Play & Learn: The Era of Educational Toys for Kids

BANGALORE:
According to a report by the Early Childhood STEM Working Group (University of Chicago); Introducing high-quality STEM experiences during early age provides a much-needed stimulus to children’s natural curiosity.

There is a buzz about early childhood education in India. The idea was officially proposed in the NEP 2020 where there was a special focus on educational toys and STEM learning for kids education. Following up in the direction, India recently witnessed its first National Toy Fair which was conducted by the Central Government and was host to over 1000 exhibitors. During the event the educational toys took the fore-front and there were a lot of talks going around campaigns like ‘Vocal For Local’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. Adding to the scenario NCERT has also come up with a framework to revamp early childhood education in the country.

Today, when the limelight stays on kid’s education, as a parent & teacher one must also be aware about the developments and offerings that the toy companies are delivering in the Indian market. For such curious minds, listed below are the top five educational toy companies that not only help your kids to learn while playing but also bring forward the narrative of ‘Make In India’.

1. PlayShifu
   PlayShifu is an Indian home grown company and is known for their tech-savvy toy variant that offers unique products for kids aging from 4-12 years. Their flagship products, Shifu Plugo Series and Shifu Orboot have been a hit in the AR toy market. The platform added 3.5 lakh new users across the world by the end of 2020 with 63% kids deeply engaged beyond 30 days. During the lockdown the platform witnessed children spending 20.8 million minutes on their Orboot and Plugo platforms, resulting in 45% jump in daily activity from March through May 2020.
2. Kano
   Appropriate for kids aged 6 and older, the Kano PC kit is no less than a personal laptop for kids. The DIY tablet is the ideal destination for learning art, science along with coding. Consisting of hardware components, the kid needs to fit the parts to create a functional Windows 10 tablet that comes with a MicroSD card slot and detachable keyboard. Once completed, the kid can share their projects with the Kano community on Kano World online.
3. Littlebits
   Littlebits provides you the experience of an e-classroom. Its coding kit is its signature product and is ideal for kids from third to the eighth standard who wish to step into the coding arena at an early age. Their Steam+ kit extends curriculum-aligned material while engaging the kids in an analytical thinking process. It offers activities, innovations for maker spaces, libraries, camps, clubs, etc.
4. WonderWorkshop
   The platform aims to build future innovators and is an innovative product for kids aged 6 and above. The platform showcases the in-app puzzle library, standard-based lessons along with robotic challenges. Their mobile application, Wonder for Dash & Dot Robots extends learning about robotics in a fun way. It is a coding tool that enables the kid to play and explore robotics all by themselves and offers 300+ challenges that teach kids about robotics programming and building. With the help of this kids can create their own machinery, feed in their desired mechanisms, and play the challenges.
5. Osmo
   The brand offers electronic toys that are compatible with iPad or Amazon Fire tablets. The kit consists of numbers, shapes, coding instructions, puzzles, drawing, business aptitude and likewise learning features that allows the kid to explore various fields and learn independently. The user just needs to feed in the Osmo base over the device’s camera and while they are busy playing with the game pieces, the base scans the table and the child’s creativity is projected on the screen.