Play Time
Maileg Maileg My First Bunny Plush Toy Light...
$26.00My first bunny in Light Blue is perfectly made for small hands. It is made in a soft plush quality and has a silver ribbon around the neck. It is packed...
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...
Jellycat Jellycat Bashful Bunny Beau
$25.00Jellycat Bashful Bunny is a popular fellow with scrummy-soft Jellycat fur and lovely long flopsy ears mean that with just one cuddle, you’ll never want to let go. Irresistibly cute...
Grimm's Authentic Grimm's Pebbles Blocks River
$23.00These pebble blocks are perfect for balance and stacking challenges, decorating scenic play, making a stony puppet show landscape, and building cairns. This four-piece set is painted in gorgeous graduated...
Tikiri Baby Brachiosaurus Natural Rubber Toy
$20.00Brachi the Baby Brachiosaurus rubber toy from the My First Dino Collection is beautifully decorated and is perfect for toddlers, both as a toy and as a teether. Age Recommendation: 12+...
Bunnies By the Bay Silly Buddy Plush Toy Bunny Blue
$19.00Lots of pacifiers lost? Say no more, this cute silly buddy will be the solution to this problem. Floppy, sloppy, silly and soft, this playful pacifier holding silly buddies, tie...
Jellycat Jellycat Tails Book Garden Blue
$18.50JellyCat’s Garden Tails Book enables your little one to play with a variety of soft and safe textures that have a variety of vibrant colors! This cuddly cloth book...
Jellycat Jellycat Blossom Bunny Dusky Blue
$18.00Jellycat Blossom Bunny is a popular fellow with scrummy-soft Jellycat fur and lovely long flopsy ears means that with just one cuddle, you’ll never want to let go. Irresistibly cute and...
CUCU Silicone Rattle Teether Giraffe
$18.00This giraffe toy is a silicone baby teething rattle and sensory teether toy, easy to hold a rattle just the right size for your baby's little hands. Shaking the rattle bell...
Jellycat Jellycat Fishiful
$17.50This squishy sweetie Jellycat Fishiful is full of printed patterns, right down to those big, bold printed eyes. That mouth is perfectly poised for blowing bubbles, which is what this fishy...
Sophie La Giraffe Bath Sophie Blue
$16.99The Sophie Bath Toy by Calisson from the Sophie La Girafa is the perfect addition to the tub to make bath time fun! Floats When squeezed, the Sophie bath toy...
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,...
Rubbabu Little Plane Rubber Toy
$10.00These Rubbabu Little Planes come in bright appealing colors with soft wheels that will delight little ones. These airplanes are sized for little hands and safe for babies and toddlers. ...
Rubbabu Choo Choo Train
$10.00The Rubbabu Choo Choo Train is the smallest sized train and some say the cutest. Made from soft rubber foam with rubber wheels. Size: 3.5" Length Safe for ages: 0+...
Rubbabu Bouncy Ball Toy Golf Blue
$6.00 – $10.00A soft, velvety ball that bounces well on floors and carpets. Made from foamed natural rubber it's squishy and safe for babies and toddlers. The tactile texture makes it fun...
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.