Posts Tagged ‘Preschool’

The Importance Of Pre-School Educational Toy For Babies And Toddlers

Sunday, April 24th, 2011
Educational Games
by Cornell University Library

As parents you’ll be educating your child from day one, even if you aren’t truly aware of it. Every instruction you give your child, and every action you make which they copy, are lessons they’re learning for themselves. At such an early age, babies and toddlers are interested and keen. They naturally want to discover new things, so it makes sense that when parents give their children educational toys, books and games to play with, they choose the right ones.

Infant education is not about forcing your child to become a genius overnight. Instead, it’s about giving them the opportunity to make use of their own naturally inquisitive personalities and allowing them to discover new senses and abilities through the medium of play.

Scientific Research Proves That Pre-school Educational Products Make a Difference

Research conducted in America has proven that infant education really does make a difference to a child’s ability later in life. Encouraging them, by reading them stories and showing them pictures in infant books, playing with educational toys, using flashcards, Educational toddlers DVD’s and familiarising them with simple things like the alphabet, shapes and colours allows a toddlers brain to develop in much the same way that a body builder would develop his muscles with regular workouts. The more they exercise their brains, the easier they find it to learn and understand.

In the UK, the BBC discussed the issue of early infant education in it’s Dispatches: Kids Don’t Count programme, which can still be viewed online. It highlighted a group of children’s lack of comprehension when presented with a simple fraction, but it was the views of the teachers interviewed in the programme which shed the light on the problem. Children, they agreed, were not introduced to learning at an early enough age to find it interesting, and this lack of early education left older children confronted with a harder task. The solution? Introduce the right educational games and infant books early enough to capture and harness their natural interest.

The Brainy Baby® company an online ‘Early Learning Centre‘, specialise in educational toys with proven success in enhancing toddlers’ learning experiences. They recently commissioned a study through the University of Texas which showed that a group of toddlers using their educational Brainy Baby’s® Shapes & Colours DVD were 22 times more successful in learning and recognising a new and unfamiliar shape than a group of toddlers who didn’t see the DVD. They’ve proven that the earlier children are encouraged to educate themselves by using tools like educational toddlers DVDs, infant books and children’s flashcards, the better and easier they will learn.

Brands of Educational Children’s Products in the UK

Educational toys and games for infants and babies is a huge industry in the UK, with big-name manufacturers like V-Tech, Chicco and Leapfrog recognising the importance of early toddler education. Everything from flashcards, books and toys have been designed to teach babies to recognise their ABC’s, and one of the biggest companies was the Baby Einstein group who had a huge share of the market with their educational children’s products. However, the Baby Einstein group, owned by Disney since 2001, has suffered recent bad publicity, opening the door for newer companies like brainybaby.co.uk to step forward and claim their share of the UK market with their well researched educational merchandise.

Baby Einstein Suffers in the US

Recent problems for Baby Einstein were heavily publicised at the end of 2009 when Disney was threatened with a class-action lawsuit by a group of public health lawyers who complained that Disney had marketed their educational babies’ DVD’s in a manner which implied they could make children more intelligent, but parents have been arguing against the suggestion that using their toddler’s educational DVD’s as a virtual babysitter is an appropriate, or effective, method of learning. What parents want is to be part of their children’s learning experience and to help them by sharing time playing with educational toys together.

This desire is encompassed in the Brainy Baby® range of products which are sold online in the UK. They have researched and developed a superior range of educational toys, infant learning flashcards, educational games and infant books designed to promote a positive learning experience through parent-child interaction and at a fraction of the cost of some of the larger retailers. Testimonials for the company and their products can be found on their site at brainybaby.co.uk and brainybaby.com, but here are a few of the reasons why the Brainy Baby® products are the informed parents choice:

Brainy Baby® Reasons For Choosing Brainy Baby® -

Specifically Researched Educational DVD’s –  Brainy Baby® have developed a unique range of DVD’s which are designed to teach your child to learn like never before.  Their Right Brain and Left Brain DVD’s can encourage your child to harness the different creative and logical sides of their brain through fun imagery.
Interactive Joint Play –  Brainy Baby® have designed a range of flashcards to encourage a variety of learning experiences, from numbers and ABC’s, to a child’s first Spanish words.  Flashcards provide a positive parent-child learning experience and these perfectly designed picture cards are aimed at developing an inquisitive mind.
Long-term Learning – Brainy Baby® are keen to encourage good learning habits and this game is the perfect chance to encourage the development of a good memory through the use of brightly coloured, engaging cards.
Child-Focused Brainy – Baby® products in the UK are brought to you by Melrose Kids, a company dedicated to supporting children’s charities.  Keep in touch by signing up to their newsletter. Friendly, Reliable Service Prompt delivery, high standards and a simple returns policy in the unlikely event that you aren’t satisfied with your purchase, are a few reasons why this company should be your Number 1 choice for educational children’s products.
Range Of Products The carefully selected and researched range of educational products is varied enough to cover all aspects of a child’s learning, with many products such as the infants books, alphabet flashcards and the ABC building blocks targeting more than one learning ability.

Melanie Thomas (CEO Melrose Kids Ltd) is a mother of two boys and lives in London, England. Melrose Kids Ltd are the official distributor of Brainy Baby products in the UK and Ireland.

For 15 years, The Brainy Baby Company has been a pioneer and leader in DVDs, Books, flashcards, Games and Toys for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers. The award-winning line of videos, CDs, books, pre-school games, and toys introduce children educational subjects such as letters, languages, shapes, animals, art and music.

 


Article from articlesbase.com

Online Educational Games for Preschool Kids

Thursday, April 7th, 2011
Educational Games
by Cornell University Library

Article by Amit Naskar

In our quest to find online educational games and learning activities for preschool kids, we did a detailed study to see how well they fulfill parental expectations and needs. Our findings show significant gaps, indicating challenges and new opportunities for online educational websites for preschoolers.

What do parents actually want?

Earlier surveys have shown that parents generally want their preschoolers to get used to computers early on, but not get addicted to it. Parents expect kid’s websites to be informational, easy to use and suitable for their age. They look for puzzles, games and activities that teach essential concepts of early childhood education, such as alphabets, phonics, numbers, analytical skills etc. They also look for rhymes, stories and other entertaining content. Studies have shown that when kids are taught in a subtle and entertaining manner, it is stress-free and lot more effective. A fun learning approach goes a long way in addressing their short attention spans, and motivates kids to learn.

In today’s scenario, most parents find limited time to sit with their kids in front of the computer on a regular basis. Educational websites for preschoolers should be easy to use with the ability to engage kids without requiring parents to babysit them all the time.

What do most educational web sites offer?

To our surprise, our research showed that most educational web sites for preschoolers fail to meet these basic expectations. A large number of websites offer online educational games, activities and content in a highly unorganized manner with no standardization. Each site had its own content style and navigational structure, requiring kids to read and understand verbose instructions on the screen. As most preschoolers can’t read yet, it becomes mandatory for an adult to help and supervise. Typically, games are not age specific and are unintuitive in their design. Large number of games rely on the kid’s hand-eye coordination, and did nothing to help them learn a new concept.

Even the websites that are more education-oriented, actually do not ‘teach’ or explain concepts to the preschoolers. They ask questions in a game format that mainly ‘test’ what the kids possibly already know. Teaching a topic requires age-specific audio-visual content that explains the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the topic. It is the biggest shortcoming in the web sites for early childhood education.

Bridging the gap

Raylit (http://www.raylit.com) is an online educational website for preschoolers that focuses on ‘teaching’ and letting kids learn on their own. Raylit features interactive sessions packed with preschool games, videos and fun learning activities. Raylit has funny cartoon characters who talk to the kids, and teach them early childhood education curriculum covering analytical skills, English language, early math, science and general knowledge. The content has a healthy balance of learning and entertainment interwoven together into an interactive and engaging personalized experience for preschoolers.

About the Author

Amit Naskar is a co-founder of Raylit, an online education service with a vision to make learning interactive and exciting for kids across the world with the help of technology.

Because the Bores carted out his latest two containers-full of diaherra, I decided to make them the next ICBINAVGN episodes and get them out of the way. Heheheh… *sob*
Video Rating: 4 / 5