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review of educational toys for xmas
Bub Hub E-Newsletter, November & December 2005/January 2006, Issues 41 & 42 - Article 1
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With toys being such an expensive item at Christmas time, we've commissioned an independent professional toy reviewer, Steve Polak, to look at different educational toys in time for your Christmas shopping! Don't buy until you've read this! We've now added Part 2 - including even more toys! |
The dilemma is a difficult one. You want to get something decent for Christmas for that special niece, nephew, son, brother or daughter. However you want to get a gift which is not only fun, but also manages to be educational or creative too. You also want something which will best suit their interests and won't chew up batteries at an alarming rate or fall apart in five seconds.
This is not always a process which is easy. Gimmicky toys abound and educational gifts which are still fun are hard to find. That said there is a whole host of educational items which have been released in recent times which manage to fit this rather challenging bill.
We decided to look at a decent selection of products available for the Christmas season this year and playtest them properly, so you don't just have to rely on the hype of advertising and toy catalogues, but can draw on a more objective analysis of what is out there.
Looking at the massive selection of toys for the wee folk available this giving season we decided to concentrate on new products and tried to cover products which weren't so much generic items, but had something unique or specific about them. We also picked items which were most widely available and represented what appeared to be the best item of their type (where availability permitted).
These toys were then put through their paces in a busy, but closely monitored playgroup of 2-5 year olds overseen by a trained childcare worker. Luckily my partner works in this area and is qualified.
Criteria
When reviewing the items we combined the methodology of recoded playtime observations with a separate detailed study of each item. We looked at the
following criteria to determine the suitability of any given item for individual needs, rating each toy with the following categories in mind.
Gross Motor skills (basic movement walking)
This category is all about major body movement. Does the toy teach or focus on major muscle group control, walking or any other basic movement skills.
Fine Motor Skills (manipulating objects)
How does the toy help the child develop hand eye co-ordination engaging in tasks which aren't about major physical movement, but more concerned with
manipulating objects.
Sensory Skills Vision / Sound
The toy's ability to engage the child with audio visual sensory input. Is the toy dynamic in this sense.
Language Skills (Numeracy Literacy)
Does the toy work on developing a further understanding of language based skills.
Reusability
Is the toy a simple one shot item or can it be reused in different ways with a variety of play uses.
Value
Is the toy good value for what you get.
Durability
Is it strong and likely to stand up to repeated play.
Ease Of Assembly and or Use
This is fairly self explanatory.
Enjoy our wrap up of what is available for Christmas and hopefully it will help you to make a more informed decision this yuletide. The toys featured cover the interests of boys and girls and we have tried to keep the age range for the items reviewed around the 2-6 year old mark. We also scored items out of five overall as well as in each domain.
Quick links to toys reviewed:Part 2 - December 2005 newsletter
- Splash N Play Seaplane
- Care Bears Share-A-Story
- Lego Duplo Farm Set
- Fisher Price InteractTV
- PlayGro Busy Activity Workshop
- Pop-Onz Building Table
- Disney Slide and Learn Storybook
- Simon Says
Part 1 - November 2005 newsletter
- Thomas Steam Along Set
- Billy the Bug Viewer
- Baby Einstein Neighbourhood Animals
- Leap Frog Learn and Groove Activity Station
- Walk N Drive Learning Car
- Duplo Lego Ville Fire Station
- Fisher Price Learn Through Music: Elmo's ABC Scavenger Hunt
- Fly & Learn Globe II
- Amazing Amanda
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Splash N Play Seaplane Toys for the tub are always popular as they help keep your wee ones interested in getting clean while also providing a pleasant form of entertainment. Indeed sometimes it is hard getting the kids out of the bath once they have settled in for a long session of play. |
The Splash N Play Seaplane is a great toy for a boy or girl who is perhaps not enamoured with the idea of bath time and could use a little incentive to help convince them it is a good idea.
As you'd expect the plane floats well in the tub, but it also has a few nifty features. For a start there is a water wheel in the cockpit which spins the propeller. The Splash N Play Seaplane also has a cannon which does a decent job of blowing bubbles, as long as you have sufficiently soapy water on hand. The cannon otherwise just tends to dribble and not really do that much if your soap level isn't high enough. This may be worth bearing in mind. There is also an escape slide and a penguin and monkey who have come along for the flight. Finally the pilot can be pressed down and the plane shoots water out of the wing nacelles. The plane is sturdy and there are even wheels for play on land.
This is a very versatile toy which could become a bath time favourite, so far it has been in the bath for every tub visit with our test tot.
Gross Motor Skills: Unless you count rudimentary paddling this toy doesn’t really help much in the gross skills area.
Fine Motor Skills: There are lots of things to do here and so the Seaplane is good value in this regard.
Sensory Skills: This toy doesn't really have much to offer except great familiarity with water.
Language Skills: No major development in this area.
Ease of Use / Reusability / Durability: Has proved popular over a few successive bath times. Is solid and looks like it will last for a while.
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Care Bears Share-A-Story The Care Bear Share a Story wasn't that popular a toy at the start, but by the end of the playgroup the girls has fallen in love with it, listening to the Goldilocks story and watching as the bear moved while reading it. |
This is a very clever toy which tells the story as you turn the pages of special books which come with it. The bear does chew up the batteries (and it requires 4x C cells), but it is a very cute toy which has serious potential to be a long term part of the bedtime routine.
Gross Motor Skills: No development.
Fine Motor Skills: Turning the pages is about it.
Sensory Skills: It moves and reads so there is a lot to look at.
Language Skills: The Care Bears Share-A-Story is a great tool to aid in reading and language development and there are other tales available for
purchase too.
Reusability / Durability / Value: With new stories this is a very good toy in terms of long term value.
Ease of Use: Simple
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Lego Duplo Farm Set The Lego Duplo Farm set is even better value than the fire set we reviewed last issue. For a start it has broader appeal in that the animals seemed to interest boys and girls equally. The set comes with a farmer, his wife, a tractor (which was of interest to the boys) and a host of cute farm animals (which very much appealed to the girls). If you have young twins or two children very close in age then this set would make an excellent present to share. You would need to be careful that you don't have any really young tots in the house as some of the parts might be a little small and may represent a choking hazard. |
Gross Motor Skills: Not much development.
Fine Motor Skills: Learning to manipulate the blocks and assemble the basic structures is what this set is all about, so the set is good value in this
regard.
Sensory Skills: Not much development.
Language Skills: Learning to recognise and identify the animals in the set should help with some basic language development.
Reusability / Durability / Value: Huge value here. The set can be rebuilt and recreated in so many ways so many times. This was a popular toy at
the playgroup and had lasting appeal. A funny farmyard pantomime of sorts even resulted.
Ease of Use: Some help will be necessary if a two year old is playing with this set.
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Fisher Price InteractTV This is a videogame console which is filling an increasingly popular niche. You may have seen the excellent VTech V-Smile console and now the InteracTV console from Fisher-Price also enters the market. |
The system is a hand held console which plugs into your TV and plays with your DVD machine and you place it in your child's lap. There are then large changeable activity template cards which when used in conjunction with the on screen display will keep your child entertained for hours. There are around 100 questions and the cards feature popular characters like Dora, Spongebob and Elmo. The graphics are far from cutting edge, but InteracTV was a popular toy with the whole group. The games on offer were educational too with counting challenges, shapes to identify and basic maths questions too.
It is no surprise that this system won 2005 Australian Toy Association Pre-School Product Of The Year. As long as new games (which are in DVD form) are released for the unit this will be a hit for some time to come.
Gross Motor Skills: No development.
Fine Motor Skills: Learning to use the controller with its activity card will teach basic motor skills.
Sensory Skills: A lot of entertainment value and lots to take in.
Language Skills: Huge benefit here as the games are just full of stuff to see and do. It is all very simply explained too.
Reusability / Durability / Value: Massive Long term value. This for us was the best toy this issue.
Ease of Use: Some adult supervision will be required to set the unit up, but once it is plugged in and you have selected the right channel it is easy to use.
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PlayGro Busy Activity Workshop The Activity Workshop is a great early childhood development toy for those under 3. There are cogs to spin, a toy phone to dial up and tools with nuts and bolts which can be hammered into the bench. There is even a toy drill with a groovy sound effect which proved very popular with two children (boys) fighting over it a little. There is also a fake block of wood and saw, a pair of pliers and a slide rule. This set is very much aimed at young boys and it was employed for most of the afternoon of the playgroup. |
Gross Motor Skills: Apart from carrying the table around not a lot in this domain.
Fine Motor Skills: Fiddling with the many tools and gadgets is what this set is all about so fine motor skill development is a primary benefit of the set.
Sensory Skills: There are some basic audio bleeps and sound effects which help to keep this bench interesting, but these are fairly rudimentary.
Language Skills: Not much development here, unless you talk about the tools with your child.
Reusability / Durability / Value: Lots of different widgets to play with an many different item combinations make this a great item for children under 30 months.
Ease of Use: Simple.
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Pop-Onz Building Table A more basic toy than the Playgro bench the Pop-Onz Building Table is bigger and has more items to play with, even if they are not as diverse. The base of the table works as a huge peg board which items can then be attached to. There are nearly twenty pieces which can be used to make small towns, playground equipment and set up with the figurines. There are even two rotating turntables. |
This was a very popular toy with our youngest tots. The fact that it was pretty big initially made it attractive and then the block combinations really came to the fore.
Gross Motor Skills: No development.
Fine Motor Skills: There is a lot of building skill development here and learning to work with the turntables as well as using the basic bits made this
building table a real hit.
Sensory Skills: Not a lot on offer here although the turntables and 3 musical tunes were of some value in keeping the child's attention.
Language Skills: No real development here.
Reusability / Durability / Value: Great value as the blocks can be stored in the table and reused again and again. Just make it clear that the table
isn't a dinner table (a problem we faced) as it can quickly get very messy if food is eaten over it. It all wipes clean easily enough though.
Ease of Use: Simple.
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Disney Slide and Learn Storybook Story telling toys seem to be in vogue this issue and the Pooh Slide and Learn book is a very colourful and cute storybook which was actually not quite as entertaining as we had first hoped. |
The book is very simple with six interactive pages and doesn't so much tell a story as present the tot with a few basic concepts which you can then explore. Each page has a slider which when moved prompts Pooh to explain a basic concept like different shapes, opposites and numbers.
The six pages only have one slider each on them and the book also plays a song and says hello and goodbye when opened. This toy was very interesting at first, but there wasn't enough to do for even the younger tots.
Gross Motor Skills: No development.
Fine Motor Skills: Again turning the pages is about it.
Sensory Skills: Pooh does babble on and tried to keep you entertained, but it is a case of not enough content.
Language Skills: Numbers, shapes and opposites are well displayed and differentiated here.
Reusability / Durability / Value: Pooh is a bit of a one trick pony.
Ease of Use: The sliders may also be a little vulnerable to breakage and the book could be easily snapped along its plastic spine. A toy which
should be used in a supervised context.
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Simon Says This simple music based game station was very popular with the younger tots (2 and 3) who liked the funny voice and the tactile nature of the games. Simon Says is a simple speech and recognition toy which plays silly music and then asks you to grab its foot, press a button of squeeze and air. There are sensors all over Simon's body and he responds when you press the right body part. Simon led to much giggling as he gently chides you when you get an answer wrong. He didn't hold the children’s attention for as long as expected though. |
Gross Motor Skills: No development.
Fine Motor Skills: Touching the right buttons teaches eye hand co-ordination.
Sensory Skills: There are lights to watch and the music is quite entertaining, as long as your child isn't playing with it at 6 in the morning.
Language Skills: A great toy to help with very basic language and anatomy skills.
Reusability / Durability / Value: Simon did seem to run out of puff in terms of long term appeal with the older children, but for those 3 or under he
was good value.
Ease of Use: Turning Simon on is a bit of a challenge at first as the basic audio setting seems to actually be a mute button, but this is easily solved
and having different volume settings is a very welcome feature as Simon could get a little annoying if he is chatting away when you want a little more peace
and quiet.
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November 2005 Toys
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Thomas Steam Along Set Thomas has been a favourite with kids (usually boys) for many decades now and this latest 60th anniversary set is a very solid option. There is no doubt that at over one hundred dollars you are paying for the name, given that the set is basically a plastic train set. However at 82 cm by 148 cm the layout is quite large and Thomas, with the aid of three AA batteries steams around the track, which has two routes, a bridge, a tunnel and a fairly accurate representation of Thomas' home, Maithwate Station. The set is also extendable if you get more tracks and you can change the layout. |
This set isn't that easy to set up for a three year old, indeed help with assembly will be needed unless your child is very mechanical (one of the boys in our playgroup managed it by himself and did pretty well seeing he is only just four). Thomas has a great sounding whistle too.
Gross Motor Skills: By virtue of the fact that you have to spread this out on your lounge room some movement is required, but it is hardly a
major factor.
Fine Motor Skills: Very much what this set is all about, as the assembly process will be challenging and interesting for most.
Sensory Skills: Thomas doesn't do that much to engage the senses, he peeps his whistle and chugs about and you can change his route with
switches.
Language Skills: No major development in this area.
Reusability: Building the track and taking it apart gives this set some long term replay value.
Value: At $109.95 this isn't the cheapest train set you'll find, but it is an authentic Thomas item.
Durability: Tracks can get stood on and the little bridges broken, something which didn't happen during playgroup night, but sadly did occur when
the set was taken home and set up. Because of the size of the set and the fact that it is easy to step on care is important.
Ease Of Use: Very straightforward to set up, as long as an adult helps with the batteries.
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Bill The Bug Viewer Some kids just love creepy crawlies and are obsessed with catching and observing them. Bill The Bug viewer isn't really designed for real living bugs (although you could help your child find some and locate them as long as you are careful). However Bill is fun in that you can teach the basics in terms of measuring and examining your bugs in captivity. This is really a toy which requires supervised play though as you need to explain what Bill is for and why it is interesting and the plastic bugs simply didn’t hold anyone's attention for a long time by themselves. Bill does have a bug noise button though and his simple viewer microscope works, even though it isn't very clear or heavily magnified. |
Gross Motor Skills: Because you will invariably be inspired to look outside for other bugs while helping your child explore the potential of this
toy this item will inadvertently help develop gross motor skills. That said Bill isn't really suited to live bugs even though this was exactly what one of the
children in the playgroup wanted to gather. There are no vent holes and getting live bugs into the unit is hard as there is no funnel to help guide them inside.
Fine Motor Skills: Fiddling with the tweezers certainly helps in this area.
Sensory Skills: Bill does make a simple insect noise, but his repertoire is limited.
Language Skills: No major development in this area.
Reusability: Depends on how interesting the bugs are to your child or whether you use Bill as a springboard to start looking at bugs in the real
world, at which point a proper Bug Catcher might be a good idea too.
Value: Cannot make a determination as RRP is not known at time of writing.
Durability: Opening and closing Bill over time could weaken the tabs which hold the cage together.
Ease Of Use: Simple.
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Baby Einstein Neighbourhood Animals The Disney backed Baby Einstein books are colourful, popular and very educational as they are not stories, but collections of useful facts cobbled together with pictures. The range is perfect for younger children, and ideally suited to bedtime story time as they are quick to read and very durable as the pages are made out of laminated cardboard. |
Gross Motor skills: No development.
Fine Motor Skills: Apart from turning pages no development.
Sensory Skills: No development.
Language Skills: Obviously the main point of this book.
Reusability: Because the pages are few and the descriptions are basic this book may not have massive longevity. That said it depends on how you
read it with your child and what imagination you inject into the process.
Value: Superb value for money.
Durability: Very durable.
Ease Of Use: Simple.
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Leap Frog Learn and Groove Activity Station This is a toy which suited the younger kids in our age range and it was also by far the biggest item. We actually had to arrange a 'ring in' baby to have a play with it at a later date as it really was too young for our initial playgroup. The unit is quite large and can fold up. |
Gross Motor skills: This unit will help teach baby to stand as the sitting position encourages an upright stance.
Fine Motor Skills: There are many great activities on offer as there are five basic stations and each has a number of activities.
Sensory Skills: Very big on basic sound and movement. Good Motown tunes with the alphabet in particular.
Language Skills: As this is designed for younger children the language skills are also more rudimentary, but there are basic maths and language
skill games and lots of animated rewards as items on the station are touched, sound and animation results
Reusability: For the first year of baby's life this has a lot of potential.
Value: For the price there are many great activities on offer.
Durability: This is a very solid unit which was hit and played with a lot and stood the test of time.
Ease Of Use: Plonk your baby in and it all happens, batteries are required though.
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Walk N Drive Learning Car If your child is beginning to get about, but struggling to walk this walker car is a ripper. Again this was a toy which was saved for our later evaluation when we arranged a younger tot to play with it. After struggling to stand near it the car did appear to hold his interest. The fact that it is a walker which also had fun turn signals, sounds and light made it quite interesting. Thankfully the rear legs, which are also on wheels can be separated for walking or be put together and act as a seat. |
Gross Motor skills: The entire the focus of this item.
Fine Motor Skills: The horn and indicators on the dash would help stimulate basic manipulation skills.
Sensory Skills: The horn and lights are also stimulating to a minor degree.
Language Skills: Good ABC and counting games make this a very impressive all round item.
Reusability: This would be a solid 'safety net' transportation option for those going through the process of learning to walk. The fact that you can
sit on it first also makes it more likely that it won't prove frustrating when baby is younger.
Value: Good value for money considering the range of activities it offers.
Durability: Very solid, and banged about the house quite well without being damaged.
Ease Of Use: Very easy to get sorted, just point your wee one at it and they will work it out for themselves.
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Duplo Lego Ville Fire Station Lego is always a firm favourite with children who like to spend time building and role playing. This fire station set is a beauty too, even if it is more suited to boys than girls. The Fire Station includes three fire fighters and there are fifty eight pieces. This is definitely a set better suited to those toward the upper edge of the specified age range as the parts are relatively small and require some dexterity to work with. That said this is a great toy which you can use together with your child. The firehouse can be rebuilt differently and the parts are all colourful and very sturdy. |
Gross Motor skills: Some development. Our playgroup did 'drive' the fire car around the house quite a bit.
Fine Motor Skills: The key area where Lego is superb value, as the skilled manipulation of objects and even following basic instructions makes this
set a great option for enquiring minds who like to know how things are made.
Sensory Skills: No bells and whistles here.
Language Skills: No development.
Reusability: Lego is huge value in this area and it is one of the reasons why Duplo is such an excellent option.
Value: At nearly eighty dollars the set isn't cheap, but considering the number of parts, the quality of the elements and the long term value of the
set the value for money is good.
Durability: Very durable, just be careful with the ladder and fire hoses.
Ease Of Use: Excellent instructions.
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Fisher Price Learn Through Music: When it comes to long lasting educational entertainment Sesame Street would have to be the world leader and this innovative product helps teach basic language skills while also being fun and encouraging confidence as your child sings along. |
This unit is a cartridge based player which you can play different programs on and it teaches basic language skills with songs and questions. It is very similar to the popular Leap Frog interactive book system except you don't need a touch pen and can simply touch the screen which lights up, as certain items on the page relevant to each song are highlighted.
Gross Motor skills: Not a lot of development even though some spontaneous dancing did occur when the playgroup children decided to do an
impromptu performance.
Fine Motor Skills: Operating the system is fairly simple, so this doesn't really do much for your child in this area.
Sensory Skills: The system plays music really well and combined with the lit up display the Learn Through Music system is really entertaining.
Language Skills: This is a great fun way to encourage greater understanding of language.
Reusability: Because you can buy cartridges this system has great long term vale. This was also very popular with the playgroup who spent a lot of
time with it ?one of the hits of the day!
Value: Superb value for money at $79.95 as it is cheaper than the Leap Frog.
Durability: Farily durable, even if the cartridge wheels and screen have to be looked after well.
Ease Of Use: Simple, but it will chew batteries eventually.
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Fly & Learn Globe II This is a great looking toy which delivers a lot when it comes to sound animation and movement. It was also one of the first toys to monopolise the attention of one member of the playgroup for a long time. The globe is very clever in that it rotates with the joystick and then asks you questions about places and people. |
Gross Motor skills: This isn't really focused in this area.
Fine Motor Skills: Using the controller is fun for children and develop their manual dexterity, even if it is pretty simple.
Sensory Skills: Great sound and movement makes this very entertaining.
Language Skills: There is a lot children can learn about places all over the globe. This was a very popular toy.
Reusability: There are plenty of questions, play modes and permutations, so this will certainly last for some time. The globe is a little fragile though.
Value: A toy which will keep on delivering as long as your children like quizzes.
Durability: The globe mechanism could be vulnerable to damage as it is top heavy.
Ease Of Use: The different question modes are self explanatory and the globe asks you what you want to do and then directs you to play.
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Amazing Amanda This is the ultimate doll. Amazing Amanda features speech recognition technology which senses her owners voice and reacts accordingly. The doll will ask for food and only be satisfied when given the right food, she also makes happy noises when hugged and reacts appropriately when you put on her pyjamas. Because she responds to your voice and what you do with her Amazing Amanda is the most lifelike doll you'll find. |
Gross Motor skills: Not a lot of development.
Fine Motor Skills: As a part of the social development which occurs as children play with Amanda they also learn to take care while feeding her
and brushing her hair etc.
Sensory Skills: Amanda really is amazing as she has an animated face and responds depending on what you say to her.
Language Skills: This is a toy which not only encourages the use of language, but even helps children (most likely girls) explore social dimensions.
Reusability: Because there are so many words in Amanda's vocabulary and objects she recognises she will be popular for a long time.
Value: For the price there are many great activities on offer.
Durability: A quality doll.
Ease Of Use: It is just like talking to a baby, which is kind of eerie, but Amanda was very popular during the playgroup. Who she went home with
was a bit of an issue!
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Article written by:
Steve Polak
Professional, Independent Toy Reviewer
Related pages:
- shops directory > toy shops - local guide
- shops directory > children's books, cds, dvds and videos
- info directory > key development stages
