15 educational games for children under 3 years old

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 16:39

An adult's success is built on pyramids, bricks and puzzles.

In the first three years of life, a child's intelligence develops at an incredible rate. Every second, more than a million New Research Shows appear in the brain of a toddler. Significantly More Neural Connections Formed During Early Years Than Previously Thought new neural connections. They create the foundation that nourishes the ability to learn, influences character and becomes a springboard for future professional takeoffs.

This is helped by educational games - ordinary and virtual. But remember that parents also need to get involved in the process. Signal exchange, interest and help from adults, words of approval, smiles and hugs activate the Serve and Return areas of the brain responsible for communication skills. And without them, success is impossible.

Educational toys for children under 3 years old

Before you overwhelm your kid with development tools, keep in mind that an excess of toys reduces Too many toys are bad for children, study suggests the quality of the game itself. The child's attention is scattered, he cannot concentrate on anything. But when the choice is limited to 3-4 options, the toddler approaches the lesson more creatively and plays longer.

1. Pyramid

Counting pyramid for children 2 years and older / trinketsandmore.in

Figured pyramid puzzle for children from two and a half years old / happytoys.by

Age: from 8 months.

This is one of the first educational toys in a baby's life. Removing the rings from the axis and stringing them back, the child improves fine motor skills and perseverance, learns to correlate sizes and gets to know the concept of "more or less", learns colors, gets the first skills in counting.

8-9 months, when the baby is already confidently sitting, is the ideal age to get acquainted with the first, simplest pyramid with large bright details. The slider will remove the rings, feel them, and scatter them. An excellent option for an active toddler is a pyramid of 4-5 textured parts made of safe plastic, which can be used as teething toys.

In a year and a half, the child moves from feeling objects to the simplest manipulations with them. With the help of his parents, he can already learn how to assemble a pyramid. At this age, variants of toys with rings of the same color are recommended.

From one and a half years old, you can offer your baby high multi-colored cone-shaped turrets.

At two years old, pyramids will be useful, teaching the basics of counting within five.

2, 5–3 years - time to collect more complex pyramids that allow you to study shades and shapes.

What to buy

• Pyramid made of wood with 5 rings for children from 1 year old from DJECO, 1 949 rubles →
• Pyramid-sorter for children 3 years old with AliExpress, 491 rubles →
• Pyramid of six rings for children 3 years old, "Smile", 210 rubles →
• Soft pyramid of three rings for children from 1 year old, "Myakishi", 439 rubles →
• Pyramid with numbers for children from 1 year old, "Umka", 375 rubles →

2. Cubes

Age: from 10 months.

A child can play with cubes from four months. He will twirl them in his hands, examine and taste them. But the craving for construction manifests itself closer to the year. First, the baby puts the cubes in a row, then - one on top of the other. Experimenting with falling turrets, the little architect improves coordination, attention, logical thinking.

Offer your baby large soft or plastic cubes with rounded edges for up to a year.

For toddlers older than a year, smaller wooden or plastic cubes with bright pictures and edges of different colors are suitable. Start with sets of six bricks and gradually build up the number of parts.

What to buy

• Wooden cubes with letters for children 3 years old, "Tomik", 315 rubles →
• Soft cubes with pictures for children from 1 year old, "Myakishi", 239 rubles →
• Cubes with pictures for children of any age, "The Tenth Kingdom", 165 rubles →
• Cubes with numbers and pictures for children of any age with AliExpress, 409 rubles →
• Colored wooden cubes, "Tomik", 198 rubles →
• Plastic cubes with rounded edges for children from 2 years old with AliExpress, 772 rubles →

3. Finger maze

Age: from year

Moving multi-colored wooden beads in a spiral, the little one develops logical thinking and fine motor skills, masters finger grips, learns to concentrate. In addition, the toy helps you learn colors. An adult can ask a kid to find a blue bead, move a red one, show a yellow one.

What to buy

• Labyrinth wheelchair in the form of a car for children 3 years old from Mapacha, 365 rubles →
• Multifunctional labyrinth cube for children from 1 year old from Classic World, 2 995 rubles →
• Labyrinth "Animals" for children from 1 year old from Melissa & Doug, 1 970 rubles →
• Classic maze for children from 1 year old with AliExpress, 377 rubles →
• Labyrinth "Palm" for children from 1 year old with AliExpress, 276 rubles →

4. Sorter

Age: from year

The sorter can be of any shape: cube, house, car, pyramid, cylinder. The main thing is that there are holes in it, to which the young smart guy must pick up the parts corresponding in shape and size.

Sorter games improve memory, train motor skills, eyes and logical thinking, teach fidgets to be attentive and solve problems on their own. And, of course, they contribute to the study of figures.

The older the child is, the more complex and finer the details should be. By the age of three, it can be a sorter with figures in the form of letters or numbers.

What to buy

• Sorter of 13 parts for children from 1 year old, "Tomik", 595 rubles →
• Train sorter for children from 1 year old from My Angel, 855 rubles →
• Sorter bucket for children from 1 year old, "Stellar", 195 rubles →
• Sorter house for children from 1 year old, "Polesie", 596 rubles →
• Sorter cube for children from 1 year old from Red Box, 1 655 rubles →
• Sorter bus for children from 1 year old with AliExpress, 955 rubles →

5. Seguin's board

Age: from year

The insert frame, developed in the 19th century by the psychologist Edouard Seguin, is a wooden board with indentations into which the child inserts elements of the appropriate shape and size. Modern development options differ in complexity, number and size of tabs, as well as in topics.

With the help of Seguin boards, you can study objects, colors, geometric shapes, numbers, concepts. And along the way, develop fine motor skills, motor-visual coordination, logical and spatial thinking and train in the concept of "more or less".

You need to start with the simplest boards with a minimum amount of details on one topic: animals, objects, fairy-tale characters, vegetables and fruits.

What to buy

• Wooden frame-insert for children 3 years old, "Tomik", 162 rubles →
• Insert frame with numbers for children 3 years old from Bradex, 737 rubles →
• Frame-insert "Technics" for children 3 years old from Woodland, 213 rubles →
• Insert frame "Geometry" for children from 1 year old, "Boring games", 165 rubles →
• Insert frame "Who eats what?" for children 3 years old from Woody, 758 rubles →
• Frame-insert with numbers, fruits and a pyramid for children 3 years old with AliExpress, 1 199 rubles →

6. Puzzles

Age: from one and a half years

They are excellent trainers for memory, concentration, logical thinking, fine motor skills and the ability to make decisions. The younger the child, the larger the puzzle pieces should be and the easier the way to connect them.

In one and a half to two years, it is recommended to collect large puzzles from two or three elements, which you just need to attach to each other, like the details of a cut picture.

After two years, the baby is already able to deal with classic interlocking puzzles, and the number of elements can be gradually increased (up to six to three years).

What to buy

• Puzzle "Ladybug" for children 3 years old, "Tomik", 191 rubles →
• A set of eight puzzles for children over 1 year old from LISCIANI, 399 rubles →
• A set of puzzles "Animals" for children 3 years old from Dodo, 243 rubles →
• Puzzle alphabet for children 3 years old from Dodo, 419 rubles →
• A set of puzzles "Transport" for children 3 years old from Dodo, 243 rubles →
• Wooden puzzles for children of any age with AliExpress, from 56 rubles →

7. Matryoshka

Age: from one and a half years

This folk toy is a real find for an inquisitive child's mind. She develops a lot of everything at once: an idea of size, logical thinking, fine motor skills and memory. Matryoshka teaches you to perform direct and reverse actions (disassemble-assemble) in a certain sequence.

And you can also play the first role-playing games with her. For example, a large doll can be a mother, a small doll can be a daughter. Such fun stimulates the imagination, improves communication skills, encourages problem solving and looking for a way out of conflict situations.

For a one and a half year old child, a set of two or three detachable nesting dolls is suitable. From the age of two, the kid can already learn to assemble a matryoshka from 4–5 dolls, and closer to three - from six.

What to buy

• Matryoshka 7 in 1 for children from 1, 5 years old from RN Toys, 1 302 rubles →
• Matryoshka 4 in 1 for children from 1, 5 years old from RN Toys, 504 rubles →
• Matryoshka under painting 5 in 1 for children from 3 years old from RN Toys, 538 rubles →
• Matryoshka 3 in 1 for children 3 years old from RN Toys, 519 rubles →
• Matryoshka "Hen-mother" for children 3 years old from RN Toys, 1,276 rubles →

8. Lacing

Age: from one and a half years

The rapid development of technology has led to the fact that modern children lag behind The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child in sensorimotor development from their parents, and even more so from their grandparents. After all, the latter performed much more manipulations with their hands. Meanwhile, not only the ability to master writing depends on fine motor skills. The better a child can use a hand and fingers, the easier it is for him to speak and the more efficiently his brain as a whole works.

You can remedy the situation with the help of lacing games. The baby shows interest in pulling the string through the hole from about one and a half years old. Naturally, at first the child will need the help of his parents, but soon he will show miracles of quickness.

What to buy

• Lacing made of wood "Hedgehog" for children 3 years old, "Tenth Kingdom", 250 rubles →
• Button lacing for children 3 years old from RN Toys, 797 rubles →
• Lacing-scattering "Figures" for children from 1 year old from El Basco Toys, 205 rubles →
• Lacing "Sweets" for children 3 years old from Mapacha, 303 rubles →
• Lacing pad for children 3 years old, "Tenth Kingdom", 179 rubles →
• Lacing in the form of a shoe for children from 2 years old with AliExpress, 130 rubles →

9. Busyboard

Age: from one and a half years

The Maria Montessori development board improves fine motor skills, fosters perseverance and attentiveness, and also spurs imagination.

It is easy to make a business board yourself: take a wooden board and attach as many objects as possible to it, which the baby will study. These are large buttons, laces, wooden and plastic toys, locks, switches, wheels from old suitcases. The main thing is that among these artifacts there is nothing piercing or cutting.

What to buy

• Business board made of wood and textiles for children 3 years old, "Krona", 899 rubles →
• Business board "Learning numbers and colors" for children from 1 year old from Alatoys, 1 559 rubles →
• Business board for boys 3 years old, "Not boring games", 2 799 rubles →
• Business board "I myself" for children 3 years old, "Krasnokamskaya toy", 3,595 rubles →
• Business board for girls 3 years old, "Boring games", 2 799 rubles →

Educational apps for children under 3 years old

According to the latest recommendations to grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more of the World Health Organization (WHO), children under one year old should not spend a minute at all in front of the screen, be it a TV, computer or smartphone.

For two- and three-year-olds, the tablet should not take more than an hour a day (the less, the better). And even this hour is better to devote to something useful for the intellect, under the supervision and with the active participation of parents. We offer several options for useful applications for the little ones.

1. Educational games for toddlers

• Platforms: Android, iOS
• Age: from year

The application contains 48 educational programs for butuz from one to five years. For the little ones there are puzzles, games for sorting by color, shape and size, children's songs.

2. Animals for babies

• Platforms: Android, iOS
• Age: from year

With this free utility, your smart guy will learn the names of animals and birds, as well as the sounds they make. After completing the course, the child will have an exam quiz. Regardless of the outcome, the fauna connoisseur will be rewarded with a round of applause and a short session of Pop the Balls.

The app is even more useful for toddlers who learn a foreign language from an early age. Available in six languages, your polyglot will easily memorize new words.

3. Hide and seek! Who said woof?

• Platforms: Android, iOS
• Age: from year

60 cartoon characters - animals, cars, toys, objects - are hiding in small houses. The child will have to find them and get to know each one better: listen to a rhyme, watch a short animation plot, find out what sounds this or that character makes.

4. We pop the balls

• Platform: Android
• Age: from one and a half years

Everything is extremely simple. While you are in a traffic jam or busy with an important conversation, your child enthusiastically bursts balls on the screen of a smartphone or tablet with a finger. And enjoys the sound effects. The application develops concentration, reaction, fine motor skills and attentiveness. It also allows you to explore colors and shapes as the balls have different shapes.

5. Developing tablet: drawing and games for children

• Platform: Android
• Age: from two years

Smart tablet is a free set of mini-games that will help kids of two or three years old in learning colors, numbers and the basics of mathematics, animals. One of the useful options is virtual coloring with a large selection of pictures.

Children's phone, tablet games for toddlers from 2 years old GoKids!

6. Learning shapes and colors

• Platform: Android
• Age: from two years

The free application contains several educational and developmental games for children from two to four years old. The kid is offered to choose vegetables and fruits of the right color or figures of the right size. The set also has tasks for sorting and finding identical items.

Learning shapes and colors - educational games for children Elka games