The best educational toys for developing young minds

The Orchard Toys Match and Spell Game is a fun reading and spelling game that encourages letter recognition and teaches basic phonetic word building. It's the perfect game to development in this area.

It's designed for both guided and independent word building, and features a wide range of words from the most simple examples to more complex four letter words. Those can be a struggle for adults.

There are two ways to play this educational game. You can match letter cards to the ones shown on your word board to introduce letter shapes and sounds, or players can collect the letters to spell the picture that is on their board. This works well as your child develops their spelling skills.

The GILOBABY Smart Robot Toy quickly becomes a dance partner and a teacher by providing hours of fun and experience with robotics and advanced technology.

This clever device will go forwards, backwards, left, and right, and it's easy to control thanks to touch sensitivity. You can even order the robot around when in voice controlled mode. It will respond to your instructions, without fuss. That's the idea, anyway.

Kids under three years of age should have adult supervision when playing, which does affect things, but that shouldn't be the focus here.

The GraviTrax Starter Set is an exciting STEM track system that lets your kids use their imagination to build tracks and set the spheres rolling. 

It's a great educational toy for teaching kids about gravity, magnetism, and kinetic energy, and most importantly it's fun. You can freestyle with your own track design or use the tasks and blueprints included to help you get started. The system can be extended indefinitely with extra track packs, but each of these are sold separately. 

It's suitable for 8 year olds and up, so it's not really the product for the very little ones.

This Peppa Pig Wooden Puzzle Clock has movable hour and minute hands, and 12 shaped number pieces that encourage children to count, sort, and place the shapes in the correct order. 

Not only can this clock offer a fun and relaxed introduction to telling the time, it's also designed to help improve hand-eye coordination and colour recognition.

It's suitable for any Peppa Pig obsessive aged three and over, but obviously isn't limited to fans.

The Sphero BOLT Robotic Ball is an app-enabled device that your kids can drive and code, providing loads of opportunities to be creative and have fun while learning.

Powered by the Sphero Edu app, this robotic ball provides the opportunity to learn programming skills, complete hands-on activities, and share creations with the community. It's always good to share.

It's durable, waterproof, and has a battery life of two hours. Nothing gets in its way, so play can continue for longer.

The BrainBox Maths game includes 55 cards, a timer, eight-sided die, a rules card, and everything you need to help your kids improve their maths skills in a fun way.

BrainBox is a fast and fun memory game that does not require any pens, pencils, paper, playing board, or even a table, so the fun can start wherever and whenever you fancy. This educational game is also perfect for families and groups of friends to play.

Something to be aware of is that this game is only suitable for ages seven and above.

This National Geographic Fossil Dig Kit lets your kids use the tools of the trade — like a chisel, brush, and magnifying glass — to excavate real fossils.

The learning guide illustrates how fossils are formed and helps young scientists identify each specimen as it’s discovered, including dinosaurs, brachiopods, mosasaurs, ammonites, and much more.

Everything is provided to guarantee kids keep digging for hours, but we would recommend adult supervision when chisels are involved, for obvious reasons.

Budding musicians will love the Baby Einstein Magic Touch Piano, that makes real piano sounds when you tap the keys.

It plays classical music on its own or lets your little one follow the colour-coded music sheets to discover familiar songs. You get three music sheets with six different songs, so the play can continue for longer.

The volume control buttons let you turn the music to low when you need it, and this feature could be very useful if things are starting to get a little overwhelming.

The Lego Movie 2 Movie Maker set lets your kids build a movie stage with two interchangeable background images and an adjustable smartphone stand, so they can film their own LEGO movie. This one is for the aspiring film makers and photographers.

The set includes three minifigures, a mini-doll, alien invader figures, a raptor figure, and loads more accessories. Basically, everything you need to create an action-packed movie.

This construction toy can be built together with all other original Lego building sets and bricks for creative play.

The Melissa & Doug Wooden Latches Board is a fun and educational play board that helps your kids build dexterity as they navigate latches that hook, snap, click, and slide. It's all about using their hands.

It's made from smooth-sanded, solid-wood material that features entertaining surprises behind the doors and windows. As well as developing key motor skills, kids can also discover vibrant colours, numbers, animals, and much more. It's versatile, to say the least.

It's perfect for children aged three and up, but might be too basic for some older kids.