In this ports you will find the best educational toys for toddlers recommended by a School Psychologist.
If you know me, then you know that education is a really big deal in our family. Partially because I’ve worked in the educational field for 8 years, with an educational background in School Psychology.
Now that Kyla is a toddler, I care that she plays with the best educational toys for toddlers! Since we love and care about education in our home, I want to share the best educational toys for toddlers with you.
These little ones grow so fast, and their learning is always at their pace, but if we can give them the tools at this age to enhance their learning and development, they will be ready for kindergarten just before we know it!
We want to set our children up for success and get them to play individually and in groups. Moreover, enhance their vocabulary and social skills, work on pretend play, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, creativity and imagination, sounds, letters, and numbers. Pretty much everything that prepares them to be successful kiddos in the classroom (even if you home school)!
If you haven’t heard much about my story, you can find it here. Yes, I am obsessed with learning, teaching, growing, helping, empowering, and everything educational!!
Now that you know I’ve been in education 8 years, I am sharing the best educational toys for toddlers out there, and will always add new toys I find. Here are the THE BEST EDUCATIONAL TOYS FOR TODDLERS!
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you decide to purchase through my links at no cost to you. Please read my full disclosure page here or on my website.
Best Educational Toys for Toddlers that You Will Want Your Toddler to Have:
-Pretend Play Toys-
Animal Toys
Whether you have a little boy or girl, it is never too early to start pointing to objects and naming them. As a school psychologist, I have sat in many meetings where the child was delayed in their speech. The first thing that parents were asked was, “Do you point and name objects with your child.”
Unfortunately, many parents said no and did not realize the importance. You can do this with almost everything, but especially animals when your child is one and a half and definitely by two. While naming animals such as bird, horse, duck, cow, fish, zebra, etc. You can start to work on where they live, what sounds they make, and how they feel with these books.
While imitating the sounds animals make, you can show how they play together, so that your child can work on situational pretend to play too. We are heavily working on animals as Kyla is almost two, and she loves making the sounds or learning new ones.
Your child will think it is SO FUN!
Baby Doll
If you have a little girl, she is probably obsessed with her babies. Having different babies is great for pretend play and teaches our little girls how to mother early on. You can have them imitate feeding the baby, rocking the baby, burping the baby, and putting the baby to rest in a quiet place.
Kyla got her first baby on her first birthday, and we have added it to the collection ever since. She now is a little mommy and takes her baby almost everywhere we go. Through pretend play, Kyla understands how to treat her babies and be soft. Since we have baby #2 on the way, I am hoping she will carry those little motherly characteristics! 🙂
Kitchen
Another way to pretend play is through having a kitchen and getting your child to pretend to make you breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You can point out different foods and get them to use plates, bowls, spoons, and pots.
It is a great time to point out the stove, cabinets, sink, water, and other places in the kitchen to increase their vocabulary skills. Children love learning new things, and through pretend play, their imaginations develop and wander!
-Exploring Creativity Toys-
One of the coolest indoor activities we are excited to try is the glow and grow terrarium kit. It is a fun little experiment that you can easily do inside with your child that is a super neat combination of what science and art look like!
It brings about their imagination and gets their mind to anticipate what will happen next. It grows a little ecosystem of its own in 3-4 days and definitely is a preparer for pre-school and kindergarten when they watch caterpillars turn into butterflies, etc.
-Musical Toys-
Great toys for sensory development, imaginative play, and creativity are through exploring musical toys. If you are constantly giving your child utensils to bang on pots and pans with, get them a drum set because they love the sounds, which increase their sensory development.
You can also find a play piano, which Kyla loves, to help your child become introduced to their artistic creative side using keys and notes that they may fall in love with one day. Music helps your child explore and discover hidden talents that can manifest through musical toys!
-Fine Motor Skill Toys-
Writing workbooks for 3+
Beginning to write letters and numbers will prepare your child for preschool when they have a lot of writing and drawing activities. This comes from practicing fine motor skills, which is their ability to write. Working on letters is a perfect way. These booklets help your child focus on pen control so that they can form lines, draw on top of a line, and stay between the lines. Completing these activities will help your child with pen control and working on letter identification. At the same time, they are increasing their fine motor skills, which will help with neat handwriting later in school.
To increase creativity while working on fine motor skills, you can avoid messes with the magnetic drawing board that comes with pens and stamps. We like to take this to church and other outings as Kyla is now working on her fine motor skills by scribbling and “making pictures.”
Puzzles
If you haven’t started your puzzle collection, you can continue to promote fine motor development, thinking, and learning skills with puzzles! Your child can use their tactile abilities with placing pieces into a puzzle that shows them how individual parts fit together as a whole.
Puzzles show your child not only how to think, concentrate, and problem solves but how to use hand and eye coordination! Working with puzzles touches on various skills that also help identify states, animals, etc.
Nontoxic Peanut Crayons
Kyla’s current obsession is with crayons! We found these non-toxic crayons that are easy for her to grasp without breaking the crayon or ripping off the paper.
It can be difficult when you want your child to work on new skills without making a mess. If it was her choice, she would color all over the walls, but we give her coloring books and blank sheets of paper so that they are safe to use and easy to clean up! 🙂
Washable Dot Markers
Washable dot markers are one of the most entertaining activities for toddlers that also increase their fine motor skills and color identification. This set comes with ten different dot markers that help your child work on their grasp. Working on their grasp is important to build their muscles, so that they can draw, color, and write their name in school.
Fine motor tool set
If you find that your child is struggling in the fine motor department or you just want to build their fine motor skills very early on, the fine motor tool set builds their muscles and works on coordination while they grasp each toy and play at the beach or in even in the bath!
We have a cute little table for Kyla that she sits at so that she can pick up her tiny toys with her scooper or squeeze water out of her bottle. She finds it very entertaining and SO MUCH FUN!!
-Physical Activity Toys-
Trampoline
Gross motor skills are your child’s ability to run, jump, and do fun physical activities. Because toddlers are at such a busy age, the trampoline can work on their physical abilities inside and outside of the home.
We live in a very hot area during summer, and because Kyla is busy, she gets a great workout by jumping on the trampoline. Toddlers are just realizing their capabilities, and being active is a great way to explore their physical talents.
Three-Wheel Scooter
Another physical activity for toddlers is the three-wheel scooters. Three-wheel scooters grow with your child and help work on their balance which is important when playing sports later in life. It is a great way to introduce coordination. Kyla is 22 months old. She is at the phase where she likes to stand on the scooter and hold it, but she is learning to push off and steer in a safe direction.
Start your child early, even if it takes a little extra patience!
Sports Toys
If your family is like ours, BIG INTO SPORTS, you can start hand-eye coordination through gross motor skills that require your child to hit a ball, throw a ball, kick a ball and bounce a ball!
When Kyla sees a ball, she loves to play catch, swing a bat, and kick a ball. Through sports, your child can work on hand-eye coordination at an early age so that you can see what sport they love and can play as soon as they are at that age to join a team!
When we play catch, I always use words such as “throw the ball to mom,” “swing the bat,” etc. You can do this to help increase your child’s vocabulary and understand what motor skills they are working on.
-Preschool Readiness Toys-
Rainbow Counting Bears
One of the longest and most popular ways of teaching your child how to count is through rainbow counting bears. This is used in most pre-schools and helps your child in the early stages of counting 0 to 100, which they will work on right away in the classroom.
Rainbow counting bears help you teach your child colors and numbers. However, you can also show them how to sort into categories with colors, add, subtract, multiply, and match with these cute counting bears.
Hooked on Phonics
Hooked on phonics has been around for ages and supports your child in the beginning stages of reading. Before children can say a word, they have to identify letters and then learn the sound that goes with that letter. Hooked on phonics has read for all ages. If your child is 1 to 2 years old, your child can learn to read at their age, starting with songs and board books. If your child is 3 to 4 years old, they can prepare for preschool by identifying letters with sounds to create words and prepare your child for early stages of reading!
There are three levels for their age group that builds one on top of another to make sure your little one increases their reading skills and abilities in no time. I also love that hooked on phonics designed by teachers and parents to create that bridge in what children need support with at home and in the classroom.
Everything is accessed online to help you get your child reading from home. Whenever we work on skills with Kyla I always buy educational toys that are above her level/ age so that she can work on skills ahead of time, which has increased her cognitive development tremendously!
Additional Educational Toys for Toddlers
As parents, sometimes we have extremely busy schedules, which makes it hard to play with our children as much as we would like, but Kiwi Co can also save you lots of time by allowing your child to explore creativity for their age through their crates and toys that can get sent to your home every month! KiwiCo has so many different projects, skills, and themes already set up for your little one to play with and obsess over!
With these best educational toys for toddlers, you can kick start your child’s Preschool and Kindergarten readiness skills whether you are busy or at home. Learning comes from the support of our parents, and I hope you found the support with your child that you are looking for!
Leave a Reply