Play Time
Jellycat Jellycat Ring Rattle Unicorn
$15.00Soft and soothing in gentle sage, the texture treat! This doughnut-shaped rattle has a gently jingling tum! Take this poppet along for buggy adventures! Suitable from birth Made from 100%...
Jellycat Jellycat Ring Rattle Black and Cream ...
$15.00Soft and soothing in gentle sage, the texture treat! This doughnut-shaped rattle has a gently jingling tum! Take this poppet along for buggy adventures! Suitable from birth Made from 100%...
Jellycat Jellycat Vivacious Vegetables Sweetcorn
$15.00Vivacious Vegetable Sweetcorn is all dressed up in fresh field fashion! Sunshine-yellow, with bobble-soft kernels, this cuddly cob wears a stretchy green husk jacket. Just the thing for the summer...
Jellycat Jellycat Vivacious Vegetables Carrot
$15.00Cordy, colorful, cute, and kooky, that's Vivacious Vegetable Carrot! Gorgeously textured and squeezably soft, this bright orange buddy has a punky green leaf-do! A veggie with plenty of energy, this...
Jellycat Jellycat Vivacious Vegetables Eggplant
$15.00Vivacious Vegetable Egg Plant just arrived in a very special veg box! Stretchy-soft in blush plum fur, with a sweet friendly smile and a green stalk hat, this one is...
Jellycat Jellycat Bashful Small Donkey
$15.00Time for a trot with this fuzzy, squashy donkey! Hee-haw! That’s Bashful Donkey chuckling. He’s a practical joker who loves to play pranks! He’s a softy though, in squashy...
Jellycat Jellycat Amuseable Heart
$15.00 – $25.00How about a heart-to-heart? Who wouldn't want to give Amuseable Heart a big squeeze? This fluffy, sentimental softy was just made for hugging, with cordy feet like plump little coals...
Jellycat Jellycat Vivacious Vegetables Pea
$15.00Enjoy one of your 5-a-day with the Jellycat Vivacious Vegetable Pea! With a soft green velvety pod and a black stitch detail smile, this veggie will be your new favorite...
PlanToys PlanToys My First Phone
$16.00Get a call with the PlanToys Phone! A magnifier screen and a colorful beaded dial pad make a wonderful toy for interactive play and help to develop children’s dexterity and...
PlanToys PlanToys Sailing Boat Penguin
$16.00PlanToys Sailing Boat Penguin is the perfect toy for fun bath-time play to encourage your little one's imaginative play and creativity! PlanToys Sailing Boat Penguin Details: Suitable for infants 12m+...
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...
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...
PlanToys PlanToys Sailing Boat Polar Bear
$16.00PlanToys Sailing Boat Polar Bear is the perfect toy for fun bath-time play to encourage your little one's imaginative play and creativity! PlanToys Sailing Boat Polar Bear Details: Suitable for...
Rubbabu Mascot Toy Car
$16.00The Rubbabu Mascot Car is an easy-to-hold, easy-to-roll car. With a cute rounded design, in bright colors, this 5" high car is available in many colors and is popular in toy,...
Mudpuppy Ring Flashcards Spanish To English
$16.00Encourage the love of language with these colorful Spanish to English flashcards. Each double-sided card features charming illustrations of 26 basic Spanish and English nouns. The re-closable ring makes these...
Mudpuppy Ring Flashcards Counting
$16.00Make counting fun with Mudpuppy's Counting Ring Flash Cards, which feature 20 double-sided cards with numbers on one side and a corresponding illustration with the same number of objects or...
Mudpuppy Ring Flashcards My ABC's
$16.00These flashcards will help children learn their ABCs using colorful pictures! The back of the card pictures uppercase letters. Use as flashcards, practice sorting by color or type, or separate...
Mudpuppy Ring Flashcard Little Learner
$16.00Little Learner Ring Flash Cards from Mudpuppy teach children age 1 years+ colors, shapes, and numbers with modern, high-contrast artwork. The re-closable ring makes these sturdy flashcards convenient for on-the-go...
Manhattan Toy My UFO
$16.00My UFO will instantly abduct baby's attention, with bright colors and a rotating bottom half that clicks. The internal rattle ball will keep your young one occupied for hours. This...
Wee Gallery Art Cards for Baby Black and White Co...
$16.00Babies are fascinated with black-and-white designs. Right from the start, these art cards begin developing a baby’s visual perception. Printed on sturdy board book material, these cards will stand up...
Wee Gallery Art Cards for Baby Original Collection
$16.00Babies are fascinated with black-and-white designs. Right from the start, these art cards begin developing a baby’s visual perception. Printed on sturdy board book material, these cards will stand up...
Wee Gallery Art Cards for Baby Ocean
$16.00Babies are fascinated with black-and-white designs. Right from the start, these art cards begin developing a baby’s visual perception. Printed on sturdy board, these cards will stand up to baby's...
Wee Gallery Art Cards for Baby Rainforest Collection
$16.00Babies are fascinated with black-and-white designs. Right from the start, these art cards begin developing a baby’s visual perception. Printed on sturdy board book material, these cards will stand up...
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.