What are Educational Toys for 4-Year-Olds?
What is Play?
Although children are defined in the Turkish Language Association as individuals between infancy and adulthood, they are much more than that with their thoughts, way of behaving, perspective on life and people, and how they make sense of the world. They continue part of their development in the period we call infancy with their mothers, and part of it in the period we call preschool, i.e., within formal education covering ages 4-5. They are in a continuous and never-ending education. From the very first moment they are born, they enter into an education by exploring their surroundings. In later times, they proceed on a path of continuous education between school and their environment. On this path, play is always their indispensable companion. Play is defined as a set of enjoyable activities that allow for a good time, integrate a person with personal pleasure within this opportunity, and generally form a whole within certain rules. Entering our lives from infancy, its existence extends to adulthood. As can be understood from this, play can appear wherever humans are.
Besides a Living Being, What Else is Needed for an Activity to be Considered Play?
The concepts of imagination and toys emerge here. Imagination is a mental effect that elevates a person to a higher level of reality. Thanks to imagination, a person adds creativity to their actions and opens up to boundless realms in the games they play. For a game to be a game, it must integrate with imagination and encompass different imagery. Toys are play materials that contribute to children's development throughout all their developmental stages, revealing their talents and creativity. Because it reveals their creativity, it is an inseparable concept from imagination. Without these two concepts, humans, as living beings, cannot perform the enjoyable activity of play as they wish.
Do Toys Have an Educational Function?
We can say that most toys have an educational function. When you give a child a toy, we often see them share it with a friend or invite them to play together. This is the first proof of its educational value. First, the child learns to share. Besides this, it is possible to see many children breaking, dismantling, and trying to assemble the toys they hold. Through this, they find an opportunity to satisfy their curiosity and develop mentally. This is another proof that toys are educational. Education in the preschool period develops through toys.
What are Educational Toys for 4-Year-Olds?
For a 4-year-old child, blocks, especially those used in preschool education, are prominent. Blocks are important for strengthening children's creativity and opening them up to new mental development by recognizing geometric shapes. After blocks, another educational toy is cards. Through these cards, called memory games, children's memory is strengthened and their attention is measured. Besides these, since children at this age learn numbers and recognize colors, color learning cards are also encountered.
