Learn grow play
Educational activities for curious young minds. – Learn Grow Play
Featured Collection - Early Learning
Shop nowMusical Box set
BabyNoise
$109.00 AUD
The Happy Architect Town
FreckledFrog
$99.95 AUD
Positive Affirmation Cards for Kids
Lileve
$25.99 AUD
Happy Architect Animals in the Habitat
FreckledFrog
$99.95 AUD
Kitpas Medium Stick Crayons 12 colours
Kitpas
$29.90 AUD
5.0 / 5.0
1 review
The Freckled Frog Wooden Village People
FreckledFrog
$84.95 AUD
Babynoise - Xylophone
BabyNoise
$41.00 AUD
SAFARI LTD LIFE CYCLE OF A MONARCH BUTTERFLY SAFARI
HHQ
$19.99 AUD
5.0 / 5.0
2 reviews
18 Piece Australian Garden Bugs Themed Matching Puzzles
5littlebears
$29. 95 AUD
18 Piece Australian Furry Animals Themed Matching Puzzles
5littlebears
$29.95 AUD
Natural Coloured Nesting and Stacking bowls
Qtoys
$44.95 AUD
9 Pole Puzzle
Qtoys
$39.90 AUD
Travelling in Space
$74.95 AUD
Travelling in Space
$74.95 AUD
Travelling in Space
Time to explore our universe by taking a trip into space. This 12 piece solar system comes with all the planets in our solar system, both a male and female astronaut and a rocket.
Bamboo Building Set with Houses
Looking for natural resources that can boost your child creativity and imagination? Then this beautiful set of unique nature tree blocks is a perfect choice.
Product Spotlight
Let customers speak for us
from 31 reviewsGreat product
My grandson loves the connetix ball run.
Fast delivery
vanessa bonett
12/12/2022
Connetix Tiles 92 Piece Ball Run Pack
Great Service
I'm located in the UK, so trying to find a good company in Oz is not easy. Xmas present for my grandson, really swift on the delivery, so I don't have o worry that it won't arrive in time.
Richard Hearne
12/01/2022
Connetix - 62 Piece Starter Pack
Amazing
These tiles are totally amazing. My three kids all love these so much. Ages from 2-8.. these are the only toys that my kids play with daily and don’t get sick of 🙂 highly recommend!!!
Alisha Rowland
09/20/2022
Connetix 212 Mega Pack
Australian Flora Playdough Stamps
Rosalie Corbellini
06/06/2022
Australian Flora Playdough Stamps
Great product and customer service
Prompt service. Product as described. Happy with purchase.
Millicent McDonald
04/27/2022
Mini Orb Shakers - with stand
Love the blocks.
They are so tactile and satisfying to play with.
Rosanne M.
03/08/2022
Connetix - 120 Piece Pastel Creative
My two grandsons played with it for hours until bed time then straight back to it when they woke up the next day. They at ages 10 and 7.
Liz B.
03/03/2022
Connetix Tiles 92 Piece Ball Run Pack
Beautiful crayons and I love that they can be mixed and also used as a watercolour!
Charlene W.
12/22/2021
Kitpas Medium Stick Crayons 12 colours
Quick reply to my email. Received the Connetix pastel ball run within days. Very fast delivery. Would recommend Learn Grow Play to everyone 😊 Very happy customer! Thank you!
Marilee D.
12/21/2021
106 Piece Pastel Ball Run Pack
very reliable service with competitive rates, Thank you!
Odeh H.
08/27/2021
Connetix Tiles - 100 Piece Creative Pack
My son absolutely loves the Connetix tiles and has not stopped using them since we got them.
He has enjoyed creating houses, cars and castles. Such a great toy to promote creativity as well as work on fine motor skills.
Amanda K.
08/22/2021
Connetix Tiles - 100 Piece Creative Pack
Emily F.
08/22/2021
In The Garden - Ecosystem Range
My 3 year old son loves these magnetic tiles. We have played with them every day since they have arrived. They're so good I will be purchasing the motion set and ball run for his birthday. I highly recommend them especially if stuck at home in lockdown! Our baby loves playing with us too.
Sarah-Marie A.
08/16/2021
Connetix - 62 Piece Starter Pack
Third purchase of connetix tiles so far, we love them! You just cannot have too many.
rosie s.
08/02/2021
Connetix - 30 Piece Geometry Pack
Great product for my 3 year old. Fast shipping, good company to purchase from.
Danielle O.
05/17/2021
Connetix Tiles - 100 Piece Creative Pack
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Baby Shower Gift Set
Qtoys
$44.95 AUD
Connetix Tiles 92 Piece Ball Run Pack
Connetix
$134.00 AUD Regular price $139.00 On Sale
5.0 / 5.0
2 reviews
Connetix - 62 Piece Starter Pack
Connetix
$110.00 AUD
4.67 / 5.0
3 reviews
Connetix Tiles - 100 Piece Creative Pack
Connetix
$153.
00 AUD Regular price $159.00 On Sale
5.0 / 5.0
3 reviews
Connetix - 120 Piece Pastel Creative
Connetix
$194.00 AUD Regular price $199.00 On Sale
5.0 / 5.0
1 review
Musical Box set
BabyNoise
$109.00 AUD
Connetix 212 Mega Pack
Connetix
$320.00 AUD
5.0 / 5.0
1 review
202 pc Pastel Mega Pack
Connetix
$325.00 AUD Regular price $330.00 On Sale
The Happy Architect Town
FreckledFrog
$99.95 AUD
Connetix - 30 Piece Geometry Pack
Connetix
$65.00 AUD Regular price $70.00 On Sale
5.
0 / 5.0
1 review
Connetix - 24 Piece Motion Pack
Connetix
$59.95 AUD Regular price $65.00 On Sale
Connetix 40 pc Pastel Geometry
Connetix
$85.00 AUD Regular price $90.00 On Sale
Connetix Tiles - 2 Piece Base Plate Pack
Connetix
$58.95 AUD Regular price $65.00 On Sale
2 Piece Clear Base Plate Pack AU
Connetix
$60.00 AUD
Positive Affirmation Cards for Kids
Lileve
$25.99 AUD
Connetix - 40 Piece Expansion Pack
Connetix
$85.00 AUD Regular price $90.00 On Sale
Happy Architect Animals in the Habitat
FreckledFrog
$99.95 AUD
WaytoPlay King of the Road, 40 Pcs
WayToPlay
$194.90 AUD
Double Sided Maths Board With counters and numbers
5littlebears
$49.
90 AUD Sold Out
Kitpas Medium Stick Crayons 12 colours
Kitpas
$29.90 AUD
5.0 / 5.0
1 review
Qtoys Bamboo Water Mill
qtoys
$88.95 AUD Regular price $99.95 Sold Out
WaytoPlay Expressway, 16 pieces
WayToPlay
$84.90 AUD
The Freckled Frog Wooden Village People
FreckledFrog
$84.95 AUD
Babynoise - Xylophone
BabyNoise
$41.00 AUD
Bug Stamp Pack
5littlebears
From $9.95 AUD
Kitpas Medium Stick Crayons 16 colours
Kitpas
$38.90 AUD
Connetix 34 pc Clear Pack AU
Connetix
$80.00 AUD
SAFARI LTD LIFE CYCLE OF A MONARCH BUTTERFLY SAFARI
HHQ
$19.99 AUD
5.0 / 5.0
2 reviews
18 Piece Australian Garden Bugs Themed Matching Puzzles
5littlebears
$29.
95 AUD
18 Piece Australian Furry Animals Themed Matching Puzzles
5littlebears
$29.95 AUD
2 Piece Car Pack AU
Connetix
$29.95 AUD Regular price $35.00 On Sale
Qtoys Wooden Balls Set of 50
Qtoys
$17.95 AUD
experts explain why games are more useful than educational games and lessons
© Liza Streltsova
Not only screams and chaos, but also a lot of good!
A common complaint about kindergartens, which is regularly found in parental circles, is: "No one works with them there, they just play all day long!". In the world of adults, the opportunity to roll a car on a carpet all day is considered completely unacceptable (and in vain), but for children, “just playing” is many times more important than any developmental activities. We remind you of this at the beginning of the new school year and explain why.
When children have the opportunity to play with their peers or parents, their imagination is at full capacity.
They constantly come up with new scenarios and ways of playing, adapt to changing conditions and develop creative thinking.
University of Maryland Mental Health Center director Sharon Hoover confirms that "gaming and mental health are linked." Pediatricians and other professionals agree that free play is a normal, healthy, and natural part of a child's development.
According to Hoover, games are good because they generate “positive feelings, such as joy or excitement, that improve the child's mood and reduce feelings of anxiety and sadness. At the same time, children who did not have enough time to play saw an increase in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and inattention.”
Remember the pleasant feeling of relief and joy when you hear the bell from class? This most exciting moment, when you can leave the classroom and have fun from the heart, run and play with your classmates, is hard to forget.
The opportunity to play freely with your peers is essential to a child's development and helps him acquire many social skills that will be useful throughout his life.
The current generation of children is looked after much more strongly and more carefully than previous generations (well, you yourself know these stories about how children from the age of five used to walk without their parents in the yard, and playgrounds looked more like an army obstacle course). This gives rise to a problem: due to the overprotection of parents, not all children get the opportunity to fill bumps on their own and figure out what is dangerous for them and what is not.
Free play allows children to test themselves and learn to better manage their bodies, their emotions and their decisions. The ability to self-regulate is another important stage in a child's development, and free play is a great way to develop it.
When you give children the opportunity to play independently and freely, “they learn to cope with problems, think through their actions to the end and realize their own possibilities. This allows them to feel more confident and less helpless.
"
Children are born to play. For them, this is the best way to learn, grow and master new skills. Free play stimulates brain cells, and the game tasks that the child sets for himself make his brain work hard, which contributes to his development.
In general, games (even if they look strange from the outside) are not a waste of time that is needed only in a break between useful activities, this is a useful activity, and, perhaps, one of the most useful for children. So before enrolling a child in thirty circles and sections, “so that he doesn’t get bored,” check if he has enough time just to feed the doll with sand or sculpt dinosaurs from Play-Doh? Because these classes are the most important for him now - it has been proven.
Read more on the topic
- games
- early development
- education
Education for the gaming industry | Where to study game design
AUTHOR:
Yulia Shimf, Forbes Education Contributor
EDITOR:
Maria Mironova, Forbes Staff
expert comments collected and prepared by Forbes Education
During the pandemic, when all creative industries lost 90% of their income, the games industry increased its volume by 9%.
Video game sales have grown by more than 60%, and the WHO even launched the #PlayApartTogether initiative, which encourages people to stay at home and play online. The popularity of games in recent years has led to an increase in demand for professionals in the labor market and, as a result, to the emergence of new educational programs in Russian universities.
Game Industry 2021
The Game Industry is now on Hype, says Vyacheslav Pogochkin, Deputy Director of the Development Center in Business Informatics
of the Higher School of Business, NIU Higher School. In his opinion, a historical maximum of money is pouring into the industry, information flows from all sides carry news about how game developers from different parts of the world have earned billions of dollars on their games.
And in some cases, starting from scratch, and being ordinary people without a multi-million dollar fortune.
Statistics also show that the market is more than serious. Over the past 2 years alone, the volume of the gaming market has grown by almost $20 billion (19%) and amounted to $175.8 billion (according to NewZoo data as of June 2021). This leads both to a significant growth of existing gaming companies, and to the opening of new ones. Recently, in the CIS, new gaming companies with multimillion-dollar investments from core and non-core founders are opening several per month.
The games industry has already outperformed the music and film market and continues to grow
on average by 20% per year. If, until recently, parents treated games as something frivolous, today game development is a very promising career trajectory,” says Ekaterina Cherkes-zade, director of the University of Creative Industries at Universal University.
It is worth noting that so far the share of the Russian games market in the world is only 2%: it is 11th in the world and fifth in Europe (according to PwC).
However, the demand for professionals for the gaming industry is growing: according to Values Value, in 2020 Wargaming, Sperasoft, MY.GAMES, Vizor Games, WakeApp and others needed new developers, artists and marketers for games more than a year earlier.
There is a certain problem in terms when game development is discussed in the mass information field, - says Andrey Karsakov, head of the Master's program in Computer Game Development Technologies at ITMO University. Often the term "game designer" is used as a generalization for everyone involved in game development, although in reality this is not the case: a game designer is just one of the many specialties of people who are involved in game development.
Compared to the film industry, a game designer in games is like a director in movies. To develop the gameplay, draw up a technical task for the performers, calculate the economy, balance battles, work out monetization, analyze the behavior of the players and add the element they need to the game world - all this and much more is done by the game designer, - specifies Vyacheslav Utochkin.
On the face of it, the gaming industry seems to be dominated by artists. But, if you dig a little deeper, then there is a lot of technical component in the games, - notes Andrey Raigorodsky, Ph.D. PhD, professor, director of the MIPT School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, — the basis of the game is the software engine, the movement of characters and various interactions within the game world. Then there are multiplayer games, where client-server interaction takes on an important role. Game rules set by game designers often contain complex formulas. There is also an engineering approach in games, which, in turn, requires serious mathematical training. This is exactly what Phystech is strong for. We have opened many departments and laboratories aimed at training qualified programmers and mathematicians.
It is very rare to be a highly specialized game designer,” explains Alexander Myasishchev, Executive Director of Helio games, lecturer in the Computer Game Development Program at ITMO University.
In the industry, the demand for specialists has been many times ahead of the supply for several years. Andrey Karsakov notes an acute shortage of professional staff at all levels and specialties - from juniors to team leaders, from game designers to engine developers. Companies are ready to take students almost at the start, immediately after they enter the educational program.
Where the game design in Russia Previous to the universities were only available in the GEMDETA programs. , then today a bachelor's or master's degree in the games industry can be obtained at private and public universities in Russia, among them - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Scream School (Universal University), HSE, ITMO, RTU MIREA. So far, education in the gaming industry has looked a bit catching up, agrees Andrey Raigorodsky: “In Russia, though we are not the first, we are one of the first to launch a specialized program. I hope we will be able to synchronize education with the actual needs of development studios. Now there are not so many large gaming companies in the country, and there have always been people interested in this area. Many went to work in game studios abroad.” The creators of the joint bachelor's degree programs in game programming and master's degree programs in game design, Scream School and MIPT, expect that with the advent of new programs, some of the graduates will stay in Russia and start creating their projects here. Every year there are more and more programs in game design, concept art, game programming - both in universities, in the CVE segment, and in the format of massive online courses. According to Vyacheslav Utochkin, the main changes in game design will be dictated by the requirements of the developing mobile market. Due to high competition and a large number of products, the cost of advertising traffic is steadily increasing. In response, developers are looking for new ways to retain players. One of them is adding narrative mechanics and scenarios to mobile games.
In Russia, there are already not only master's programs and additional professional education for those who decide to change their profession and go into the game, but also specialized bachelor's programs, emphasizes Ekaterina Cherkes-zade. 
Many institutions have secured partnerships with companies, giving students the opportunity to learn from practitioners. But according to Ekaterina Cherkeszade, many programs lack cross-disciplinarity. Students receive knowledge and skills clearly in their field and do not overlap with students of other gaming specialties, not to mention colleagues from other creative industries (film, design, music, marketing). But this is the reality of working in a game company: concept artists, technical artists, game designers, programmers, game developers, game producers, marketers - they all work as a team on one project. Then composers, localizers, dubbing actors join them. 
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