Hi everyone welcome to today I’m sharing with you our Top 8 Best Toddler Toys for Girls and Boys and the top most used gifts for our toddler. these are items that have lasted us through multiple stages of toddlerhood and they’re consistently getting quality playtime. if you’re still looking for last-minute holiday gifts or you’re looking for gift ideas for birthdays, these are always my top picks because they have been such a worthwhile investment. I’ve got a variety of budget options as well as smaller items versus larger items so there’s something in here for everyone.
1. Melissa and Doug Bear Dress Up Puzzle
This bear dress-up puzzle by Melissa and Doug hasn’t been out of rotation from the day she received it about a year ago. Now she’s been very interested in all the different aspects of it and it’s grown with her. At first, she was simply interested in the puzzle aspect because when she was just entering toddlerhood she was very interested in figuring out different types of puzzles. As she got older she became interested in pretend play and getting all the different items to be matching and all the different outfits together. Now she’s interested in understanding the emotions that the Bears might be having and how those emotions like being sleepy might relate to the outfit that they have like wearing a PJ.
A quick tip is to add colored dots on the backs of the outfits and each of the Bears and the little sides where you store everything so that the child can color match and sort everything properly. right now you see a lot of them are missing because we have memorized where everything goes and Stella is great about putting everything back. at two and a half we have entered a very interesting stage where now we’re not only very fascinated by matching and figuring out which outfits go together but also trying to mix and match the different outfits as she’s become even more interested in self-dressing and dressing up others. a simple gift that’s grown with us and is going to continue to stick around for quite a while.
Quick Pick
Two bonus ideas for families that travel this LCD writing tablet is a great compact way to do a lot of different activities. we use it for independent drawing together playing Pictionary. it’s really Compact and self-containing and we’ve taken it with us on the car on the plane and into the restaurants while we’re waiting for food to arrive.
The final item is sticker activity books which allow us to take a lot of the activities that children tend to love and they go in a more compact way so we combine a toddler’s love for stickers along with some of the activities they tend to love like matching or counting or simply creating silly faces or setting up different free-form scenarios in play.
2. Nugget
A larger item and one that is an investment that’s been around with us since she turned one is the Nugget. Doesn’t necessarily have to be the Nugget but any kind of play structure that allows your child to climb. The Nugget in particular does have covers that you can take off so you can easily wash it and get it back on in case of any spills or stains or just getting dirty.
When we’re not using it for climbing we just have it set up as a little couch in our reading area but we can make a lot of different structures with it. This was great when she was just developing her walking and her crawling skills so we had different ways to encourage her to move around. And we do use it a lot in the colder and wetter months. It’s also a great way to discover different types of activities. Something like sitting up and seeing how all the different items roll.
How cubes might not roll off but balls do roll off. The Nugget or any kind of climbing structure is great for the child who’s very interested in gross motor skills but maybe not as interested in some kind of shelf work. it’s great to combine the two like this kind of obstacle course that we did with item-to-picture matching. That way they’re getting their energy out in a way that they’re interested in but you’re also placing a different spin on the kind of activity that typically requires them to sit down and be still.
We’ve also been recently combining it with these Stepping Stones which is a more budget-friendly version for incorporating some kind of gross motor activities in the house. These I chose in particular because you’re able to stack them so you can get different heights which is especially great for the child who’s interested in learning how to walk up and down the stairs.
They’ve also got different textures which makes them a really interesting sensory experience and again we like to combine them for different obstacle courses which gives us even more additional play time with the Nugget and all of our other activities that we combine with it. Gross motor skill development is such an integral part of toddlerhood so this is something that again will grow with your child and if you get a little bit creative you can get a lot of views out of both of these items.
3. Easel
Another larger investment piece that has gotten daily use from us is our easel. I went with this one from Melissa and Doug because it had a lot more storage on the bottom than the Ikea version. I like that we were able to easily put all of our paints or crayons or whatever we were working on with her. Like most easels it does come with a whiteboard on one side where you can also put a roll of paper on top to use with any kind of medium you’d like and on the back it does have an especially great chalkboard in toddlerhood for pre-writing work.
I ended up choosing this easel in particular because not only does it have that extra storage on the bottom to be able to put all of the different mediums and items that we need for all of our painting and drawing it also changes in height so it will be growing with her for years to come. And while an easel in and of itself looks like a bigger piece of furniture if you don’t have the space for a dedicated art section or art Corner in your playroom an easel like this that does have the extra storage can be that self-contained Art Space. Vertical play and drawing vertically writing vertically is important for a toddler to develop those motor skills that they will need for later writing skills so whether you get a larger easel or a smaller one it’s something to consider.
4. Creative Stones by Haba
Back to a smaller option these creative Stones by Haba have received a lot more love than our classic building block and they’ve become especially of Interest after about the age of two. We use these blocks not only for building but also color matching color gradation and lining things up from smaller to larger. It’s one simple item that has allowed for a lot of different play opportunities.
The unique design allows for a lot more creativity and a lot more interesting creative play with the blocks just for building but they also come with these cards where you’re able to follow and replicate different designs. Once we reached the age where that became of interest it’s become a very interesting challenge for both of us to recreate these designs together and for some of them she’s now interested in recreating on her own.
5. Duplo Blocks
Perhaps the most favorite type of building in toddlerhood for us has been duplo blocks we have two different types of sets. One that has a little predetermined scene that you follow instructions to build with as well as a larger set that is simply for open-ended and creative play. The larger set did come with a book of ideas so we’re able to combine the two and create all types of scenarios she’s able to get very creative with what she builds or recreating different pretend play options as well.l
If we’re going to go with just one option I would recommend getting the set that allows your child to create multiple scenes and multiple play opportunities from just the one set. Compared to the Mega Bloks that we originally started with the Duplos require a bit more hand strength to put together but they also stay together a lot better so when something Falls over it’s not immediately going to fall apart the way that mega blocks do.
So the combination of complete open-ended and creative play as well as some guidance that is available for seeing what is possible has allowed for a vast amount of playtime with our duplo set and out of all of the items that we have for building this is an absolute favorite and something that is never out of rotation in our house and something that I recommend every family take a look at.
6. Pretend Play Kitchen
Another larger item but one that gets used multiple times a day every single day is our pretend play kitchen which is also used as a functional kitchen. I’ve made a couple of videos on how we did this and everything we learned about making the functional kitchen so I’ll link those for you as well something that I think gets overlooked is the fact that this kitchen still very much gets used for pretend play as well but it is also the place where we store her bowls her plates her utensils everything that she needs for food prep and it’s also her little snack station.
But when all of the food prep is done but the desire to explore the kitchen is still there we do still have all of our pretend play items for that. especially for the stove at an age where the real stove is not being explored just yet this is a wonderful opportunity for the child to play out all of those scenarios. Allows the child to explore something that is a very central part of most families which is the kitchen. an opportunity for them to prepare a snack wash their fruits wash their hands so if you’re looking to invest in one larger item for any kind of holiday I recommend taking a look at what pretend play kitchen would fit your space and your budget and how you might be able to make it into a functional kitchen.
7. First Orchard Game By Haba
And for a child two or older we can look into board games. yes, there are board games that toddlers can take part in as well one of our favorites so far has been this first Orchard game by Haba. we love that it’s a Cooperative game so we’re working together towards a common goal of getting all of the fruits off of the Orchard and into our basket before the little bird gets to the end we’re still working on taking turns coloring matching counting but we’re doing this together instead of competing against each other. and the great thing about the first Orchard game is all the pieces are made specifically for toddlerhood so they’re all large enough to be safely played with from as young as two years of age.
8. Magna-Tiles
another item that has finally become of interest is our Magnatiles. now that we have entered later toddlerhood they’re actually of interest for the true purpose of the building. when she was younger we used it a lot for playing with light and seeing how the different colors match and simply combining different shapes but now that she has entered the stage where she’s interested in building she’s become fascinated with actually building different structures with the Magnatiles themselves as well.
So unlike the different blocks and the Duplos we have something about Magnatiles that has been interesting for us is utilizing it with different light sources especially different windows or you could use a light table to Simply see how the light hits the different colors combining the different colors and seeing what happens when we do that. so aside from being a toy that we can simply build with this allowed for a lot of additional play opportunities that some simple blocks or even Duplos didn’t allow for.
And that’s the quick list of our most used gift items for toddlers to date which has given you some ideas for what might be a worthwhile investment for your family as well. hope you enjoy the holidays and until next time I hope you stay safe.
