the best toddler gifts
Toy-tally awesome: Navigating the toddler toy jungle!
Let’s talk toddler toys – those magical tools that can turn a frown into a giggle and transform a dull afternoon into a playtime extravaganza.
Choosing the right toys for your toddler might feel like navigating a jungle at times, but fear not! I’ve got your back with some tips, tricks and our personal favorites to make sure you and your little one have a blast while staying (mostly) sane.
Age matters
It’s not just a number; it’s a guide to sanity. Make sure to check the age recommendations on toy packaging. Toddlers are at different stages of development, and age-appropriate toys ensure safety and engagement.
Multisensory magic
Toddlers are tiny explorers, and their toys should be, too! Look for toys that engage multiple senses – colorful visuals, interesting textures, and maybe even a dash of music. The more senses involved, the merrier the playtime.
Durability is key
Toddlers have a black belt in the art of destruction. Invest in toys that can withstand the test of toddlerhood. Trust me; it’s heartbreaking to see a beloved toy meet its demise after just a few rounds of play.
Educational fun
Opt for toys that encourage cognitive development, whether it’s blocks, shape sorters, or those sneaky toys that teach numbers while your little one is just having a good time.
Open-ended playtime
The best toys are those that allow your toddler’s imagination to run wild. Think building blocks, dolls, or anything that doesn’t come with a strict set of rules.
Size matters (for safety)
If it fits through a toilet paper roll, it’s a choking hazard. Keep an eye on the size of the toys, especially if you have a little one who likes to put everything in their mouth – which, let’s face it, is pretty much every toddler.
Rotate the troop
Don’t be afraid to swap out toys from time to time. Toddlers can get bored easily, so introducing a “new” toy can breathe life back into playtime. And I don’t mean you have to buy new stuff all the time. Just put some toys away for a couple of weeks and watch the excitement when you bring them back out.
Remember, the goal is not just to entertain but to foster growth and development. So, after these tips, check out a couple of our favorites and let the toddler adventures begin!
Happy playing!
Every kid needs a teddy bear!
And this one is no ordinary teddy. It’s from Margarete Steiff GmbH who invented the world’s first soft toy in 1880 and the Teddy bear in 1902 (inspired by President Teddy Roosevelt). The guiding principle of the company founder Margarete Steiff was “For children, only the best is good enough” and to this day all animals are still hand sewn.
Steiff stuffies with the trademark “button in ear” are friends for life and the life of your kids. My daughter has all of mine and two that belonged to her grandparents.
I love blocks! They’re a great open-ended toy that lets kids unleash their creativity.
And Brio made them magnetic! Stack them high, put them on the fridge or find a million other ways to play with them.
Brio was founded in Sweden and they have a great reputation in Europe for their safe and fun wooden toys.
Hape pound & tap bench with slide out xylophone
This award-winning musical pounding toy definitely deserves its spot on our favorites list!
The xylophone can be played by pounding the balls and sending them tinkling over the keyboard or by pulling it out for a solo. It’s great for fine motor skill development by promoting dexterity, hand eye coordination, manipulation, arm movement and cause and effect. This fun little musical instrument is a great introduction to the exciting world of music for your little one.
Does your little adventurer love climbing?
Climbing toys give toddlers a great opportunity for development and play and foster creativity and independence.
The Tiny Land indoor playground is so versatile and can be set up in lots of ways to keep it interesting.
It’s sturdy, durable and safe, with all parts made from natural, non-toxic, and odorless wood.
Award-winning Hape walk-a-long snail
My daughter loved puling this snail along!
This wooden toddler pull toy is also the perfect companion for little ones just beginning to learn about sorting colors and shapes. I’m a big fan of the Hape brand for baby toys, another German brand (what can I say, I’m German). I know they’re using durable wood sourced from environmentally sustainable forests and non-toxic paint. The toys are colorful, fun and safe!
The HABA snug up soft dolls are so cute and cuddly!
They make great first dolls and are even machine washable.
I love that they have boys and girls, all with different expressions and clothes.
Dolls promote social and emotional development, as well as introducing the idea of pretend play to your little one.
This one is such a cute accessory for your little one’s dolls!
It attaches easily to handlebars of scooters, trikes and bicycles with a velcro hook & loop attachment.
My little mama and her babies had many trips around the neighborhood with this.
VTech Sit-To-Stand Learning Walker
This walker is a staple in almost all baby/toddler households I know.
You can start out with the colorful activity panel for floor play, work your way up to a baby standing activity center and then step it up with the fun-to-maneuver walker.
There are shapes, colors, sounds, lights, piano keys, spinning wheels, hidden animals, a phone. It really packs a lot of stimulation.
And while I initially might have preferred wooden blocks, my baby girl chose this as a favorite. And in the end, that’s what matters!
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.
TOP BRIGHT magnetic bird feeding game
This bird feeding game is fun, cute and great for your little one’s development.
First, find the worms hidden in the tree and use the mother bird’s beak to grab the worm out of the tree hole. Then, feed the captured worm into the baby bird’s mouth.
This is an amazing fine motor skill toy for your toddler!
VTech 3-in-1 step and roll motorbike
I could just say as a recommendation, I have a kindergartener and I still have this motorbike in my living room (or to be precise the model that came before it. That’s how old it is.). Especially the little ones love to hop on it and vroom on adventures with all kinds of sound effects and lights.
It’s a grow-with-me motorbike that starts as a push walker and converts to a two-wheel ride-on balance bike if you want to.
SmartMax magnetic safari animals
Kids love animals! This is a colorful and fun toy for your little one!
Build a Rhino, Giraffe, Elephant, Hippo, Lion and Crocodile! Or mix and match for crazy creations!
In case you haven’t seen my post about water play, we love bath time! These crayons have been a staple in our house for probably 4 years now.
They’re made from natural beeswax, non-toxic and super colorful.
Let your little one decorate the whole bathtub with them and don’t worry. They come off easily with a wet cloth.
And another great addition for bath time are these pipes.
Each of them has a unique design with its own special function for your little one to explore and experiment with.
Splish, splash, fun!
Match and snap to complete the picture.
My daughter loved this one as a toddler! It has 10 cute pictures to complete and is easy to store in the tray.
It’s great for developing hand eye coordination, fine motor skills and creative thinking.
Melissa & Doug farm sound puzzle
Puzzle play encourages logical thinking, goal setting, and patience. And it’s fun!
Each animal of this cute wooden peg puzzle makes the animals’ sound when it’s placed correctly in the puzzle board!
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!
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.
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.
This is a piece of furniture not a toy you say? I disagree!
The 10 soft pieces of foam are modular and so much fun to play with. They’re basically like giant blocks you can build castles and playgrounds with.
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.)
TEMI magnetic robot stacking blocks
The magnetic robots are called Five Planet Guards Union! Kids all ages will love playing with these superheroes, namely Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Venus. Magnetic blocks are always a hit, especially when they turn into robots with such cute expressions.
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.
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!
This collapsible play pit is so amazing! You can fill it with sand or water, use it for any kind of sensory play or use it as a ball pit.
With it’s foldable design it’s easy to store and you can take it along on vacation.
Busy boards are a great toy for toddlers at home or on the go!
It can help develop kids’ practical ability, enhances creativity and keeps them busy for a long time.
This one offers a lot of different activities and I love the magnetic fishing game.
Do you have to hide all remotes and phones? That seems to be the case for all toddler parents.
Just get them their own pretend versions. This remote and phone are colorful, have sounds and will keep your little one busy.
Another great water table is this one. I love the quality of the Step2 outdoor toys. They are really meant for playing and can even be handed down to the next happy kid when you’re growing out of them.
Step 2 Up & Down roller coaster
This is a great toddler toy! An amusement park right in your backyard. It’s a great toy for the little ones to practice climbing and balancing. It’s fast enough to be fun, but not so fast as to be scary for the adults watching.
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.
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