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Our Gift for Babies Guide in 2018

Posted on February 22, 2018 by Lubica Misevski

 

Buying gifts for babies is challenging. After all, they can't tell you what they like, which means you're forced to guess at their preferences. Which toys will actually be used, and which ones will simply clutter up your floor after the toy is received? While there's never any guarantee that your little one will fall in love with a toy, these great gifts for babies will offer a multitude of educational benefits to your little one. And these ones have had so many wonderful reviews from our mums, dads and anyone giving these gifts. 

1. Tobbles Neo from Fat Brain Toy Co

Tobbles stack, topple, spin, and balance, offering great opportunities for your little one to check out cause and effect, learn how to pile and stack, and improve their hand-eye coordination. Each of the six spheres comes in a bright colour that will be sure to catch the eye, while the wavy design is stimulating to little brains. It's a great educational toy for babies six months and up--and one that will be sure to see plenty of use.

2. Atom Teething Toy from Manhattan Toy

Babies chew on everything--and the atom teething toy allows them to chew and grab plenty of fun surfaces. In addition, little rings offer plenty of manipulative fun that will keep your little one entertained during car trips and other long periods when they're forced to be stationary. They also provide a soft rattling sound that will intrigue and delight the little one in your life, making it a wonderful gift for babies.

3. Pocket Pouch Original Mahogany from Tegu

Tegu's magnetic wooden blocks are an excellent investment for your little one. Not only will they be able to manipulate them at a young age, sticking them together and pulling them apart again for plenty of giggles, as your little one gets older, they'll be able to manipulate their magnetic blocks into exciting designs. The pocket pouch original mahogany is an excellent introduction to the fantastic world of magnetic blocks, allowing your little one to enjoy a fun, small set of pieces that can be manipulated in many different ways. 

4. Take-Along Activity Box from Hape

Hape's take-along activity box isn't just an excellent tool for keeping your little one busy during any travels you're undertaking this holiday season. It's also plenty of fun on your own living room floor! With five separate sides, each of which offers a distinct activity for your little one, it's brain-building fun that you can take with you whether you're headed out to the doctor's office or a play date or simply heading into your little one's room. With vibrant colours, spinning gears, and a fun maze, your little one will be entranced while building a variety of problem-solving skills alongside spatial understanding. 

5. Wonder Walker by Hape

When you have a little one who is taking those first tentative assisted steps, you know that they're soon going to want to go everywhere--and the wonder walker can help! Not only is it a great tool for supporting your little one as they learn to balance on their own two feet, the wonder walker offers a number of interactive features, including abacus beads, gears, and a car key. It's interactive fun that will grow with your child while helping with that vital brain and body development. 

 

When choosing a gift for babies, don't just choose toys that you think will bring a smile. Choose toys that, along with their fun, will bring plenty of learning and developmental potential. These great educational toys will help your child build their understanding of the world around them, helping them learn how things work and how to manipulate their world. Even if your little one is still too small for these toys, they make great gifts that will be put to good use in the coming months.

Posted in Gift For Babies

Brilliance in Building Blocks For Children

Posted on January 09, 2018 by Lubica Misevski

 

Building blocks are a staple of childhood play. And from creative challenges to problem solving skills, blocks provide the perfect opportunity for developmental growth in children as young as six months. As your child grows, so will their ability to build more elaborate and complicated structures. Blocks are the perfect educational toy, giving your youngster confidence as they conquer motor skills challenges and develop a keen sense of spatial awareness. When picking out block sets for your child, consider options that feature open-ended solutions and support success. Here are a few of our favourites.

Kapla Planks. Kapla planks are remarkably simple uniform wooden blocks and yet this simplicity leads to complex designs. This is all thanks to their perfect ratio of 1 to 3 to 5. The shape allows children to create everything from elaborate buildings to organic wonders including spirals and spheres. A unique feature of Kapla Planks is the ability to craft large open-weave walls and towers. With enough Kapla Planks your child can truly stun you with their imagination. 

 

 

Playmags. Perfect for budding architects, Playmags are beautiful and colourful translucent tiles with magnetic edges. These 2D geometric pieces come together to make 3D wonders that are both artistically and mathematically wondrous. Recently, this clever company added more structured sets that allow children to build wheeled creations such as this super cool magnetic car kit which, once completed, can be driven via remote control.

SmartMax. Also a magnetic block company, SmartMax is especially appealing for younger builders thanks to their oversized and colourful pieces. This collection of bars and joints can be assembled by children as young a 1 years of age and the large components lead to large structures which is thrilling for youngsters that struggle with traditional block sets. SmartMax offers standard sets like this Build & Learn 100 Piece box as well as ball run kits and this new SmartMax Magnetic Discovery Basic Stunt 48 Piece set.

 

Squigz. The Fat Brain Toy Company hit the big time when they developed Squigz. Squigz aren't a traditional block but their unique bulbous rubber shape and suction cup action make them a great tool for creating organic structures and figures. Squigz constructions can be further used for imaginative play once completed as their flexible nature encourages movable action. And a truly ingenious benefit of Squigz is their ability to suction to tabletops for stability during the building process.

Tegu. Tegu blocks come in a vast array of collections from standard shapes to monster sets and Tegu has ingeniously embedded magnets into the wooden blocks where they can safely encourage attachment and allow for taller, more stable building projects. Tegu block sets are all interchangeable and come in beautiful colour schemes so you can build your child's collection over time.

Unit Bricks. The Unit Brick Mini Unit Bricks Architect Set is a stunning traditional wooden block set for architectural building. Featuring pillars and arches, builders will enjoy the resemblance of these pieces to classical design elements and the two-tone aspect of this set will further please aesthetically minded youngsters and lead to beautiful creations.

When shopping for building blocks and educational toys, Kidzinc is a great place to start.

Kidzinc stocks only developmentally beneficial, quality playthings for your worthy child. The brands we carry are award-winning and feature innovative products that challenge and inspire youngsters from tots to teens. You'll love our selection!

 

Posted in building blocks, Building Blocks Australia

Our Best STEM Education Coding Toys of 2017

Posted on November 23, 2017 by Lubica Misevski

 

 

The Best STEM Education Coding Toys

This Christmas, don't give your kids another toy that will be used a handful of times before being discarded in favour of something more interesting. Instead, give them the gift of knowledge in the form of these fascinating STEM toys that will catch their attention while teaching them at the same time. When learning becomes a game, children will be more likely to excel in a wide range of subjects--and you can place that gift under the tree this year. 

Below we have categorized some of our best STEM education toys, to make choosing the ideal toy an easy decision.

1. ThinkFun: Code Master Programming Logic Game

The Code Master Programming Logic Game brings the principles of coding to life without requiring your child to spend endless hours in front of a computer screen. Instead, you'll be able to introduce your child to fascinating coding concepts through a board game that simultaneously builds problem-solving, planning, and spatial reasoning skills. There's only one specific set of actions that will bring success on each level, allowing your child to solve the challenge and enter the portal. It's hours of fun that will help build your child's mind and keep them away from screens throughout the holiday break from school. 

2. Littlebits: Electronics Gizmos and Gadgets Set

Have a young inventor on your hands who is constantly fidgeting with gadgets and gizmos? This great Electronics Gizmos and Gadgets toolkit is the perfect way to offer your child the freedom to invent to their heart's content. It comes complete with a wide selection of tools, accessories, and electronic components that will allow your child to create the inventions that have thus far existed only in their imagination. This creative toolkit will help expand your child's mind and help them feel like a true inventor. 

3. Primo Toys: Cubetto

Cubetto is another tool for teaching programming without ever needing to sit in front of the computer--not to mention a great way to start giving toddlers and preschoolers the basics of coding. Cubetto is a little wooden robot with a big purpose: providing the basics of a programming background to even young children. With plenty of adventures and lots of hands-on play opportunities to choose from, Cubetto will be sure to entrance your child and teach them more about the wide world of STEM waiting for them. 

4. Learning Resources: Coding Buddies Let's Go Activity Set

Teaching coding skills is well and good, but it's often a stationary process. The Coding Buddies Let's Go Activity Set, however, turns that expectation on its ear. With this great 50-piece activity set, kids will hop, jump, spin, twirl, and bounce their way through the basics of programming, building a deeper understanding of coding concepts while moving their bodies and having tons of fun. It also encourages teamwork and listening skills--valuable concepts to reinforce at any age. If you want to shake out the wiggles and break out the giggles while helping to increase your child's knowledge, the Coding Buddies set is a great way to get it done. 

 

5. ThinkFun: Robot Turtles Game

In Robot Turtles, kids get to be the boss--and as they play with a parent, they'll quickly discover how their problem-solving skills can help them to reach their goals. This great game transforms the parent into a "computer" that follows the child's instructions as they work to move their turtle to its jewel. This fascinating game will bring hours of fun for the whole family while simultaneously building coding concepts that your child will be able to take with them in the future. 

 

This holiday season, don't content yourself with ordinary toys that will only bring joy for a short time. Instead, choose from this great list of our best STEM education coding toys that will give your child a gift of learning that will last a lifetime.  

Posted in Coding Toys For Kids, STEM Education, STEM toys, STEM Toys Australia

4 Unique Ways to Use Your Magna Tiles or Playmags for STEM Education

Posted on September 01, 2017 by Lubica Misevski

STEM education is an incredibly important part of the education of every child. Without knowledge in science, math, technology, and engineering—the four fields "STEM" gets its name from—our society simply cannot move forward.

Unfortunately, traditional methods of teaching these subjects are often boring and unlikely to inspire future generations to build careers in these areas. In order to inspire our children, we must provide them with the tools they need to explore the world around them at their own pace. One of the best STEM tools out there is a set of Magna-Tiles or Playmags magnetic tiles. 

If your child has ever played with Magna-Tiles or Playmags, they know just how fun they can be. Combining science, math, and creativity, these cool magnetic blocks offer kids endless opportunities to express themselves. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, and each one boasts magnetic edges which stick to the sides of other blocks in the set. This means less frustration with collapsing structures, and more small-scale engineering as the child discovers all the amazing ways Magna-Tiles or Playmags can go together. 

While building with Magna-Tiles or Playmags is a blast in and of itself, it doesn't have to be the only way these incredible educational blocks are used. Below is a list of four other ways Magna-Tiles can be used to expand upon your child's STEM education.

Stained-Glass Tiles

Magna-Tiles or Playmags are the perfect addition to any light table. If you've never seen one, imagine a table with a glowing top. Light tables provide sensory and exploratory fun for children of all ages.

If purchasing a light table isn't feasible for your family at the moment, you can roll your own by placing lights inside a transparent box. Just be sure to watch your child carefully when they play with it, to avoid burns. 

Once you have a light table, just add a set of Magna-Tiles or Playmags on top for hours of awesome, stained-glass fun!

Refrigerator Creations

Because Magna-Tiles and Playmags are magnetic, they are perfect for adding some fabulous decorations to the front of your refrigerator. Begin by showing your child how the tiles stick to the fridge, and see where they go from there.

Soon enough, they will likely discover the fact that they can actually build out from the fridge and create three-dimensional fridge structures.

Tunnels

Adding some marbles or toy cars to your Magna-Tiles or Playmags play may not be the first thing to occur to you. However, these are actually an excellent addition to building time. Kids love tunnels, and tunnels built with Magna-Tiles or Playmags are the perfect size for tiny cars and marbles.

Tunnel building is an ideal opportunity for teaching some science lessons in gravity, physics, and energy, and it's all so fun that your children are sure to remember the lessons learned, whether they realize it or not. Tunnels can be built freestanding on the floor, or on the refrigerator or other magnetic surface.

Encourage the kids to experiment with different angles and several rolling objects. You'll be surprised just how much they absorb. 

Magnetic Experimentation

Magnetic blocks such as Magna-Tiles or Playmags present a great opportunity to introduce children to magnetism and why it works.

After discussing the science behind magnets, head out into the world — equipped with some tiles, of course — and experiment to find out what in our world is magnetic and what is not. Have the children make hypotheses, test their theories, and track the results. This is a great educational family activity!

These are just some of the awesome ways Magna-Tiles or Playmags can be used. By handing your child a set of these fantastic blocks, you will see just how many more there truly are.

Posted in buy magna-tiles australia, magna tiles australia, magnetic tile toys australia, playmags australia, STEM Australia, STEM Education, STEM toys

Wooden Puzzles for Fun and Learning

Posted on August 31, 2017 by Lubica Misevski

Kids today seem to have an endless supply of entertainment. With games, music, and videos all available at the touch of a button, it can be easy to forget the value of simple, unplugged play. Toys can be a great way to not only give your child something fun to do, but to help them improve intellectually as well.

One of the earliest types of brain-strengthening toys to come into popularity were wooden puzzles. Wooden puzzles were being designed and created since before the colonial days; wood carvers enjoyed thinking up and carving these unique toys almost as much as kids enjoyed trying to solve them.  Early examples of wooden puzzles ranged from simple printed puzzle blocks that younger children could rearrange to create different pictures, to more intricate puzzles that might take hours or even days to solve.

Though they have been around for decades, wooden puzzles have not lost their charm yet. These sturdy toys are as appealing today as they were a hundred years ago, and along with being entertaining, they are also a great way to challenge young minds and inspire creativity. Wooden puzzles are durable, sturdy toys that will last a lifetime, and they come in a wide range of colours and styles. Along with being great toys in general, wooden puzzles are a good choice for many other reasons:

Improve Hand/Eye Coordination

Unlike electronic puzzles and computer games that only require mental work, wooden puzzles provide the extra challenge of a physical medium. Your child will learn not only to solve problems with their mind, but they will also be able to learn how different objects work together mechanically. Younger kids will enjoy learning visual and tactile matching skills with shape-recognition puzzles and classic wooden peg puzzles.

Improve Basic Skills

A wide range of puzzle choices provides your child with many different opportunities to improve their skills - whether that's helping your older child learn creative problem solving, or introducing your younger child to basic math concepts. These types of games also help exercise young minds to help them think of new solutions to things in school and everyday life. Puzzles are unique in that they teach problem solving skills in a way that kids will find fun rather than frustrating.

Enhance Creativity

Wooden puzzles often require a lot of creative thinking in order to be solved. Your child will have to think outside of the box to solve these puzzles, and he or she will also learn how to find new solutions to match different problems. The more complicated puzzles may require some trial and error, but remember; the more challenging the puzzle is, the more rewarding will be the sense of accomplishment when it is finished.

Decrease Screen Time

It can be a challenge to keep kids entertained while also keeping time spent in front of computers and phones to a minimum. Puzzles are a great way for your child to have fun and stay engaged - no electronics needed! Your child may even find that they enjoy playing 'in real life' much more than they enjoy playing games on a screen.

Wooden puzzles are a classic and timeless toy that children of all ages will enjoy solving. If you want to find the right kind of puzzle for your child, visit our website today! 

At KidzInc you will find a huge selection of wooden puzzles from top-rated toy brands that specialize in creative, thoughtful toys for kids. To make your shopping experience easier, you can also browse toys by age and intelligence level to find puzzles that are uniquely suited to your child.

5 Ways a STEM Education Benefits Your Child

Posted on August 30, 2017 by Lubica Misevski

A STEM education--that is, a focus on hands-on education that allows kids to improve their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and math skills--is becoming critical for parents who want their kids to have the best chance in the world.

From using toys like Magna Tiles or Playmags and Laser Pegs for creative play that encourages these skills to using Goldieblox, Roominate and IQ Key to stimulate development in these critical areas, many parents are jumping on board with STEM education.

Wondering what the benefits of a STEM education will be for your child? Consider these clear advantages.

1. A STEM education encourages creativity. It helps kids think outside the box, encouraging them to use innovation skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. STEM Education practices aren't just about dry, rote learning, though many schools that follow the practice get that reputation. Instead, it's about teaching kids the how and why, then giving them the pieces and allowing their creativity to shine. 

2. A STEM education provides a broader view of the world. Many students make it through school without understanding technology in any broader sense than computers and mobile phones. When they leave school, however, those same students are exposed to technology in a much more complicated sense. A STEM education, on the other hand, provides those students with the opportunity to experience those levels of technology earlier, better developing their understanding of the concepts that they'll face when they seek employment and giving them the opportunity to pursue deeper knowledge in fields that may later lead to employment. 

3. STEM education bridges the gaps. In many fields, girls and minorities lag behind white male students. There's a bias in place that suggests that students without those advantages of birth won't be as successful in those fields. A STEM education, on the other hand, bridges that gap. It provides every student with the opportunity to master the skills that will advance their education to the university level and beyond, providing them with valuable knowledge and understanding that will later be critical to acquiring jobs.

4. A variety of fields use the skills acquired through a STEM education. Writers will find that it's much easier to acquire freelance jobs when they're able to write about technical subjects, and even the fashion and makeup industries are looking for individuals with this kind of education to help improve their businesses. STEM skills are becoming increasingly valuable for everyone, regardless of their preferred profession, and many people are discovering that developing those skills during childhood makes it natural. Kids whose toys are their tools will fall in love with the learning process and enhance their own success.

5. It improves kids' chances of succeeding in University. Students who have received a STEM education are better able to handle the rigors of University, assimilate new information, and cope with their course loads. They're also more likely to have high scores on their HSC exams, securing them better scholarships or a place at the University of their dreams. In short, giving students a STEM education early sets them up for success throughout the educational process.

Providing your child with a STEM education, whether through their school or with the materials you're providing at home, is the ideal way to see your child become more successful.

A STEM education doesn't just teach students about information they're supposed to assimilate. It also provides them with all of the critical pieces they need to know how to learn: how to stay current in their fields, how to improve their understanding of unfamiliar technology, and how to integrate the pieces into a functional whole. 

At KidzInc we have a wonderful range of STEM Toys.

Posted in STEM, STEM Australia, STEM Education, STEM Toys

Building STEM Skills with Playmags Magnetic Tiles

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Lubica Misevski

 

 

Playing with blocks is a time-honoured tradition of childhood experiences. Most of us have memories of construction toys like Meccano and good old fashioned wooden blocks to build with. For centuries, long before early childhood development studies, parents have understood that building projects are an important foundation to logical thinking in young children. Through experimentation, they discover the laws of gravity, structure, architecture, and aesthetics. This creates a depth of knowledge and understanding that could never be achieved through explanations at such a young age.

While your old block sets are still a great way to bond with your child, there are new developments in early childhood learning through toys specifically designed to enhance building logical abilities from a very young age.

The new Playmags line of magnetic building toys combines the mosaic quality of coloured tiles, the building insights of blocks, and the scientific marvel of magnets into one amazingly educational package

What are Playmags?

Playmags are coloured building tiles, about two inches square with magnets along the corners and sides. This allows children to lock them together and easily pull them apart, encouraging infinite combinations. Each tile can link on all sides, creating lines, then mosaics, and finally stacked into increasingly complex buildings. While many of the tiles are square, Playmags has many construction shapes like long and short triangles, windows, cart, door, and fence pieces, allowing your child to get truly creative with their building projects. 

Encouraging Motor Skills

Every action your young child takes is practice for future skilled motor movement. Playmags are big enough to hold easily but complex enough to encourage detailed manipulation. When your child builds things with Playmags, they grasp, pull, set together, stack, and constantly re-arrange the pieces in order to create project after project of colourful and detailed houses, castles, inspiring colourful sky scrapers.

Imaginative and Creative Play

Playmag constructions are as easy to take apart as they are to build, but still resistant to the upsetting 'tumble' of classic wooden blocks. When your child is constantly rebuilding their Playmags projects, they are actively imagining new designs and ways to use each piece in a creative new way. As your child stretches their imagination, more toys will be pulled into the play and the buildings they create will become stages for the incredible adventures of cars, dolls, and action figures.

Math, Geometry, and Science

Every shape has a mathematical truth inherent to it that can be learned at any age. Squares can only have four partners, except when they are part of a cube or connected to other shapes with smaller sides. Triangles can have three partners and can come together to form pyramids if they are all the same height. Combining triangles of different sizes and angles create unique shapes and introduce the concept of mosaics, pictures made with geometric tiles. Without realizing it, your child will gain a deep basic knowledge of the wonders of math, geometry, and science long before their first day of school.

Learning STEM Skills

As your child builds with Playmags, they are gaining a vital understanding of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) skills, which often come together because the STEM concepts are so closely linked. Through geometry and construction, they learn about math and engineering, while the interplay of architecture and magnets teaches science and technology. This elegant culmination of learning opportunities happens without a teacher or a single word of explanation. The child learns on their own because it's fun, never realizing the amazing educational boost they're getting from early childhood toys.

Playmags are the culmination of generations of early childhood development toys designed specifically to help children learn about fundamentals years before they are ready to learn through long form lessons. Your children will play for hours creatively building and rearranging the colourful magnetic tiles into more and more complex constructions. After a few weeks, you'll be amazed to discover incredible new ways colourful squares and triangles can be combined into complex architectural wonders, all before they start kindergarten. With Playmags, anything is possible.

 For our full range of Playmags, please click here. 

Posted in magna tiles australia, magnetic tiles australia, STEM toys, STEM Toys Australia