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STEM Foundations the Fun Way with Mecha The Mechancial Dragon Robot

Posted on September 14, 2021 by Lubica Misevski

Have you ever had a mechanical toy and wanted to know how it works?

Robotic toys inspire a child's curiosity and interest in STEM learning, but children are rarely encouraged to take apart a robot toy to find out why each part moves or speaks. We've found that children who build their own toys not only gain a deeper understanding of the materials. They also gain more confidence to take control of the world around them. 

Part of choosing the right toys for your children is to embrace a life-long love of science and learning. This is exactly why Mecha the Mechanical Dragon Robot was designed for children over eight years old with an interest in how things work. From mechanical engineering to software programming, Mecha is designed to inspire children to truly imagine the possibilities of applied STEM and build the foundations of robotic and programmatic later lessons.

What is Mecha the Mechanical Dragon Robot?

Mecha is both a mechanical dragon toy to play with and a robot that your child will build and program. Mecha the Mechanical Dragon Robot includes 2 DC motors and a drive wheel that help it to move it's mouth, flap its wings, and turn. Multiple sensors are used to detect sounds like a clap or a whistle and interact with your child in play.

When building the dragon is complete, your child can take control through a programmatic mobile app that will teach them how to program the dragon robot's behaviours and responses to interaction. Children can build, deconstruct, and rebuild the robot to gain full understanding of it's mechanical parts, while they program and reprogram its behaviour to explore robot software control.

By building and programming their own robotic toy, children will build a foundation in engineering STEM skills and a lifelong interest in mechanical and programmatic play.

STEM Skills Learned Building and Programming a Robot Dragon

The wonderful thing about Mecha the Mechanical Dragon Robot is what children learn along the way. The challenge of building a dragon robot and teaching it to respond to claps and whistles is fun in itself. But the steps required and the skills learned in making the robot are even more valuable than the finished project. Here are the STEM and developmental skills children and teens will learn when designing their own Mecha dragon.

Critical Thinking

It takes careful and logical thought to complete a robot and to program its behaviours through an app. Children will learn to apply detailed directions to a real-world project and to apply their own inherent understanding to a mechanical problem to understand the robotics. In teaching themselves to build and program the robot, each stage of the project helps a child practice their critical thinking skills.

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineering starts by understanding how gears and motors fit together to make an object move. A mechanical dragon is cool enough, but knowing how its wings flap and where the clap-listening sensors are teach a child the real mechanics behind the modern world. Building a robot gives your child a foundation in mechanical engineering that will benefit them in later advanced classes.

Robotic Systems

Robotic systems take mechanical engineering to a new level. This explores how a motor moves a wing and has an effect. Learning robotic systems may lead to designing industrial machinery or even prosthetic limbs in applied sciences.

Computer Programming

Once Mecha is built, the software and programmatic learning begin. Through the mobile app, your child will grasp the basics of building a program that a computer or robot responds to. They can sequence commands, change the responses to sensor stimuli, and change the program at will. This will introduce children to the basics programmatic thinking and software programming.

Why Kids Love Mecha the Mechanical Dragon

Building a foundation of STEM learning is always great, but Mecha's real appeal is that the dragon robot is also a fun toy and mechanical companion. Children feel like they have really achieved something when they put the robot together and get a responsive dragon toy as a reward. The app puts the power of a dragon in their hands, controlling it's robotic responses and playing games with friends controlling or responding to the robot dragon. When children get used to one set of responses, they can program another and the game begins again.

The best thing about Mecha is that children barely notice they're learning, because they're having so much fun.

To purchase your Mecha the Mechanical Dragon Robot you can visit our Clementoni range.  

Early Development Skills that Babies Learn with Tumbleroos by Fat Brain Toys

Posted on September 14, 2021 by Lubica Misevski

For babies, every game and toy is a learning experience. Everything your baby touches and every force they observe teaches them something about the world. This item is hard while this one is soft. This toy bounces, but that toy does not. This toy fits into that toy, but not the other way around. Every lesson helps your baby or toddler grow their understanding of the universe and start to build a foundation for critical thinking. This is why we love educational toys so much, even (especially!) at the earliest ages. 

Tumbleroos by Fat Brain Toys are designed to stimulate a baby and or toddler's early developmental skills and their foundation for STEM learning in the future. It's incredible that three simple cups can teach so much! 

What are Tumbleroos by Fat Brain Toys?

Fat Brain Toys focuses on making toys that inspire early childhood thought and skill development and Tumbleroos are no exception. Each set comes with three nesting cups in fun primary colours. Each cup has a large egg-shaped bottom that is rubberized and weighted to make the cups wobbly but tip-resistant. The three cups wobble on their own, stack into each other, and can be tumbled over on purpose. What's incredible is how much your baby can learn by playing with weighted, wobbly, cup stacks like Tumbleroos.

Early Development Babies Can Learn from Playing with Tumbleroos

Learning Colours with Toys

Why do we make baby toys in bold primary and secondary colours? So we can learn colours together! The largest Tumbleroo is blue, the middle is green, and the top tumbler is red. This will give your infant a fun frame of reference when naming the colours of toys in their room together. Once a toddler starts learning colours, they'll name the colours of their Tumbleroos for fun and practice.

Stacking Trains Hand-Eye and Fine Motor Skills

Tumbleroos are, at their heart, stacking cups. We know that stacking is great for a variety of early childhood control skills. Hand-eye coordination is needed to line up and nest the stacks while fine motor control is used to manipulate and control. The tumblers are also large enough to engage large-motor control and standing to stack them can encourage balance development.

Wobbly Stacks Teach Early Physics

Watching stacks wobble teaches first-hand physics and lays your earliest foundation for STEM learning. Tumbleroos teach a toddler that round bottoms can't stay upright, but balanced cups can if stacked carefully. Every cup wobbles, and the way it wobbles shows how it is weighted and the value of a weighted bottom. Your toddler will learn without even realizing it.

Nesting Stacks Teach About Size and Fit

Nesting and size-difference is an essential skill for young children to learn as they figure out how the world works. Because this stacking kit is made of cups, your baby will learn how smaller cups nest into larger cups, but not the other way around. They will learn that stacking Tumbleroos by size always gives the best results.

Two-Texture Cups for Sensory Play

Each Tumbleroo has two textures, the rubberized bottom half and a smooth plastic cup top. The difference in texture and even temperature conduction will provide an element of sensory play for your baby.

Safe for Teething, Banging, and Tossing

Last but not least, Tumbleroos are safe for all manner of infant play, including teething, banging, and tossing from high-chairs. Tumbleroos are designed to roll, wobble, and settle upright for endless indestructible play.

If you are stocking the perfect nursery for your little one's early childhood development, Fat Brain Toys has your interests at heart with every design, including these brightly coloured stacking wobble-cups we like to call Tumbleroos. 

To purchase your Tumbleroos, you can simply go to our Fat Brain Toy Co range. 

Posted in Fat Brain Toys Australia, Tumbleroos Australia, Tumbleroos by Fat Brain Toy Co

The Best Educational Toys for Your Toddlers

Posted on August 01, 2021 by Lubica Misevski

When you choose an educational toy for your toddler, you are choosing to develop life longs skills. Educational toys for kids develop math skills, emotional skills, playing skills, hand-eye coordination and more.

Why do we give children toys? It's not just to see their beautiful smiling faces. It's also because children learn something from toys - quite a few somethings.

A learning toy is more than just a toy. It is a life long gift. There is no greater pleasure than watching your child develop. From baby to 18 months, to older kids we have something for every age group and developmental area.

The lessons of early childhood are learned with the senses, fingers, and imagination. Children need to get their hands into everything to learn from it. They need to roll cars, stack blocks, to drop things and watch them fall. 

So what are the best educational toys for your toddler? You want to fill your nursery with toys they will love to play with and will learn from organically each day. Here are some of our favourites based on what they teach through natural play:

Early Childhood Learning Activities with Baby Toys

Young toddlers learn the basics of the world around them through toys. Simple toys teach the elements of an object like colour, shape, and the sound it makes when it falls. As play becomes more complex and imaginative, children learn how the real world relates to their thoughts and vice versa. 

Basic Colours and Shapes

Every baby should have a toy that teaches them the colours, with a full colour wheel and the names to learn. Some repeat the colours, some provide interactive play. The Dimpl Digits toy is a beautiful example of a baby colour wheel that is also a bubble sensory toy.

Anatomy and Similarity

Children aren't just nurturing when they play with baby dolls, they are learning about people and how we relate to each other. At first, a baby doll is a friend with similar anatomy and a different face. The Wee Baby Stella is a perfect starter doll for young toddlers as their new best friend and baby. Stella even has her own binky.

Even before children have siblings, they can have a baby doll friend. Dressing the doll, holding the doll, and even tossing it around will teach your child about anatomy and similarity in people.

Fantasy and Physics

Imagination games and physics lessons seem to go hand-in-hand for young children. Block play is essential, but so are vehicles. Baby's first train sets and construction trucks give them the chance to imagine new worlds and adventures - and to roll their toy cars down block ramps. Children will learn fine motor skills, physics, and learn to imagine adventures with their cars and trains of circus animals to play with.

Games for Logic and Fine Motor Learning

Sensory learning quickly turns to manipulation and fine motor skills. This is where toddler toys develop into logic games, puzzles, and fine-motor challenges. One of the best sensory starter toys for teaching logic and manipulation skills is Djeco's Lockbasic wooden puzzle. This puzzle has three different kinds of latches attached to a hinged wooden puzzle toy with animals by shape and colour hidden inside.

For more manipulation games, explore the delightful Gears & Cogs Busy Bee learning puzzle. Children can build a network of cheerful gears and cogs that turn each other using gear puzzle pieces and a board of posts sized just right for gears of various diameters to be placed. Children can build machine after machine with this simple yet fascinating toy.

For gravity fun, try a toddler's marble game. Simple marble run games are delightful and from there, you can advance your toddler's marble skills and possibilities with fun pieces like spinning pinwheels, trap doors, and more.

Social and Big Motor Skills

Games are an important part of toddler development, too. Parents often benefit from fun board games that help to structure the chaotic and giggle-filled way that toddlers play. Turn-taking and physical wiggle games are great for helping your little ones learn how to play socially and also practice their larger motor skills together in a group.

The Monkey Around game by Peaceable Kingdom has fun cards with prompts for silly wiggly actions. When the action is complete, the player places their card on the monkey tree game board to win.

Or we have these beautiful new wooden toys from Djeco.

Creation and Re-Creation

Finally, creation toys are an essential part of teaching your toddler to realize the potential of their own actions. Equip your toddler with multi-coloured modelling dough and see what happens. The fantastic creatures, towering cities, and clay families that form will show you how your toddler is learning to translate their thoughts into real-world actions and creations. A child who learns to play creative games will be more confident, creative, and a self-starter in their teens and adulthood.

Looking for the perfect educational toys for your toddler and beyond? We have a huge range of educational toys that teach as they play, so it should be no surprise that we have a wide range of beautiful toys that we'd love to share with you.

The Top Benefits of Dimpl Pops and Dimpl Pops Deluxe by Fat Brain Toys

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Lubica Misevski

The toys you choose for your children can have a huge impact on them: on their ability to interact with the world around them, to focus and concentrate, or simply to explore their senses and everything they have to offer. Dimpl Pops and Dimpl Pops Deluxe offer a number of benefits that make them one of the ideal products in your child's toy box--or to bring with you on the go. 

1. Dimpl Pops encourages a sense of calm wherever your child goes.

Dimpl Pops helps engage the senses in a way that is known to help reduce anxiety and create a deeper overall sense of calm. It offers two key advantages. First, it can help keep your child quiet and engaged in an environment where he might not have the ability to run around freely, from waiting in a doctor's office to standing in line at a popular attraction. Next, it can help calm your child down when he's feeling overwhelmed, which may make it easier to calm tantrums before they begin. 

2. Dimpl Pops can help improve focus for some children.

Physical fidgets can go a long way toward encouraging focus in many children, particularly those with ADHD. Minor physical activity or sensory stimulus can help improve the levels of neurotransmitters that help with focus and attention. As a result, children who play with toys like Dimpl Pops while trying to take in other information, including learning both in the classroom and at home, may find that it's easier to focus on the information being presented to them than a child who is expected to only pay attention to the information directly at hand. 

3. Dimpl Pops helps to improve sensory awareness.

For young children, sensory awareness is critical. Increased sensory awareness means a better understanding of the world as a whole. Children who have strong sensory awareness are often more aware of how things fit together or how pieces of it work. As they pop the little buttons on Dimpl Pops and Dimpl Pops Deluxe, children will have a chance to explore texture, cause and effect, and color, which may help with their overall understanding and awareness of the world around them.

4. Dimpl Pops can improve fine motor skills.

Both Dimpl Pops and Dimpl Pops Deluxe include different-sized bubbles that children can "pop" as they continue to explore their devices. They're specifically designed for tactile exploration and can help encourage the development of fine motor skills: a vital addition to any child's learning and development arsenal. With those fine motor skills, children will have an easier time gripping a pencil, eating, or taking care of the many self-care tasks they do every day that require the use of fine motor skills, including zippers, buttons, and more.

5. Dimpl Pops are a fun way to engage your child no matter where you are.

Whether you're traveling no further than a local shop or you're planning to take a longer road trip, sometimes, you need to engage your child with a toy that doesn't take up a great deal of space and does allow for plenty of sensory exploration and fun. Dimpl Pops and Dimpl Pops Deluxe will fit easily in your car, in a travel bag, or in the bottom of your child's stroller, making them the ideal toy to take with you on the go. 

Sensory exploration and growth are incredibly important to your child, and Dimpl Pops and Dimpl Pops Deluxe offer that advantage and more. Check out the Dimpl line or our collection of amazing sensory toys to learn more about their potential benefits to your child, from entertainment to calm. 

How Creative Kits for Kids Can Help Your Children Grow

Posted on July 29, 2021 by Lubica Misevski

Creative kits for kids are an excellent way to offer more creative opportunities for your kids: opportunities for them to stretch their minds, grow their capability and learn new ways to look at the world.

Despite developing their natural creative skills, they are brilliant for fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination development.

From scratch art kits that allow kids to explore their artistic sides as they uncover new ways to look at art to fairy light bulbs that can project magic into the room, there are plenty of ways to enhance your child's creativity and encourage them to take a new look at the world. 

Consider some of these advantages when looking at craft kits for kids. 

Creative play helps children explore and learn more about the world around them.

Through creative play, kids can take a whole new look at the world and how it works. Creative kits for kids can help encourage them to look at things in a new light.  Origami lights, for example, not only encourage kids to try folding and shifting paper to look at it differently and accomplish new things, it can allow them to completely transform their space and take a fresh look at the room itself. Garden stone painting might enable your child to redesign a garden or take a new look at how paints might react on different surfaces, as well as allowing them to explore specific textures. 

Creative play helps encourage creative problem-solving skills. 

Creative problem-solving and problem management have become increasingly important, not just for kids but for adults, as well. It has become a critical tool that companies posting open jobs rely on as they hire new employees. Creative kits can help provide kids with the tools they need to start down that journey to developing more effective creative problem-solving skills. With a paper planes origami kit, for example, kids might have the chance to look at how the paper folds in different ways or how to handle a missed fold--and how to shape future projects, including many that go far beyond origami. 

Creative play helps encourage interest in other areas, too. 

Creative play is a great way to help expand kids' minds--and many creative kits for kids are designed to help encourage their interest in other pursuits. For example, this glow in the dark mould and paint space kit can encourage kids to increase their interest in the universe and everything it has to offer--and set them up for future successes in astronomy. 

Creative play helps aid in physical development.

Creative kits for kids help take kids' eyes off the screen and encourage them to interact with things in a more physical way. As they paint, explore, touch, and create through those creative kits, they'll also develop both fine and gross motor skills in a way that they can't while interacting with a screen. From origami to painting, creative kits for kids can expose them to a wide range of potential activities that can build skills they will need in the future. 

Creative kits for kids can help encourage sensory development.

Learning to understand the world through sensory play is critical to your child's overall development since it helps encourage them to experiment with the world and know it better. Creative kits for kids often contain sensory components, from paints and clay to rocks and paper, that can help improve their connection to all their senses. 

Have you considered purchasing art and craft kits or creative kits for kids for the little learners in your life? If so, we have a beautiful range to

Posted in creative kits for kids

Dimpl: The Original Sensory Popping Toy by Fat Brain Toy Co

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Lubica Misevski

Dimpl by Fatbrain Toys. There is something inherently satisfying about popping a half-bubble inside-out. We've all played with some version of the toy.

Kids cannot resist these beautiful buttons. They are fun, fascinating and impossible to put down.

Encouraging fine motor skills, the vibrant silicone bubbles are built safely and almost impossible to put down. Their little fingers can't resist! They are the perfect sensory adventure, brilliantly fun and fascinating.

Popper sensory toys teach a variety of early childhood development skills. They are the inside-out fidget toys you can swap over and over again. We love this tactile, inside-out, bouncy action whether we're six months old or centenarians. Sensory exploration, fine motor control, pincer grip, and hand-eye coordination all come in to play with popper toys.

Few parents, kids, and toy enthusiasts know that Fat Brain Toys did the Dimpl craze of popping toys first.

The Dimpl line of toys includes sensory toys for your earliest infant to fidget poppers you'll see hanging off teen backpacks and in professional desk drawers. Starting with a simple bubble popper, Fat Brain Toys responded to popular demand by developing a set of toys that multi-generation families can enjoy together.

Love to pop? Have a baby in the family learning sensory joys? Dive into the complete Dimpl collection.

The silicon bubbles are in varying sizes, BPA free, and have a sturdy abs plastic frame; the simple delight of poking these beautifully designed push and pop buttons is endless fun. Simple yet oddly brilliant fun for almost anyone.

Dimpl Sensory Toys for Babies

The Dimpl popper toys are, at their core, sensory toy. No matter how old the player, dimples are fun to press and pop. Babies learn the joy of popping with their first popper toys. Fat Brain Toys has a great set of Dimpl toys made for babies and early toddlers. These offer sensory exploration and the development of basic motor skills and the control pincer-grip used to hold a bubble from both sides.

Dimpl Stack

A fun stack of colourful bubble cups with a popper upgrade. The bottom of each Dimpl Stack cup is a Dimpl button, encouraging babies to explore balance and pressure in addition to colour and size when stacking. Popper stacking cups add a new element of early science learning for infants. Stacking cups are also a fun toy for babies through the stacking milestones of early toddler development.

Dimpl Wobbl Baby Toy

The perfect teething toy for floor play, these Wobbl toys are a natural application of the Fat Brain approach to toys. The top of each colourful toy is a Dimpl sensory teething ring, while the bottom is a weighted wobbl base. Your baby can happily teethe on and play with the top toy and bat at the wobbl - all while keeping their teething toy surface off the ground.

The Original Dimpl Sensory Flower

Sensory boards are a fantastic way to nurture early childhood development for babies and toddlers. The Dimpl sensory board is shaped like a colourful flower of sensory pop-buttons in different sizes for your infant to explore.

Dimpl Toys to Learn Colours and Shapes

As your toddler starts to learn early lessons from their toys, Dimpl is there to make those lessons sensorily satisfying and fun. The toy line has two great bubble boards designed to teach colours and shapes.

Baby's First Dimpl Digits Colour Wheel

Your baby's first colour wheel can be a sensory board, too! The Dimpl Digits colour wheel is a circle of colour wedges with the colour names embossed on the colours. At the end of each wedge is a same-coloured pop bubble to play with.

Dimpl Duo Shapes and Colours Board

The Dimpl Duo board teaches your toddler colours and shapes. Starting in a soft-cornered rectangle of six popper buttons, each button has a shape that changes how the button presses, with the shape's name above the button. Each shape also has its colour to practice colour learning.

Dimpl Toys for Games and All-Ages

Of course, sensory toys are fun for all ages. Fat Brain Toys didn't leave out the older kids in their fun Dimpl line. There are game boards and fidget toys the whole family can enjoy for older kids, adults, students, and grandparents.

Simpl Dimpl Fidget Popper

The Simpl Dimpl is a two-bubble fidget spinner keychain. The classic fidgeter is a great sensory toy that makes no sound and doesn't need a desk to spin on. Palm the keychain and enjoy the casual pop of the colourful bubbles from one side to the other. The fidget poppers are ideal for grade school kids to grandparents who like to fidget.

Dimpl Pops 18-Bubble and 25-Bubble Boards

Want to invent games for bubble poppers? You can start with the Dimpl Pops boards. These boards come in two sizes, boards with a colourful grid of 18-bubbles and larger 25-bubble boards. The bubbles are a variety of colours and sizes arrayed roughly in a grid on a round-cornered board. It can be passed around a group or played solo. Invent your family games or even use them as an organizer.

Are you looking for a sensory toy for your infant or sensory fun for the whole family? Explore the original Dimpl line of bubble sensory toys by Fat Brain Toy Co at Kidzinc.

Posted in Dimpl Digits Fat Brain Toys

The Benefits of Fidget Toys

Posted on July 24, 2021 by Lubica Misevski

Fidget toys have substantially increased in popularity in recent years. Previously used only by subsets of the population that might have struggled with focus and concentration, now, awareness of fidgets and their benefits have spread to neurotypical children, especially those who might be struggling with anxiety or focus issues. Sensory toys are a great tool for all sorts of children, especially in learning environments--and through trial and error, you can learn which fidgets work best for your child's specific needs.

Have you considered the benefits of using sensory and fidget toys as part of your child's regular routine?

1. Fidget toys can increase a child's ability to focus. 

Children, particularly children with ADHD, often have a hard time sitting still and focusing. Often, they start wiggling in their seats long before the instruction is actually over--and they may find themselves struggling to keep up with what's going on in front of them. A fidget toy allows children to control those movements and direct them into a more positive stimulation, rather than one that could prove distracting for others. Options like stress balls, for example, can fill one hand while a child works on another assignment, or fill both hands while a child listens to a teacher.  

2. Fidget toys improve overall learning. 

Among children who used fidget toys, academic scores could quickly increase as much as 10%. For children with ADHD, that number can rise even more, with an increase of 27% in academic scores shown in a recent study. In order to facilitate maximum learning, children need to stimulate both the right and left sides of the brain. Movement can aid significantly in that pursuit. Fidget toy options like wobble cushions can offer a simple way to enhance overall learning. 

3. Fidget toys can help decrease distractions in the classroom.

Children who look for the type of stimulation offered by fidgets naturally will look for other options that provide the same basic stimulation if they do not have them available. Tapping pencils, bouncing in their seats, or poking at classmates could all pose disruptions to the other students around them. Fidget toys, on the other hand, offer a more positive, less disruptive option in the classroom. Toys like Fidgigami can occupy a child's hands and engage the child's mind without posing a distraction to other students in the room.

4. Fidget toys and sensory toys can help reduce anxiety in the classroom.

Some children struggle with a high level of anxiety on a daily basis that can interfere with their ability to learn. Others may have anxiety related to specific situations, like taking a test or giving a presentation in front of the classroom. Fidget toys can help calm the child and put him or her in a better place to engage in those activities, which can improve scores, enhance academic performance, and ultimately increase the child's confidence. A weighted lap pad, for example, may serve the same purpose as a weighted blanket in a much more convenient, easy-to-carry format: it can help calm a child down and reduce anxiety while they work on specific assignments or test, or help calm them so that they don't feel anxious about performance when reading aloud or engaging with classmates. 

Fidget toys and sensory toys have become increasingly common in the classroom in recent years, and with good reason. Whether you're a teacher looking for ways to improve performance in a classroom or a parent looking for options that will help keep your child more engaged both at school and at home, check out our extensive collection of fidget toys to select one--or more!--that will work great for your child.

Posted in Fidget Toys