Encouraging imaginative play is a fundamental childhood experience. It stimulates brain development and inspires a passion for learning. Unstructured free play is considered particularly important for young children. This is play that’s self-motivated. Children simply use their imagination and explore at their own pace without encouragement.
Psychologists distinguish between two kinds of learning motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation occurs when rewards are used to encourage a positive learning behaviour. Intrinsic motivation occurs whenever a child participates in learning activities without the need for rewards. The best toys encourage intrinsic motivation.
So how do you find the right toys for stimulating unstructured play? New Classic Toys has spent more than two decades designing and creating toys that answer this question. It uses classic shapes, colours and images to spark a child’s passion for learning and inspire their imagination. Its Dutch heritage is also reflected in its no-nonsense approach to toy design.
New Classic Toys recently announced the availability of a new range of wooden toys in Australia. This includes a delightful picnic basket set, kitchen appliances and chunky puzzles. The picnic basket is an inspired twist on traditional wooden food toys. The set includes a wicker basket lined in red checked cotton. Inside children can discover food items, plates, cups and cutlery. The picnic apple can be sliced and the sandwich pulled apart and reassembled.
Its Bon Appetit range of kitchen appliances will entertain children for hours. The cappuccino maker is particularly clever. It features two coffee pods that fit inside the machine while the machine itself has knobs and dials that twist and turn. The new baking set comes with a cake mixer and plethora of pieces including a wooden bowl, baking ingredients (we love the egg that splits to reveal a bright yellow yolk) and cookies on a plate. The cake mixer features knobs that turn and mechanisms that lift and spin.
These toys are perfect for encouraging a child’s unstructured play. A parent simply has to point a child in the right direction and these toys will take care of the rest. The same can be said for its puzzles. Bright colour attract the eye, large chunky pieces make them ideal for small hands and simple features like shape outlines make them less frustrating to solve.
Perhaps the cutest addition to the New Classic Toys range is its wheelie animals. These incredibly cute wooden sets feature three popular animals on wheels. The farm set includes a sheep, pig and dog while the safari set includes an elephant, hippo and crocodile. Each set comes packed in a retail carton with a generous plastic window. This makes each set easy to review without small fingers damaging its contents.
New Classic Toys is distributed exclusively in Australia by Artiwood.
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