Menu
 

BestReviews is reader-supported and may earn an affiliate commission. Details

Best Early Childhood Education Materials

Updated August 2022
Bottom line
Pros
Cons
Best of the Best
Learning Resources Alphabet Soup Sorters
Learning Resources
Alphabet Soup Sorters
Check Price
Letter Skills
Bottom Line

Fun stackable soup cans help your child build letter recognition and letter sounds.

Pros

26 cardboard "soup" cans labeled for each letter of the alphabet. Each can contains corresponding letters and photos. Use for letter learning, sound learning, or stacking. Durable cards.

Cons

Every set of cards comes in its own plastic bag, which can be tedious to remove and is not environmentally friendly.

Best Bang for the Buck
Krissi Bonning-Gould The Outdoor Toddler Activity Book
Krissi Bonning-Gould
The Outdoor Toddler Activity Book
Check Price
Simple Outdoor Fun
Bottom Line

Walks you through more than 100 fun learning activities for the great outdoors.

Pros

Learning activities based on play in a stimulating environment. Organized by activity level, loudness, and messiness. Icons indicate which skills are targeted. Creative, inexpensive activities with mostly household items. Even Kindergarten and older find these fun.

Cons

Requires some planning and material gathering.

Legato Learning Counting Bears
Legato Learning
Counting Bears
Check Price
Best for Math
Bottom Line

These cute little bears have endless possibilities for teaching counting, colors, patterns, and more.

Pros

Includes 60 bears, 4 colored cups, tweezers, and container for storage. Can be used to develop color recognition, number recognition, fine motor skills, and other skills. Includes e-book for instruction.

Cons

Bears are small and could present a choking hazard in children age 3 and younger. Some have trouble accessing the e-book.

Learning Resources Gears! Gears! Gears! 100-Piece Deluxe Building Set
Learning Resources
Gears! Gears! Gears! 100-Piece Deluxe Building Set
Check Price
STEM Fun
Bottom Line

So fun to assemble, kids won't even realize they're gaining basic physics and problem-solving skills.

Pros

Includes 46 gears, pillars, base plates, and crank handle. Good starter kit to see if your child would be interested. Colorful pieces grab attention. Often captures the attention of children on the autism spectrum.

Cons

Crank can be hard to turn at first.

Melissa and Doug Scissor Skills Activity Pad
Melissa and Doug
Scissor Skills Activity Pad
Check Price
Cutting and Craft
Bottom Line

This book gives your child two activities in one. First, complete the cutting project; then, glue and craft with the cutout.

Pros

Book includes 20 pre-printed cutting activities and a pair of safety scissors. Includes lines, animals, mazes, and other patterns. Can use cutouts for crafts once child is done cutting. Builds motor skills.

Cons

Scissors get mixed reviews. If your child has trouble, you may wish to buy a different pair.

Why trust BestReviews?
BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing, and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers. We only make money if you purchase a product through our links, and all opinions about the products are our own. About BestReviews  
BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing, and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers. We only make money if you purchase a product through our links, and all opinions about the products are our own. About BestReviews  
BestReviews spends thousands of hours researching, analyzing, and testing products to recommend the best picks for most consumers. We buy all products with our own funds, and we never accept free products from manufacturers.About BestReviews 
HOW WE TESTED

We recommend these products based on an intensive research process that's designed to cut through the noise and find the top products in this space. Guided by experts, we spend hours looking into the factors that matter, to bring you these selections.

35
Models
Considered
184
Consumers
Consulted
14
Hours
Researched
Category cover

Buying guide for Best early childhood education materials

Formal schooling starts between ages 5 and 6 in many countries, but that doesn’t mean kids should wait until then to start learning. In fact, the human brain develops the most during the first years of life, one reason why many believe early childhood education is vital. Early childhood education focuses on learning from birth to age 8. It’s during this phase that the human brain grows the fastest and makes more connections than at any other time. Capitalizing on this period can make a significant difference in your child’s future. 

However, making the most of the early years doesn’t require a trained educator or plush preschool. In fact, many experts say that involved parents are the ones best equipped to facilitate learning. Parents are the ones who have nurtured, guided, and built positive relationships with their children during the early years. It’s natural for them to facilitate the kind of play that helps children learn best. All they need are some tips and tools. 

Content Image
The majority of your child’s “brain wiring” is complete by age 5.

Key considerations

Children learn best through play, according to many experts. Play helps children explore their environment and learn about the world around them. It allows them to express their creativity while tapping into the logical side of their brain, too. It gives them feedback from others to process. A well-rounded early childhood education should focus on several types of play and development, including the following.

Gross motor skills

Most people have heard that kids need to develop fine motor skills, but gross motor skills are less known and discussed. These skills use the bigger muscles of the arms, legs, and torso to move the whole body. Gross motor skills contribute to a child’s body awareness, reaction time, coordination, and balance. They also support fine motor skills. 

Most younger children are drawn to activities that build gross motor skills. Pedal cars, tricycles, and scooters are all great ways to practice and build your child’s gross motor skills. Simple outdoor activities and playground games also develop these muscles. If you can’t get outdoors, dancing, crawling, fabric tunnels, or obstacle courses can fill the gaps.

Fine motor skills

Kids need to develop fine motor skills by using and strengthening the muscles in their hands and wrists in preparation for writing, measuring, cutting food, independently brushing teeth, and more. While these actions seem simple, they require coordinated brain and muscular responses. Children who don’t build strong fine motor skills often struggle with school and self-care. 

The good news is kids often enjoy the activities and challenges that develop strong fine motor skills. Coloring, drawing, and modeling with clay all help strengthen the small muscles of the hands. Activities like stringing beads, cutting along lines, or picking up and depositing small objects with tongs help hone movement and build hand-eye coordination. These kinds of activities both entertain young children and prepare them for future success. 

Listening skills

Developing good listening skills will serve children through their school years and after. But listening goes beyond physically hearing sounds. It also involves teaching kids about focus, behavior, and care for others.

Reading books with your child is an excellent way to develop their listening skills. Pick books that match their interests, pause during the story to discuss, and ask questions at the end. When your child speaks, listen attentively, face them, make eye contact, and expect them to do the same. Care about what they say, and teach them to care about what others say. Coach them to listen with their whole body, with relatively still hands and feet. 

Games or projects with multistep directions are another way to build listening skills. Gauging listening skills during interesting activities is one way to explore suspected learning challenges or barriers. If you have concerns, follow up with a pediatrician. It’s important to be realistic, too. All young children have a short attention span, especially compared to adults. But patient practice building these skills will pay off later in formal schooling and in relationships. 

Academic skills

Every child develops differently, but most children start recognizing some letters and numbers between their second and third birthdays. They probably won’t be proficient until age 4 or 5, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give them a head start. Materials that emphasize beginning letters, sounds, and rhyming words are developmentally appropriate and can help your child learn to read earlier. Brightly colored beads, shapes, and other objects give young children opportunities to learn to count, sort, and create sequences, all precursors to elementary math.

Materials that encourage scientific exploration or music are also educationally stimulating. Magnets and magnifying glasses can spark a child’s curiosity. Physics toys can teach cause and effect and encourage further exploration. Simple rhythm instruments can be used to hone both gross and fine motor skills. 

Free play

One area where home instruction especially excels is free play. Some formal early childhood education programs provide little downtime because parents are paying for educational services. But open-ended play gives young children opportunities to exercise their creativity, build flexibility, and practice problem-solving skills. 

Free play inherently involves giving kids few instructions. But some toys, tools, and props can help get them going. Crawl tunnels, play tents, building blocks, and other open-ended options provide a concrete starting point with almost unlimited potential.

Content Image
Did you know?
Getting enough sleep is critical to brain development. Ideally, kids age 5 and under should sleep 12 to 14 hours a day, naps included.
STAFF
BestReviews

Features

Early childhood education materials must appeal to kids and be safe to use, too. Keep the following in mind when you shop.

Age appropriate

Make sure the materials are developmentally appropriate for your child’s age. Kids will tire easily if tools and games are too simple for them or too complex to understand. 

Attention grabbing

Brightly colored objects, tools, and kits are more likely to capture kids’ attention than those made with muted tones, with the exception of toys intended to imitate their parents’ possessions. Learning tools that involve lights, music, and sounds often capture younger children’s attention, unless your child struggles with sensory challenges. 

Safe

Make sure all education materials are safe. Even older kids sometimes chew on objects or hold them near their mouths. Make sure all small objects are made with non-toxic paints and nonhazardous materials and are free of jagged or sharp edges or splinters.

Also, supervise your children when necessary. Prevent strangulation hazards by keeping an eye on young children who are using strings, ropes, scarves, and other materials they can tie.

"A baby’s brain doubles in size during their first year of life. "
STAFF
BestReviews

Accessories

Investing in your child’s curiosity and creativity can pay off big down the road. Consider adding some of these to your education tool kit and see where their imagination goes!

Crawl tunnel: Melissa and Doug Sunny Patch Giddy Buggy Crawl-Through Tunnel 
Kids need to build their muscles and their imagination. This tunnel gives them opportunities for both. At nearly 5 feet long, it gives plenty of room for your child to move, explore, and pretend. Each end features a cover with a friendly bug face, but they can be removed for claustrophobic kids. 

Indoor play space: Crazy Forts 
Every child craves their own special, secret place. Play tents are fun, but designing your own is even better! This kit lets kids build a structure using the provided rods and balls. Throw a sheet over the top and your kid has a spot that’s truly their own.

Creativity kit: Magna-Tiles
These intriguing, colorful shapes invite kids to create almost anything they can imagine. The edges of each shape are lined with magnets, so they easily snap together, unlike building toys for older kids. This 32-piece set is a great way to introduce your child to these popular toys.

Content Image
Did you know?
Music activities give your child a double advantage: rhythm helps children build math and spatial skills, while rhyme and wordplay target language development.
STAFF
BestReviews

Early childhood education materials prices

Materials used in early childhood education vary widely in price. At this young age, you don’t need to break the bank, but it’s important not to cut corners where safety is concerned.

Inexpensive

These early childhood education materials typically cost $5 or less. You’ll find bead-stringing kits, cutting and craft pages, and other fine motor activities in this price range. 

Mid-range

The middle tier of materials ranges from about $10 to $25. In this range, you’ll find resource books and learning kits for science, fine motor, and gross motor activities.

Expensive

The most expensive early childhood education materials cost $30 or more. At this price, you’ll find large sets of letter, number, or sequencing materials, electronic teaching materials, or larger items like tricycles or fort kits.

Tips

  • Chase some bubbles. Chasing bubbles offers a unique twist on gross and fine motor development. Kids use gross motor skills to track, shift, and reach for the bubbles and fine motor skills to pop them. 

  • Read together. Regular reading sessions with your child can help them build positive associations with books and learning. 

  • Watch out for choking hazards. Sets of small objects are great for practicing counting and fine motor skills. Just remember that objects small enough to fit through a toilet paper tube are choking hazards for kids younger than age 3. 

Content Image
Tapping into your child’s individual interests can make a huge difference in cooperation. This is easier to do at home than in a classroom.

FAQ

Q. When should I start using education materials with my child?

A. Early childhood education technically spans from birth to age 8, but most materials target age 2 and up. That’s when kids have gained the necessary language skills to interact and are just starting to grasp symbolism in numbers, letters, and more. While it’s never too early to read to your baby or play with them, early childhood education may be most effective starting between ages 2 and 3. 

Q. Is it okay to complete early childhood education at home? 

A. Yes! Parents are their children’s first teachers in many regards. You’re already playing with your child, and transitioning to learning-based play is a natural flow. Parents can’t, however, replace the social interaction or social skill opportunities children gain in brick-and-mortar preschools. If you’re schooling at home, make sure your child has regular playdates with other children in your neighborhood and frequent trips to the playground, and look for other groups of home educators. 

Q. Are there any downsides to skipping formal preschool? 

A. One major reason for early childhood education is identifying learning challenges early so children don’t fall behind in their formal education. Parent-educators may miss cues that experts would notice, and they don’t have a primary teacher to contact about concerns. If you go this route, it’s important to keep up with milestone pediatric visits and bring any questions or concerns you have to appointments.