the best preschooler gifts
Toy tale: Navigating the wonderland of preschool playthings
In the whimsical world of preschoolers, every day is an adventure filled with laughter, curiosity, and, of course, toys!
If you go with the official age recommendations, once they turn 3 a whole new world of toys opens up.
Choosing the right playthings for your little one can be a bit like embarking on a quest through a magical toy store. Fear not, brave parent! Here’s your guide to selecting the perfect toys for your pint-sized explorer.
The marvelous multitasker
Opt for toys that spark creativity and serve a dual purpose. A set of colorful building blocks, for instance, transforms into a towering castle or a speedy race car with just a dash of imagination.
The puzzle pursuit
Unleash the power of problem-solving with puzzles! From simple jigsaw puzzles to shape-sorting adventures, these brain-teasers not only entertain but also sneakily enhance cognitive skills.
The starring storybook sidekick
Books are a timeless treasure trove of wonders. Choose interactive picture books that invite your child to touch, feel, and even participate in the story. The joy of reading becomes a magical journey when your preschooler can actively engage with the tales.
The daring dress-up dynamo
Fuel the imagination with dress-up fun! Whether it’s donning a superhero cape or pretending to be a graceful princess, dress-up play allows your little one to explore different roles and characters.
The melodious melody makers
Introduce the world of music with age-appropriate instruments. From tambourines to mini keyboards, musical toys enhance auditory skills and provide an outlet for the tiny maestro within. Bonus points for impromptu family jam sessions!
The outdoor adventurer
Don’t forget the importance of fresh air and sunshine! Outdoor toys like tricycles, balls, and sidewalk chalk open up a realm of active exploration. It’s not just play—it’s a full-fledged expedition into the backyard wilderness!
The sensational sensory set
Engage multiple senses with toys that stimulate touch, sight, and sound. Think textured balls, squishy toys, or even a sensory table filled with sand or water. Sensory play is not only entertaining but also lays the groundwork for cognitive development.
Remember, the key is to blend education with entertainment, transforming playtime into a delightful learning experience.
So, gear up and embark on this enchanting journey through the toy kingdom. Your preschooler’s joy awaits, and who knows, you might rediscover the magic of play along the way!
Here are some of our favorites:
These blocks are so much fun!
I love open-ended toys! These are toys that don’t come with a set of strict rules or a prescribed way to play.
The colored foam blocks come in 6 different colors and many different shapes, giving your kid endless possibilities to create different shapes and forms. Blocks help stimulate your child’s creativity and encourage exploration and problem solving
These foam building blocks are safe for toddlers, made up of non-toxic and comfortable to touch material and best of all, waterproof. Play outside and just rinse them off, throw them in the bathtub with your little one or once they’re a little older let them build with shaving cream as mortar.
Little Helpers Grocery Day Sort and Play
This is such a fun interactive book!
Your little one will love checking the list, finding all the felt pieces they need, and helping to fill the shopping cart.
And the felt pieces can be tucked away securely in an attached envelope.
Waytoplay Highway modular car tracks
Kids love to play with cars. It extends to all kinds of play: sensory play, learning, pretend play, and outdoor time!
These car tracks are amazing!
The Waytoplay road segments bend, are waterproof, seem to be indestructible and can be used either inside or outside.
And here are our favorite cars to go with the tracks.
These are powerful little friction cars that can actually go forward and backward. They are fast, fun and can do some spins too.
Remember the time as a kid when you were spinning until you got dizzy, just giggling and having fun?
This toy is a classic and now it’s time for your little one to enjoy some spinning fun.
It’s for ages 18 months and up. Use it inside or outside and let your kid watch the world spin by.
Hape crane and cargo train set
Does your little one get all excited when they see a train?
This wooden railway toy set with magnetic crane, button operated loader and adjustable rail signal is so much fun!
Hape has a bunch of awesome train sets and you can even combine them with a lot of other existing systems.
A wooden train set is a great way to develop your child’s motor skills and encourage their problem-solving skills while having the best time playing!
KidKraft Uptown wooden play kitchen
Every kid needs a pretend kitchen!
It’s time to cook up some fun and let your little chef run wild!
I love the design of this KidKraft play kitchen (it comes in different colors, in case you don’t want to go pastel for your little boys) and every appliance is interactive, including doors that open and close, knobs that turn and click, a chalkboard and a play phone.
Pretend play is so important for your kids’ development and a play kitchen guarantees years of fun!
Tigerhu play kitchen accessories
Your little chef will need some accessories in his/her kitchen!
We love this 26piece set! It comes with stainless steel cookware, apron & chef hat, pots and pans and fruit and veggies to cut up.
Have fun and get cooking!
This beautiful tea set is so cute and all humans, pets and stuffies in this house have had a lot of tea parties!
I would always recommend a tin set. It’s unbreakable and the pieces are food-safe, BPA and lead-free.
Melissa & Doug wooden grocery store and lemonade stand
Pretend play at its best!
Whatever the season or weather, this wooden play center is the shop for you and your little one!
The Melissa & Doug Grocery Store/Lemonade Stand is a double-duty play set. It serves as a grocery store or lemonade stand with a simple flip of the awning. It has 9 bins and little chalkboards to showcase your products.
We actually sometimes use it as an actual neighborhood lemonade stand. The kids love raising real money for a good cause and a lot of people stop just because the stand looks so cute.
With the right accessories this will be an all-time favorite in your house, just as it is in mine!
Get some produce for your pretend shop, kitchen or just to practice chopping all these colorful fruits, veggies and more!
We love this set, that comes with little wooden knifes and 4 boxes.
This FSC accredited wood product ensures non-toxic, safe fun!
Learning Resources pretend & play calculator cash register
This one is a must have! It makes running a pretend store so much more realistic.
The register is great for imaginative role play, all while learning basic math and calculator skills. With its oversized buttons, a big number display and sounds it’s fun for kids all ages and comes with actual-size pretend money and a pretend credit card.
Melissa & Doug wooden scoop and serve ice cream counter
We love ice cream and we love this play set!
This is another one of Melissa & Doug’s beautiful and creative pretend play sets!
Let your little one scoop up some cool treats and serve you the best ice cream of the neighborhood. With 28-pieces the set comes with a sturdy wooden tabletop counter, eight wooden scoops of different-flavored ice cream, six assorted toppings, two cones, a plastic cup, an ice cream scooper, tongs, and a wooden spoon. The reusable menu card is great for children to interact with their friends in a playful social environment.
Melissa & Doug let’s play house Dust! Sweep! Mop!
Kids love copying everything we do! Even seemingly boring stuff like cleaning.
Playing house is a great way for kids to develop confidence and responsibility in a playful way. This hands-on 6piece pretend play set helps kids develop fine motor skills, encourages them to get up and moving, and helps foster creativity and imagination.
I love that the duster and broom actually do the job, so every now and then my daughter and I proudly work together. (She also mops, but with wood floors I rather keep her away from the water bucket.)
We love this flexible climbing structure! It’s colorful, sturdy, easy to move around in the backyard and every now and then we change the design for new adventures.
LEGO DUPLO Classic deluxe brick box
LEGOs were one of my favorite toys when I was a kid! And I still love them!
While there are a lot of cool sets out there, I would always recommend starting with the simple bricks. They’re colorful, fuel the imagination, offer endless creative possibilities and encourage open-ended play.
It’s a great toy for toddlers to practice those fine-motor skills and create their own play world they can control independently after just a little bit of practice.
My advice would be to get a base plate with the set. The plate offers a sturdy base on which to build your little ones creative constructions.
Kids love doodling! And a mess free drawing board will be a life safer on a trip in the car or on a plane!
It’s colorful, it sparks imagination, the pictures are easy to make and to erase over a and over again.
We have used our board for years and it’s still going strong. (Full disclosure, we have a different brand. Ours is not available anymore. But this one looks almost identical and has great reviews. Since it’s a relatively low price product and I really like doodle boards, I still wanted to recommend one.)
Melissa & Doug fold and go wooden dollhouse
This little house packs a punch and has seen a lot of stories unfold in our house and on vacation.
Melissa & Doug made amazing quality wooden toys and this cute little dollhouse is no exception.
It comes with play figures and furniture and the design is just genius. It opens fully for easy access and folds closed to be carried around or for convenient storage.
This is one of two of my daughter’s favorite dolls.
Baby Emma (in our house) is an adorable 17 inch, soft-bodied baby doll with very lifelike features. She gets cuddled and taken care of, just like a real baby and we actually got her some regular baby clothes. She comes with all the right accessories, opens and closes her eyes, can cry and wet the diaper.
It’s also the doll our friends play the most with when visiting.
And this is where Baby Emma sleeps.
It’s such a beautiful wooden cradle! Another Melissa & Doug toy to love.
Make your doll comfortable with this beautiful reversible purple and yellow butterfly print doll bedding set!
This is the other of our two favorite dolls.
The 12 inch doll is realistic looking, cuddly and super cute and the accessories are everyone’s favorite. Best of all is the carrier slash car seat, that let’s baby Annasandra (I didn’t come up with that name) come on many adventures!
Olivia’s Little World baby doll jogging-style stroller
Your baby’s babies will need a stroller!
This one is our favorite with canopy, seatbelt and storage space. It’s easy to maneuver, folds up and is super sturdy.
Melissa & Doug double-sided tabletop easel
Do you have a little artist at home?
Inspire endless creativity with this double-sided tabletop easel!
It has a magnetic dry-erase board on one side (which is what we use the most), a chalkboard on the other and it includes a paper-roll holder with a paper guide and tear-bar for a 12-inch paper roll that adds even more ways to create masterpieces!
I prefer the tabletop easel compared to the freestanding easels, because it’s so easy to carry around. We take it outside, my daughter brings it to her room or the living room and now we use it on the dining table to help with homework.
Melissa & Doug wooden pizza play food set
Get your delicious pizza here!
Another super fun toy set from Melissa & Doug that your little chef will love!
They’ll get busy topping, cutting and serving up those custom slices for their happy customers (most likely you). The set comes with a brightly colored tray, pizza cutter, spatula and a wooden box for storage, and the pizza makes “slicing” noises when cut!
We’ve had our pizza set for a long time now and it’s still played with so much!
Melissa & Doug wooden jewelry box
This is the cutest set for a little princess and all her treasures. And it’s a craft kit too! It comes with jewels, glitter glue and stickers, so your kid can really make it their own.
It might get loud, but it’ll definitely be fun!
We have a lot of shows in our house with this one.
Let your kids express themselves through music and build confidence and communication skills during their performances.
I love toys you can play with outside!
These little wooden animal figures will trigger your child’s imagination and nurture their love of nature. There’s no end to what kind of animal the little shapes will turn into.
Kids love playing doctor and this 31piece kit has everything your little one needs!
Pretend play is fun and so important for a child’s development. Plus, if you have a doctor’s visit coming up, it’s a great way to help children understand the medical treatment and different tools and relieve their anxiety and fear of visiting a doctor!
This set is super durable and if you don’t believe me, I have a couple of teacher friends who have this in their classroom.
Melissa & Doug Wooden Slice & Stack Sandwich Counter
This is an amazing set for imaginative play that will be in good use for a long time! It’s great for toddlers, but we definitely haven’t grown out of it in kindergarten.
Create piled-high sandwiches, with this over 50piece play set with all the fixin’s! It also comes with an illustrated guide that helps with sandwich prep and shows kids how to use the slicer. It’s a fun way to encourage counting, sorting, and fine motor skills, but most importantly for me imaginative play and storytelling.
I loved my audio cassettes when I was a kid (yes, I’m that old) and would fall asleep listening to stories!
The Toniebox is an audio player for even the smallest listeners that is great for bedtime stories, music, and education.
From Disney to Sesame Street to Paw Patrol, I’m sure you can find your kid’s favorites. Or you can record your own songs and messages on a Creative Tonie to play whenever you like. The Tonies, the little figures are part of the fun and get played with just as much as the Toniebox itself.
The Toniebox is very intuitive. My daughter was 2 when we got ours and she had it figured out in no time. It’s also basically indestructible, so you definitely don’t have to worry about it, when your little one carries the box around and drops it.
It has up to 7 hours of battery life and you only need wifi for the initial setup.
It’s actually a German product and has been a beloved part of European children’s rooms longer than here in the States. There are thousands of German Tonies and I think we won’t be far behind in the US market soon.
Our Toniebox travels with us wherever we go and I highly recommend it!
Another great option is the Yoto Mini. This is a kids bluetooth audio player for stories, music, podcasts, radio, white noise and ok-to-wake alarm clock. It can be used as speaker or with headphones and this mini version is ideal for on-the-go listening. What’s great about the Yoto is the longevity of the device, from playing white noise for newborns, to educational activities for when they become toddlers, to classic children’s novels or cool podcasts for when they’re older. You can also get a Make Your Own card and read your own stories to your little one.
If you’re looking for an older kid I would actually recommend this audio player.
I love open-ended toys!
These awesome magnetic blocks definitely fall into that category.
It’s a 42piece set and they are so much fun that we actually got a second set.
Build structures, characters, sort and stack the blocks. There are a million ways to get creative with these!
Magnetic tiles are another example of a great open-ended toy!
They encourage creativity!
This great 130piece magnetic construction tile kit gives children hours of fun and helps develop their color and shape recognition, creativity and imagination, hands-on skills, design skills, social skills and thinking skills.
It’s fun, it’s colorful, a definite must have!
These road toppers are a fantastic addition to your magnetic tiles.
And while other add-ons like marble runs are better for older kids, these toppers are great for your little ones.
Create roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, ramps and racetracks and have fun!
5-panel folding gymnastics tumbling mat
Kids want to move a lot! Whether it’s for gymnastics, martial arts, or yoga, this tumbling mat is the perfect place for kids to practice their athletic skills. The bright-colored play pad will have your kids flipping, jumping, and tumbling until they drop (which hopefully means a quiet night for mom or dad after the kids have gone to bed).
Playing with kinetic sand is one of our favorite things to do to relax and calm down. It’s endless creativity for a sensory adventure.
With a little practice it’s pretty mess free to begin with and definitely easy to clean up and store.
A big batch of play-doh is always a hit!
It sparks creativity, offers sensory stimulation and is just fun!
We have some favorite sets with molds and cutters etc. too, but this is already going to be a looong list of favorites, so I’ll keep it simple and just tell you to get lots and lots of colors of play-doh.
This one is an essential for sensory bins!
The set comes with a Gator Grabber Tweezer, a Handy Scooper, a Twisty Dropper and a Squeezy Tweezer, which will help strengthening your little ones’ hand muscles, while having fun playing.
It’s officially 3+, but we had it before that.
If your kid is stealing your purses and makeup, have a look at this:
This vibrant and adorable pretend makeup and purse set comes with everything your little one could ever want and is dearly beloved in our toy collection.
Superhero capes are a must have in the dress-up box! And you’ll need more than one, since either you or some of those little friends will want to save the earth too.
These capes come with masks and bracelets wich makes for even more pretend play fun!
Another must have for those dress-up box adventures is a good pirate costume!
We love this one! My daughter for all the cool accessories and I love it because it works for boys and girls alike and your little one won’t grow out of it for a long time.
I’ve yet to meet a little girl that doesn’t love Elsa. So here we go with the ultimate Disguise Frozen snow queen Elsa deluxe costume!
Sometimes I wish we had two of these, because it’s everyone’s favorite in our dress-up box. But with only one they just have to learn to take turns.
Barbie Skipper Babysitters Inc
I have a huge Barbie fan at home! Barbie is our independent play go to.
And this playset is one of our favorites! The Nap ‘N Nurture Nursery is perfect for little mamas and comes with more than 10 accessories.
Another favorite of my Barbie loving girl is this cool pizza set!
It comes with the dough in the perfect colors to make delicious chees pizza. We had hours of fun with this set, with lots of deliveries and restaurant visits.
And one more because well, we love it!
Barbie can be anything! For the little gymnasts out there, this is the perfect playset.
KidKraft Charlotte classic wooden dollhouse
Every kid’s dream and at this stage in my girl’s life the by far most played with toy!
Standing over four feet tall with four levels and plenty of room for the 12″ dolls (Barbies in our case), this beautiful wooden dollhouse offers lots of space so multiple kids can explore and play at the same time.
Spark big, imaginative dreams and create exciting stories! KidKraft dollhouses are amazing quality and the assembly is really not too difficult.
Bluey Heeler family figures and 4WD vehicle pack
We are huge Bluey fans! It’s one of the few kids shows that I actually enjoy watching too and make sure not to miss any new episodes. So it should come as no surprise that we have a couple of Bluey toys too.
This set comes with the whole family and their car.
We got it together with this:
Bluey Caravan Adventure Playset
This is such a fun caravan playset!
The toys are great quality and I love all the accessories and details. Together with the car and the family figures, the Heeler family is ready to embark on amazing adventures!
I have a scooter girl!
Kids seem to have a preference for some kind of transportation. Bike, balance bike… For us it has always been this scooter. We’ve had it for over 3 ½ years now and you hardly see a scratch on this thing.
It has flashing wheels, 4 adjustable heights, is easy to maneuver and goes really fast. It definitely deserves a spot on our favorites list!
Hape wooden quadrilla marble run
This marble run is amazing!
It’s 4 years+ if you want your kids to put it together themselves. Obviously, if you help with the set up they can play with it earlier.
I love Hape toys. They’re well thought through, high quality and safe. And I’m not only saying this because it’s a German brand and I’m German. These are toys you pass down for generations.
Watercolors are amazing for kids to let their imagination and creativity run wild!
This travel watercolor set gives you the ability to paint with watercolor paint at home or on the go. It has everything you need, from 48 colors to the brush and the paper.
Bring watercolors to the beach or the park and let your little ones paint colorful shell or rocks and leaves.
Learning Resources three bear family counters
Our bears have been on a lot of adventures and make learning fun! They’re also regulars in our sensory bins.
These plastic bears come in three sizes, three weights and six colors and there are a million ways you can use them. Counting, sorting, color recognition, imaginative play…
Instant cameras are fun for young and old!
Let your little artist take some pictures to remember the adventures you had together.
This camera for kids comes with 3 print paper rolls for up to 180 pictures and enables kids to get their photos in seconds. It also has a lot of other features, but we like the instant pictures the most.
These stepping stones deserve their spot on our all-time favorite list! They’re great for balancing, imaginative play, they’re colorful and fun!
The portable river stones with non-slip rubber edging are great for indoor and outdoor exercising and come in 4 varying sizes. Build bridges over hot lava or set up an obstacle course. Kids for sure will find a creative way to use these.
Petit Collage charades for kids
Charades is my daughter’s favorite game to play!
This was our first set and definitely the best for the little ones.
I love the colorful design with the large icons that makes it easy for non-readers to join in the laughter. It has five categories: everyday objects, animals, on the go, jobs, food.
Charades is such a silly fun game for the whole family or even big groups of kids.
I also like that it’s made using recycled card and printed with vegetable inks.
Who doesn’t love the magic of seeing a kite soar through the sky? This one is a great kite for kids aged 3 and up! It’s colorful, it’s easy to get up in the air and to fly and it assembles quickly.
Every kid needs a big stuffy! If it’s not so big that you’re wondering where you’re going to put it, it’s not big enough.
This beautiful big (over 5 feet!) tiger is the beloved companion of one of my daughter’s best friends.
Squishmallows Pokemon Piplup plush
And don’t forget the Squishmallows!
This big fellow is one of my daughter’s favorites. And it’s so cuddly and comfy to lay on while we’re reading our bedtime stories.
Doctor Jupiter my first science experiment kit
Science can be so much fun for little explorers with curious minds!
Help your kids foster an early love for science with this cool kit with more than 50 experiments, which will spark their interest, captivate their minds and encourage them to become problem solvers.
We’ve done a lot of the experiments already and really enjoyed them. The kit comes with almost everything you need and the rest you’ll have at home.
This is one of our favorite games.
Oodles of noodles and oodles of fun!
This is an easy game for kids 3-4+. You lay out the noodles over the bowl with the Yeti on top. Them, remove the strands of noodles from the bowl, but don’t let the yeti fall! That’s it and that’s all you need for some fun family game time.
Costzon 2-Seater ride on truck
A little friend told me I shouldn’t forget his truck. So here it is!
This ride on truck is pretty awesome to cruise around in the backyard (or even the neighborhood). From pizza deliveries, to Uber rides to the airport, to bringing the car to the workshop, it’s amazing to see the stories unfold.
Little Tikes Jump’n Slide inflatable bouncer
This is a great bouncer for your little ones! It keeps them entertained for hours and is easy and fast to set up and pack up again. And it already comes with everything you need, the heavy-duty blower and the sturdy storage bag.
This is great for everyone with a small yard!
Aquabeads are an amazing craft for kids 4 years and older.
Instead or ironing them together like perler beads you just have to spray them with water and the beads will stick together when they are dry.
We’ve done quite a few sets and loved all of them!
Of course you can also get the beads and make your own designs and creations.
These are one of my daughter’s friends favorites.
And why not? They’re transforming robots! Enough said.
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