Play Time
Tender Leaf Toys Citrus Fractions
$26.00Teach your little ones the concept of fractions using our juicy Citrus Fractions! Use the knife to cut the round fruits in halves, quarters, or fifths! The fractions are printed...
PlanToys PlanToys Shape N Sort
$50.00PlanToys Shape and Sort helps to develop your child's hand-eye coordination, manipulation skills, and color recognition. They will love matching the shapes to the correct holes. The blocks are the...
PlanToys PlanToys Bread Loaf Set
$40.00Roleplay as the owner of a bakery with the PlanToys Bread Loaf Set! Made from PlanWood™, a realistic loaf of bread can be cut with an included bread knife. Teach little...
Le Toy Van Petit Four Wooden Cupcakes
$18.00A set of four, hand painted and individually decorated wooden cupcakes with a finishing touch of gold paint. Presented in a sweet window gift box. Age: 2 years+ Made from...
Tegu Original Pocket Pouch Magnetic Wooden...
$32.00The Pocket Pouch is the perfect introduction to the world of Tegu magnetic wooden blocks. It's just the right sized toy for the purse, restaurant, airplane, or desk. Age: 12...
Bajo Wooden Animal Gorilla
$64.00This adorable wooden Gorilla is lightweight and easy to play with. Their limbs can be moved so your child can imitate the real movements of the living endangered species. They...
le toy van Wooden Mixer Set
$50.00Bake a showstopper with this Mixer Set, featuring a moving whisk, rolling pin, and a bowl. The Set is complete with ingredients: flour, sugar, and eggs. Age: 2 years+ Role play...
Guidecraft Barnyard Activity Boxes
$56.00This 28-piece set features six wooden barns and their corresponding farm animals to help with counting, sequencing, shape-sorting, color-matching and more! Each barn has the animal screened on one side;...
Janod Sweet Cocoon Xylo Roller 2 in 1 Toy
$54.00Young musicians will love this wooden xylophone! 2 in 1 toy, it is also a pull-out toy they can take everywhere from their first steps. Thanks to a rubber part,...
PlanToys PlanToys Shape And Sort It Out
$40.00Encourage little ones to develop their ability to count differentiate between various shapes and colors and utilize their fine motor skills to properly sort the wooden pieces. Suitable Age: 12...
Sabo Concept Wooden Castle Building Blocks Light Pink
$125.00Let your child's imagination run wild with this beautiful Castle Building Blocks Set that features all the shapes needed to build their own castle, city, race track, or whatever their creative minds...
Sabo Concept Wooden Rainbow Toy Mustard
$58.00This set of 7 gorgeous rainbow stacking elements come nested inside each other. Let the creativity of your child grow as they can building mazes and tunnels for cars, making mountains and...
Sabo Concept Wooden Rainbow Toy Marsala
$58.00This set of 7 gorgeous rainbow stacking elements come nested inside each other. Let the creativity of your child grow as they can building mazes and tunnels for cars, making mountains and...
Sabo Concept Wooden Multicolored Cubes 24 Pieces Set
$54.00These 24 pieces of wooden cubes set are made out of linden tree covered with water-based paint that you can see the structure of wood through. Together with deep unconventional...
Bajo Wooden Animal Polar Bear
$64.00This adorable wooden Panda is light weight and easy to play with. Their limbs can be moved so your child can imitate the real movements of the living endangered species. They...
Goose Grease Wooden Doll The Organic Family II
$36.00The Organic Family set includes a gender neutral family, perfect for a new baby gift or nursery. Hand-chiseled from Urapán wood on an electric lathe, these classic wooden peg dolls are finished with USA-made non-toxic water-based paints....
Wee Gallery Wooden Stacker Bear
$28.00This sweet bear is ready to stack like this and stack like that! These Wood Stackers are designed to help the baby's hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and imagination with the added...
Bajo Wooden Toy Car with Boat
$36.00Take your speedboat to the lake on the back of this chunky SUV/off roader. The vibrant car and detachable trailer pair well with adorable blue boat promoting fun and imagination....
Goki Wooden Vehicle Breakdown Lorry
$36.00Goki's wooden breakdown lorry is a great toy for entertaining your little one, perfect for endless hours of imaginative play! Made of solid wood with real rubber tyres. Colored with...
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...
Tegu Magnetic Wooden Blocks Sunset 24 Piec...
$70.00Tegu’s Magnetic Wooden Blocks Sunset 24pc are the perfect toys for your little builder to create any structure by connecting the colorful blocks, the ideal set for imaginative play! Dimensions:...
Tegu Magnetic Floating Stacker Big Top
$40.00Magical forces attract and repel for unexpected stacking play. Take it all apart for construction play. Eleven stack-able, mix & match pieces. Two fun characters! Suitable for children ages 12+...
Tegu Pocket Pouch Prism Magnetic Wooden Bl...
$30.00Tegu’s Pocket Pouch Prism is the perfect travel toy for your little builder to create any structure by magnetically connecting the colorful blocks, the ideal set for imaginative play! Dimensions:...
Tegu Magnetic Wooden Blocks Tints 14 Piece...
$42.00Tegu’s Magnetic Wooden Blocks Tint 14pc is the perfect toy for your little builder to create any structure by connecting the colorful blocks, the ideal set for imaginative play! ...
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.