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Best Toys for Your Toddler

My daughter turns two this month, which is still hard for me to wrap my head around. It feels like just yesterday my husband and I were welcoming her into the world. The years really do go by fast once you become a parent!

Many of my daughter’s friends already turned two or will be turning two soon. Plus, Christmas is just around the corner! Therefore, I’ve been doing some research on the best toys for toddlers, those who are 1-3 years old. Thus, this list of 40+ toys was created. The toys included on this list make great gifts for the toddler in your life because they…

• encourage imaginative play
• teach important concepts (letters, numbers, colors, shapes)
• make learning fun
• strengthen fine and gross motor skills
• nurture creative expression
• build vocabulary, increase language development and welcome conversation
• grow with your child or can be enjoyed for many years to come

Building Toys for Your Toddler

Building toys are a great way for your toddler to work on motor skills and hand-eye coordination. The possibilities to create are endless with these building toys. Plus, it’s fun to build tall towers and knock them down!

Fine Motor Toys for Your Toddler

These toys strengthen your toddler’s fine motor skills. It is important to develop these skills early on because it will help with pencil grip and handwriting skills in school. Toddlers love to manipulate things with their hands and these toys nurture that 🙂

The VTech Drill & Learn Toolbox gives your toddler the opportunity to drill, screw and hammer with toddler-friendly tools. Plus, your toddler can learn about colors and numbers with the double-sided instruction cards.

Lacing beads are a fun way to work on colors, counting, shapes and patterns with your toddler. This peg board stacking toy is another fun fine motor toy for toddlers to manipulate.

These wooden puzzles are easy to grasp, sturdy and feature colorful illustrations that captivate any toddler. I keep a basket of wooden puzzles in the living room and we usually play with them after breakfast as a fun learning activity. They are also a great independent play activity while I am cooking dinner or doing a quick house chore.

We visit our local library for storytime each week. I plan to arrive a few minutes early to give my daughter a chance to play with the toys. One of the toys she loves playing with over and over again is this HABA Town Maze Magnetic Game. It requires a lot of concentration using the magnetic pen to move the little balls around, but she loves seeing them move. Plus, we have a conversation about what she sees in the picture and practice counting the little balls as we move them around. There is a variety of these magnetic maze games so you are bound to find one that reflects your toddler’s interest!

What toddler doesn’t love to bang a wooden mallet? Your toddler will love the “peekaboo” design twist of this wooden bench. Your toddler can practice identifying colors and learn about cause and effect with these pounding wooden bench toys. 

Pretend Play & Dress Up Toys for Your Toddler

My favorite pretend play toy for toddlers is a play kitchen. As a little girl, I loved putting on cooking shows and cooking pretend meals for my family. I was so excited to purchase the Step 2 Best Chef’s Toy Kitchen Playset for my daughter’s Christmas present. It came with some accessories and features clicking knobs and cooking sounds for realistic pretend play. My daughter loves opening the oven and refrigerator doors. She also loves pretending to wash the dishes in the sink. We also purchased a set of play food. Toddlers enjoy mimicking what you are doing so a play kitchen allows them to cook, play with food, set the table, and serve family and friends a pretend meal. You can extend your toddler’s pretend play by adding a cash register and shopping cart! A play kitchen is a toddler toy that will be played with for many years!

The working doorbell, small kitchenette, and mail slot make this playhouse fun for your toddler. You can put this outside or keep it in the playroom. My daughter likes to open and close the window and say, “Peekaboo!”

Playing dress up is a fun way for toddlers to imagine they are another person. From a doctor to a firefighter, these dress up sets come with all the accessories your toddler needs for a fun pretend play experience.

Toddlers love to make noise so a set of musical instruments is a must-have toy! Your toddler will love banging the xylophone and shaking the jingle stick. My daughter loves it when I play the harmonica, too. She says, “Again, again.”

Gross Motor Toys for Your Toddler

Toddlers are very active and love to run around. They are natural born exercisers! It is important to give them an opportunity to burn off all their energy every day. These gross motor toys are the perfect way to get your toddler up and moving!

This Little Tikes Trampoline is perfect for toddlers because it has a handle for stability and features a large jumping surface. If you are looking for something slightly smaller, this tortoise nursery trampoline is a great alternative. My daughter’s friend has the Little Tikes Trampoline at his house and we couldn’t get her off of it when we were over for a July 4th party. There was pure joy on her face as she bounced up and down. Plus, it’s a great way to get out your toddler’s energy before naptime and bedtime!

My daughter loves when they bring out the crawling tunnel during library storytime. The addition of the two tents on either end and ball pit provide hours of fun for the active toddler in your life. The durability of this crawling tunnel guarantees it will last a long time. You can easily fold up and store away in the provided carry bag. This is a great gross motor toy to bring out on a rainy day or in the winter when it’s too cold to be outside.

The Melissa & Doug Deluxe Chomp and Clack Alligator Wooden Push Toy and Activity Walker is fun for toddlers with the three chomping alligators, the fish decals on the wheels, the spinning butterfly and ladybug beads, and the noise it makes as your toddler pushes it around the house. This push toy helps your toddler work on motor skills, develop hand-eye coordination and encourages playful exploration and discovery. Even at almost two, my daughter loves scooting around the basement with her push toy.

Pull toys are another great way for your toddler to work on motor skills. This wooden pull toy features an engaging shape sorter so your toddler can practice shape sorting and even identifying primary colors. We have two pull toys at the grandparent’s house and my daughter loves pulling both at the same time. She will take them for a ride down the hallway and into each room of the house.

Riding toys are a definite hit with toddlers! Whenever we go to a friend’s house for a play date, the riding toys are an instant draw for my daughter. This Little Tikes Go and Grow Lil’ Rollin’ Giraffe Ride-on is adorable. Toddlers are crazy about animals so this will definitely peak their interest. This riding toy builds your toddler’s coordination, balance and gross motor skills all while they have fun scooting around inside or outside.

Learning Toys for Your Toddler

Shape sorters allow your toddler to explore shapes and colors. Your toddler also works on fine motor skills and developing hand-eye coordination. My daughter received several shape sorter toys over the past 2 years and she still plays with all of them. We have one in the living room, one in the basement playroom and one at the grandparent’s house. I love seeing how happy she gets when she successfully sorts all the shapes by herself.

My daughter loves stickers and I came across these reusable sticker pads by Melissa & Doug. My daughter loves putting the stickers on and removing them over and over again. The best part about reusable stickers is that they won’t stick to skin or furniture.

When I am cooking dinner or cleaning up the kitchen, my daughter enjoys playing with the wooden magnets we have on our refrigerator. She likes to take them off, move them around and put them back on. We practice naming the farm animals and talking about the sounds that each farm animal makes. These magnets allow me to engage in meaningful conversation with my daughter, which helps build her language. The more we talk to our toddlers, the better! Toddlers are little sponges and just soak up everything around them.

Board books are the perfect gift for your busy toddler. Board books that include flaps your toddler can lift, things they can slide and pull, and buttons they can push are most appealing to your toddler. Toddlers love to manipulate things with their hands! We keep a basket of board books on every floor in our house, in the diaper bag and in the car. Reading with your toddler is such an important thing to do every.single.day. We spend time reading books together after breakfast, before naptime and before bedtime. I love every minute of it, even if we read the same books over and over again.

One of the great benefits of visiting different local libraries for storytime is seeing new toys. This Kidzlane Color Matching Egg Set is one of the toys that my daughter enjoyed playing with at a recent visit to the library. She loved taking the eggs out of the carton, separating them and putting them back together again. I love how this toy helps my toddler learn counting, sorting and matching in a fun way!

Drawing & Art Toys for Your Toddler

I love gifting drawing and art toys to my toddler and my friend’s children. All of these toys are great activities for your toddler, especially on a rainy day when you are stuck indoors. It is so fun to watch toddlers engage in sensory play with Play Doh, Fingerpaint and Kinetic Sand. If you aren’t one for the mess, the Color Wonder products are for you. I purchased the Color Wonder markers and drawing pad for a recent airplane trip. My daughter loved doodling in her drawing pad and I loved that I didn’t need to worry about marker going everywhere. The Melissa & Doug Water Wow Books are another great drawing toy for travel and while at a restaurant. My daughter has fun revealing the hidden pictures on each page.

I’m all about letting my daughter go to town when it comes to drawing and doodling! However, I don’t want to worry about accidental marker stains on the furniture or skin and broken pieces of crayon. We also did a lot of traveling (by airplane and car) over the summer so I wanted something to keep my daughter entertained and content. That’s why I purchased a Magnetic Drawing Board for her. She loved using the stamps, drawing with the pen and erasing the screen. I loved that the pen was attached to the board. The four different color zones on the drawing area are pretty cool, too!

The AquaDoodle Classic Mat uses water filled pens to provide your toddler with mess-free doodling. The large doodling space features four colors: red, blue, green and purple. Your toddler can draw over and over again because the pictures magically disappear as they dry. This is a great activity for rainy day indoor play and the large drawing space makes it easy for more than one child to use!

Crayola has come up with a lot of great drawing and doodling toys! This double doodle board contains a reusable drawing surface on one side and a sealed gel surface on the other. Your toddler will enjoy drawing with the washable crayons, which are specially designed for toddler hands. Doodling with their fingers on the sealed gel surface provides your toddler with mess-free tactile play.

Playsets for Your Toddler

I love the various Little People Playsets because they teach your toddler concepts, encourage pretend play and build your toddler’s vocabulary. Plus, these playsets grow with your toddler. Sitting down to play with these playsets encourages meaningful conversation between you and your toddler. This helps with your toddler’s language development. There are so many to choose from. The ones I chose to feature can interest both boys and girls.

 My daughter loves pushing the button and watching the cars zoom down the track on this Loops ‘n Swoops Amusement Park.

 Learning about animals and making animal sounds is fun for toddlers, especially when they have this farm to play with.

My daughter loves visiting the zoo and seeing all the animals. With the Fisher Price Little People A to Z Learning Zoo Playset, the zoo can come alive right in your living room. There are 26 animal figures included with this playset!

 What toddler wouldn’t love pushing this adorable school bus around the house? My daughter’s favorite song right now is “Wheels On the Bus” and we definitely sing it while playing with this toy.

 Another great toy, the Lil’ Movers Airplane, for encouraging imaginative play.

To Sum Up

Toddlers are a challenging age group, but they are learning so much and full of so much energy! With this list of 40+ toys, your toddler will practice, strengthen and develop their skills. The toys included in this post are designed to nurture a toddler’s curiosity and encourage imaginative play. What is your favorite toddler toy?

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