Play Time
Plushies Softie Bear 16 Inch
$28.00Softie bear is a traditional teddy bear with a warm brown fur coat, button nose, and round facial features. Made from buttery soft materials and standing at 16 inches tall,...
Bear Company Some Bunny Loves You
$44.00White Plush Stuffed Animal Bunny Rabbit, Adorable, Cuddly, Great Gift for Bunny Lovers of All Ages. Size: 12 inches Suitable for 1 year+
Jellycat Soother Bashful Blue Bunny
$28.00Little Jellycat offers bunny security as standard, so when your little one’s not snuggling up to their Bashful Blue Bunny Soother, it’s being looked after by a fluffy expert! This...
Sophie La Giraffe Sophie Bath Book
$18.00The Sophie Bath Book by Calisson is the perfect addition to the tub to make bath time fun! Features: Book consists of 8 pages filled with different kinds of...
Le Toy Van Sophie's Wooden Car
$32.00A pretty pink wooden car scaled for Le Toy Van dolls. Includes stylish matching luggage! Age: 3 years+ Made from durable, sustainable wood to allow long-lasting fun, whilst caring for...
Le Toy Van Sophie's Wooden Doll House
$250.00Sophie's Doll House includes a wooden staircase that plays the role of room divider. Fully painted and decorated, the wallpaper is full of details children love to spot. It also...
Kid O Sort a Shape House Toy
$35.00Kid O’s Sort-a-Shape House is the perfect toy to help your little one practice color and shape sorting! Suitable for infants 1 year+ Match the forms to assemble doors, a...
Wide-Eyed Edition Sounds of Nature: World of Forests Book
$22.99The Sounds of Nature series brings the natural world to life with the sounds of real animals recorded in the wild. Travel the world with the Sounds of Nature series –...
Eeboo Spanish Bingo Language Game
$22.00Spanish words describing nature, vehicles, market, animals, clothing, and colors are learned as players match them to their cards. A pronunciation guide is included for each of the 48 Spanish...
Tonies Spanish Lullabies Audio Play Figurine
$17.99Enjoy this beautiful and soothing collection of traditional Spanish lullabies as you are gently lulled to sleep. Tonies Spanish Lullabies Audio Play Figurine Details: Age: 3 years+ Includes 15 Songs...
Tonies Spanish Playtime Songs Audio Play Fig...
$17.99It’s time to dance! These vibrant songs will get you up and moving as we hear some of the best traditional Spanish playtime songs! Tonies Spanish Playtime Songs Audio...
Speedy Monkey Speedy Monkey Rainbow Abacus Toy
$28.00The colorful wooden Speedy Monkey Rainbow Abacus encourages your little one to develop hand-eye coordination, and color differentiation and improve creativity. Attract the toddler's attention by smoothly sliding the wooden...
Manhattan Toy Spiral Activity Space Rocket
$26.00Spiral features space-themed fun from end-to-end, featuring a rocket with baby-safe mirror and crescent moon. Three dangling attachments include a crinkle star with a flexible elastic cord, stars with textured...
Fat Brain Toys SpiroKu
$20.00This is not a typical stack-and-nest toy. The weirdly-shaped pieces can be stacked and arranged any way you want. The vibrant colors are fascinating. The unique contours are inspiring! But...
Madame Alexander Splash and Play Mermaid Princess Doll
$56.00The Splash and Play Mermaid Princess Doll will be your child's bestie at the beach or in the bath! Fully submersible, they float and drip-dry. This Mermaid Princess is dressed in a sea-themed...
Madame Alexander Splash and Play Seahorse Doll
$56.00The Splash and Play Seahorse Doll will be your child's bestie at the beach or in the bath! Fully submersible, they float and drip-dry. This soft and cuddly doll wears a striped seahorse...
Guidecraft Stackable Wooden Cylinder Steps
$50.00Stackable, colorful Cylinder Steps encourage fine motor and identification skills while exploring seriation and color gradients. Five rows of appealing, rubberwood cylinders in increasing size and transitioning colors are easy-to-grasp...
Tender Leaf Toys Stacking Coral Reefs
$50.00A wooden stacking under the sea rock with 18 wonderfully colored sea creatures including a shrimp, a squid, a crab, 2 eels, a sea urchin, a sea anemone, a starfish,...
Tender Leaf Toys Stacking Forest
$46.00A wooden stacking tree trunk with 19 stylishly colored animals and plants including an owl, a bat, a wolf, a squirrel, a woodpecker, an acorn, a mummy pig with her...
Hape Stacking Music Toy Set
$38.00Your little musician will create wonderful music and explore melody and rhythm with this Stacking Music Set by Hape! Children can stack differently sized blocks in any way they wish...
Guidecraft Stacking Rainbow Pyramid
$36.00Six hardwood stacking squares feature inset-colored plexi for stacking, sorting, building, sequencing and creating imaginative, colorful constructions! Doubles as a stand-alone manipulative or an addition to hardwood block construction. Hardwood...
Le Toy Van Star Beauty Bag
$40.00The Star Beauty Bag is a set of fabric beauty bag complete with wooden accessories. Inside the cosmetics bag, you'll find an assortment of wooden accessories including a vintage perfume bottle...
Guidecraft Starter Triangle Fractions
$30.00Developing minds increase their understanding of numbers and one-to-one correspondence sorting the tactile fraction shapes of Starter Triangle Fractions. Colorful rubberwood shapes are in the quarter, third, half and whole...
Hape Stay Put Rattle Set
$16.00Babies will be enchanted by the Stay-put Rattle Set’s differing sounds, bright colors, and aquatic animals. Moreover, with their handy suction cups, playtime is possible anywhere, anytime! Age: 0+ Months...
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.