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$100 Toys “R” Us Gift Card Giveaway
#PlayWithPurpose
Playtime isn’t just for fun. Play is a really important learning tool in early childhood. A child’s development can be increased by 34% just by playing at an early age. Because of poverty and lack of resources 15.5 million children in the United States miss out on playtime. Toys “R” Us wants to help and has partnered with Save the Children – the leading nonprofit, to ensure every child in the United States is learning through play.
Now through April 17th, Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us are collecting monetary donations at stores across the country. You can also donate online by going to Toysrus.com/PlayWithPurpose . In addition to collecting monetary donations, Toys “R” Us is donating toys to Save the Children to create “play packs” for families involved in the Early Steps to School Success program. The toys and corresponding curriculum, delivered by early childhood coordinators, give parents the tools to foster a love of learning, the foundation for a child’s success in school and life. Click here to learn more about the #PlayWithPurpose campaign.
On behalf of all of our readers, FTM is donating $100.00 to the #PlayWithPurpose campaign. You can help by stopping by your local Toys “R” Us or going to Toysrus.com/PlayWithPurpose and donating to a child in need.
FTM would like to donate to our readers as well. One lucky winner will win our $100 Toys “R” Us Gift Card Giveaway. It is easy to enter. First, head over to our Facebook page and like this post: https://www.facebook.com/FortheMommas/ . The second step is to leave a comment below this blog post and tell us how you use play to help your child learn. One winner will be drawn from all readers who complete both tasks. A winner will be chosen on April 15th, 2016 at 11:59PM EDT. We will contact the winner by email and you will have 24 hours to respond. Good luck!
My daughter is on the autism spectrum so we use play to help her learn ways to properly interact socially with peers.
All play helps children learn :) For an example, today my daughters and I are going to be making our own chocolates, which will be fun, but also art, math, and science! :) daniellecorrelle@aol.com
I liked the facebook post by the name ada miller.
I use play to help our boys & my nieces learn because today they have so many educational toys & games available that the kids enjoy & they learn as they play. Such as leapfrogs toys, vtech & so many others. All of the kids always have so much fun & don’t even realize how much they are learning. It’s way easier to pull out a game than grabbing paper & pencil and trying to teach them all the time. Also playing games helps them with working as a team, and so many other great benefits. Thanks for the opportunity!
Aemgeg4 (@) yahoo (.) com
When my boys were infants to preschoolers, we concentrated on a lot of various sensory-related toys. We graduated up to puzzles and fine motor skills toys like lacing cards and beading. Eventually, we brought in magnets and building toys. Playtime is excellent for encouraging language! Both of my children have sensory processing disorder, so I can’t stress enough how important it is for all children to have access to toys and playtime with items like these. Start early!
My daughter Alanna is 8 years old and she amazes me everyday. We play lots of board games, charades, school, puzzles and hand games. She even teaches me a few new things. You are never too old to learn.
We use many different ways to help the boys learn while playing. We play school, find games that use numbers like yahtzee, games that use letters like junior scrabble, and for the little ones games that use colors like Candyland among many.
My nephew and I play word games to help him learn to spell
I use play to help my autistic son learn how to be gentle and take turns with others. Also to help work on his speech and fine motor skills.
We do a lot of singing, dancing, rhythm games, and finger plays.
Play helps children learn how to solve problems, to get along with others and to develop fine and gross motor skills. :-)
We use play to help them learn to interact with others and thus they associate learning with fun which will help them later on!
I use play with my niece to encourage her creativity through imaginative play and lots of open ended arts and craft activities! tmichellecooper55@gmail.com
Every outing, every play there is always learning incorporated into out time. We work on letter sounds a lot lately. Looking at letters and identifying them then sounding them out. (liked post under Kelsey S)
We incorporate colors and numbers and counting in our play time
We often count things with our daughter for example we count the steps as we go up/down, count blocks as we stack them, count crackers as we give them to her.
We use play to learn every day :-) Our daughter is very curious about everything and we believe that engaging that curiosity will only benefit her in the future. We promote imaginative play through dress up and story telling, we LOVE to play outdoors and shes a huge fan of building things so we use a lot of Duplos, blocks, stacking cups – anything she can create with :-)
I have always done fun bubble letting drawings of his name with chalk outside and we’ve colored them in together while learning. We also have used fake foods to learn which are healthy and which aren’t.
All play is learning in our house! I love making things hands on. I try to use any opportunity to share a piece of knowledge with my children. I’m a very strong believer that uninhibited play is extremely important to a child’s learning process in their younger years. Thank you!
I use playing to make learning exciting. We learn to read by reading about characters-as well as learning life lessons from the characters. We also count objects in the book to add in some math.
playing is the best method for fun learning. My daughter loves to read books. We read them in Spanish and English. I do plants of activities to help her develop her motor and fine skills. We go to the park and visit the library for story time and borrow books. That also give my baby time to socialize with other kids in the neighborhood. I recycle objects and we do many activities to show her the colors, shapes and numbers. Everyday is and adventure… We are always dancing, signing, painting, etc. the best pay job is to be with her and play all day long till her heart is content!
Congrats Cindy. You are the winner. Check your email, including your spam folder for instructions. You have 24 hours to respond. Congrats!
I love to play to mix in math! It makes it fun and she doesn’t realize how much she is learning!
Playing is so important to reinforce spatial awareness, how things go together, developing fine and gross motor skills, and developing imagination. My kids love duplos and legos – it is so exciting to see them build things that they are learning in history or science. Playing is learning and so good for children’s brains.
Playing is the most important way that children learn. We play board games, puzzle, art & craft, blocks and lots more with our kids.
We use playing with blocks that have letters and numbers to learn! We also set up a farm to understand food and life! Haydensmommy05@hotmail.com
Teresa
Being the mother 4 and my youngest is Autistic imagination play is very important to all of them. I have to adjust our play time to accommodate my special needs child. Toys R Us is great that they have a sensory section to help all children get the most out of playtime. My first 3 children love to spend as most time as possible playing inside and out. My special needs child, in many of his different therapy sessions they get through to him with toys and use toys to help with speech development. So playtime is very important in our house on many levels.
I agree that play is such an important part of learning. My children and I are always singing songs, making up silly rhymes, and putting together puppet shows.
We are very hands on! I will create games and crafts to help learn!
I look for puzzles and games that are learning-based. Then I play with the child and the toy/game, asking them to perform certain tasks (such as match the color block to the name) and give lots of praise when completed (or encouragement if struggling).
We love to make sure we take some time to play with educational toys to help with learning. Toys that promote learning with numbers, shapes, and games as well. It is always fun as learning can be fun.
Whatever we end up doing, we are always going over colors, shapes, sounds, etc.
I have a 4 year old daughter who loves to play…we do puzzles, games, flash cards, play with her baby dolls, bake…in everything we do I try to get her to count or we sing songs.
my kids learn so much by playing, especially with each other
When
I play with my Niece and Nephew – yes, they do learn and have heaps of
fun from numerous toys rather it be musical, building with Legos, or
playing with interactive toys. But, what is interesting, is how they
teach me (and the rest of the family)
how to use the toys to make us all become kids again. For example, my
nephew made a long intricate maze and tent by using items he got from
Toys R Us (as well as quite an imagination) and we all got to experience
the world he made for us to participate in.
As we play I say the colors of the items. I also sing educational songs as we play.
My kids learn through play by playing by themselves or with others, sharing, dealing with frustration, working through problems.
i dont have kids, but i find that there are many toys as well as daily activities that can teach kids to learn to read, do math, write, etc. you can use blocks for eye coordination and use them for math, you can use toys to learn differenct colors and then teach them how to spell the colors. you can even use everday household chores to teach them, doing the laundry, separating cothes by colors and then ask them to spell the colors. putting their clothes away, if they have several t shirts or pants, you can teach them math. when you are playing ball, you could have several balls, different colors and teach them math as well as colors, then get them to spell the colors. now that spring is here you can play in the garden, by teaching colors of the flowers and how many they see of each flower. puzzles are a great way to learn as well as get the children to think abt what they are learning.
My kids learn a lot socially and emotionally through play. They also learn speech and vocabulary.
i allow my son to learn by doing. if something doesn’t fit or work, how can he make it fit or work? i like to give him the chance to explore everything around him
I help my little learn by trying to understand things from her point of view. We often talk about nature when we are outside and cleaning while we are doing it!
This summer Grampa and I are teaching the kids how to use a compass. We will give them a map and the compass to find a toy in the woods. We live in Northern Minnesota and feel this is an important tool to learn.
Now that the kids are getting old enough to help out around the house I try to keep things fun with cooking in the kitchen or with outdoor yard work. If you have a good attitude about it they will too.
We play with musical toys together. And, I play with blocks with her to help her learn to build.
We play games where they have to count and find colors, and we also play with puzzles and blocks!
We use building blocks and puzzles and flash cards to help them learn.
The popularity of building toys, like Legos, has been great to aid in hand-eye coordination and creativity for us. There are many toys out there that aid in creativity and other subjects also
we used to play building toys and puzzles
Each child likes to play differently. With my first child I emphasized word play because he had a speech disorder. Now with my second child I emphasize physical play (bending, throwing) because his gross motor skills are delayed due to his premature birth.
We use play to learn by counting toys, playing teacher and spelling the characters on the toys and books we like to play with and read.
kellywcu8888ATgmailDOTcom
My niece is very inquisitive, and very clever at only four years old. I help her learn problem-solving by putting together puzzles. She absolutely loves puzzles. We also count toys, and game pieces. We create art work to help develop her creative side. Children are always learning. We must enrich their fascination and inspire to achieve greatness. Thank you FTM for another great giveaway, and for donating to the Play With Purpose Campaign.
My 3 year old is a huge fan of pretend play and loves playing in her pretend kitchen she inherited from her older sister. What surprised me is that for her to be so young her playing has inspired not only learning,but healthy eating habits, such as her newfound love of broccoli. (High five!!!)
She’s only 15 months so we use lots of play to learn words, shapes, colors and sounds!
Her favorite is the shape ball from Tupperware!
We run and jump outside on the cracks in the cement to learn balance and distance
We count and sort some toys. Like their Hot Wheels, sort them by color, shape or vehicle. Or encourage them to tell me the name of a toy and then spell it.
I use play like colored blocks to teach him colors and shapes. We count the blocks and different shapes when we use them.
I use play to teach my kids to be Healthy and social
We use play to teach our kids to love staying healthy and getting enough physical activity.
I would use blocks to help them learn through creativity and design!
Just today, I said a word in a funny way, not on purpose, and my son and I turned it into a silly rhyming game.
we use play to learn by having fun. we play with toys that have our children use both fine and gross motor skills. we let them use their imagination as well.
I would get Learning Cube to help kids play and learn.
I use play to practice and prepare for upcoming events….doctor’s office, dental exam, etc.
We would buy puzzles which help stimulate young minds! I liked the FB post with my username Mary Carmen.
I would use the gift card to get some outdoor play items. My 2 year old loves being outside and since it’s now just getting warm I would love to get her some fun things to play with. Thanks!
I use play time to teach my baby about his body and his surroundings.
I try to choose toys that work on letter or shape recognition, and when they play with other toys, we work on learning how to share and clean up when they are done.