When you were little did you play with stacking toys? I can almost guarantee the answer is yes. Wooden stacking toys are a staple and classic toy in almost every family.
But why? Why are stacking toys so popular even through new toy trends?
Let’s go through our top 8 benefits of using Stacking Toys with your children – this is one instance where your parents can say ‘it was good enough for me, it’s good enough for you’.
The way your child looks when they can complete an activity is one of the highlights in early education – the success, the satisfaction, the pride. It’s something special. Let’s look at why stacking toys can be used to help your child develop that sense of accomplishment.
- Hand-eye coordination – by stacking the pieces on top of each other, your child is developing a connection between their arms, hands and fingers and being able to place the piece down.
- Problem solving skills – this one is multifaceted in that your child will learn the size of pieces that can go on top of each other, how smaller pieces are more stable when placed on larger pieces and also how to ensure their creation can get bigger.
- Cause and effect understanding – the ‘what happens if I do this’ question is so important for children to develop a sense of curiosity and experimentation. This question is one we should all be asking, no matter what our age.
- Shape identification – if the stacking toy or wooden blocks are different shapes, you are giving your child the opportunity to learn both shapes on the sides and the 3D names for the pieces. By picking up and turning a cube in their hand you are helping through a tactile way to show how shapes look.
- Colour recognition – ask your child to put the red piece on top of the blue piece. This is going to help develop an understanding of colours.
Want to look at some other learning colour activities? See some here! - Gross motor skill development – if you’re building and the pieces are scattered around, you can assist with gross motor development by getting your child to reach, walk or crawl to the piece they need next.
- Fine motor skill development – when it’s a small pieces, turning it in your fingers and placing it gently in place requires definite motor skills, and these toys give so many opportunities to develop this skill.
- Goal setting – by having a goal, or task, and setting out to complete it, that’s where that look of accomplishment we started with comes from – and isn’t that something special.
So, there are just 8 reasons to provide your child with stacking toys – but remember, they learn from YOU. YOU need to help them with goals, you need to talk about the colours, you need to give them ademonstration of how to use them. Your child needs your help.
Realised you need more stacking toys in your toy rotation? CleverStuff has the perfect stacking toys for you.
