These 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...
Making sculptures and training fine motor skills. Also ideal as a desk toy and a wonderful decoration. These fantastic building blocks open new possibilities in building and creating, in combination...
Your child is the captain of these vessels, as they sail the Seven Seas -- rolling along on any smooth surface! Included on board each is a captain of the...
The small Mixed Forest is perfect in combination with our building blocks. Perfect to combine with: Grimm's Houses, Geo-Blocks, Small Bobbins, and 7 Friends Authentic Grimm's Mixed Forest Toy Details:...
These rugged vehicles are impressive, simple in design, and easy to load. They work quite well off-road and are suitable for rides in the countryside. Vehicles don’t need a full...
Large Water Waves Stacker is a unique, clever, and versatile Waldorf-inspired stacking and nesting puzzle/toy, hand carved from a single piece of wood. These nesting waves represent the element of...
Grimm's Large Convertible Car and the two Rainbow Friends will become loyal companions of your child and over time inspire many adventures both big and small, going beyond the boundaries of...
This tall and colorful stacking toy features 10 brightly colored rings on a blue base with a natural wooden dowel at its center. A classic wooden toy that grows with the child,...
Grimm’s Set of Bowls is the perfect versatile toy for your little one! Your toddler can have endless fun stacking, sorting, nesting and using the bowls for imaginary play! Authentic...
Making sculptures and training fine motor skills. Also ideal as a desk toy and a wonderful decoration. These fantastic building blocks open new possibilities in building and creating, in combination...
Grimm’s Set of Lollipop Bowls is the perfect versatile toy for your little one! Your toddler can have endless fun stacking, sorting, nesting, and using the bowls for imaginary play!...
Whether the sports car, pick-up, van, bus, or limousine, these slim classic wooden cars travel comfortably over narrow bridges (10684, 10686) and are perfectly sized for easy grasping by small...
Grimm's Large Convertible Car and the two Rainbow Friends will become loyal companions of your child and over time inspire many adventures both big and small, going beyond the boundaries of...
These rugged vehicles are impressive, simple in design, and easy to load. They work quite well off-road and are suitable for rides in the countryside. Vehicles don’t need a full...
These Grimm's wooden building boards are the perfect complement to the 12-piece rainbows, tunnels, and semicircle. So many wonderful balancing and skill games, as well as new construction projects, can be created,...
Parking Garage is the perfect addition to any BRIO World, connecting the railway and roadways together in a single destination. Each of the three levels of the Parking Garage...
Grimm’s Fire is a versatile toy perfect for your growing little one. Toddlers can use the rainbow for stacking and sorting, and as they get older your children can use...
Grimm’s Set of Bowls is the perfect versatile toy for your little one! Your toddler can have endless fun stacking, sorting, nesting and using the bowls for imaginary play! Authentic...
PlanToys Cooking Utensils is the perfect toy for fun pretend to play to encourage your little chef’s imagination and creativity! PlanToys Cooking Utensils Details: Suitable for infants 2 years+ Includes...
PlanToys 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+...
First threading game with discs and with a wooden needle for small hands. Your child can sew together six colorful circles and make pretty patterns and pieces of art on the...
A five-piece nesting house by Grimm's in rainbow colors. Stagger the pieces to create a deep chamber, or use them separately to create a house and outbuildings. Authentic Grimm's Rainbow...
This Cars work quite well off-road and are suitable for rides in the countryside. Vehicles don’t need a full car wash after that, but can easily be cleaned with a...
This open-ended game is a fun challenge for young children! The Rainbow Bowls Sorting Game comes with six colored bowls, each of which has three matching wooden pieces in the shape of...
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.