I’ve started looking out for little toys that work with what we’re studying that I know we’ll get a lot of use out of. So, here you see the boys playing with a small Playmobil Egypt set. We’re studying ancient Egypt right now and the kids had a lot of fun playing with it.
Toys we have right now that go with our studies:
Playmobil Egypt (which my kids are nuts for and ask to learn about history because of).
Legos (see tomorrow’s post for the specific way we used it last week)
animal toobs
Toys I plan to get in the near future to continue with this (all of these are things I know the kids will use A LOT). Don’t do this for a one time thing, that would get expensive.
Roman Legions (I want to find similar for Greece, fingers crossed)
Insect toob-for an upcoming experiment, and for general keep hands busy while I read the science text.
figures of mythological creatures to go with our Greece study (I’m getting the minotaur today with my coupon from Michael’s).
I love the Hersey's Kiss on the soldier's head…or is that the Pharaoh?
I always planned to do that, but I never had the heart to put them away once they were absorbed in playing with them. We also got blocks with the shapes to make Greek structures. Great fun.
Do they only get to play with them during school time?
We have a few of those “Toob” sets – they are pretty neat!
They are all soldiers. I know, I thought the hershey kiss was pretty funny as well.
And these are school time only, specifically history and science. Someday they'll be general play.
We have specific toys just for school too. Unfortunately for me, it's usually a big fight to put them back up because my little monkey wants to play with them all the time. I try to explain to her that they won't be as special if she plays with them all the time, but she doesn't care…lol.
We have school toys too. All our Melissa & Doug toys are just school toys for now. I love the Playmobile sets you linked to. I think those will be on our future list. There is an Egyptian Toob, too. It looks cool.
I can't think of any specific toys we use for subjects – our lego guys fill in for a number of cultures when they have to, though.
I was having the same thoughts, but I am resisting them so far. My main concern is that she will expect to receive something “material” for every new topic and also that I will have all those small toys floating everywhere. I already have literally shelves of stuff that I saved “for later”, so I was trying very hard not to buy any new Playmobil or Toobs even though I looked at them longingly many times already.
I've heard many good things about the Playmobil Egypt set. What a great way to combine learning and play!
Playmobil sets are so nice. I think it's a great idea to use toys or items for lesson that are harder for kids to grasp, such as history.
Those toys do look like they would get lots of play out of them.
I liked learning about ancient history but I didn't learn it until late elementary school. Your kids are so lucky to have you!
We have the Egypt toob – we got in a while back when TB was big into hieroglyphics. Neat stuff.
Thank goodness for Michael's coupons.
You found so many that work with this subject!
Thanks for the recommendations! I am always on the look out for educational toys. Gonna have a link at those links now.
i mean look at those links.. (can you tell i am sleep deprived?) hehe 🙂
I look at those toobs in stores all the time, but have yet to buy them. Are they good quality?