Today I’m taking a look at several new Shifu learning toys. If you have a child in the 4-12 age range, Shufi is sure to have something that’s both fun and educational for them to play with and learn from. Join me below as I examine six different examples of Shifu learning toys that help to teach kids everything from math to music. There’s a lot to cover here, so let’s jump right in!
First up is the Shifu Plugo Link Augmented Reality Construction Kit. This toy, designed for kids ages 4-12, promotes learning in the areas of creative design, spatial reasoning, and critical thinking through magnetic building blocks and special games and challenges found in the digital Plugo App. The kit comes with 16 pieces, and the app features five hands-on games with over 250 levels that kids can play. If your child enjoys building toys and being creative, it’s a pretty good bet they’ll enjoy this one!
Another fun item for kids 4 and up is the Shifu Orboot Augmented Reality Globe, which I actually reviewed for the blog just a few weeks before last Christmas. You can read that review to find out how much I enjoyed the Shifu Orboot AR Globe by clicking on the preceding link. Among the many details you’ll learn are that this amazing globe has several really cool features, like a variety of travel themed games built into the Orboot App, and the ability for 3-D animals to pop up off the globe via your smart phone’s screen.
This toy also features six learning categories—maps, monuments, cuisine, inventions, world cultures, and animals. The games that are built into the app teach kids about these six subjects, and in some cases it even tests them on what they’ve learned. In fact, it can teach them over 1000 useful facts about the world through its 400+ fun and educational highlights from the six key learning categories. It’s also a great pretend play toy—for added realism there’s an included passport that kids can “stamp” as they virtually travel the world and learn about its wonders.
Very closely related to the globe discussed above is the Shifu Orboot Augmented Reality Globe – Dinos. The major difference here is that the world your kids are looking at is approximately 60 million years old. In fact, it goes all the way back to the Mesozoic era, meaning that not only are the continents arranged differently than they are today, but there’s also more than 50 of that era’s finest dinosaurs prowling the Earth. With this AR globe, kids can learn numerous (more than 400) interesting facts about dinosaurs, play fun games featuring wonderful pre-historic adventures, and even dig up fossils like a real palaeontologist. Perfect for kids ages 4-8, this globe has everything a dinosaur-loving kid could ask for. Just remember to lend them your iPad, smart phone, or tablet so they can play the games and enjoy all the 3-D dinos.
Also of interest today is the Shifu Plugo Count Augmented Reality Arithmetic Kit. Math is the name of this game! And the hope here is that this fun and challenging kit, with its cool stories and age-appropriate problems (that age being anywhere from 4-12), will inspire a life-long love of math and logical problem solving in kids.
The kit itself includes 26 pieces that are featured in five different learning games. These games have over 250 combined levels that together challenge your child and help them to improve their arithmetic and logical reasoning skills, as well as their general comprehension. It does so using fun, hands-on tasks with physical building blocks that lead to learning through play. If your child enjoys numbers, counting, and math, this game will help them to develop their skills in those areas while they just think they’re having fun.
Does your child love music? If so, they might enjoy making their own with the Shifu Plugo Tunes Augmented Reality Music Learning Kit. Featuring 8 pieces and 50+ familiar songs in the app, this kit gives kids 4-12 the opportunity to learn about rhythm, musical notes, and other basics of playing the piano. It helps to develop their musical intelligence while simultaneously improving their memory, hand-eye coordination, and motor skills. Who knows, this kit might just be the first step in a professional music career?
Finally, there’s the Shifu Tacto Combo Classics and Laser Board Game, which isn’t just suitable for kids ages 4-10, but is a game that the whole family can play and enjoy together. In fact, it’s multiple games, including snakes and ladders, checkers, and Ludo. What will be unfortunate for some is that this kit actually uses your existing tablet as the game board, so if you don’t own a tablet, you’ll have to acquire one separately in order to play these games.
The cool thing about this kit, however, is that is turns your tablet’s screen into a high-tech gaming board where cool light effects can be seen. One of the major themes here is “the mysteries of light and reflection” (including prisms), which you can see in the Tacto Laser mode.
It’s somewhat difficult to explain how all of this works, but imagine being able to place gaming pieces on the tablet’s screen that can shoot and reflect virtual lasers, flashlight beams, and more so that you can make the beams do what you want in the virtual world that’s on screen. If you can picture that, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Tacto Laser is like. Bottom line, it’s really cool and I suspect a whole lot of fun as well!
As you can see, the creative minds at Shifu have come up with a variety of fun, innovative, and engaging toys that cover the full gamut of educational themes and play patterns. Though technology (in the form of smart phones and sometimes tablets or iPads) is required for your kids to play and enjoy these games, learning about tech is just part of today’s early educational process. This too is something that will ultimately benefit them. Hopefully something on this list has inspired you to, in turn, inspire your child to play hard, have fun, and never stop learning.
