Posts Tagged ‘development’

Make learning about history fun in your museum

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
A museum is constantly visited by kids, large groups of children from schools, and field trips from summer camps. If you manage a museum or run museum tours have you ever found it difficult to keep the attention of your younger visitors? We can imagine it is difficult!

A great way to capture and keep the attention of young learners is to offer children’s learning tools and wholesale educational toys to compliment their day at the museum. When you buy children’s toys and educational tools from a wholesale distributer, you can find items that add value to your museum while still keeping things low cost. Your wholesale toy company for children will sell quality items at an excellent value when purchased in bulk. This ensures you always have an ample supply on hand at your museum for every child to enjoy.

Here are some ideas for different subjects your museum may cover.

History Museum
Bring history to life with educational toys for children such as western toys to make learning American history interactive and pirate toys to make discovering new land come alive. Military toys and Army men such as muskets and model aircraft carriers are great children’s toys to buy in bulk from your toy wholesale distributer. This makes educating children about tough subjects like military history and war and fun and safe environment.
Science Museum
There are many ways to make science fun! You can recreate the look and feel of other planets with stickers and slime for the children to keep.  You can have children make dioramas of other environments with animal figures and reptile toys. And, what better way to illustrate transformation than Growing butterfly toys that are low cost in bulk and can be reused? Science sounds fun!

Dinosaur Museum
Children love looking at and learning about dinosaurs. Fossils and reenactments make capturing young minds easy but giving children treats such as dinosaur figures and dinosaur dolls that make sounds will make coming to the museum an extra special treat.  Growing dinosaurs and special hatching dinosaur eggs turn bring your museum to life as the children interact with your educational toys.

Art Museum
One of the best ways to teach children about some of the greatest artists in history is to let them create it for themselves.  Remember, showing a young mid art is an amazing learning tool but teaching them how to create art will enable them to learn for a lifetime. While kids see art, offer paints, crayons and coloring books to spark their creative minds and show them they can be artists as well.  Crayons and stationary are easy toys to buy in bulk and keep on hand at your museum.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Child Development, Special Interest Groups, Special Occasions | No Comments »

Role Playing Games – A Timeless Treat For Children

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Role playing games are timeless, safe and cross all generation gaps. They provide a fun environment for children to play with other children and parents to play with their kids. Children can act out their favorite stories, learn about history and use their imaginations with role-playing games and child toys. For these types of games, the larger the group the better! However, they can be played with as little as two people! As a parent, teacher or caregiver, all you need to do is provide enough child toys in bulk and novelty toys for children and leave the rest to their imaginations. The environment should be safe for play, but the rules should be minimal. Here are some gift ideas and educational tools to get you started.

Cops and Robbers
The classic good versus bad role-play is evident in the popularity of cops and robbers. You can find wholesale toys such as handcuffs, authority badges and toy guns for the “bad guy”.

The Wild West
Children love the outlaw! Whether they want to play the cowboy, the Indian, or the maiden, choose costumes such as ropes, horse figurines and Western clothing. For both the little cowgirl and young cowboy, good wholesalers also carry Wild West Kits in a variety of colors. If you want one toy to purchase in bulk, your wholesale toy distributer can provide deluxe Cowboy and Indian sets that carry everything needed in one package. These also make great children’s gifts!

Princesses
Getting to play a princess is every young girl’s dream. You can find magic wands for the Fairy Godmother, Tiaras for as many princesses as there are children, glitter, play makeup and jewelry for dress up, and other princess themed novelty toys in bulk. If this game is for a young girls party, stock up on lip gloss, princess jewelry and small princess accessory gifts to make every “princess” feel special.

Military and Army
Honor and duty are great lessons for every young child to learn in a safe environment. Army men figurines, toy aircraft carriers and battleships, and an Airforce flag are all the childrens toys you need to enable a creative game of war and victory.

Pirates
Magic ships, buried treasure and sailing the high seas! Who wouldn’t want to play this game! Low cost toys such as eye patches, hooks, and buried treasure spark the imagination and bring the magical world of pirates into reality. Pirate muskets and toy swords provide a safe battleground for the little captain to win.

Cooks and kitchens
Even though a child may be too young to cook in a real kitchen, interacting with kitchen toys is a great way to start learning. From plastic kitchen utensils, tea sets and plastic gifts that cover all food groups, wholesale gifts in bulk can provide enough tools for a small dinner gathering or even an entire play restaurant.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Child Development | No Comments »

The Top Five Toys for the Classroom

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

If you are a teacher, you know that the more interactive and social you can be with students the better they learn and use their imaginations. Simple and effective toys and tools are a fun and easy way to incorporate interactivity within your classroom.  With even the smallest budget, you can buy wholesale learning gifts, cheap educational toys and bulk childrens toys to use with your lesson plans and play time during school.  When buying childrens toys and educational toys for the classroom there are a few things every teacher should keep in mind. First, it is important to buy in large quantities to insure every student gets equal use of these stimulating learning tools. Also, when you are making lesson plans and purchasing wholesale toys for the school year, buy a wide variety of toys to cover different subjects such as music, history and science as well as gifts and incentives for good grades and behavior. The following are the top five educational child toys to turn any classroom into a winner.

Games and Puzzles
Puzzles and games for teachers are a great learning tool to use in any classroom. They are also good to give children for use during recess and breaks.  You can stock the classroom with bounce balls and other outdoor children’s toys for breaks or use puzzles and board games for kids during quieter hours. Games and puzzle toys provide the fun students need but continue to stimulate their creative minds.

Role-playing toys
Whether it is cops and robbers or the Wild West, toys that enable role-playing will continually spark the imaginations and creativity of students. Role-playing offers a safe environment for kids to act out stories and even learn about history.  Instead of just reading out of a history book, use costumes and tools, such as Western themes to enable the students to act out American history.

Stickers
Whether it is the gold star on a math test or a Smiley Face sticker for a notebook, stickers are a great tool for incentives and jobs-well-done.  For children, stickers are a great mark of achievement so it is best to buy a variety of stickers in bulk. Keep different sticker designs and sizes on hand for papers, to mark calendars and decorate nametags.

Reptiles, Dinosaurs and Sea life
Animal toys are consistently best sellers and can compliment your lesson plans extremely well.  When teaching about dinosaurs, you can use a variety of dinosaur figurines to have students create dioramas. Instead of showing pictures of ant farms and tide pools, use these simple tools, such as sticky frogs and plastic ants in bulk quantities and let students build a classroom version of the environments.

Music Toys
Musical toys are a fantastic way to incorporate music into your learning program without spending a lot of instruments.  You can buy wholesale toys in bulk, such as plastic flutes and quality harmonicas that your entire classroom can use for play or music composition education.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Child Development, Special Interest Groups | No Comments »

How to predict what toys will become popular

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

It happens all the time.

From Tickle Me Elmo to Animal Rubber Bands, one toy blows up in popularity and eclipses the entire market place. These trends are often unexpected but with a lot of research and using the following tips to spot toy trends that help your research instincts, you can better spot which children’s will become popular to assist the ever changing toy retail business.

Research before you buy

You know what they say, don’t expect to ace the test if you don’t do your homework. Pay attention to the economy, as during economic downturns budget friendly toys and cheap toys online will trend higher than their more expensive counterparts. Read articles from experts in the industry. Ask your wholesale toy company. Find out what competitors are purchasing from their wholesalers and what your wholesaler is stocking up on.

Note trends in other industries

What is popular in every industry will be popular in the child’s toy industry. For example, everywhere you look, from commercials to magazines, companies are advertising natural and organic clothing, food and household items. It is no shock to see that natural is a very big trend because it has crossed into almost every industry. As expected, natural toys have become a very popular wholesale toy item.

Check what is popular in other countries

Pokemon was a big hit in other countries well before it became the new “It” item in America. To better understand toy trends, keep an eye out for what is becoming trendy in countries such as China, where a large amount of toys originate. In fact, the right wholesaler will visit these countries often enough to gain knowledge and perspective in the marketplace.

Follow the seasons

Water guns, toys for the outdoors and inflatable pool toys will always be popular during the summer and similarly, back-to-school learning toys will gain momentum in the fall. Party toys will have a large demand around holiday season and glow toys and toys that light up will trend during Halloween. Your online wholesale distributer will stock items based on seasons as well so check often to see what new season child toys are in stock.

Know the entertainment industry

Pay very close attention to new movies that are coming into theatres with the promise of being a “blockbuster”. For example, if the big movie of the summer is going to be a movie about Pirates, it is safe to assume the pirate theme and pirate toys will increase in popularity. If dinosaurs were the hot ticket of the year, the trend will naturally trickle down to dinosaur toys in the marketplace for bulk toys.
Trying to predict what toys will become popular can seem like a giant puzzle with no solution. However, if you take the time to research the industry and continuously follow up with your wholesale toy distributer you will better know new toy trends and popular toys to carry in your online retail business, classroom and office.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Boost Your Sales, Toy Business | No Comments »

Going back to the basics – Why simple toys are a better investment.

Monday, August 23rd, 2010
From iPads to smart phones, talking robots to the latest gadgets. It would seem like the best toys to carry in your online toy store, classroom, church or offices are those that offer the latest in technological and scientific advancements. Toys can now walk, talk, light up and surf the Web like never before. However as with many things in life and business, going back to the basics may be better for you and better for children.  Studies have shown that simple toys, and retro child toys are better for children. These include rubber balls, simple building blocks, cheap plush toys and animal toys.

In an article by Science Daily, Temple University psychologist, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, noted this conclusion was based on the principle that children are creative problem solvers and like to discover new ways of doing things. Simple novelty toys, such as yo-yos and harmonicas provide this chance at discovery, while more technological toys and complex toys for children provide no opportunity for this priceless phase of childhood learning.  In short, the more advanced toys do everything for the child and therefore provide no chance to learn or imagine new ideas for amusement and creativity.

Though psychology of childhood learning plays an important role in determining a good toy versus a bad toy, it should also be noted that the phenomenon and universal love of classic toys, retro toys and simplistic novelty toys are due to the very definition that these toys transcend trends and withstand the test of time, giving testament to their purpose and power. The ancient Greeks had yo-yos, the Babylonians played board games, and kites were flown over 3,000 years ago. These low cost toys have had no need to evolve past their basic structure and function because of the need they fulfill at a basic level. This need is fulfilled regardless of age and background making these small toys a better investment for everyone.

Children’s toys, first and foremost, should be platforms for a child to play, not the primary centerpiece. They should be props and supporting actors used as a catalyst for a child’s imagination and creativity. Advanced toys are fun to look at and watch, but they hinder this imagination because a child will have no need for it.  A good toy will spark imagination, enable brain growth, have countless ways for use, and encourage social interaction.

When making the decision about what children’s toys to buy from your wholesale toy distributer, consider what type of provider of children’s toys you would like to be or become.  Do you want to carry the latest in technology or use your toy store, church and classroom as a place to foster learning and growth? While it is always important to keep up-to-date on the latest and greatest trends, your business will thrive on the backs of these classic toys that will never go out of style.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Boost Your Sales, Child Development, Special Interest Groups, Toy Business | No Comments »