The Best Riding Toys for your Family
For any parent or grandparent, seeing your child or grandchild stand up and start walking for the first time is one of the most magical moments in their lives. It’s one of those moments when you feel like you’re on top of the world — but that’s only the beginning of the kid’s journey. Once they master standing upright and begin walking, they’re ready for their first set of rocking and ride-on toys!
It’s an exciting time for any child as they explore their world. It is also a great opportunity to give them an awesome new toy — one that they can use to develop their gross motor skills while having fun! Getting the right toy here is essential: it will shape how they interact with their new surroundings weeks and months.
Rocking horses are one of the most timeless toys out there — and for good reason. Not only are they great for developing a toddler’s gross motor skills and help them learn to activate their larger muscle groups ; they’ll also start developing fine motors skills by keeping themselves upright on the toy and using the handlebars.
And let’s face it — in any string of rainy days, your kid will need something to keep them occupied inside; preferably something that’s not a computer, TV, or phone screen. That’s why ride-on toys are equally great for your kids once they’ve mastered the rocking horse, allowing them to develop their hand-eye coordination to its fullest potential. And after all, ride-on toys are the closest a kid will get to driving an actual vehicle — providing maximum fun but with maximum safety.
Still, there are tons of options out there, and buying the best possible toy for your kid can be a more complex choice than you thought. That’s why we’re going to give you a couple of helpful tips on rocking horses, ride-on toys, and related children’s hobbies!
A Variety of Children’s Toys and Hobbies
As you probably know already, the market for kids’ toys is bigger than ever — today’s children have more options when it comes to having fun with all kinds of different toys, gear and systems than any previous generation. However, while fun is the word of the day here, there are other considerations to make when choosing which toys to buy. You want to make sure that kids are developing properly and honing important skills while they are playing.
With that in mind, let’s have a look at the different types of toys that kids can benefit from the most.
Ride-On Cars
For most kids, this is pretty much the ultimate toy you can buy them — giving them the amazing thrill of riding around the yard or the neighborhood in a cool electric car that’s sized for them. All of these cars also have seatbelts for safety and remote control features for parents, so that they can quickly react if a kid is about to crash into something or go somewhere they’re not supposed to.
Depending on the model you choose, you’ll find other awesome details like working horns, lights, music players and even official licensing from real-life car manufacturers for extra realism.
Scooters
Once your kid has proven themselves ready for something a bit more challenging than a ride-on electric car, you can get them a youth scooter — these are the perfect next step in helping young kids master the art of balance, as well as riding and steering. If you get one of these for them early on, they’ll have a much easier time learning how to ride a bike afterward. Also, if you want something safer but with more physical exercise, pedal-powered go-karts are a neat option as well — they won’t need to maintain any balance themselves, but they won’t have the effortlessness of an electric ride-on car either.
Rocking Horses
We’ve already mentioned how important rocking horses are, particularly for the youngest toddlers. Also, they’re a charming aesthetic addition to any playroom or nursery. Plus, these days, this type of toy isn’t necessarily limited to horses — if your kid likes other characters and animals more, you can find anything from unicorns and dinosaurs that are only rocking “horses” in name.
Hobbies
Developing your kids’ motor skills with ride-on toys and rocking horses is great — but you need to make sure their free time is spent honing other important skillsets as well. For instance, there are a ton of fun games and hobbies you can play with them and help them reach higher levels of logical thinking and mental concentration.
Tiny play sets can help them work on their fine motor skills while enjoying a full day of “make believe” — and miniature pianos may be where they first discover an amazing talent!
How to Choose the Optimal Ride-on and Rocking Toys
Considering all of the different options you’ve got when it comes to rocking horses or ride-on toys, the question is — how can you be sure that you’re buying the right one?
The first thing you need to consider is whether the dimensions and the controls of a ride-on toy are adequate for your kid — this depends on their height, weight, and age. The same goes for rocking horses, though there aren’t any “controls” to speak of with those except the handlebars for them to hold onto.
Also, you need to make sure that the ride-on cars have seatbelts — even though you’ll be supervising the kid and likely remote-controlling the cars, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Finally, check to see if the build quality is adequate — for rocking horses, this means high-quality wood, while ride-on cars are more complex because of their functions. However, licensed models from real car manufacturers are usually trustworthy.
Don’t forget to
- Ensure the ride-on cars have the necessary safety features
- See if the rocking horses or electric cars are a good fit for your child’s size
- Check the build quality and the reputation of the manufacturer – start with Aosom.com!