Educational toys are fun and stimulating toys that help children learn new things. When kids play with toys that help them learn, they enhance their intellectual, physical, and emotional development. Children are always curious to learn new things, and educational toys allow them to express themselves creatively while enhancing crucial life skills early on. The key is finding toys that offer educational value that are still fun to play with!
Why are educational toys important?
Here are the top ways in which educational toys help you set your child up for long-term success:
Improve problem-solving skills
Educational toys like building sets encourage children to form solutions to a problem through trial and error. Toys that involve building a structure using parts help children develop clear thinking skills by making them follow a step-by-step process to get to an end goal.
Increase concentration
A short attention span is one of the most common reasons why children lose interest in toys, but educational toys can help with this issue by increasing mental stimulation. Their complexity encourages children to focus so they can get to the results. Once they learn how to focus in a controlled setting, they can apply the same skill to other areas of their life.
Boost their IQ (in a fun way!)
Educational toys come in many forms that help boost different cognitive skills. They can help advance and enhance motor, memory, literacy, and coordination skills. Educational toys that involve interactive storytelling can improve your child's literacy skills while building sets and puzzles can improve logical skills. All these skills are further enhanced the longer your child stays stimulated and entertained.
Encourage creativity
Educational toys -especially those that involve building- are often set in worlds different from ours. They can widen your child’s view of the world by encouraging them to see things differently. They encourage out-of-the-box solutions to boost creative problem-solving as well.
Enhance emotional and social development
Educational toys can most definitely be a fun playtime experience for groups. Children can play alongside each other and talk to their peers about what they’re trying to accomplish, and older children can even work together to find solutions. Even the anger and crying from children working in groups can encourage them to adapt to situations, people, and emotions.
Enhance the development of sensory skills
Educational toys help in the development of sight, touch, and hearing. A child must get a good grasp of sensory skills early on so they can explore freely and see the world more clearly. Educational toys can also improve motor skills and hand-eye coordination so your child can excel at physical tasks as well as mental tasks.
Where to buy educational toys for children?
There are a million places to buy toys, especially online. So, Luki Lab focuses on the educational toys we make best: elaborate STEM-authenticated building sets for boys and girls and old-school handheld water games, suitable for all ages. Luki Lab offers multiple collections of STEM-authenticated toys that help in forming critical developmental skills. Our collections consist of our very own in-house brands that cater to the different interests of children of varied ages and genders.
What are the best educational toys for children?
Different age groups of children require different levels of mental stimulation and educational toys to get the most out of their playtime. Elementary school-going kids between the ages of 6 to 11-years-old are just starting to get a grasp on the world. They’re refining their skills to better adapt to their circumstances. They're more vocal and social than they used to be. They're developing new hobbies and interests by spending more time with their friends. They're playing outside and discovering the world while refining their motor skills. It’s an exciting time when everything is a fun challenge to be conquered. Educational toys further nurture this stage in their life. They nudge them in the right direction by helping them develop the right skills.
Best educational toys for 6 to 8-year-old children
Treasure Driver, by Clawsome
This classic STEM-authenticated game doesn’t need Wi-Fi or batteries. When you play with Treasure Driver, you and your child play the role of the treasure driver, squeezing the tube to dive and retrieve the sunken treasures at the bottom. The treasures are a mix of cool items like shark’s jaws, a pirate sword, a cannon, a Roman jar, an anchor, and the Titanic’s steering wheel!
Kids 6 to 8 years old absolutely love this game, but most adults do too. We’ve received emails from adults telling us they like to keep one on their desk at work! Treasure Driver includes seven games in one, each of which ups the challenge of keeping your little one entertained throughout the day! It is a simple concept that nurtures the development of many essential hand-eye coordination skills.
Playing games like Treasure Diver from Clawsome tends to attract attention from onlookers. Players are encouraged to show off their skills and challenge their friends and family to see how much they can score. Children improve their problem-solving skills by using trial and error to find the best way to retrieve the treasure.
Star Wish Tower, by Pinxies
The Star Wish Tower is the proud winner of the Toy Insider Top Holiday Toys Award! Send your child on a fun quest with Koral to find a fallen star. She'll have a stellar time exploring this tower as she builds it.
It’s a fun building experience consisting of 150+ pieces including Koral with two interchangeable and animated expressions, a pretend-play telescope with 3 interchangeable colored lenses, adorable animals, multiple accessories, and a sticker sheet with glow-in-the-dark stickers for decorating.
The highly detailed and colorful panels will mesmerize your child. The characters even interlock hands to promote camaraderie. Children are intrigued by the Pinxies storytelling experience and are swept up in the moment. Creativity runs wild as she thinks of what she can do to make this tower a dream come true. This STEM-authenticated building set will enhance problem-solving skills, focus, and creativity.
Submarings, by Clawsome
Submarings is an engaging and entertaining game that’s fun for the whole family! Poseidon has entrusted your child with retrieving his powerful rings from the bottom of the ocean. How fast can they get it done? This game doesn’t need Wi-Fi or batteries for some good old-fashioned fun! It even has 4 interchangeable panels that let your child explore the beautiful ocean in different settings.
Submarings is a STEM-authenticated toy based on Bernoulli's Principle, which is related to fluid dynamics. Your child will have to use trial and error to figure out the best times to press the buttons. Submarings can be played solo or with two players. The dual-player setting helps in developing your child's social and competitive skills. With time, they'll gain the ability to show grace in defeat and humility in victory.
Best educational toys for 9 to 11-year-old boys
T-Rex, by Robo-Max
The very popular Robo-Max T-Rex was featured as a Top Holiday Toy on the “Live with Kelly & Ryan” show. The T-Rex building set is a mighty gift for a mighty imagination! When assembled, the T-Rex stands at a massive 3-feet tall with red light-up LED eyes and a sound box to emit dinosaur roar sounds. Your little dino wrangler will be totally immersed in this t-rex toy!
It’s a challenging STEM-authenticated build with 70+ pieces including 106 jumbo screws, a custom screwdriver, and a combination of plastic parts and premium laminated cardboard. It has 8 points of articulation that your child can use to create cool action poses. They can also move the T-Rex’s mouth, head, arms, and legs for added fun!
Your child practices their patience as they work on their engineering skills throughout the building of the T-Rex. Children should learn perseverance, and this lesson materializes the proof in front of their eyes. The 3-foot-tall T-Rex toy building set by Robo-Max instills confidence upon completion because it's challenging, yet achievable with your help.
Building the T-Rex encourages creativity, problem-solving skills, perseverance, and patience. It can also help in the development of social skills and friendships. It instills your child with confidence upon completion because it’s not something every kid can do. It can also develop better social skills and friendships because his friends will want to come over and see this cool toy!
Robot, by Dexor
The Dexor Robot is a proud winner of the Toy Insider Top Holiday Toy Award! It’s an intricate, fun, and challenging building experience that your child will love. It's made of 110 pieces that assemble to form the mighty 12-inch robot!
As your child assembles this STEM-authenticated toy, they’ll learn patience and perseverance in handling the intricate pieces. He’ll be engrossed by the story of Derek, a normal boy who turns into Dexor when he's in the cockpit of his robot. Dexor must save the world, but he has to finish his homework too!
Your child will learn problem-solving and develop better focus by following the color-illustrated instructions. Their confidence will soar when they realize that they built something complex and challenging. It’ll also improve their engineering skills and could help lead to a more serious interest in robotics.
Best educational toys for 9 to 11-year-old girls
If you’re shopping for educational toys for a little girl, check out Pinxies for a playtime experience that little girls cherish! Pinxies products are designed with an especially imaginative, unicorn-loving child in mind. Children join explorer Koral in an enchanted journey with her magical friends through various themed environments like a Marvelous Mermaid Ship or a Butterfly Hot Air Balloon.
Her Intro to STEM Toys
Young builders between 9 and 11 years old will delight in assembling and decorating ten uniquely adorable unicorns with the Unicorn Creation Studio. Children assemble colorful plastic building links with beautifully colored paperboard panels to create each individual unicorn character.
This easy-to-assemble STEM-authenticated building set is more basic than other Pinxies sets, making it a great way to introduce your little girl to STEM. All the different characters allow her to create an authentic storytelling experience. When she builds the unicorns, she’ll use her creativity and imagination to decorate each one with included gem stickers.
Fairy Treehouse, by Pinxies
The Pinxies Fairy Treehouse is another truly magical place that’s going to be full of happy memories for any girl over 6 years old. It’s the proud winner of Toy Insider’s Top Holiday Toys award. It’s set in an enchanted fairyland with endless possibilities that will let her imagination run wild! It’s a 180-piece playset that lets your child's creativity shine through.
The easy-to-assemble, STEM-authenticated design makes for a challenging yet fun experience. It’s a highly detailed set with vibrant glossy paperboard panels that she’ll adore. She’ll be engrossed in the storytelling. She’ll love figuring out how to connect the different pieces and the right way to assemble this structure using the instructions. She’ll use her imagination to enhance this enchanting world with magical fairy items, butterflies, stickers, and adorable accessories. If she builds it with her friends or siblings, it can even help build communication and team-building skills.
Mars Space Explorer, by Gujo Adventure
If your little girl is obsessed with space, you should give her this STEM-authenticated educational toy to pique her curiosity! The Mars Space Explorer will transport her to the magical planet of Mars with Gujo, the adventurer. Zip through the expanses of Mars after assembling this space vehicle to discover the possibilities.
The Mars Space Explorer is a great way to nurture your daughter's love for space by giving her a fun and interactive experience. It’s a 70-piece set with interactive elements like an operational sky crane that raises and lowers the main character, and an astronaut named Gujo who is exploring Mars. When your little one has finished exploring, you can store the space equipment in the spacecraft, and Gujo can return to the openable cockpit for another adventure!
With this educational toy, your child will learn more about engineering, problem-solving, and decision-making. She’ll also get a boost of creativity and develop a greater passion for learning about space.
Conclusion
Kids are going to play with toys, so why not create another reason to feel good about the gift you give and purchase an educational toy? As we’ve learned, educational toys can contribute a lot to a child’s mental and physical development. When you’re buying educational toys for kids, it’s important to consider your child’s age and interests, so that they find the toys challenging and interesting.
Luki Lab is always here to assist you in finding the perfect toy for your child.
Click here to check out our amazing toys and games that help your child grow.