7.30.2021
Our fave toys & books for 2-3 year-olds
I've been a parent for more than 3 years now and I'm finally realizing hey, maybe I know what I'm doing with a few things. Oh hey, I have a good handle on toddler toys!, and wanted to share some of our faves!
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| With the Geomag Magicube blocks |
We keep it pretty simple around here and I'm slow to try things that he might be ready for (and we now have an almost one-year-old around so toys have to be safe for her, too)... so I'm calling this great toys for 2- to 3-year-olds. (I also wrote about our fave toys for 1-year-olds a couple years ago.)
1 and 2. They make these 5-Minute Stories books for a lot of characters, but I started with the Winnie the Pooh ones since Otto loves the short Pooh books we have. At this age they go through stories fast and the baby books are just too simple! These stories are great--more text on the page, beginning/middle/end with moral, bigger variety of words. Of course we also have the Daniel Tiger one, and the Daniel Tiger sequel.
3. We got Otto this Kinetic Sand kit for his third birthday. Big hit. It's kind of like Play-Doh, something you can set him up with at the table and let him play with by himself for a while.
4. Magnets! We have a couple of different magnet sets and they're actually fun for much younger kids, too, which is great for us now because Lucy is always around the toys, too. We only keep baby-safe toys at reachable level and magnetic blocks like these Geomag Magicube blocks are great. These are cool cause they're made from 100% recycled plastic, too. (I received these as a sample, though this post is not sponsored.) For older kids, Geomag has this Supercolor Magnetic Sticks and Balls building set that looks really fun too!
5. Puzzles! Otto loves puzzles and we have this cute wooden set of 4 that's a couple steps up from the great wooden block puzzles for younger toddlers. He can do these by himself slowly, or with help.
6. Another unique puzzle: this alphabet giraffe is actually pretty hard! Otto loves it. Goes better with adult help.
7. These "Peek inside the..." books are so cute! Obviously we have a ton of books but this Peek Inside the Garden is one of Otto's favorites and we enjoy reading it, too. Fun to read and lots of flaps to lift, and the garden theme is easy to relate to our garden in our yard which Otto knows about.
8. Don't Break the Ice! was also a third birthday present and it's funny how much Otto loves it! You set up the board with the white plastic blocks and are supposed to take turns hammering, but Otto plays it by himself and just taps and hammers until the blocks all fall. Bonus: Lucy cracks up when the ice breaks!
9 and 10. We love Daniel Tiger over here. It's the only TV Otto watches and the lessons in it are actually helpful for parenting lessons. He doesn't watch very often, but we have this trolley and Daniel Tiger character set in the living room and read the books and talk about Daniel plenty. The trolley and characters were Otto's big brother gift when Lucy was born (when he was 2 years 4 months) and he still loves them a year later. The trolley moves, talks, dings, etc. and entertains Lucy, too.
Otto still loves the basics too, like the Duplos and Play-Doh and coloring, but it's always nice when one of the different things we get for him is a hit.
