Children benefit from simple, everyday activities such as playing dress up, reading and even blowing bubbles. To supplement these activities, educational toys can play an important part in your child’s development.

Our world is changing. Your child is likely to be exposed to more technology in their first five years than your parents experienced throughout their entire life!

Toy manufacturers are incorporating advanced technology into a whole range of exciting new products and giving a ‘technological makeover’ to some old favourites.

Here are a few high-tech educational toys worth checking out for your child.

Pretend, play and learn with an educational ‘smartphone’

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LeapFrog first came to parents’ attention with their clever LeapStart 3D Learning System. The system has gone ahead in leaps and bounds, pun intended, with games, apps and even a LeapFrog Academy. The Chat and Count Smart Phone is a new addition to the range.

This clever little piece of technology allows your child to chat on the phone with Violet or Scout. These animated puppy friends teach them about numbers while building their dexterity. They can watch cute animations and add emojis just like their parents or siblings do on their phones.

In the company’s own words, “We don’t create learning, we create learners.” The range of LeapFrog educational toys spans from babies to mid primary age. You can find them at most toy retailers.

A wooden robot that teaches computer programming

Cubetto is an award winning wooden robot specifically designed for children between the ages of three and six. This advanced, yet intuitive educational toy teaches the basics of computer programming without speaking or a screen display.

Cubetto works through adding colored blocks to a wooden board. Placing different colored blocks in different places on the wooden board creates programs that controls the robot. This hands-on learning tool comes with a map and story book that takes children on adventures and sparks their ideas.

To date, this friendly little robot has been chosen by 20,000 parents and teachers to bring 21st century skills to inquisitive kids without the need for a screen. It’s available online through Primo Toys.

Bring your child’s Play-Doh creations to life

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Can you believe it? Play-Doh has an app! It’s called Play-Doh Touch and it brings your child’s Play-Doh creations to life! This smart little app is educational and fun at the same time and will bring out the artist in any child.

Here’s how it works. First, you’ll need the Play-Doh Touch Shape to Life Studio set,  available at most toy stores. The set includes a variety of Play-Doh colours plus stampers so your child can make their own characters.

Next, download the Play-Doh Touch app. Then scan your child’s Play-Doh creations with the app onto your tablet or smartphone. Your child’s doughy creations will instantly come to life on the screen, ready for some adventure in exciting and interactive ways.

The digital character stampers that come in the kit allow your child to create new friends that unlock magical online worlds when scanned into the app. Cutters and tools allow your child to keep shaping and scanning more creations to add to their world.

At the end of play time their Play-Doh characters can be saved in the app to play with next time.

An educational dinosaur that’s way ahead of its time

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Be warned: STEMosaur is likely to become your child’s favourite toy. What this little fella may lack in cuddly fluffiness, he makes up for in hi-tech cleverness.

STEMosaur starts teaching your child as soon as you take him from the box… in pieces! Yes, your child learns basic engineering principles as they (and you) carefully construct the toy. Don’t worry, there’s an easy to follow ‘how to’ guide.

Once constructed, STEMosaur becomes part friend, part teacher and 100% fun. The Wi-Fi-enabled dinosaur can answer most simple questions and gets smarter through automatic content updates.

This high-tech educational toy can tell stories, play games, sing songs, tell cute jokes and more. Your child can even learn coding in easy to follow lessons taught by STEMosaur’s  best buddy, Dr. Dinestein. The Doc shows how to personalise and add to Stemosaur through his coding panel.

See STEMosaur in action or find out more at CogniToys.

Your child’s own activity desk that has it all

You want to introduce technology to your child. At the same time, you want them to experience hands-on, fun, education activities that will help develop their motor skills. The VTech Touch and Learn Activity Desk offers both!

This colourful, child-sized digital desk uses an LED display that illustrates letter and number stroke order and teaches how to draw basic shapes. There’s an interactive touch pad with sound to teach math basics, music and drawing. There’s even a toy telephone!

The VTech Touch and Learn Activity Desk includes five activity pages to get your child started and eight expansion packs (sold separately) that delve into different subjects such as animals, reading skills, nursery rhymes and numbers. It cleverly transforms into an easel and chalkboard with space for art supplies. The activity desk is available at VTech Toys Australia and most toy shops.

Every child’s education is a continuous journey

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Petit Early Learning Journey Centres create an atmosphere that awakens the love of learning in every child. The team at our state-of-the-art centres is there to support your child’s social, emotional and cognitive development.

We take a holistic approach to your child’s education; one that connects their mind, body and spirit. Our carefully crafted programs help stimulate their sense of wonder and spark their brilliant imagination.

Book a tour today and let us show you and your child through one of our amazing centres.