As babies grow up, they become more active. Sometimes, it becomes difficult for the parents to keep their kids busy and most of them resort to giving cartoon or mobile phone games to their kids or end up enrolling their kid in a play school. But, this is not a permanent solution to the problem and this may also have bad effect on the kid. Ofcourse, i am not saying that letting the kid watch cartoon or rhymes on the phone and going to play school is a bad thing. That also helps in the development of the kid. But, the screen time should be limited and whatever is taught in the play school can be taught at home also with little effort. For this, we need to get age appropriate interactive toys for the kids. Most of the time we enter a toy store to buy toys for our kids or for gifting purpose and we do not know exactly what to purchase. So today i will be providing you few tips to choose good and age appropriate toys for your child.
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Tips to choose good and age appropriate toys for your child
Good and age appropriate toys help in developing the brain and fine motor skills of your kid. As per my tips to choose good and age appropriate toys for your child you should keep the following factors and age groups to keep in mind.
Age groups to keep in mind
- 0 to 6 months
- 6 to 12 months
- 1 to 2 years
- 2 to 4 years
0 to 6 months
At this age your baby’s motor skills of vision, touch and holding are developing. At this age your baby tries to follow you through eye contact, learns to hold things and shake. So, at this age your baby needs toys that he or she can learn to hold, make noise like rattles and soft toys. The toys also should be soft enough with round surface. The baby might put it in the mouth when the baby’s gums itch due to teething.
6 to 12 months
Now your baby is six months old and can roll over perfectly. The baby will soon learn to sit and slowly learn to crawl and then pull themselves up. Now the baby can hold things properly. So, toys like soft balls, big blocks that baby can hold and pull along toys with string are the most relevant toys. You can also use musical toys. The babies will enjoy and the toy can be put away from the baby, to encourage him to crawl.
1 to 2 years
Now your baby might have started to walk and might also be speaking a few words and trying to form sentences. The age appropriate toys for this age are stuffed toys and dolls for pretend play. Toy telephones, organic colors for finger painting, board book and small books.
2 to 3 years
At this age the baby starts developing problem solving skills and can easily identify and match puzzle shapes and colors. Now the toys that can be given to the baby are puzzles with stars and other shapes to be arranged. More detailed books with alphabet and illustrations. Also by the time the kid becomes 3 years of age the kid asks a lot of questions. At this age you can give more complex building blocks to the kids. Alphabet and number books. Painting colors with paint brush and play dough.
So, here are a few tips to choose good and age appropriate toys for your child.