
How important are educational toys to children's games
"Games are the most legitimate behavior of children, and toys are the angels of children."
What children need most is games, which is also their basic right. This is the most popular way for children to promote their all-round physical and mental development. Society, kindergartens, childcare centers and families should all make efforts to ensure the realization of children's right to play. Among them, kindergartens use games as daily activities to meet the needs of children, while ensuring that children have sufficient activity time and safeguarding their rights to play. In order to avoid kindergarten education being too much biased towards primary school or adultization, we need to unswervingly carry out daily kindergarten activities that are suitable for the age characteristics of children. In this process, educational toys play an important role. They make children happy in games, thereby guiding them to actively learn, and at the same time promote the all-round healthy development of children's body and mind and the development of subjectivity.
So what is the importance of educational toys to children's learning and development?
For children, educational toys are not only indispensable playmates for a happy childhood life, but also important media and resources for children's active learning.
1. The material basis of children's games is educational toys.
Mr. Chen Heqin pointed out: "Children rarely play with nothing in their hands. They must have a lot of things to help them play and satisfy their desire to play." For children before entering primary school, the activity of "playing" usually refers to "playing with toys." Children often rely on specific toys or game materials to play most of their games.
Children's thinking has certain characteristics, with direct action and concrete imagery. Their actions will be largely affected by the situation in front of them or certain stimulating objects. Therefore, in kindergartens, in order to ensure the safety and health of children, generally speaking, the toys they come into contact with are educational toys. These toys are usually accompanied by obvious noises, and have bright colors and beautiful shapes. These can arouse children's curiosity and stimulate their interest in games, thereby inducing children to show specific game behaviors and game choices.
2. Educational toys are the bridge for children to interact with the surrounding material environment
Children are usually curious about the world around them, but there are many objects and tools in the adult world that children cannot and cannot touch. Therefore, adults create educational toys so that children can use these objects that they can use correctly to imitate activities that they cannot touch but are very interested in participating in. Therefore, educational toys can connect children with real social activities.
For preschool children, playing with educational toys is an important way for them to correctly master the standards of social sensory experience. Based on the reason why we invented educational toys, most toys have obvious and typical characteristics, which are the simplification, summary and beautification of actual social objects in real life. Good quality toys should have uniform colors and shapes. These toys can help children more correctly understand the social sensory experience standard system unique to humans during the game.
3. Educational toys are not only the carrier of material culture, but also the tool of cultural inheritance and dissemination.
The design, production, consumption and use of educational toys reflect the development of material civilization and the success of scientific and technological progress in human society. They are also important manifestations of social beliefs, customs, concepts and aesthetic psychology, reflecting the expectations of specific cultures for children's learning and development, and conveying the hope of future children's education development.
Educational toys are not only tools for children to play, but also can realize the function of cultural immersion and acculturation in a subtle way. For professional educators, they should always maintain a cultural sensitivity, actively analyze and think about the cultural connotations behind toys, choose the most suitable culture for children, and use these toys to guide children to understand and respect the diversity of human races and cultures, and form multicultural and anti-prejudice concepts.
4. The most suitable "textbook" for children's learning is educational toys
With the development of education, people pay more and more attention to the educational function of toys. We hope to promote the development of children in all aspects through educational toys.
"Children's wisdom is at their fingertips", so the basic characteristics of educational toys are concrete imagery and operability. Operational learning is the basic feature of children's learning. In the process of operating toys, children can experience, comprehend and understand the knowledge in the process of toys and games, and are more likely to find problems and think about solving them.
As a learning resource for children, educational toys have unique "developmental suitability", just like "tell me, I will forget in the future; show me, maybe I will remember; let me participate, I will understand deeply".