Play Time
BeginAgain Color N Eggs Bilingual Puzzle
$12.00The Color N Eggs Puzzle is a wooden puzzle, language learning toy, and character play set all in one! The chicken characters are great for inspiring storytelling and introducing colors in...
BeginAgain Dog Family Bilingual Color Puzzle
$12.00The Dog Family Puzzle is a wooden puzzle, learning toy, and character play set all in one! The dog characters are great for inspiring storytelling and introducing colors in both English...
PlanToys PlanToys My First Camera Orchard
$15.00Get picture-perfect views of your surroundings with this PlanToys camera. Point, focus, and click the camera and see the different images through the kaleidoscope lens! Age: 18 months+ With a...
PlanToys PlanToys Sailing Boat Seal
$16.00PlanToys Sailing Boat Seal is the perfect toy for fun bath-time play to encourage your little ones' imaginative play and creativity! PlanToys Sailing Boat Seal Details: Suitable for infants 12m+ Features...
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+...
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...
Janod Sound Camera Wood
$16.00A camera just like the grown-ups! camera with sound, made from beech wood. It has a kaleidoscope and capture button that emits the same sound like a camera. The camera...
Guidecraft Screw Block
$16.00This simple manipulative refines hand-eye coordination, fine motor, and color-matching skills. The nylon interior ring holds the screwdriver in place when not in use. Suitable Age: 2 years+ Wooden matching...
PlanToys PlanToys My First Phone Orchard
$16.00Get a call with the PlanToys My First Phone Orchard! A magnifier screen and a colorful beaded dial pad make a wonderful toy for interactive play and help to develop...
Tender Leaf Toys Safari Binoculars
$18.00Solid wood binoculars with kaleidoscope lenses. These binoculars can be adjusted like real ones to alter the width of your eyes. Age range: 3 Years And Older Product size: 5.04...
PlanToys PlanToys Baby Car
$18.00PlanToys Baby Car is the perfect toy for your child’s small hands to push and play with! This colorful toy car has a flexible body that reacts to your baby’s touch....
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...
Grimm's Authentic Grimm's Small Convertible C...
$20.00Grimm's Small Convertible Car is simple and an off-road wooden convertible car that can take a Rainbow Friend off-roading on a jaunt into the countryside. Afterward, the vehicles do not...
Grimm's Authentic Grimm's Small Convertible C...
$20.00Grimm's Small Convertible Car is a simple and off-road wooden convertible car that can take a Rainbow Friend off-roading on a jaunt into the countryside. Afterward, the vehicles do not...
Janod Sound Telephone Wood
$20.00A ringing telephone just like the grown-ups! Telephone with sounds made from beech wood. It comes with 7 soft plastic sound keys: home key, email, alarm, ring, camera, settings, and...
PlanToys PlanToys Infant Wooden Sensory Blocks
$20.00PlanToys wooden set of Sensory Blocks help young children develop their senses of touch, hearing, and seeing. Each cube is based on the 35 mm unit measure. There are...
Janod Lapin Carrot Wooden Car
$20.00With wobbly wheels that have rubber grippers and a bobbly head that moves with the car, the Janod Rabbit Carrot Car is a fun way to encourage motor skills and...
Janod Lapin Wooden Stackable Roly Poly Rabbit
$20.00A rabbit to reassemble by stacking the different wooden pieces to create a lovely roly-poly toy. A ring with colorful balls that happily ring out when the rabbit moves! The...
Grimm's Authentic Grimm's Beads Grasper Natural
$22.00A beautifully natural grasping toy to keep the baby's interest. The beads--held together by an elasticized string--can be safely moved about to provide a tactile experience. Feels so great to children...
Janod Wood Essentials Fractions
$22.00An early learning toy that is ideal for becoming familiar with fractions, a simple mathematical concept, while having fun. Once the child places 1, 2, 3 or 4 pieces on...
PlanToys PlanToys Triangle Matching Puzzle
$22.00Learn about basic shapes: Triangle. This knob puzzle helps develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination while tracing each shape and then placing it back in its place Can...
PlanToys PlanToys Kaleidoscope Camera Orange
$22.00PlanToys My First Camera is the perfect toy to inspire your little photographer! Point, Focus & click the camera and see different images through the kaleidoscope lens! PlanToys My First Camera...
Bajo Wooden Classic School Bus Yellow
$22.00This bright yellow bus is perfect for playtime and its little windows provide a comfortable grip for little hands! Made for ages 1+ years and up Size: 5"x2"x3"
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.