Choosing Educational Toys

How do you ensure that the educational toy you buy will be right for your child? As with everything there are no guarantees with children. There are a couple of things to consider when selecting children's educational toys that can improve the chances that your choice will be well received. First, evaluate the developmental stage that your child is at. Select educational toys that target skills and abilities for that stage. An educational toy that is too advanced may cause frustration, and one that is too simple will not be challenging enough to warrant attention. Below is a general guideline for what types of children's educational toys are better suited for developmental stages from newborn through 3 years old. This is only meant to be a guide to start you thinking in the right direction. Use these guidelines and your knowledge of your child's interests to you help make your educational toy purchases.

Newborn to 3 Months: Babies cannot do much at this stage but their senses are eager for stimulation. Children's educational toys with high-contrast patterns and bright colors will capture little ones' attention. Babies can see color from birth but have difficulty distinguishing between similar tones. Educational toys designed with bright and distinctly different colors like red, green, black and white help babies differentiate shapes and patterns. Babies spend a good deal of time on their backs and sides at this age making colorful mobiles that play music a great educational toy choice. Babies are fascinated by their reflection in safety mirrors. They are not able to recognize themselves but the activity is great visual stimulation. Baby gyms are excellent educational toys because of the variety of stimulation they offer. Baby gyms have bright colors, a variety of attachments with different shapes, textures, and sounds. Most gyms now play music and have lights as well. These educational toy gyms require baby to pull, kick, or bat something to set off the stimulus helping to develop motor skills.

Suggested toys for this age: Galt Paynest and Gym, Busy Bear Mirror, 2 in 1 Smart Gym, Farm Friends Mobile, Jumbo Gym, and Farm Linkies.

3 to 6 Months: During this stage your baby will gain better head control and have better movement of arms and legs. They generally grip onto anything they can get their hands on and put it directly into their mouth. Educational toys like rattles promote motor development and provide sensory stimulation. Since everything ends up in the mouth, educational toys that are chewable or soft plush are favorites. Babies need to experience different textures so vary the materials educational toys are made of. Activity centers provide lots of stimulation at this age. These educational toys normally have lots of buttons that produce sounds, lights, and give a variety of textures to explore. Hand-eye coordination will improve as babies explore the activity center. Parents are often on the move more with babies at this age. Activity bars that fit across a stroller, car seat, or bouncy chair that have dangling, squeaky toys and mirrors keep baby stimulated while on the move. Motor skills develop as baby reaches, hits, pulls, and kicks at the accessories on these educational toys.

Suggested toys for this age: Tummy Play Trainer, Curiosity Cube, Toe Time Infant Car Toy, Musical Arch 'N Play, Jungle Pals Pushchair Arch.

6 to 12 Months: Your baby has much better control over arm and leg movement. By 9 to 10 months, your baby should be able to move around by some means- either pulling, crawling, or scooting. By 12 months they should be able to stand by themselves and many will even start walking. Educational toys including wooden blocks that baby can stack and knock down, throw, or bang together to make noise are good choices. By 12 months, educational wooden blocks can be used for early construction play to promote development of motor skills, cause and effect, sensory and visual stimulation. Educational toys like the Sensory Ball from Edushape, provides great stimulation with different textures. Once babies learn to sit up, they will enjoy rolling a ball and trying to catch it as you roll it back. Letting your baby chase the ball will encourage movement. Trying to figure out why a square block won't go through a round opening will help develop problem solving skills- though it may cause some frustration in the beginning. By the time your baby is 12 months, they will start to enjoy stacking activities, though they will need help in trying to get the right order. More interest in books will be noticeable now. Try to buy books that have pages with different textures and simple flaps. This will help to develop their sense of touch.

Suggested toys for this age: Frog in the Box, Activity Cube, Farm Friends Stacker, Soft Books, Hug a Bug, Textured Blocks.

1 to 2 years: With each step your baby becomes more independent and confident. Little ones at this age spend every waking hour exploring and experimenting. For those still a bit unsteady walking, educational toys that promote mobility such as a walker or push car are great choices. Pushcarts and wagons are a great way for children to tote things around- another favorite activity at this age. Educational toys including soft plush toys and dolls remain favorites at this age. Children often become very attached to one or two and use them in creative play. Toddlers can find many ways to make loud sounds. Musical instruments like drums, maracas, and tambourines are educational toys that will help them learn to appreciate music while they make noise. Inset puzzles require toddlers to lift out pieces and find the right places to put them back. These first puzzles improve problem skills and fine tune motor skills. Puzzles are educational toys that your children will play with over and over again.

Suggested toys for this age: 4 in 1 Walker, Galt Wooden Baby Walker, Little Hands Music Band, Mini Edublocks, First Blocks, Baby Puzzles, Wooden Shaped Puzzles, First Puzzles.

2 to 3 Years: Your toddler's motor skills are now well developed. They can run, jump, and climb. The area of explosive development in this stage is speech and language. Imaginative play becomes the focus for this age group. Educational toys that children use as props in pretend play help build language and communication skills. Great educational toy choices for this age include character toys, puppets, dolls, toy vehicles, and animal figures. These educational toys foster creativity and imagination by allowing your child to create wonderful adventures, model adult behavior, and role-play. Large piece puzzles are great educational toys for this age. Children at this age should be able to complete a 4 to 6 piece puzzle on their own. Puzzles are a great activity to build hand-eye coordination, problem solving, and fine motor skills.

Suggested toys for this age: Table and Chairs, Wooden Stacking Train, Airport Blocks, Maggie's Friends, Shaped Puzzles, Play and Learn Puzzles.

Educators, Don't Forget to Claim This Adjustment to Your Income

If you are a teacher teaching right from kindergarten through great 12, or if you are an instructor, principal, counselor or aide working in a school for at least 900 hours during a school year, you are eligible educator according to IRS. In that case, you can deduct an amount up to $250 towards certain costs as an adjustment to your gross income. If you are filing jointly and both you and your spouse are eligible educators, you can claim maximum $500. However, neither spouse can claim more than $250 towards his or her qualified expenditure.

What constitutes qualified expenditure?

According to IRS, it includes ordinary and necessary costs paid in connection with the education. Here is a list of such costs for your ready reference -

Books or subscriptions - These include technical books, professional textbooks, professional publications, publication journals, newspapers, magazines and journals.

Teaching aids - They can be films, slides and other materials.

Education costs - These can include books, papers, writing materials, hotel/motel expenses, expenses towards professional development.

Tools and supplies - These can include camera, films, classroom supplies, locks, lockers, supplies, postage, stationery, tape recorders, tapes, flashlight, briefcase and other classroom supplies.

Cost towards uniforms - These can include expenses on dry cleaning, lab coats, sports clothing, goggles, school logo items, T shirts, hats, special use items.

Auto costs - These can include costs towards meetings at other schools, transport of students and transportation during training.

Miscellaneous costs - including costs for computer usage, professional license, cell phone, field trips etc.

Remember, an ordinary expenditure which is common and excepted in your educational field can be qualified as expense eligible for deduction. They have a common logic - costs which are helpful and appropriate for your profession as an educator.

There are certain costs specifically disqualified by IRS such as expenditure for home schooling, expenses for non athletic supplies for courses in health or physical education.

You need to reduce the qualified expenses by the following amounts -
Tax free distribution of interest under an education savings bond program.
Tax free distribution of earnings from a qualified due SH and program.
Tax for the distribution of earnings from a Coverdell education savings account (ESA).
Any reimbursement you receive towards these expenses and not reported on your form W-2.By filling your tax return, this deduction can be claimed on line 23 on form 1040 or line 16 on form 1040A.

If your cost of a particular item is more than $250, there is one more method to claim it. Suppose it is $1000, you can claim $250 as educator expenses under this category and the balance $750 can be claimed as a miscellaneous itemized deduction.

There are all sorts of financial decisions you take in your life. You make gifts to your children; you make investments and acquire real estate. Do you really know the tax implications of these decisions, which can save you thousands of dollars?

ABA Training Materials Can Allow Schools and Parents to Work From the Same Page

When teaching a child with autism spectrum disorder to develop new skills or to learn new patterns of behavior, one of the most detrimental things to the learning process is a different method of teaching between school and home. Autistic children thrive on routine, and the very heart of proper teaching lies in repetition. ABA therapy has long been known to be the most effective method of teaching autistic children, and DVD training courses can be an excellent way to keep parents and teachers on the same page.

There is no doubt that school systems these days are largely underfunded. Many teachers find themselves paying for classroom materials out of their own pockets just to ensure that students are given the best opportunity to learn. This makes it especially difficult for a school system to pay for teachers from each school to receive ABA training. The good news, however, is that it is also possible for a school board to purchase a DVD training course that offers the same skills and methods while alleviating a large percentage of the financial burden. A single course can educate a large number of teachers.

By purchasing ABA training materials for both parents and school systems, it becomes much easier to ensure that a child is being given consistent training and teaching. These shared courses, offered in conjunction with regular parent-teacher meetings can help ensure consistency and can offer kids a great opportunity to learn and to make their way towards being able to fully interact in a classroom comprised of their peers. Autistic children are very capable of learning and are often quite intelligent, and ABA therapy offers a means of unlocking a child's maximum potential so that they are able to learn quickly and effectively.

There are few things that can help an autistic student more than teaching that is consistent between home and school. With top quality ABA training materials, educators and parents alike will find that it is easy to stay on the same page while using proven methods of teaching. We all hope that our children and students will receive a comprehensive education, and when an affordable training class may be all that stands in the way, it is certainly a small price to pay to help offer these children a better start on education and life in general.

Garrett Butch is the father of a 6 year old with autism and the founder of Maximum Potential Group.