Best Developmental & Educational Baby Toys
Written by: Iris Lucia | Last update: 23 February 2022
Babies learn to understand the world around them through play. Gross and fine motor skills are also stimulated through play.
Through play, babies learn:
-To recognize and Remember
-The relationship between cause and effect
-What you can do with an object. This stimulates creativity
-Recognize properties of things: square or round, cold or warm, soft or hard, etc.
-Make connections
You adjust the games you play to the developmental & educational level of your baby. There are countless choices of toys for babies. It is sometimes thought, the more hectic and more lights, the more fun for the baby. This may seem so at first, but often your baby becomes overstimulated with all the colors, lights and sounds. This ensures that your baby’s fantasy is not necessarily stimulated at that moment. This is different with Montessori toys. Montessori toys are toys that stimulate the research interest of children.
Montessori toys are:
- Simple,
- Based on reality,
- Made of natural materials such as natural rubber, wood or wool,
- Functional and gives limited choices.
Below I have selected the best developmental & educational (montessori) baby toys by category:
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Natural rubber toys
What are natural rubber toys?
Natural rubber toys are a durable type of toys. Natural rubber toys are free from harmful substances and made from 100% natural materials. There are many types of natural rubber toys on the market. It also looks super nice. Here are some examples of natural rubber toys.
What is the difference between natural rubber and synthetic rubber?
You can already tell a lot from the name of natural and synthetic rubber. Natural rubber is made from natural materials. This is the juice of the rubber tree Havea Brasiliensis, also known as latex. Synthetic rubber is made by man and has petroleum as a basic ingredient. Making synthetic rubber requires much more energy than natural rubber. Petroleum is also not a renewable raw material and latex is. When purchasing rubber toys, it is therefore always good to read the packaging and to see which ingredients are used in the toys.
Advantages of natural rubber toys
- 100% natural materials: natural rubber is made from a white, milky liquid from the rubber tree Hevea Brasiliensis in Asia. Paint is also sometimes used on the toys, this is food paint. This is safe for babies. The toys I highlight on this page are also free of other harmful substances such as plasticizers, BPA and PVC.
- Stimulates development: because the Natural Rubber toys are 100% safe, your baby can chew on the toys. Natural rubber toys are therefore definitely recommended for teething! Natural rubber toys stimulate all your baby’s senses. It has a recognizable smell and structure. It also often has a nice color and/or the toy makes a nice sound.
- Easy maintenance: natural rubber toys are easy to clean with some warm water! You can also often put natural rubber toys or dinnerware in the dishwasher.
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Wooden toys
What’s in wooden toys?
It is a logical thought to think that wooden toys are made of wood. This is of course true, but there are different types of wooden toys on the market. For example, wooden toys are sold from different types of wood. For example, you have wooden toys made of beech wood and spruce wood. One difference between the two is that beech wood splinters less than spruce. Then you also have toys made of solid wood. This is made from one piece of wood. There are also wooden toys made of plywood or plywood sheets. These are boards glued together. Then some wooden toys still have a nice color. This can be painted, varnished or oiled.
Best wooden toys
Wooden toys have been produced for hundreds of years. It is one of the first materials from which toys were made. In the past, almost all toys were made of wood. In recent years, wooden toys have become popular again. Wooden toys have many advantages. I have listed them for you below.
Advantages of wooden toys
- Wooden toys are durable. It lasts a very long time. Wood is a natural product and does not require much processing. For wooden toys you often pay a little more than toys made of plastic. Plastic toys, on the other hand, break down faster and can become dangerous for your baby. Wooden toys do not break easily and hardly wear out.
- Wooden toys are environmentally friendly. Wooden toys are a natural product and do not require much processing. Did you know that wooden toys are biodegradable? So even better for the environment!
- Wooden toys do not contain harmful substances. It is made and treated with natural materials. Babies like to put everything in their mouth. It is therefore important that the toys they play with do not contain harmful substances.
- Wooden toys are educational and have endless possibilities. Precisely because wooden toys are simpler than loud plastic toys with lots of light and sound, your baby’s development is stimulated more. Your baby’s creativity and imagination are greatly stimulated. Your baby will decide for itself what to play with the toys. For example, with wooden blocks there are endless possibilities. You can stack the blocks into a nice tower, but you can also use them when learning colors and shapes.
All in all, investing in wooden toys is definitely worth your money! I bought several wooden toys for my twins. And what fun they play with it! One person especially likes to smash blocks against each other and throw them with the blocks and the other finds it very interesting to look at the shapes and put them in the house. I have put my and my twins’ favorite wooden toys in a top 3 for you. Enjoy!
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