important academic skills that will lay a foundation for her studies in kindergarten next year.

Lakeshore Are You Ready for Kindergarten? Game

Lakeshore is an educational company that has many items that tremendously help parents extend their children’s learning beyond the school room. I sampled the Are You Ready for Kindergarten? Game, which comes in different years for older children. The game is one of my daughter’s favorites, which I love, because it is very educational. Each card is either about math or language arts. After your child answers all the cards, you can synch the score up to the company’s website for extension activities and worksheets to help improve specific skills.

Educational Insights – Talking Planetary Mat

Space is a topic that appeals to a lot of kids. My daughter Samantha has had a blast with her Talking Planetary Mat. Even though Samantha is a little young for the item, she enjoys jumping from planet to planet to learn new facts. The product came with excellent handouts to help kids learn weight conversions on different planets.

Educational Insights – Nancy B Science Club Moonscope

Another product from Educational Insights is the Nancy B Science Club Moonscope. As a starter telescope for kids, the item works best for learning the moon phases. I enjoyed that the product came with a neat booklet, which had stories and pictures to help engage children.

Educational Insights – Design & Drill Socket To Me

As an excellent product for early learners, the Design & Drill Socket To Me product helps early learners learn critical fine motor skills. My 4 year old daughter can spend the longest time working on putting the screws in the product. My younger daughter, who is 16 months, is eager to get her hands on the item too.

Educational Insights – GeoSafari Omega Reflector Telescope

As my family explores the topic of space, we have spent a lot of time together using the GeoSafari Omega Reflector Telescope. During winter, the product helped us create some unique photos of the icicles on far trees in our yard. The product is great for children who are eager to understand how to work a telescope as it comes with many lenses.

Educational Insights – Fun Board Games

Board games are an excellent way to spend family night and can be very educational too. Take the Diggity Dogs game, for instance, which helps children learn matching and counting skills. The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game comes with a grabber to help kids learn valuable fine motor skills that they need to know before kindergarten to help improve their handwriting.

Tiny Love Discover the World Mat

Because my parents instilled a love of traveling in me, I like to continue that tradition with my children. The Discover the World Mat is a unique toy because not only is it practical, as it helps babies not have to play on the carpet, but it’s also different because it appeals to children of different ages. My older daughter was just as eager as my younger daughter was to learn about the different locations shown on the map.

Tiny Love Follow Me Fiona & the Rock N Ball

Geared towards babies and young toddlers, the toys are fun for kids. My daughter loves learning how to improve her walking as the chases the ball and the dog. I like the dog because it barks and can even walk in a circle as well as in a straight line.

Thinkfun Square by Square

While I do enjoy having family game night, the Square by Square game in one that my daughter pulls out to play with night after night. I like the item because the squares are easy to clean up and the game requires strategy. My daughter works on matching the blocks by color and she learns spatial skills. The blocks come in different sizes, so not all of them will fit together to make the picture. Children have to rationalize why a block might fit in a certain space.

ChordBuddy

Featured on the television show Shark Tank, Chord Buddy is a guitar learning system that can make learning guitar more fun for kids. The program teaches children strumming patterns before expecting them to learn chords. As an adult, I thought the program helped me learn a lot about guitar that I hadn’t understood before, even in the 10 years that I had sporadically attempted to play.

Tabeoke Machine

Consistently functioning perfectly, the Tabeoke machine is more than just a fun product. My daughter uses her item with a kids’ singing book that we picked up for her. Even my little girl, who is only 16 months, enjoys learning to make different sounds as she practices her articulation with the microphone.

Tabeo E2

My daughter uses her tablet in incredibly educational ways. Whether Samantha is practicing nursery rhymes on the singing app to learn prosody as well as fluency or she is using the camera to photograph nature, she learns and has fun at the same time.

Green Toys

Whether I’m teaching my children about environmental sustainability or just having a good time, Green Toys are one of my top picks for kids’ toys. The plastic is thick and durable, which makes me trust the quality wholeheartedly. Over almost a year of using Green Toys products, my family is still very happy with the items.

Safari Ltd.

My daughters have only become more entranced with their elephant toy over time. I’ve noticed that the more my girls get to know their hand sculpted “Ella the Elephant,” the more they enjoy having her around. The company has had some neat announcements lately, such as a new video newsletter, a new logo, a new blog, a Safarapedia section on the website, which is an education resource, and a community forum so fans of they toys can share tips and ideas.

Uncle Goose Classic ABC Blocks

Classic ABC Blocks have helped my younger daughter Georgiana learn to stack blocks at a younger than normal age. Georgiana loves joining in building tall towers with Samantha and with me. As a mom, I like that my girls are learning number and letter recognition, while they use their fine motor skills to stack items.

P’kolino Cargo Plane Balancer

When my children aren’t stacking blocks, they are learning to balance blocks instead. The cargo plane balancer is an excellent product because it has appealing colors as well as a streamlined design, and it’s fun for kids. When my daughter isn’t using the item to study balancing, she pretends that the white blocks are ice cubes in her play kitchen.

YBike Scooter

Riding a scooter teaches my preschooler balance, which she will learn more in PE class when she gets to kindergarten. I like that the scooter gives my daughter some early exposure to learning to balance so she can develop some critical motor skills that will help her lead an active lifestyle.

Fat Brain Toys PlasmaBug

Both of my daughters enjoy the PlasmaBug because it looks so happy. Plus, the ride on toy has a neat place for storing items in the front. The item encourages my girls to be active.

Wee Gallery Art Cards

My little girl enjoys going through her art cards to study animal sounds and the names of animals. The black and white contrast is visually appealing to my little girl. Sometimes I make up stories to go along with the pictures.

Kimochis Bug Toy and Feelings

My daughter loves how huggable her Bug toy is, which I use to help talk her through her feelings. The other day, Samantha drew a picture on the blank Feeling and she told me that she drew the feeling, “frusterated.” As a previous preschool teacher, I like that the product meets a valuable need of helping early learners recognize their feelings.

Tobo Toys

Playing with car tracks requires kids to match the pieces together right, like a puzzle. Each item has numbers on the end, which can be used to help children learn math skills. Whether my daughter is using the item to learn skills or just to play with her wheeled toys, the track is a neat addition to my daughter’s playthings.

Magformers

Magnetic building toys help my daughter learn to creatively build items. Every time Samantha builds something, she comes up with a neat new design. The more Samantha plays, the more sophisticated her designs get.

Disclosure: I received free items to help inform my writing, but it in no way influenced my opinion.