toystories
Summer School is Now in Session
Marky Sparky Stomp Rocket
by Phil Wrzesinski, HABA USA
A
lost year. A step back. Falling behind. Many parents have used those words to describe the last year of school, frustrated and worried their child is falling behind. Those with the resources may resort to sending their child to summer school or finding a camp to help push academics this summer. For everyone else, there is you. We could pull out the tired old cliché that all play is educational. “All of us are jamming on that theme anyway,” said Sean O’Neal from Science Safari. But the truth is, with the right hand (yours) to guide
Thin Air Brand Brands Bug Hunter
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them, parents can find all the tools in your store to run the most educational summer school ever without their children even knowing they enrolled. The Sciency Toys Some toys are blatantly educational. Bug viewers, field microscopes, and insect houses lead the list. O’Neal said he has found the microscopes with around 20x magnification are best for outdoor use because you don’t have to make a slide just to see something cool. Even at a lower power, you Sean O’Neal can see structure and features on leaves, branches, nuts, and blades of grass not visible to the naked eye. Insect and bird houses also make great parent/child projects between the building and populating of the house. This time together offers plenty of opportunity for parents to ask questions that make children think or look up more info. The Trajectory Toys Gravity is a big part of outdoor fun. Toys like stomp rockets, frisbees, and anything that gets thrown or launched has a learning element already built in. “Newtonian Physics lends itself to outdoor play,” O’Neal said. Stomp rockets include lessons on pressure, force, and trajectory. Frisbees and other flying objects teach aerodynamics.
July 2021 • astratoy.org
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6/29/21 3:05 PM
