Wooden Toy Kitchen Sets

Wooden Toy Kitchen Sets Promote Pretend Play

My oldest child is a wonderful baker, and her earliest kitchen experiences were as simple as waving a wooden spoon, from her walker, while Mom created gingerbread house pieces at Christmas time.  Through the years, she enjoyed both real, and pretend kitchen play, and it goes without saying that her toy kitchen set was a favorite pretend play thing.

A charming blue, wooden toy kitchen set...
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Pretend play is very much an educational endeavor, as it allows children to repeat what they've seen, though in pretend fashion.  It allows them the opportunity to invent their own stories, ideas, and scenarios.  It allows for informal use of verbal and mathematical skills, in a tactile environment.  Sometimes, I think that formal schooling has abandoned too quickly the value of make believe.

KidKraft Wooden Toy Kitchen Set in Pink

Wooden toy kitchen sets have a wonderful charm about them, in that they are constructed of simple materials, can be created in a rainbow of colors, and can sufficiently provide a venue for imaginative play that will inspire.

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Costs for woodent toy kitchen sets can range from the $60 area, and up, and can be very simple, or quite elaborate.  Your household space may dictate how elaborate the toy kitchens sets are that you will consider, or your budget may do so.  Most big box retailers will host a given set, often plastic, during a holiday season, but I rarely see the charming wooden kitchen toys in my stores.  There are, however, plenty of online options, from many companies...check out the newest releases in Kitchen Play Sets at Amazon..

Toy Building Sets for Kids

Star Wars Toy Building Sets

Toy Building Sets: What are the choices?

One of the most popular toy themes for boys is building sets, especially when it comes to Lego brick building toys, K'Nex, and building blocks. These toy building sets are favorites, not just for boys, but often for girls, as well.

Toy Building Sets in Colors that Girls will Love

While these toys don't overtly seem to be educational, they do, in fact, provide a great deal of tactile interaction that allows children to develop spatial understanding, and mathematical relationships, as well. The kinesthetic, or tactile, modality is one of the least addressed in the traditional classroom, though in mathematics and sciences, the use of models and manipulatives is not only helpful in establishing concepts in geometry, but also in developing number sense and numerical concepts.

Many toy building sets provide math manipulative qualities in an informal, explorational setting. The good news is that as a parent, you don't need to do formal instruction. Your child's enjoyment of these toys makes it a fun way to make connections. That isn't to say that there's no need for formal teaching, but that the teaching can make even more sense when a child has something to relate those abstract concepts to.



Toy Building Set Tubs Provide Ample Explorational Play

Lego brick sets are great for concepts of addtition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. K'Nex sets lend themselves particularly well to understanding geometric relationships, in both two and three dimensional models. Angles and shapes come into play easily with the snap together building pieces. Advanced learning sets incorporate physics concepts, with amusement park sets, bridge sets, and educational toy building sets created especially for the instructional environment.



Duplo Building Sets Are Suited to Manual Skills of Younger Children

For younger children, a basic set of building pieces is a perfect introduction. The Lego company has Duplo blocks, which are bigger and easier to manage, for smaller hands, while K'Nex has a larger sized Kid K'Nex series. For 5-6 year olds, a building tub of Lego's or K'Nex building pieces provides a good selection for easy play and exploration.



K'Nex Building Sets Provide Explorational Activity Based in Geometry

There are also simple themed sets from both companies, aimed at younger ages, with more complicated designs and plans for older children. Kids seem to have a timeless affection for these popular building toys, and sets can easily merge for expanded building creativity.

You can find the top rated toy building sets at Amazon, along with customer recommendations, and many varied toy building sets not found on the aisles of your big box retailer.