Toys to Get Kids Ready for School: Encouraging Learning and Socialization
When the first day of school approaches and a parent is sending a little one off to school for the first time, it can be sad and scary for the child—and sometimes even more so for the parents. The first day of school is full of emotional ups and downs. It’s exciting to send a child into an opening world of education, socialization, and lifelong skills and friendships. But it can also be overwhelming knowing your child will face all of these new experiences without you there at his or her side.
As hard as that first day of school may be for both parents and child, there are things a parent can do to make the transition as smooth as possible for a child—which also makes it easier on an anxious parent. One thing a parent can easily do at home is to provide the best toys for 4-year-old boys and girls to promote school readiness, and then spend at least 30 minutes per day engaging a child in play with these developmentally enhancing toys.
When choosing the best toys for 4-year-old boys and girls getting ready to enter school, it’s important to look for toys that facilitate play for developing such important skills as motor, social, language and emotional readiness.
Building Toys for Building Brains
Toys such as building blocks, Duplo and Lego blocks, Magnetic tiles, and Lincoln Logs are among the best toys for 4-year-old boys and girls who are nearing school age. These toys allow for imaginative, open-ended play while helping to build cognitive skills and spatial awareness. Manipulating blocks to stack and build also helps to develop and enhance fine motor skills which will later be necessary for writing.
Building blocks are sometimes overlooked in today’s world of electronic and interactive toys. But blocks are a simple and beloved classic toy for many reasons. A study from Purdue University indicates that playing with building blocks improves a child’s math skills, spatial awareness, and executive functioning. These positive effects were enhanced when block play was guided by an adult such as a parent or teacher.
Crafts for Creativity
Allowing children open-ended play either independently, or guided by an adult, with such tools as crayons, markers, construction and drawing paper, stickers, glue, glitter, and child-safe scissors is essential for early childhood development and school readiness. Craft supplies are at the top of the list for best toys for boys and girls approaching school age, in order to nurture creativity, develop a sense of pride in accomplishment, and to enhance essential fine motor skills for holding writing utensils and drawing lines, circles and shapes. Manipulating child-safe scissors is especially helpful for developing school-ready fine motor skills.
Dress-up Dates and Costumes
Allowing children to play dress-up with a variety of costumes and dress-up clothes allow them open-ended imaginative play and role-playing. Allowing a child to play dress-up games with friends is especially helpful for developing social skills and enhancing emotional development and self-regulation for preschool readiness.
Costumes can include old clothes, shoes, purses, hats, and jackets, as well as actual children’s dress-up clothes and costumes for role-playing. Included in dress-up supplies can also be such items as kitchen toys, cooking playsets, construction hats, doctor bags, and cash registers. These are all fun for children who enjoy mimicking adult behaviors in their imaginative play.
Puzzle Play
Puzzles are another classic, simple toy choice that has been enhancing early childhood development for centuries—long before electronics and screens. Puzzles are classics for good reason. They are among the best toys for 4-year-old boys and girls who are approaching preschool age.
Puzzles are not only fun for children, but they also help to develop crucial problem-solving skills, cognitive abilities, and reasoning. Puzzles should progress in complexity as children grow, beginning with large, chunky pieces in board puzzles-type toys for 2-year-olds, and then upward in complexity to puzzles of up to 25 pieces for 4-year-olds.
Alphabet puzzles are particularly helpful for developing school readiness and are a great way to introduce the alphabet to preschool-aged children.
Lacing Boards
One of the best toys for 4-year-old boys and girls are lacing board sets. These are typically bright, vibrantly-colored board shapes with attached lace and lace-through holes. Children can develop fine motor skills for school readiness by lacing the string through the holes in various ways.
A bonus in lacing boards is that many of them encourage other skills such as letter and number recognition and animal recognition, as these themes are often included in the decorative lacing boards.
All of these toys are hugely beneficial and widely recognized by both experts and experienced parents and teachers as the best toys for 4-year-old boys and girls who are getting ready to embark on the world of education.
Resources— MSU.edu, LearningResources.com, AAPNews, WeAreTeachers.com
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