A lot of toys these days are marketed as “educational” and such, but I think some of the best toys for teaching and learning are the simple ones, many of which have been around longer than any of us have been alive. The following is my list of toys and such that have stood the test of time, and some of the things that can be learned through their use. As always, I’m about as forgetful as they come these days, and I’m bound to forget some very basic toys. Feel free to set me straight in the comments section!

• Blocks: Great for early hand-eye coordination and grasping, stacking, etc. Good for learning about balance and spacial relations.
• Puzzles: Useful for learning pattern recognition and spacial relations (I should have done more puzzles as a kid, my spacial abilities are horrid!). Also fantastic for practicing patience as each piece is attempted to be fit into a space.
• Books, books and more books!: From learning to name the objects around us, to identifying our first letters, numbers and colors, to learning our first small words, to reading our first chapters books, and way, way beyond—books are with us for the long haul.
• Musical instruments: From the time that we can first grasp, we can appreciate the gentle shake of a rattle. We learn to associate our actions with an aural reaction. It’s a good foundation for making music for years to come.

One thing I like about each of these items listed is that versions of them are along with us for the expanse of our lives. As soon as we can begin to grasp items, we’re surrounded by blocks of all shapes, colors and textures. We graduate from those to Duplos and Lego, and on up until we’re building towers in the sky. Some of our first toys are three piece puzzles big enough for our clumsy, unpracticed hands to grasp. We move onto 24 piece puzzles featuring our favorite Pooh characters and eventually are putting together puzzles well into the thousands of pieces (well, some of you are ). Books and musical instruments both can be introduced as the youngest age, and used and appreciated to the last breath. Amazing, yeah?

Another thing that I appreciate about all of these is that none require batteries! Can’t go wrong there. And all of them are much more fun when introduced by a parent or caregiver. Because, no matter the toy or book, there is true value that can be received from just being told that I love you enough to sit and play together.

I’m sure I’ve left out tons, but the clock is telling me that I need to wrap this up. What toys and items would you include on a favorites list? Let me know in the comments section!

Post from: Play Library

According to a new study out of Northwestern University, all those years of lessons were not in vain. My sister (a musician herself) pointed me to this article at Northwestern’s website sharing the results of the study.

From the article:

The study, which will appear in the April issue of Nature Neuroscience, is the first to provide concrete evidence that playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brainstem’s sensitivity to speech sounds. This finding has broad implications because it applies to sound encoding skills involved not only in music but also in language.

The findings indicate that experience with music at a young age in effect can “fine-tune” the brain’s auditory system. “Increasing music experience appears to benefit all children — whether musically exceptional or not — in a wide range of learning activities,” says Nina Kraus, director of Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory and senior author of the study.

So, the next time your kid is looking for something to play, maybe it’ll be time to start him or her playing an instrument. And with all of those years of lessons refining my auditory abilities, maybe I still have a fighting chance of learning Urdu with Hsien.

Do your children play instruments? How early an age did you start them?

Post from: Play Library