It is pretty common knowledge that raising a child requires both money and time. For us, first time parents, I am sure there are quite a few things we have wasted our money on picking the toys which she got bored easily or we couldn’t play together. Learning from the experience, I figured out toys are more than just playing and we wanted to be part of her life. This is my list of 5 family bonding toys which are affordable, educated and we all can play together.
- Board games
Board game is my number one on the list. Not only kids but also adults can actually enjoy the games. There are too many board games in the market which you can choose from base on the age, the personality and the level of patience of your kids. I only want to focus on the kids at age 3 so I pick the game with the average complicated level and also short to play with.
- Zingo – This is as simple as the bingo game. The pictures ensure that my daughter who doesn’t know how to read at age 3 can still independently play. It also encourages my kid to read aloud the object. This game requires no adult help. However, I always want to participate into the game with my daughter. As I mentioned in the title, this is the family bonding kind of game.
- Puzzle – I bought her the map puzzle and we play together all the time. The reason I chose map puzzle is to show her where we’ve traveled to, what we’ve seen/done/eaten at those places, which relatives live there ect., This game helps bring up her memories and also develops her imaginary. There are many good quality puzzles at the Dollar Store which I usually buy and give it to her as the casual reward or the on-the-go toys.
- Chess – This game will practice her to know and follow the rules. Moving the pieces is not an ordinary activity; it is the result of raising intelligence. It also increases my daughter problem –solving skills. As a parent, one necessary thing that I must do is preparing my kid for her problems, teach her how to solve them and move forward. The earlier I start, the earlier I will have independent, self-confident child. Chess is the brilliant example of developing those skills. Chess also improves the memory and it’s definitely. Because while playing chess, she should remember her opponents move, remember which positions can help her in that situation. And last, she can’t play chess by herself. We have to play it together which makes our bonding stronger.
- Lego
Everyone knows Lego; it is one of the largest brands in the worlds. At age 3, my daughter understands not to put the toys in her mouth so I switched her Lego from the Duplo big size to the standard size which gave her more opportunities to practice her motor skills through different amounts of pressure to assemble and becomes an exercise for her fingers. Lego encourages team work so we can play together during the time of building and also playing them after finishing the projects. I always let her read the instruction (pictures only) by herself, put all the pieces together by herself with her daddy’s little helps with the small pieces. Following Lego instructions can be challenging. However, it does help my daughter to develop planning skills as well as lateral thinking. When faced with an assembly problem, she has to retrace the steps and analyze her work in order to find parts that need fixed.
- Nintendo Labo
Most kids love digital games and my daughter is not exceptional. Nintendo Labo makes it different. My daughter finds it funnier when she experiences both physical and digital inputs work together. The works are complicated to her so she needs adult helps. We all build it and play it together. The con for this toy is you must have the Nintendo switch first which is pricey for kid. Since my husband is so into Nintendo so we already had the machine. Now, both of them can share the pricey toy together. I bought it when it was on sale at Best Buy so make sure you check all the deals before purchasing it.
- Card Game
- Regular card – There are so many things we can do with cards. For example, we can do simple sorting or make a match. These games help practice her how to learn the color, the shape and also the number.
- Uno – This game is perfect for teaching kids from 2+ to recognize colors and numbers. Until the kid reaches 3+, this game also helps her to learn how to follow rules.
- Flash card – There are many flash cards in the market, such as shape, number, color, vocabulary… For my kid, I choose the bilingual flash cards which have both English and Vietnamese so she can learn the spelling of both.
- Occupation Toys
Kids always dream of being a “grown up” and doing incredible things. Pretend play can help develop creativity, confidence and social skills of my kid. With these toys, every family member can play together. She can be a doctor and we are all her patients or we can be a students and she is the teacher. In addition, she loves to be an ice cream seller with her little ice cream cart pushing around the house selling ice cream. She also loves to be a handy woman who can help fixing the house. And sometimes, she pretends to be a chef to cook for the whole family. These toys bring us together. As the full time working woman, I am so exhausted when I get home. Instead of letting my daughter watching TV or playing ipad/iphone/tablet so I can have a rest, I choose to be part of her grown-up. Watching her learning new thing everyday makes me feel happy. I hope my suggested toys can give you an idea of choosing the toys for your kids.
