Best Educational Toys for Babies

When I think of the best educational toy my son had as a baby stacking cups comes out tops.
These are such a simple toy but babies will find so many uses for them and learn so much at the same time.
At first they make great teething toys for babies to put in their mouths and discover the texture and feel.
As they get older they will love knocking down towers, nesting the cups. learning to build towers, hiding things and using them for water play.
They are great for developing fine motor skills, learning to build and knock down, working out how objects can fit together and I used them to teach my son colors too.

Every baby should have a set of stacking cups. They are so cheap and a must have toy.

This is a great educational toy which will teach your baby, numbers, colors and shapes through about 40 activities on the table and through music.
It suitable from 6 months to 3 years so is a good investment.
Probably the best activity table available.

Shapesorters are great toys for teaching shapes, colors and honing fine motor skills.
Suitable for babies from about 9 months.

These floor mats are made of foam shapes which babies can sit and and move about on. They will start to learn to pull the shapes apart, which helps them understand how things fit together. The mats obviously expose babies to numbers and letters which parents can talk about with their children and introduce them to babies at an early age.

As babies get older they can learn how to put the shapes together like a jigsaw introducing them to spatial relationships. They are great for toddlers and older children too.

As you've probably guessed I'm a huge fan of stacking toys. I think they have lots of educational value for babies, teaching colors, numbers (count the rings as you put them on the toy) and honing fine motor skills. They also used to keep my son busy playing for ages, a bonus for me.

Here are a few more stacking toys to consider.

Babies also love take out and put in play.They encourage the development of motor skills and cause and effect understanding and babies love playing with them for ages.
Suitable from around 8 to 9 months.

Walkers also make great toys for babies. My son had one with blocks with letters on. He used to love taking them blocks out and putting them in again. We used them to build towers, teach colors, letters and numbers too. The walker was obviously good for teaching him to walk.