The gift of education continues after the holidays. Give kids one of these expert-approved learning toys, gadgets, and other brain-boosting gifts and invest in their future.
Popular products in this article:
Best for Kids: Fisher-Price Steady Speed Walker 2-Way Walker, $35
Best for Kids: Magna-Tiles Neighborhood Daniel Tiger, $45
Best for Kids: LEGO Classic Build Together, $100.
Best for Teens and Teens: Nintendo Switch Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, $29
Why choose toys and gifts to explore this holiday season? Educational toys and gifts are just as fun as games and can be just as rewarding as traditional options, developing young minds and stimulating growth.
From babies to teens, CBS Essentials collects the best educational toys and gifts for everyone on your list. We also spoke with award-winning educator and SmartKids learning and play expert Cindy Prince for tips on choosing the right educational gift.
What to look for when buying educational toys and gifts
"When buying educational toys for your child, remember that all children develop differently and at different rates. The focus should be on creativity, problem solving, social skills and critical thinking skills,” says Price. "If a toy is not in our child's best interest, it will not be played with as often as it should be, no matter how popular it is."
He suggests asking yourself a few questions when choosing a toy: Does it stimulate creativity? Will it attract my child's attention? Does it have multiple purposes or can it be used in different ways? Is it suitable for children? Does it promote social skills and cooperation? Can you practice building teams, taking turns or following directions while interacting with them?
The best educational toys for children.
For children (ages 0-2), Price recommends creating toys that stimulate creativity, improve fine motor skills, critical thinking and early learning skills such as shapes, colors and sizes.
SmarterKids Musical Shape Sorting Ball
Price presents challenging children with a musical sorting ball that teaches problem solving, motor skills and focus.
SmarterKids Music Shape Sorting Ball, $28
Melissa and Doug Market Cart Contents and Spill Kit
This beautiful mesh bag and grocery set fits almost any price point. They can grab, press, fill and unfold each of the five items to develop sensory, fine motor and problem solving skills. From 6 months old.
Melissa & Doug Market Basket Filler and Spill Set, $14 ($25 off) after coupon
Fisher-Price Bidirectional Stationary Walker
Babies can push this car-shaped walker on both sides for learning activities with shape sorting and interactive buttons that teach the alphabet, opposites, numbers and counting. Walker also plays over 100 songs, words and phrases. Age from 6 to 36 months.
Fisher-Price 2-Way Walker, $35.
The best educational toys for children.
For younger children, Price offers to buy matching games, puzzles, building blocks and role-playing toys. "These toys encourage creativity, cooperation and social skills, problem solving, fine motor skills, critical thinking, early learning skills and hand-eye coordination," he explains.
Olive and Coco Storybook and Train Set
A great gift for any train lover, the Goodnight Train set of six wooden train cars and storybook set with magnetic tips and double road signs will keep them engaged throughout the story and beyond. Like all gifts created by Olive & Coco, this set is beautifully wrapped in a canvas bag and tied with a ribbon. Age 3 years and older.
Olive and Coco Storybook and Train Set, $98.
Fisher-Price LinkyMalls Light Up & Learn Owl
Children 18 months and older will love squeezing the owl's belly button to see it light up, play over 90 songs, words and phrases, learn the alphabet, count from one to 20, weather, emotions and more. Like all Linkimals products, when the owl meets other "friends" they light up and interact with each other.
Fisher-Price Linkimals Light-Up & Learn Owl, $23 (was $33)
Melissa and Doug Wooden Block Set, 100 Pieces
Approved by the Steam and Toy Association, this colorful brick set will give young hands hours of creativity. Age 2 years and older.
Melissa & Doug Wooden Block Set, 100 pieces, $28
Daniel Tiger Magna-Tiles Neighborhood
Kids of all ages love building with Magna Tiles. Additional incentives for children? This game introduces Daniel Tiger fans to their favorite characters and uses themes from the series to help children learn to recognize feelings and the importance of helping others. Age 3 years and older.
Barrio Magna Tiles by Daniel Tiger, $45.
A small number of lilies and rivers.
This simple wooden calculator makes addition, subtraction and multiplication fun for little learners. Age from 2 to 6 years.
Lily and River Little Room, $60.
Learn and play Little Tikes 100 spelling words and turn the pencil
Kids use these cute pencil letters to write 100 different words to build vocabulary. After forming a word, they can press the tip of the pencil to hear the letter, the spoken word and the corresponding sound effect.
Little Tyke Learn and Play 100 Word Spelling and Spin Pencil, $15 after coupon ($20 off)
The best educational toys for children.
For older children, Price suggests making science kits, programming, writing kits and toys. "This toy focuses on problem solving, critical thinking skills, fine motor skills, creativity, imagination, cooperation, social skills, language and cognitive skills," he said.
GraviTrax Power Starter Kit introduces Marble Run and Building Starter Kit
GraviTrax, the wildly popular STEM-based marble building materials brand, recently released an electronically controlled version that lets kids up to seven marbles quickly get started. Age 8 years and older. Sold exclusively at Target.
GraviTrax Power Starter Kit, $90 (was $110)
Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Tablet
The new Amazon Fire HD 8 children's tablet offers an 8-inch HD screen and up to 13 hours of battery life for all-day fun and learning, such as reading books, educational games and accessing your favorite educational programs. Amazon Kids+ includes an annual subscription to select content and a child-resistant stand.
Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Tablet, $160
Classic Lego builds together
This big box of LEGO 1601 bricks provides hours of imaginative and prescient play while learning problem-solving skills. Includes sorting box, various assembly instructions and assembly guide.
LEGO Classic Build Together, $100.
Squaregles Basic Starter Kit
120 magnetic tiles in different shapes and sizes make for non-stop learning fun with Squaregles, which gets kids to apply science, math, design and technology to create fun designs.
Squaregles Essential Starter Kit, $120.
Talking Kids Crafts Like Maya Rainbow Wall Hanging Craft Kit
This cute craft kit teaches kids skills as well as female role models and historical figures. Our favorite? Maya Angelou's kit includes everything you need to create a rainbow wall inspired by one of the poet's most famous quotes.
Talking Kids Crafts Like Maya Rainbow Wall Hanging Craft Kit, $30
VR dinosaurs illustrated VR interactive books and STEM learning activity kits.
Take them to an interactive museum to experience dinosaurs with this STEM-approved VR content pack, including VR goggles, an 80-page interactive book, and digging tools and rocks. Atlas, animated maps are also available. Age 8 years and older.
Illustrated Interactive Virtual Reality Book with VR Dinosaurs and STEM Learning Activity Bundle, $60
VR Atlas Interactive VR Book and STEM Learning Activity Set, $51
Find the binding scheme encoding
Teach them to code before they go to high school with this new Snap circuit kit. The included tutorial and companion app teach graphs and block coding. Projects can be controlled using the Snap Circuit app on a smartphone or tablet, as creators can control lights, sounds, and even motors.
Instant circuit detection encryption, $60 (instead of $80)
Easy Peasy Woobles Crochet Kit for Beginners
Give them a new hobby and skill set with this adorable crochet kit from Woobles. This kit contains everything you need to crochet cute animals, including step-by-step video tutorials, crochet pins, easy patterns, yarn and even pre-made pieces. Animals are also sold on the menu.
Woobles Easy Peasy Starter Crochet Kit, $100 (from $120)
Pierre Penguin Woobles Crochet Kit, $35.
The best educational toys for teens and tweens.
For teens and tweens, science tools, STEM toys, technology, and robots are most beneficial. "It will improve critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and imagination skills," says Price.
Nintendo Switch Big Brain Academy: Brains vs. Brains
Leave your screen time for educational purposes. This Nintendo Switch game offers a fast-paced challenge for kids, teens, and even adults. Play alone or with up to four people of varying difficulty and see who gets the most points.
Nintendo Switch Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain, $29
Lego Mindstorms – the inventor of the robot
Price recommends these challenging Lego sets for teens and even adults to teach important STEM skills. After creating a robot, players bring the animal to life, which can be controlled remotely while learning programming skills.
Inventor of the LEGO Mindstorm Robot, $360.
Create custom logs in real life
Journaling encourages creativity, sharpens writing skills, and helps teens process thoughts and emotions. Personalize one of these hand-bound journals from Real Life Crafted, a small, woman-owned business, to match her preferences and interests for a truly unique and thoughtful gift.
Real Diary, Custom, $40.
Amazon Bookmark Gift Card
Great gift for a teen or teenage reader? Amazon gift cards tagged to encourage them to read. You can even buy them a book and put a gift card in it.
Amazon Bookmark Gift Card, $25 and up
"Life Skills for Teens: How to Cook, Clean, Manage Money, Fix a Car, Give First Aid, and Just about Everything Else"
This best-selling pantyhose maker teaches teenagers everything they want to know but might not learn in school.
Life Skills for Teens: How to Cook, Clean, Manage Money, Fix Your Car, Give First Aid and Just about Everything Else, $10.
Shop now for early Black Friday 2022 deals
While there's still time to wait for the official Black Friday 2022 sales to kick off, you can still get some great deals right now. Check out our first article on Black Friday deals.
- The complete guide to Black Friday 2022
- The Ultimate Black Friday 2022 Blog Live: Today's Best Deals at Amazon, Walmart and More
- The best early Black Friday deals on Samsung Galaxy phones: Galaxy S22 Ultra, Galaxy Z Flip 4 and more
- The best early Black Friday luggage deals: Samsonite, Delsey, Calpak and more
- The best Black Friday deals at Best Buy: Samsung phones, iRobot Roomba, Theragun and more
- The best Black Friday furniture deals: Save at Amazon, Wayfair and more
- Wayfair's best Black Friday deals: furniture, kitchen and more
- Apple Watch and Apple Pro 2 are available on Amazon, and one is happening before Black Friday
- Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy
- Amazon Black
- Walmart's Best Early Bird Deals: Save Big on Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, Apple AirPods Pro 2, and More
- Best early black deals on Amazon: Samsung, Sony, LG and some more
- அக்குக்கு சிய்பு சார் சார் பெர்ப்பு பர்ரம்ப்பு இல் பில் பியாயை
- You can buy early Black Friday deals on Samsung and dryers
- Samsung Fridge Best Black Deal Deal: Save up to $1,200
- Best early Apple Black Deal: AirPods Pro 2, iPad and some more
- सेरा प्रारम्भिक Friday deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some
- Best early Black Friday deals: Samsung, Sony, LG and more
- Amazon- அக்குக்க்குக்குக்கு சார்க்கிர் பெர்ப்புப்ப்புப்புட்டு
- Best of 2022 and dryer features and Black Friday deals
- Вашар и комботе сера блак прирамбхик Дил Дил Дил: Samsung, LG, and more
- सेरा प्रारम्भिक Friday vacuum deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal deal some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some some
- Shk! And the retailer is holding a huge blackout today for kitchen accessories, furniture and more
- There was a black sale earlier today and 'The Frame' TVs are hilarious
100 Most Holiday Gifts: This Christmas
Before shopping for Christmas and gifts, remember, but believe, that. .. Last year's season, the supply chain was full, and CBS News will be the same in 2022. .. .. Also, there is inflation – unfortunately, the price will increase further in December.
So now buy a good apartment for a holiday gift and see CBS Essentials' 100 Most Wanted of 2022. .. .. We have selected our top 100 best gifts of 2022 based on our own extensive research. … … … .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . … … … … Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle Turtle
To make the most popular gifts for 2022, join us for the CBS Essential 100 Most Wanted series. …….. …….. …….. In our list, some of Apple's products , the best of 2022 , game-changing kitchenware and kitchenware ( such as an air fryer ) and more… …. ….
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