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Posts Tagged ‘Educational Benefits’

Melissa and Doug Jigsaw Puzzles Have Educational Benefits

November 26th, 2009

Jigsaw puzzles provide a unique learning tool for children by providing them with manipulation and coordination skills. They are educational, fun, and instill a sense of accomplishment in children. Additionally, they help children develop reasoning skills and use deductive thinking while being challenged to complete the puzzle.

First developed around 1760 by John Spilsbury as a geography aid for British children, jigsaw puzzles quickly became popular in the educational field. It wasn’t until around 1880 that puzzles became a leisurely pastime.

Children learn through playing. The process of putting a puzzle together helps develop a child’s fine motor skills. As a child’s eyes follow the movement from puzzle piece to board, he develops hand-eye coordination which helps with many other activities. But the benefits of jigsaw puzzles go far beyond physical skills. Kids learn persistence and patience as they have to stay with the task all they way through to completion. They develop social skills as they collaborate together, especially when it comes to assembling a puzzle of 100 or more pieces. Concentration and reasoning skills are also used. A child can work the same puzzle several times, increasing the speed of completion with each assembly. This activity helps improve memory skills.

Jigsaw puzzles are available from a variety of brands including Melissa & Doug, Ravensburger and White Mountain. Melissa & Doug made it their mission to provide educational puzzles. They offer puzzles for all ages but the majority of their products are designed for toddlers and preschool kids. The garage of Doug’s parent’s home became the first office in 1988. In 1991, they introduced the Fuzzy Farm puzzle, their first creation. Melissa & Doug even offers jigsaw puzzles for infants where they assemble simple objects like a three-piece car set. Their preschool puzzles include a popular United States map puzzle. These puzzles are specially designed to teach colors, counting, alphabet, sorting, and geography, which are all important skills needed to prepare them for starting school. Ravensburger and White Mountain have some amazing designs for older kids.

While we usually think of jigsaw puzzles in the traditional format of pieces on a board, there are other forms and features that further enhance the educational benefits. Puzzles that make sounds can teach a child about musical instruments, farm animals, cars, emergency vehicles and trains. When the puzzle is completed correctly, a sound corresponding to the puzzle will be played, delighting the youngest child with life-like sounds.

The key to success with jigsaw puzzles is to provide kids with ones that are appropriate for their age and skill level. Very young kids should get started using puzzles that are specially designed for them by Melissa & Doug. These puzzles can be passed down to younger siblings and later generations because they are made of chunky wooden pieces which are designed to last. As kids get older, they can move on to puzzles with more pieces and more detailed designs. For children ages twelve and up, they need greater challenges that come from puzzles of 500 or more pieces.

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Tags: Accomplishment, Children Puzzles, Coordination Skills, Educational Benefits, Educational Field, Educational Puzzles, Hand Eye Coordination, Jigsaw Puzzles, John Spilsbury, Manipulation, Melissa And Doug, Memory Skills, Pastime, Persistence, Preschool Kids, Puzzle Piece, Puzzles Jigsaw, Ravensburger, Reasoning Skills, Toddlers

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Melissa and Doug Wooden Puzzles Have Educational Benefits

November 25th, 2009

Wooden puzzles offer the unique benefits of being fun and educational at the same time, which helps explain why they are so popular. They are used by people of all ages and walks of life from nursery schools and day care centers to schools, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, where they provide therapy and retraining of lost skills for those people who have suffered a stroke or brain injury.

Skills that children learn will become a part of their foundation as they grow. Reasoning abilities, thought processing, sequencing, and analytical skills are enhanced with these products. Social skills and how to interact with others can be learned through playing with wooden puzzles.

Two of the best selling brands are Schylling and Melissa and Doug Wooden Toys. These brands design their wooden puzzles to specifically incorporate teaching skills. Melissa and Doug is a company that designs their puzzles to be educational and fun for children and parents alike. They introduced their first wooden puzzle in 1991, the Fuzzy Farm. This puzzle contains four animals (pig, sheep, duck, and cow). Each animal is fuzzy, which helps develops a child’s sensory abilities and teaches matching skills.

Wooden puzzles can help the development of language and speaking skills for toddlers and preschool kids. As you converse with your child while they are playing with the puzzle, kids begin learning the proper sentence structure and word usage. This interaction helps increase their understanding, vocabulary and concept of language.

Wooden puzzles help introduce toddlers and preschool kids to a variety of different subjects. Melissa and Doug puzzles include themes such as farm animals, ocean life, the solar system, geography and a myriad of other aspects of life and living. Older children learn the alphabet and numbers with puzzles. Melissa and Doug wooden toys include several map puzzles, including a USA, Canada, and the world. These unique teaching aids can also serve as a religious educational tool, including Baby Moses, Adam and Eve, Jesus and other Bible characters. The keys to success are selecting the right theme and matching the child’s age and abilities with the appropriate puzzle.

Wooden puzzles are not all the same. We often think of them as jigsaw style with about 6 to 24 big chunky pieces. However, there are many different types. Melissa and Doug wooden toys such as their peg style puzzles are designed for toddlers to match the pieces putting them into uniquely shaped holes. This simple puzzle teaches motor skills and improves hand-eye coordination. It also facilitates cognitive development as the child seeks to analyze and understand the pieces as they hold them and try to decide which hole it will fit into. Other creative approaches include wooden puzzles that make sounds, such as farm animals and emergency vehicles, while also teaching kids how to match the pieces to different shapes.

Another unique approach is larger sizes designed for the floor. The Beginning Skills Floor puzzle is actually four in one; numbers, shapes, colors, and the alphabet. Brightly colored pieces cleverly provide toddlers with a learning experience as they must match each piece correctly. A great example of a floor puzzle is the Zoo Friends Circular Floor Puzzle, another product from Melissa and Doug Wooden Toys. It contains five animals, each with a short sentence, such as “lion is standing.” This 24” floor puzzle teaches children an action that the animal is doing (sitting, standing, walking), and shows the animal in motion. Additionally, the simple sentence helps teach children understand that letters combine to make words.

Wooden puzzles offer something for everyone. For some children, the aspect of hearing and seeing increases their learning ability. For others, the hands-on aspect helps them develop physical skills. For kids of all ages, they offer a great learning tool.

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Tags: Brain Injury, Children And Parents, Day Care Centers, Development Of Language, Educational Benefits, Farm Animals, Melissa And Doug, Melissa And Doug Puzzles, Melissa And Doug Wooden Puzzles, Melissa And Doug Wooden Toys, Nursery Schools, Preschool Kids, Proper Sentence Structure, Reasoning Abilities, Schylling, Sensory Abilities, Teaching Aids, Walks Of Life, Wooden Puzzle, Word Usage

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Thomas Tank Engine Wooden Railway Has Educational Benefits

November 19th, 2009

Unlike the lights-flashing, music playing, push-button electronic gadgets and gizmos that pass for toys these days, Thomas Tank Engine wooden railway toys are the real thing. With the former, children are merely entertained, with the latter, they PLAY. The simpler wooden toys have great educational benefits. They actually develop children’s thinking skills, physical skills, as well as social skills.

Kid’s imaginations are stimulated as they dream up stories and carry out role play with Thomas Tank Engine, thinking up and speaking the parts that the simple wooden railway toys DON’T say simply at the push of a button. With its track pieces to fit together into various layouts and adventures to plan for Thomas Tank Engine and his friends, train-play is noted by experts to develop creativity, logical thinking skills and planning ability.

During train-play, the little ones develop key physical skills as well, such as hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Pushing trains around and across a layout, making deliveries and choosing routes, little ones are up and moving. The physical activity is good for them developing physical skills and awareness.

The colorful designs, chunky accessories, and cute, expressive faces on the engines all help to support children as they learn to recognize colors and numbers, develop emotional awareness, engage in self-directed play and practice social skills.

Whether they’re acting out stories from the Thomas wooden railway books or shows, or dreaming up unique adventures of their own, children are practicing lessons learned about teamwork, sharing, and kindness.

Dr. Kathy Hirsh Pasek, Developmental Psychologist at Temple University, and quoted at the Thomas site, puts it this way, “Almost everything out there is 90% toy and 10% kid. Thomas wooden railway is different. It invites children to be experimenters and discoverers.”

Whether it’s experimenting to see the minimum number of track pieces required to make a figure eight, or counting how many other cars Thomas Tank Engine is “strong enough” to pull behind him up the steep grade he’s created, with simple play toys like these trains, you can be sure your child is truly discovering new things. He’s finding out for himself and developing a healthy love for independent learning.

The complex interactions of train-play are a powerful developmental tool no parent or educator would want to be without. Since children (like everyone else) learn best when interested and engaged, the high kid-appeal of the myriad characters, play sets and accessories makes them a valuable way to draw in children to the learning process.

Language development and memory is supported when children re-enact Thomas wooden railway stories, or tell you about the trains’ latest adventures today. Shy children may not normally want to talk very much about themselves or their day, but they will often get excited to describe to their mom or dad without any prompting “what Thomas Tank Engine did today.”

If you are looking for toys that engage children in real educational play, toys that stimulate cognitive development, social development, and other age-critical skills, try Thomas Tank Engine. You’ll be glad you did!

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