Here at tobybooks.com we have a variety of fun paper-based activities that your child can enjoy on their own, or with friends. The reason why we have chosen to only have paper-based exercises on our site is for a very simple reason. Anyone can sit their child down in front of a TV or give them a Tablet or smart phone and let them watch cartoons or their favourite movie for a whole day. We do agree that this fine for a child to do, sometimes, but we do take a very strong stance that this cannot be the go-to way of entertaining a child. A child needs to play, needs to get busy with their hands, playing with playdough or finger-paints. Still the best thing that a child can be allowed to do – in our opinion – is to play outside.
What most people do not understand is that a child’s mind is like a sponge. It absorbs absolutely everything it sees and hears. Most of what a child is going to learn will happen before the age of 8 years old. Anyone that has ever had a toddler would know that they go through a “Parrot” like stage where they repeat absolutely everything they hear. Many have discovered that watching one’s language around a toddler is a very wise thing to do.
I think we can all agree that it is important what kind of information and/or stimulus a child’s young mind receives. Every parent is proud of their child’s development, some parents can go a bit overboard when they describe how “clever” their child is compared to others… One just has to listen when they speak about their kid. I remember years ago when my son was about 3 years old. We had “friends” visiting that had the, “My child is the most brilliant kid in the world” attitude, and they were not scared to talk about it… ALL, THE, TIME… I’m sure that everyone has come into contact with those at some or other time in their life. This had been going on for weeks when one day I had my fill and without battering an eyelid I blurted out, “My son just finished reading his first Wilbur Smith Novel,” (If you know Wilbur Smith books then you will know that he is not known for his thin books). They gave me a look of – is he serious or not – I just kept a straight face and continued with the conversation. They stopped boasting about their child from that day on.
Our Educational Games are designed to be easy to download and print out. You are welcome to print out as many as you would like. A great idea is to stick the relevant Educational Games on a card once it is printed out. That way it will be even more durable and would last much longer.
Allowing your child to play these educational games is crucial for the development of motor-skills and hand eye coordination. When I was in preschool, many-many moons ago, they let us play with clay… They had no problem with letting us get dirty, even our parents were happy to pick up a dirty kid from school. No mention was made about fine motor skills development, or hand eye coordination… Today we know how important it is and for what reasons they are important.
Once you have downloaded these educational tools, and you child has done the exercises then head over to our colouring pages section where you can download and print out the Tobybooks characters for your child to colour in.
Once printed, your kids can play all of these Educational Games over and over again on holiday, car trips or even in their spare time.
