Picking the right toy or gift for a toddler isn’t as easy as it seems. You must take care to choose safe items and those that help in the development of the toddler. To simplify your task, here are some excellent tips to help you with your job.
Choose Toys That Disassemble
If you have a toddler, then you must know that they enjoy dismantling and reassembling their toys. When selecting a toy to get for a toddler, make sure you pick one that you can pull apart and build up with ease. That is why these types of toys are on our list of gifts guide.
Most of these toys are multi-functional in their use. Toys of this nature include interlocking blocks and nesting blocks. With interlocking blocks, your toddler can decide to build a zoo, a road, a spaceship, or a bridge.
The great thing about these toys is that they help in improving the logical thinking and problem-solving skills of your toddler.
Choose Toys that aid in developing and mastering different skills
When you allow your toddler to play with a specific toy, they end up practicing a skill over and over. So, the first question you must answer, what skill will this toy help my toddler develop?
Toys that help in developing skills include:
- Nesting blocks or cups
- Puzzles
- Paint, crayon, clay, and other art materials
- Shape-sorters
These toys help your toddler work on their own, express creativity, and figure things out on their own. Some of the skills they help develop are:
- Motor skills through repeated use of small muscles in fingers and hands
- Logical thinking skills by solving problems on their own
- Hand-eye coordination
- Spatial relation skills by fitting objects together
Look for toys that spark your child’s imagination.
The toys you select must be those that spark the imagination of your toddler. For a 3-year old, this is a crucial stage in their life. At this point, they start engaging in various actions like role-playing in which they imagine being someone else.
Toddlers enjoy using objects to represent the role they are playing or a scene from the story they are recreating. Toys that fit into this category include:
- Stuffed animals
- Action figures
- Dress-up clothing
- Plastic plates
- Clocks
- Trucks and trains
- Dolls
- Toy tools
- Dollhouses
You can also get a cardboard box that your toddler can imagine as a pirate ship, tunnel, house, or barn. Role-playing and pretend play are activities that help your toddler develop the skill to recreate events in a logical order, literacy skills, and problem-solving skills.
Look for Gifts that resemble the real object
At this age, you want your toddler to identify objects with ease. At the same time, you want both your toddler and the actual objects to remain safe. To help you out of your dilemma, you can purchase toys that look like the real items.
You can purchase various toys such as
- Toy phones
- Musical instruments
- Toy keys
- Mops
- Plastic food and dishes
- Dress-up clothes
- Child-size brooms
As your toddler develops an interest in playing with things like your cell phone, car keys, remotes, and so on, you can get the toy-version of these items. They simply want to act like an adult, so having matching items will prevent them from picking up your possessions randomly.
Look for toys that are suitable for Adults and Toddlers
If you want to spend more quality time with your toddler, why not get a toy that is suitable for cross-generational participation?
Board games are excellent examples of toys that fit into this category. These help in developing a solid relationship with the toddler while improving their matching, listening, memory, and counting skills.
Another great benefit of these games or toys is that they help the toddler develop discipline. This is noticeable in their ability to abide by the rules of the game. Finally, your toddler can grow into an excellent sportsperson by learning what it feels like to win or lose and how to react appropriately.
It Must Promote Learning
When giving a gift to a toddler, it is easy to focus on the fun aspect of the gift. These are gifts or toys that make noises or light up during use. In truth, some of the best gifts for a toddler are toys that encourage learning.
These toys encourage the child to think and solve problems. At their age, they have the opportunity to learn things much faster, so you must make the most of it. Magnetic alphabet letters are one example of toys that encourage learning.
Our Best Picks for Toys and Gifts for Toddlers
If you want a head start when you decide to pick out a toy or gift for your toddler, here are some excellent products to try:
Code ‘n Learn Kinderbot
The fun phrases and superb lighting effects on the Kinderbot do an excellent job of keeping your toddler interested. The phrases from the Kinderbot will help your toddler learn a lot about shapes and colors in no time.
The toy also teaches some basic math concepts and will remain useful as your toddler grows. One feature that makes it worthwhile is the ‘program’ feature. This lets the Kinderbot make specific movements depending on the input code.
Transforming Fire Truck
Firefighters are real-life superheroes, and this transforming fire truck can teach your toddler about them from an early stage. The child can role-play different scenarios where a fire breaks out and save the day alongside the Rescue Heroes.
The toy features alarm sounds, flashing emergency lights, mechanical arm claw, and a hose lever. Pulling on the handle on the truck can grant the child access to some of these excellent features. They can also revert the truck to its original mode when the rescue is complete.
Monster Trucks Downhill Race & Go Play Set
This is a fun racing set that is fun for both the winner and loser. The goal while playing with this toy set is to get your vehicle into the trophy cup first. The vehicle that loses is shot off course by a Crash Ramp.
Each set features a Hot Wheels monster truck and a Hot Wheels car. Nevertheless, you still have the option of using one of your pre-owned vehicles.
To read more on topics like this, check out the lifestyle category.
Hey guys it’s Andrew! I am a writer, a blogger, and a curious human being full of ideas. I remember as a teenager going to my local store to grab a freshly published magazine about the ins and outs of the online business world.
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