How to Choose Educational Toys: A Guide for Conscious Parents

Choosing a toy is a more important task than it may seem, given the impact that games have on a child's development.

To help you in this difficult task, we offer eight tips designed to facilitate the process of choosing the optimal toy for each child and situation. Because we believe that investing time in buying toys for your children is an investment in them. Play plays a significant role in their development into adulthood, and the way they play today will have a lot to do with their future behavior. It's a proven fact.

As adults, we often consider factors such as safety or the age of the child we are targeting, but we often overlook other basic factors such as durability or the values ​​conveyed by the chosen toy.

Let's analyze the message a toy that breaks at the first opportunity sends to our children: Buy, break, throw away, and buy again. A spiral of consumerism in which there's no need to take care of toys or take responsibility for them.

Here are eight tips for choosing the right toy:

1. Shop with your full mental capacity. Choosing toys is a very serious business. Planning your purchases and researching toy information in advance is a better idea than rushing into the city center on the eve of the holidays. The rush and the crowds of people are too overwhelming to make a rational choice. Avoid both and shop with your full mental capacity.

2. Safety first. Although current legislation is increasingly restrictive, we must remain vigilant, as year after year we witness the massive recall of toys that do not guarantee minimum safety. and have even caused accidents. Avoid buying from typical stores with products of dubious origin, and trust specialized stores.

3. Childproof toys. These are no longer times to waste money on toys that break at the mere sight of them. Although it may sound obvious, toys should be designed by and for children, able to withstand their abuse without breaking a sweat. Durable toys can last many lives through several children and teach an important lesson. The future is about reusing and caring for things to extend their useful life.

4. Read the instructions carefully. What's the point of the game you didn't fully understand? Read it again. If you still don't have a clear idea after the second try, this is definitely not the toy you're looking for. The toy's use isn't clear to you, and it probably won't be clear to the child you're giving it to either.

5. Choose toys appropriate for their age and developmental level. It's essential that the toy be appropriate for the child's age and developmental level. If the toy is too advanced for their developmental level, we may create unnecessary frustration for the child, who won't have the skills necessary to understand and use it. If, on the other hand, the toy is too basic, they'll become bored, demotivated, and quickly abandon it.

6. What values ​​does it convey? Games have a huge impact on a child's development and future attitudes. Experts recommend identifying the values ​​conveyed by the toys we choose based on what we want to foster in our child. All you need to do is consider the intended use of the toy and associate that use with a set of values. Toys can be sexist, racist, violent... but they can also promote equality, tolerance, solidarity... it's up to each individual to decide.

7. Diversity of materials. The vast majority of children's toys today are made of plastics and synthetic materials, which may be visually appealing but can also have serious limitations in terms of touch and smell. The diversity of materials, and especially access to natural materials, allows children to see, smell, and feel—all of which are essential elements for their development.

8. It should be playable. The main function of a toy is to be able to play with it. Yes, it's obvious, but we often forget and allow ourselves to be lured by dazzling toys full of lights, sounds, and autonomous movements, which relegate the child to the position of a mere spectator. And when the batteries run out, the game ends. The toy should make the child the protagonist and should be a support, a tool, or a tool for their play.