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How To Choose The Best Toys For Children This Holiday Season

It's that time of year again, and many parents will soon find themselves in the same dilemma - do they buy their children the most popular toys or the toys that can help their children learn? Well-selected toys nurture a child's ideas and imagination, while growing with a child's changing interests. Sylvan Learning Center offers parents the following suggestions to keep in mind when shopping for toys that are fun and educational.

1. Building Toys. To most parents, LEGO's® Bionicle and Bob the Builder were the must-have toys of last year's holiday season. Popular building toys like these can actually help children more quickly acquire the reasoning skills necessary for mathematics.
2. Computer Games. Last year, Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's Playstation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube were the hot gifts for older kids. While video games are not often thought of as educational, they do help build reasoning skills and logic as children navigate the different levels of each game.
3. Games. Games can be a fun way to encourage math discovery in children. In fact, many popular board games, such as Monopoly®, reinforce basic math skills. While children roll the dice and buy real estate, they also develop "number sense" while practicing their basic math skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). Even classic games like Connect Four® and Yahtzee® help with problem solving skills and computational speed and accuracy.
4. Projects. Project-based toys, such as model airplanes, cars, ships and rockets are good for older children (ages 9-14). They help children build motor skills and teach them how to follow directions as well. Science kits, chemistry sets and ant farms also enhance reading comprehension (instructions) and critical thinking skills. While popular Harry Potter Snape's Potion Lab looks like just another toy, in order to make the potion, children practice following directions, measuring, mixing and analyzing the results through taste and consistency.
5. Pretend Games. Young children love to pretend, especially with child-size versions of everyday adult objects. Pretending can be both fun and informative for your child. For example, the ever-popular Easy Bake Oven introduces children to basic food preparation skills, how to follow a recipe and may help ease them into helping with kitchen chores. A toy cash register helps children understand math and making change with money.