School Toys Get The Fun Put Back Into Them

Those in the know will have seen a steady increase in the number of toys in kindergarten and primary schools over the last 5 years that are focused towards more formal learning. There is nothing wrong with this in principle as we all want our children to learn to the best of their abilities, but recent reports have shown that the most recent educational toys may not be as beneficial to our kids learning as first thought.

A study by the Federal Education Department has found that children are engaging with toys a lot less in school and are finding other ways to spend their free time, often leading to disruptive behavior. Experts are blaming the formal nature of the toys on offer, most of which have a focus on numbers or letters. Ed Harry of the federal schools board has stated that “children learn about English and math all day in their work hour and don’t want to be doing the same in their break time”. He went on to say that bath toys and toy diggers should be reintroduced for use in the water pits and sand pits that most schools have available to them. Simple dolls houses can keep children entertained for hours and because they are social use toys (can be played with by more than one person) they help develop communication and interaction skills.

The government have spoken out about these findings and said they would like there to be a mix of toys available but certainly the balance is too far towards education at the moment. They have also suggested that they will be trying to get a 50:50 balance of fun and educational toys so that children can choose for themselves.The parents of school children have also voiced their opinions and whilst many agree that their should be a happy medium in terms of choice of toys, others believe that their kids would get better benefit if they were learning (formal subjects) during their break time also