Play Time
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Sitting Cat
$12.00Holztiger’s Sitting Cat is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic paint Made in Europe Suitable...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Drake Swimming
$12.00Holztiger’s DrakeSwimming is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic paint Dimensions: 2.6 ×...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Duck
$12.00Holztiger’s Duck is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic paint Dimensions: 2.3 ×...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Sitting Hare
$12.00Holztiger’s Hare Sitting is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic paint Dimensions: 1.7 ×...
Candylab Candylab Rio Grande Mule Toy Car
$12.00If you’re looking to go on an adventure through wild and remote areas of New Mexico our Mule Rio Grande will get you exactly where you need to go. Alternatively,...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Eagle Owl
$12.00Holztiger’s Eagle Owl is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic paint Dimensions: 2.0 ×...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Raccoon
$12.00Holztiger’s racoon is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play. Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic paint Dimensions: 9.3 x...
Maileg Maileg Micro Babysitter Toy Polka Dots
$12.00With this babysitter, it is easy to bring your little friends to sleep. The base is made of metal and covered by the most lovely dotted fabric. The chair fits...
Maileg Maileg Miniature Coffee Table Toy
$12.00Coffee table made of FSC wood and painted in anthracite color. It fits perfectly together with the couch and into the Maileg dollhouse. The table is delivered flat packed and...
Eco-Kids Egg Coloring Kit
$12.00Kit includes 3 powder-based coloring packets made with all-natural vegetable & plant extracts with dried vinegar; grass seeds; 3 coconut husk pucks (just add water to make soil). Age: 6...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Hare Upright ...
$12.00Holztiger’s Hare with Upright Ears is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Suitable for children 3 Years+ Made of hardwood Colored...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Robin
$12.00Holztiger’s Robin is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic paint Made in Europe Suitable for...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Hare with Car...
$12.00Holztiger’s Hare with Carrots is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Suitable for children 3 Years+ Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic...
Holztiger Holztiger Wooden Animal Drake
$12.00Holztiger’s Drake is a great toy animal for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of hardwood Colored with water-based acrylic paint Dimensions: 2.2 x...
Candylab Candylab Mini Drifter Zebra Toy Car
$12.00Candylab Mini Drifter Zebra is ready for the next mountain adventure this tiny truck is geared up with a 5th wheel for that flat tire that we wish we would...
Land of Dough Natural Dough Glitter Cup Sand and Sn...
$12.00These cups feature multilayered dough colors, fun surprises, and charming patterns that are sure to delight. A private paradise to call their own. Powdery white sand, small beach stones, and...
Ooly Standing Sketchbook Awesome Doodles
$12.00Sharks, spaceships and rockin’ guitars make an inviting cover to a stand-out sketchbook. The Awesome Doodles sketchbook not only has room for plenty of sketching, it will display it too!...
Ooly Sketch And Show Standing Sketchbook S...
$12.00Sugar Joy kids art sketchbook cover has delightful sweet treat designs accented with glitter that are sure to please. And Sketch and Show Standing glitter sketchbook allows you to draw...
Abrams Appleseed Book Meet the Artist: Andy Warhol
$12.95Abrams Appleseed Meet the Artist: Andy Warhol Book is packed with make-and-dos and inspiring activities for budding young artists Experiment with printing and blotted line drawings, design your own disco outfit, be...
Mudpuppy Magnetic Puzzle Land & Sea Animals
$12.99Part of the Mudpuppy to Go series, Land & Sea Animals Magnetic Puzzles provides children with a fun and easy way to puzzle on the go! The portable tri-fold portfolio...
Mudpuppy Magnetic Puzzle Magical Unicorn
$12.99Part of the Mudpuppy to Go series, Magical Unicorn Magnetic Puzzles provides children with a fun and easy way to puzzle on the go! The portable tri-fold portfolio package includes...
Eco-Kids Hopscotch Chalk
$13.00Easy to wash from sidewalks and driveways, our eggstraordinary, simply superlative, top-notch hopscotch chalk encourages outdoor exercise and loads of laughter! Chalk is half egg-shaped to accommodate children's hands and...
Jellycat Jellycat Book If I were a Lamb
$13.50If I Were a Lamb' is a leaping, springing, joyful ride through the imagination. Little lamb fans can picture being a lamb with this fun and funky board book. They...
Abrams Appleseed Book Love is a Truck
$13.99Graphically appealing two-color illustrations pair perfectly with a spare, rhythmic ode to beloved trucks of all kinds - from fire trucks to dump trucks to ice cream trucks, the sweetest...
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.