Play Time
Malarkey Stack N Chew Pastel
$26.00The Stack N Chew Mini Cube Pastel is a developmental teething toy. It's BPA-Free and made of food-grade silicone making it safe for baby's tender gums. The flexible holes help...
Guidecraft Stackable Wooden Cylinder Steps
$50.00Stackable, colorful Cylinder Steps encourage fine motor and identification skills while exploring seriation and color gradients. Five rows of appealing, rubberwood cylinders in increasing size and transitioning colors are easy-to-grasp...
Tender Leaf Toys Stacking Coral Reefs
$50.00A wooden stacking under the sea rock with 18 wonderfully colored sea creatures including a shrimp, a squid, a crab, 2 eels, a sea urchin, a sea anemone, a starfish,...
Tender Leaf Toys Stacking Forest
$46.00A wooden stacking tree trunk with 19 stylishly colored animals and plants including an owl, a bat, a wolf, a squirrel, a woodpecker, an acorn, a mummy pig with her...
Hape Stacking Music Toy Set
$38.00Your little musician will create wonderful music and explore melody and rhythm with this Stacking Music Set by Hape! Children can stack differently sized blocks in any way they wish...
Guidecraft Stacking Rainbow Pyramid
$36.00Six hardwood stacking squares feature inset-colored plexi for stacking, sorting, building, sequencing and creating imaginative, colorful constructions! Doubles as a stand-alone manipulative or an addition to hardwood block construction. Hardwood...
Fat Brain Toys Stacking SpinAgain
$38.00It's a stacking toy with a spin—literally!Drop the vibrant discs onto the threaded corkscrew pole and go ooooh as they spin fast and smooth to settle onto the reversible base....
Fat Brain Toys Stacking Suction Kupz
$22.00Stack, roll, stick, and sip! Each of these six colorful, squishy cups features a suction cup on the bottom, a suctioning brim at the top, plus endless creative-play possibilities all...
Fat Brain Toys Stacking Tobbles Neo
$30.00Fat Brain Toys Tobbles is the perfect toy for your creative & curious little one! Tobbles is multi-use a toy with limitless possibilities; this toy can stack, spin, wiggle, 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!...
Le Toy Van Star Beauty Bag
$40.00The Star Beauty Bag is a set of fabric beauty bag complete with wooden accessories. Inside the cosmetics bag, you'll find an assortment of wooden accessories including a vintage perfume bottle...
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...
Hape Stay Put Rattle Set
$16.00Babies will be enchanted by the Stay-put Rattle Set’s differing sounds, bright colors, and aquatic animals. Moreover, with their handy suction cups, playtime is possible anywhere, anytime! Age: 0+ Months...
Brio Steam Train and Tunnel
$30.00The BRIO World Steam Train & Tunnel is beautifully crafted with a classic design and wooden details. The golden age of the toy train is back as this handsome steam...
Steiff Steiff Musical Pull Toy Hoppie Rabbit
$46.00Hoppie Rabbit is one of the best-selling styles for children, and she’s now available in a music box version for infants. Pull her string, and delight your baby with a...
Steiff Steiff Musical Pull Toy Jimmy Teddy Bear
$46.00Jimmy, one of our most popular Teddy bear designs for children, now comes in styles that are designed with babies in mind. Pull the string on our musical version of...
Steiff Steiff Rocking Animal Riding Toy Fran...
$625.00Steiff Rocking Animal Riding Toy Franzi Pony is beautifully designed from valuable woven plush, each with intricate hand-airbrushed accents, our Rocking Animals withstand up to 330 pounds because the toy...
Steiff Steiff Rocking Animal Riding Toy Leo ...
$625.00Steiff Rocking Animal Riding Toy Leo Lion is beautifully designed from valuable woven plush, each with intricate hand-airbrushed accents, our Rocking Animals withstand up to 330 pounds because the toy...
Steiff Steiff Unica Unicorn Plush Toy 14 inches
$48.00Steiff Unica Unicorn is a fantasy animal that makes fun a reality for all ages! The newly redesigned version of this favorite animal is handmade from superior-quality white plush fabric....
Grapat Stick Gnomes Set
$46.00These sticks can be gnomes, goblins, fantastic creatures, trees, animals, or anything else the child imagines because the open-ended toys give children the chance to become what is necessary according...
Laurence King Publishing Stickyscapes at the Museum Sticker Book
$10.99Take a sticky trip to the museum! Stickyscapes at the Museum includes an 8-page sticker booklet, brimming with over 100 stickers; and a huge, double-sided fold-out panoramic scene for you...
Laurence King Publishing Stickyscapes London Sticker Book
$14.95Sticker, learn, and play! Create your own real and imaginary London with over 100 stickers that will bring this panoramic play scene to life.One side represents actual, present-day London, while...
Laurence King Publishing Stickyscapes Paris Sticker Book
$14.95Sticker, learn, and play! Create your own real and imaginary Paris with over 100 stickers that will bring this panoramic play scene to life.One side represents actual, present-day Paris, while...
Laurence King Publishing Stickyscapes Superheroes Sticker Book
$10.99Try out your superpowers with this superhero sticker book! This astonishing double-sided panoramic play scene folds out to a length of four feet and contains a superheroes' cityscape on one...
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.