I'm The "Educational Toys" Contributor on Squidoo

I love playing. I love learning. I think they have a symbiotic relationship in children's lives. Think about it. Children tend to learn effectively when they're having fun, and when they're building competence and confidence through learning, they tend to have more fun.

Enter educational toys. That phrase can conjure up images of playthings that are like the brussels sprouts of the toy bin. You know, the stuff that's good for you and the only reason you interact with it is because your mom makes you. That's not what I'll be talking about here. Whew.

Let me introduce you to some educational toys that are truly a marriage of fun and learning. The playthings I'll share with you are straight from my world as a mom with a multitude of children in her life. There's my 6 year old daughter, all her friends from our classroom/hybrid homeschool community, my 6 nieces and nephews, the kids in the childcare program I volunteer in at church as well as all the various and assorted friends we do playdates with regularly. With that many children in those settings, I see what toys rise to the top.

My list of fantastic educational toys may not read like you'd expect. I'm kind of an outside-the-box, big picture thinker, to use two well-worn cliches, and I think of learning not just in terms of school subjects but in terms of the many different types of intelligences that contribute to the way people think and interact with the world.

For example, extremely enjoyable toys that enhance a child's learning process might have qualities like:

- Helping a younger child or baby attain or practice developmentally appropriate skills

- Encourages the imagination and pretend play

- Introduces new concepts in an engaging way

- Develops healthy social skills

- Enhances critical thinking

- Is all about creativity

- Promotes discovering new ways to do something

I could go on. But I think you want to get to the toys now.

Meet my daughter, BunnyJunior

No, that's not her real name. I write under the name BunnyFabulous, so she's of course, BunnyJunior. Yes, that is her foot up on her Rainbow Loom. She told me that holding it with her foot is part of the instructions for how to do a new bracelet pattern that she's made up. Never a dull moment with this kid.

On the days she's home doing school with me, I get to see a lot of the benefits of playful learning in action. While there are some fantastic toys that engage our children's minds and imaginations, I'm always reminded that it's the adventurous, inquiring spirit of children and their parents that really make learning come alive.

May she always be a lifelong learner.

By the way, since BunnyJunior just turned six, most of our personal toy experience is with playthings for her age and younger. We're branching out more every year.

At the moment, one of our other go-to toys, a wooden USA map puzzle, isn't in the links list since it is currently unavailable on Amazon. Sigh.

Sometimes she'd just play with one aspect of the toy for a bit, but it would keep reeling her in again and again.

BunnyJunior demonstrates the counting rain gutter feature.

She loves to play with this thing, even if just for a moment at a time. It always got her attention at least a couple times a day.

Playing with the mailbox. We ended up playing a lot of silly games with this feature.