If you’re not familiar, Lakeshore Learning is a huge educational toy store with 4 locations around NY and NJ. They carry an incredible selection of educational toys, games, teacher resources, and craft supplies that often cannot be found anywhere else. For those that don’t live in the area, they have an online store where you can buy most of their products.
Walking through Lakeshore you’ll find aisles separated by subject (science, social studies, reading) developmental skill (fine motor skills, social emotional learning), crafts (markers, scissors, paints), early learning toys, teacher supplies, and more.
They have creative toys and games for almost everything! You’ll see unique construction toys, toys specifically made to help children learn to count, tell time, form letters, and even design clothes.
Shopping at Lakeshore is always a blast. Take a look at some of my finds from my last visit.
These easy grip markers looked like they would be perfect for a toddler to hold and explore with scribbling.
I also thought these Sensory Blocks were a fun idea. They rattle and are slightly weighted. They are great for promoting coordination and attention in younger kids. They would make a good tummy time toy as well.
I was obsessed with these marble mazes. The idea is to use your fingers to maneuver the marble around the fabric to strengthen the fingers. This would make an excellent quiet time toy and helpful to use as a fidget during focusing activities.
The Animal Builders caught my attention because they are great for encouraging young kids to use both hands together. The adorable animal characters make them that much more fun!
Lakeshore Learning is known for selling a variety of interesting magnetic mazes. Magnetic mazes are awesome for developing fine motor control and eye-hand coordination. These types of mazes are great pre-writing tools, and I often use them in my therapy sessions. I particularly loved this magnetic board below because it teaches children to write from left to right and form strokes needed to make letters.
Here is another example of a magnetic board. This focuses on matching colors and counting.
I also fell in love with this Fashion Designer set and couldn’t help but buy it to show you. I thought it was perfect for pretend play and for kids who are interested in fashion. Love how unique it is, and that it was on sale.:)
Last but not least is their game aisle. This is just some games that you would find when visiting Lakeshore.
If you’d like to shop at Lakeshore, they gave me a coupon code to share with you. It is 3104 for 20% off any non sale item until 8/31/19. I’m including the link to their online store here.