School Toys To Be Made More Fun

Those in the know will have seen a steady increase in the number of toys in kindergarten and primary schools over the last 5 years that are focused towards more formal learning. There is nothing wrong with this in principle as we all want our children to learn to the best of their abilities, but recent reports have shown that the latest educational toys may not be as beneficial to our kids learning as first thought.

A Federal Education Department study has revealed that school children are utilising the toys offered to them in schools a lot less and are instead engaging in more disruptive behaviour in their break time. Experts are blaming the formal nature of the toys on offer, most of which have a focus on numbers or letters.James Thames, a director at the federal schools council suggested that "subjects like maths and English are fed to children all day long, and they need some downtime from it". He went on to say that bath toys and toy diggers should be reintroduced for use in the water pits and sand pits that most schools have available to them. Simple dolls houses can keep children entertained for hours and because they are social use toys (can be played with by more than one person) they help develop communication and interaction skills.

The government have spoken out about these findings and said they would like there to be a mix of toys available but certainly the balance is too far towards education at the moment. Their take on it is that if you have an equal amount then children can choose for themselves what kind of toys they want to play with and everyone will be happy.The reactions of parents have been slightly less unified, with some agreeing that children should be able to play with whichever toy they like, whilst others feel that they can play when they get home and that school is for education