Thinking skills are important in developing strong academic lifelong skills in children. Thinking is best developed in learning environments that are fun and interesting, and toys games & puzzles play a big part in achieving this. Rocketheads helps parents to find educational toys, science kits and construction toys to achive this at home. ThinkFun games are a great example of good value (take a quick look). However, just having toys and games at home is not answer. Encouraging children to ask questions whilst they play is important and can be difficult to remember to do in today's busy world...

I was recently asked about the Mozart effect by some parents. A quick recap is that parents were told that listening to Mozart's piano sonatas had a long term effect on intelligence. This was something that caught the imagination and was widely reported. Some say this was the start of educational resources and educational toys. This is an example of mis reporting becoming an urban myth. There is no Mozart effect the studies concluded "evidence suggested that Mozart's music might have a small and short term effect on one aspect of intelligence". 

I am often asked "Is there really a problem with thinking skills today and do educational toys make a difference?”  Well I believe that it is a real problem and that exposure to good educational toys in early childhood has a big impact. 
One of the most complete studies I have found is by Michael Sayer of London's King's College completed in 2008. He found that "high level thinking skills" of 14 year olds in 2008 were ONLY EQUAL to those of 12 year olds in 1976. In another study he concluded that 11 year olds today were 3 years behind those tested in 1975.
This contradicts most league tables which show results increasing - I know which results I believe. The problem is for both boys and girls - it’s just worse for boys. The educational toys and games on our site were chosen because they develop the higher level skills such as problem solving, logical thinking and spatial reasoning.