Country Toys

Melissa & Doug Primary Lacing Beads will help teach your child sequencing, sorting, color, shape recognition and also encourage hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Some fun extension activities include:

Ask your child to sort the beads by color. Identify each color bead for your child. Repeat activity until your child is able to identify all of the colors independently.

Keep the beads sorted by color. Encourage beginning counting skills by asking your child to count the number of beads in each color with you. Repeat the activity until your child has mastered counting one group of beads. Combine two groups of beads and help your child learn to count the larger group of beads independently.

Make a simple pattern by placing an orange bead, a purple bead and a red bead in a row. Ask your child to replicate the pattern by matching the shapes. Increase the difficulty by adding more beads.

Ask your child to string the beads in a specific order. Describe each bead by its shape and color.

Melissa & Doug Primary Lacing Beads set includes thirty easy to grasp wooden beads in six vibrant colors and five distinct shapes and two long laces for many fun activities!

Melissa & Doug’s Shape Sorting Clock helps teach how to tell time, matching skills and concepts such as morning, afternoon and evening also encourages hand-eye coordination and visual discrimination.

Some fun extension activities include:

Remove all the pieces from the clock. Ask your child to line up the pieces up in numerical order.

Ask your child to name each shape and place it in the clock.

Explain the concepts of morning, afternoon and evening as well as A.M. and P.M. Adjust the hands of the clock to different hours of the day. Ask the child to identify an activity he/she might be doing at these times. Repeat the activity using half hour increments.

Place four or more pieces in front of your child. Let him/her study the pieces before asking the child to close his/her eyes while you remove one piece. Ask your child to identify which piece was removed.

Melissa and Doug’s Shape Sorting Clock is a classic toy with lots of “timely” information and is the perfect toy to help children master an abstract concept.

Melissa and Doug’s Unit Blocks on Wheels is a great way to teach color and shape recognition, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and problem solving.

Some great learning activities include:

Ask the child to see how tall he/she can stack the blocks without them falling over. Count the blocks with your child as they are stacked.

Encourage beginning sorting skills by asking your child to sort the blocks with you by color. Ask your child to repeat after you the color name of each block.

Encourage beginning counting skills by asking your child to count the number of blue or red blocks. Review until your child is able to count eight blocks independently.

Encourage beginning shape recognition by sorting the blocks by shape. Ask your child to repeat after you the name of each block.

Create simple linear pattern using the blocks. Ask your child to replicate the pattern.

Melissa & Doug’s Unit Blocks on Wheels a simple classic toy that will encourage creativity and early learning skills.