I am always looking out for good quality toddler toys for my kids because I firmly believe that toys play an essential part in the development of children, especially young children.
While there may be apps in the market for left and right brain development, these apps can never replace physical toys. The latter not only helps with the kids’ cognitive development: they also do wonders to their motor skills, creativity and character development.
The following is what we love most, and probably in accordance with my tots’ preference.
1. Magnetic Tiles
My tots have played with these for almost the entire year and are still loving them. Magnetic tiles are especially fabulous for creating awareness in shapes and developing building skill.
My tots started by laying the tiles on the ground to create 2D towers. Over time, they learned to build according to colours.
Ever since they learned to construct 3D structures, they went on to build tall towers, create farmhouses, ice-creams, microphones, etc. And that was also the start of their independent play.
Our 100-pc set is not enough to go around every kid at home, and I was so tempted to get a second set so that everyone gets enough to play.
Our tiles are from Children Hub*. These translucent tiles are sturdy enough to survive the countless abuses by my tots who would frequently stand on the chair and hurl the tiles onto the floor. The tiles suffered no cracks to date (after a year’s of abuse), and the magnets remain strong. The best of all, it is much cheaper than other well-known brands.
2. Art Supplies – Paints / Scissors / Crayons / Marker / Construction Papers / Glue
They love their art and crafts sessions and they are always asking to create something.
We homeschooled on animals earlier this years. We created so many animal crafts such as toilet roll penguins, paper plate elephant, and egg tray caterpillar. The craft activities made their learning sessions extra fun.
Check out my earlier homeschool posts for our activities.
Homeschooling the Twins – 25 months old – Fruit Theme
Homeschooling the Twins – Safari Animal Theme
Homeschooling the Tots – Animals that Swim
Month by month, we progressed. The tots gradually learned to cut, followed lines, coloured within a broad boundary, and progressively created scenes. Their favourite of all is the glue. They would use an inappropriately excessive amount of glue to fix an eye.
I use only washable paints, markers, crayons and glue. Worrying about cleaning up during creative play should always be the last thing on my mind.
These are my favourite art and crafts resources.
3. Indoor Swing
The indoor swing is one of our best bets – a swingset trapeze bar with rings for strength training. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but it is sure a hit amongst our kiddos and their friends. They play with the indoor swing every single day, a couple of minutes here and there, as and when they like it.
Click here for the link* to our swing profile.
4. Modelling Clay
We fiddled with our soft clay very frequently for the earlier part of the year. Squishing and squashing clay has built the muscles on their tiny fingers as well as to refine their fine motor skills. We used these clay to kick-start their scissor skills.
I am pretty particular about the clay quality as many brands stain the furniture and floors. Cleaning up was previously a chore until I found the Crayola Model Magic*. It is super easy to clean up though it drys quickly. We always wrap our used clay in baking paper before keeping them in ziplock bags to ensure the clay’s longevity. Cling wrap probably works best, but we don’t have it at home to reduce our use of plastic.
Check out my earlier post on why we love the clay so much and how we used them.
5. Blankets and Scarves
Blankets and scarves are toddler toys too! My girls often turn our nest upside down. They would pull out blankets and scarves, stack up chairs and floor mattresses to build fortresses at home. I typically limit the mess to just one room.
Though super messy, these pretend plays allow them to build imagination and tons of vocabulary of the young ones. With just blanket and scarves, they pretend to be teacher-students, doctor-patients, PJ Masks and Shimmer-and-Shine.
We will turn a blind eye to the mess and request them to clean up before dinner.
6. Lego Duplo
Lego is well-known for developing fine motor skills, bilateral coordination and creativity. We accumulated many sets of Lego Duplo* over the years, and the kids are still having lots of fun with them.
7. Tower Blocks
We invested in a new set recently. The tots are still getting used to building towers that are significantly harder to stack as compared to the magnetic tile. I feel the magnetic tiles give our little critters a false sense of assurance because the tiles hold together easily. Building towers would score better, in my opinion, for developing dexterity.
I love the quality set we purchased. There are endless creative possibilities that involve mathematical and engineering thinking.
8. Train Tracks
We own wooden train tracks (Ikea and Melissa ‘n Doug combined), as well as a huge Lego Duplo set.
It is amazing what train tracks can do for the kids. Think of enhancing their motor skills, cognitive ability, creativity and imaginative play.
For a start, young tots learn prewriting skills just by rolling their train along the tracks we build for them. As time goes by, they learn to build the track by themselves. We include bridges and surrounding houses and farms into the play so that they create scenes. Play has become an informal classroom for learning to tell a story.
What is your favourite toddler toys? Share with us your recommendations in the comments box below.
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