Play Time
Mima Zoom Balance Bike White
$249.99The New Mima Zoom Balance Bike is arriving just in time for the holidays. Having started as a solution to the everyday needs of modern parents in the child mobility...
Lalaboom Zippered Tote Set 48 Pieces
$44.00A transport bag with 48 educational beads and accessories different colors and shapes to develop the first notions of fine motor skills of children. 5 evolutionary stages: the child will...
Wee Gallery Woodland Alphabet Cards
$20.00Wee Gallery Woodland Alphabet Cards are the perfect gift for newborn baby, toddler, or any age in between. The high-contrast animal and jungle illustrations create a mesmerizing display for babies, while...
Goki Wooden Vehicle Dump Truck
$96.00Goki's wooden dump truck is a great toy for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of solid wood with real rubber tyres. Colored with water-based...
Goki Wooden Vehicle Breakdown Lorry
$36.00Goki's wooden breakdown lorry is a great toy for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of solid wood with real rubber tyres. Colored with...
Le Toy Van Wooden Vegetables 5 a Day Crate
$23.00A selection of wood and fabric garden vegetables in a crate. A great accessory for Honeybee market (sold separately). Age: 2 years+ Encourages creative interactive play Material: Ethically made from sustainable wood; decorated...
Bajo Wooden Toy Car with Camper
$34.00This Wooden Car with Camper vehicle set is a great way to teach children about movement, speed, forces and will bring on communication skills too through inspiring imaginative play. Taking...
Bajo Wooden Toy Car with Boat
$36.00Take your speedboat to the lake on the back of this chunky SUV/off roader. The vibrant car and detachable trailer pair well with adorable blue boat promoting fun and imagination....
Bajo Wooden Toy Car with Blocks
$26.00This small yet fun wooden toy car with blocks is great for any child. The blocks can easily be removed and put back. This little car trucks along, moving swiftly...
Bajo Wooden Toy Car Camper with Surfboard
$30.00This camper with its little cute surfboard is ready to it the beach. For all those budding beach babes, this sweet little camper will bring hours of creative play, as...
Bajo Wooden Toy Airplane
$38.00Little pilots will love making these wooden toy airplanes soar into the sky. A chunky wooden toy that's perfect for little ones to play. Sturdy enough to become a favored...
Indigo Jamm Wooden SUV Seb Pick Up Toy Truck
$70.00Indigo Jamm SUV Seb is an excellent off-road 4-wheel drive pickup that includes Farmer Fred and his trusty sheepdog Shep. SUV Seb features a removable canopy which allows for easy...
Le Toy Van Wooden Strawberry Wedding Cake
$30.00Let's celebrate! Tuck into this delicious classic three-tier wedding cake, adorned with lashings of cream with a strawberry motif inside and out. The lower and mid-tier sections come in 4 detachable...
Guidecraft Wooden Stackers River Stones
$46.00Bring the instinctive wonder that children have for nature into the classroom with an organic, wooden building block set. The Wood Stackers River Stones invite children to build and stack...
Wee Gallery Wooden Stacker Panda
$28.00This sweet panda is ready to stack like this and stack like that! These Wood Stackers are designed to help the baby's hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and imagination with the added...
Wee Gallery Wooden Stacker Cat
$26.00This sweet cat is ready to stack like this and stack like that! These Wood Stackers are designed to help the baby's hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and imagination with the added...
Wee Gallery Wooden Stacker Bear
$28.00This sweet bear is ready to stack like this and stack like that! These Wood Stackers are designed to help the baby's hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and imagination with the added...
Bajo Wooden Sheep Sorter
$58.00Little animal lovers will truly appreciate this beautiful and natural puzzle featuring chunky sheep. Age: 18 months+ Set of 7 playful sheep of varying sizes down to the smallest Dimension: 17...
Indigo Jamm Wooden Sammy Steam Toy Train
$80.00Indigo Jamm Sammy Steam Train is a large solid built push-along train and passenger carriage. Complete with three removable wooden passengers that can be assigned to their correct colored and...
Indigo Jamm Wooden Rocket Ricky
$46.00Blast off with this amazing wooden toy rocket with movable rocket flames. Complete with two colorful removable wooden spacemen. Age: 18 months+ Made of sustainable rubberwood. Dimension: L20cm x H10cm x...
Sabo Concept Wooden Rainbow Toy Mustard
$58.00This set of 7 gorgeous rainbow stacking elements come nested inside each other. Let the creativity of your child grow as they can building mazes and tunnels for cars, making mountains and...
Sabo Concept Wooden Rainbow Toy Marsala
$58.00This set of 7 gorgeous rainbow stacking elements come nested inside each other. Let the creativity of your child grow as they can building mazes and tunnels for cars, making mountains and...
Janod Wooden Pure Push Along Toy
$30.00A lovely push-toy in very soft and contemporary colors featuring cute animals to support children as they learn to walk. When rolled, the balls inside become animated and jingle 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.