We live in a time where we can offer many options to our children, especially when we have the means. So what I deem as “most” intellectually stimulating toys you can get for your children may come as a bit of a surprise:
- Plain wooden blocks.
- Dirt (+/- water). Sand.
- Paint (brush optional).
- Empty containers and cartons.
- Play dough (minus molds or cookie cutters).
- You (not “blah blah blah” but rolling-on-the-floor physical activities).
Kim John Payne’s studies in childhood development and his own observations showed that children whose toys are “done to” (broken, dolls head ripped off) tend to be the ones that have flashy, loud, blinking, stimulating, painted plastic packages of prefabricated imagination. The toy doesn’t draw in the child’s imagination to interact with it. If the child doesn’t get bored of it quickly, then the child learns to want more and more stimulation from “toys”.
For those of you with very young children/infants — focusing on the sensory is all the more important. Obviously with the very young, you want to be careful of choking hazards (nothing that fits through a toilet paper tube) and since infants are still putting everything in their mouths. Dirt, sand, mud, play-dough are out for now.
You may want to narrow the list down to:
- Large wooden blocks (make sure unpainted — I use Doug and Melissa brand blocks)
- Sensory balls — these come in different sizes that have nubs all over the surface, infants *love* them.
- Large containers with caps — screw tops or press down tops.
- Bubbles (you blow them)
- You
