Play Time
Janod Sweet Cocoon Rainbow Turtle Wooden Toy
$40.00Your child will love to walk this pretty wooden turtle with its rainbow shell composed of 6 wooden arcs of circles. The rainbows pile up at will to form an...
Janod Sweet Cocoon Tap Tap Wooden Toy
$40.00This wooden early-years toy lives up to its name! What could be more fun for little ones aged 12 months and over than picking up the pretty wooden hammer and...
Janod Sweet Cocoon Wooden Multi Activity Wa...
$92.00This beautiful multi-activity push-along walker toy is great for helping children learn to walk. It’s suitable for children aged 12 months and over and comes with an invisible, removable brake...
Janod Sweet Cocoon Xylo Roller 2 in 1 Toy
$54.00Young musicians will love this wooden xylophone! 2 in 1 toy, it is also a pull-out toy they can take everywhere from their first steps. Thanks to a rubber part,...
Bunnies By The Bay Sweet Nibble Bananas The Monkey Plush...
$38.00Bananas the Monkey is as much fun as, well, a barrel of monkeys! This 16-inch monkey stuffed animal is adorable in super soft brown Nibble Fur, and has a friendly...
Bunnies By The Bay Sweet Nibble Bunny Plush Toy Grey
$38.00Sweet Nibble Bunny is sweet, tender, and oh-my-gosh unbelievably soft. This stuffed animal has a hand-embroidered face, pink cheeks, and a big fluffy tail. Features eggnog cream and warm white fur, with...
Bunnies By The Bay Sweet Nibble Bunny Plush Toy Pink
$38.00Sweet Nibble Bunny is sweet, tender, and oh-my-gosh unbelievably soft. This stuffed animal has a hand-embroidered face, pink cheeks, and a big fluffy tail. Features rosewater pink and warm white fur, with...
Madame Alexander Sweet Smiles Kitty Light Skin Doll
$40.00This adorable 14” baby is just the right size for your child to snuggle! The baby has a soft body, a weighted bottom, and molded head, legs, and arms so...
Hape Tap Along Tambourine Musical Toy
$16.00Let the good times shake, rattle and roll! Tap your hand on the wooden play surface or rattle in one hand to make a sound like rain with the multi-colored...
Janod Tatoo ABC Buggy Cart 30 Blocks Wood
$110.00For baby’s first steps in life 30 alphabet cubes (upper and lower case letters) and numbers. An abacus to play at counting. Dimensions 43.5 x 35 x 41 cm (17.1...
Janod Tatoo Xylo Roller
$52.00Wooden and metal xylophone. 8 Metal keys. Wheels printed by heat transfer. Black rubber rings fixed on the wheels to make them silent when pulling the toy. Diatonic musical scale...
Fat Brain Toys Teething PipSquigz Loops Teal
$14.00Little explorers can’t help but get sucked into the sensory excitement of these bendy, rattly, chewy, suction-cup creations!Their vivid textures instantly inspire little fingers to grab and feel while their...
Matchstick Monkey Teething Toy Gigi Giraffe
$18.00Perfect for tiny hands to grip, these adorable teethers help to soothe your baby's sore gums. The BioCote Antimicrobial Technology helps keep germs at bay, whilst textured bumps get teething...
Fat Brain Toys Teeting PipSquigz Loops Orange
$14.00Little explorers can’t help but get sucked into the sensory excitement of these bendy, rattly, chewy, suction-cup creations!Their vivid textures instantly inspire little fingers to grab and feel while their...
Bajo The Farm Wooden Animal Set
$70.00This set contains many of the farm animals the kids know and are the perfect girth for the child’s hand to grab and play with. The packaging of this set...
Manhattan Toy Toadstool Cottage Fill and Spill Toy
$44.00A mushroom-themed fill and spill adventure. This whimsical mushroom is covered in a variety of fabric textures and offers fill and spill play for busy little ones. It comes with...
Hape Toddler Beat Box Musical toy Set
$49.00Everything needed for an afternoon Jam session! this music set of 4 different instruments is perfect for young musicians to explore and discover their talents. Ages 12+ months
Tender Leaf Toys Touch Sensory Tray
$24.00Stimulate your toddler’s senses with this Touch Sensory Tray! This set includes 4 solid wood animal shapes with different tactile patches underneath, presented on a shape sorter tray. Encourages color...
Chronicle Books TouchThinkLearn Book Colors
$16.99Introducing TouchThinkLearn books, a format unlike any other. Combining scooped-out die-cuts with raised, shaped elements, each book is designed to offer the youngest learners an irresistible opportunity to explore their...
Moover Traditional Dolls Stroller Toy
$176.00Simple and stylish, the traditional Danish-designed Dolls Pram (or Stroller is more commonly known in North America) is sturdy and dependable to keep your baby moving after taking their first...
Manhattan Toy Tree Top Adventures Activity Center
$137.00This wood activity center is packed full of exciting features! Includes 4 quadrants in the shape of a tree with a variety of activities for baby: 6 tracks with animal-themed...
Kiko+ & gg* Tsumiki Building Blocks House
$110.00Tsumiki means "building block" in Japanese. This doll-house-shaped wooden block set has beautifully soft colors. A magnetic cover conceals a magical world of shapes just waiting to be piled up,...
Tikiri Turtle Natural Rubber Rattle
$18.00This rubber rattle from the ocean buddies collection. Easy-grip for smaller hands. Each marine animal character has an enclosed rattle that creates a soft sound when shaken. Sound Toys, like...
Halilit Twirly Whirly Rainmaker Toy
$25.00The Twirly Whirly Rainbomaker is a delightful real musical instrument which creates a captivating combination of sound and colour. By turning the Rainbomaker, baby will be able to watch as...
Play is essential for children because it contributes to their intellectual, physical, emotional and social development. When children play, they exercise their creativity, develop their imagination, master their dexterity, improve their cognitive ability and build physical strength. Experts agree that the best kinds of play allow kids to set their own goals, negotiate challenges, develop and share ideas, and make their own rules.
But how can we make sure our kids are getting enough healthy, unstructured play time when they’re growing up in an overscheduled and stressful environment, when parents are overly focused on producing high academic achievers, and safety concerns prevent us from letting our kids roam around freely and unsupervised? Perhaps the best thing we can do for our kids is to make sure they have the right kinds of toys at home to make play time most rewarding.
First and foremost is safety. Safe toys for young children are sturdy, without sharp parts or splinters, free of pinching hazards, and easy to clean. If the toy will be used by an infant, it’s important that parts aren’t small enough to become a choking hazard.
Toys must be made from non-toxic materials and coated with lead-free paints. You should steer clear of antique toys, second-hand toys and homemade toys that have not been tested and approved by a certified testing lab, or may have been produced before the current regulations governing toy manufacturing were in effect.
In addition to being safe, a good toy will match the child’s appropriate stage of development and abilities.
The best baby activity toys for infants between 0-6 months are things they can reach, grasp, suck on, shake, and make noise with. Some age-appropriate toys for little babies are squeeze toys, teething toys, soft dolls, textured balls, and board books.
Infants between 6-12 months are starting to crawl, sit up and pull themselves to a standing position. They are capable putting things in and out of containers and placing objects on top of each other. Some of the best baby activity toys for this age group are dolls, vehicles with wheels, bath toys, large beads, nesting toys, large soft blocks, wooden blocks, and push & pull toys.
As your child continues to grow, look for toys that will encourage them to explore, create, pretend, imagine, and learn from trial and error.