Ideas for toys for toddlers?

CJhaughey

Our young son is approaching 2 and I think he is getting tired of the toys he has.
I was thinking that he may like some construction toys as he seems to like making his Brio railway.
Duplo sprang to mind but it seems to be not that common these days or else it seems to be mainly premade figures and not much in the way of construction.
Have any other parents got suggestions for toys? I have also considered sticklebricks as well.

silverharp

Our little guy has just turned 2 and we got him the Brio railway which he loves. He doesn't do much with the lego, I'd say they are more for 3-4 year olds. I don't think you will find 1 toy that will hold their attention long.

One little thing he likes is a set of traffic lights with a button on top to change the sequence. Maybe the construction vehicles with some kind of junction or railway barriers would be a good combo.

Nevyn

At the age of 2 you should be looking to build concentration, motorskills in thier hands, memory and vocab and lots and lots of fun and giggles.

So chunky crayons,
colouring books,
large pieces of paper,
playdoh,
large lego,
bliuding blocks with pictures on them,
blocks that form a picture when arranged correctly,
large floor jigsaws,
the first jigsaw that are take out the figures and but them back in again.

There is nothing like good fashioned wooden blocks and buliding walls and towers and letting them go crash

CJhaughey

He has several jigsaws and tbh he was doing them a while ago and has got bored of them, we also got him some of the montessori block that have cylinders of varying sizes and depths that fit into the long wooden block, but again he has gone past these now, playdoh was popular but seemed to dry up very quickly.
I might try him with some modelling clay and old clothes;)
but I get the feeling that he wants to build something the way he starts playing with his train set.

Ickle Magoo

My son is nearly the same age as yours & also has the attention span of a gnat, lol...his fave toys are:

chunky crayons & a big colouring-in book
giant lego (on sale in tesco's at the mo )
mini soft football
giant piece jigsaws
fire engine that makes all the noises
he has a couple of books he loves getting read to him & playing "spot the..." with
more than anything tho, he just loves being outside & looking at leaves, snails, pavements, you name it! Not easy amusing them for any length of time!

deisemum

I'm a childminder and I've most toys on the market. It is so easy to just buy toys and once they start going to birthday parties, as well as christmas, birthdays, indulgent relations it's not long before the house is over run with toys and guess who's left doing most of the picking up and that was before I became a childminder, now it's worse. Guess what most of them are rarely played with, the children seem to prefer the same few things, the brio/thomas the tank train set, fisher price garage (big one) and rolling cars down it, workbench, kitchen (toy), football, building blocks, action man and one or two other things. If I was starting all over again with my own I'd only buy a small fraction of what they have.

I've our train set in 2 large crates as it's a combination of different wooden sets (brio/elc/tesco-Brio is the best) and it is by far the best toy that crossed my door. It was added to gradually over a couple of birthday, christmas (good gift idea for doting grandparent who asks what grandson wants for birthday, christmas) as the carriages can be expensive, . When they play with it it can keep them amused for hours. They don't fight over it and I could have 6 children playing with it from the small ones to my own bigger lads. You should hear the conversations the carriages have with each other. It also helps the smaller ones co-ordination trying to connect track pieces, build bridges, crossings etc

Just a tip on playdough, if you make your own it doesn't dry out as quickly as the manufactured type. There are a couple of different recipes that are quick and easy to make, also safe if swallowed and extremely cheap to make and don't have the horrible chemical smell. The cold mix one should last about a week, the cooked one lasts about a month if sealed.

Doing things like playdough or drawing are calming activities and helps develop hand and eye co-ordination, develop spatial awareness, if a friend is with your DS it also helps develop social skills,

Here are some simple things that children love playing with and are also very good as a method of introducing basic maths and science to children. Water and sand.

If you have a baby bath or a washing basin put a couple of inches of water and washing up liquid into it. Children can spend ages playing with either water or sand. They love filling up containers and pouring it back into the basin, especially different types of containers or pouring through sieves, also blowing bubbles through straws, washing ducks, Action Man, the list goes on, same with sand.


It would be great if there were toy libraries here like there are in the UK, you could just borrow a toy for a short period especially as children quickly lose interest in a lot of toys.

tyney

both my lads go mad for k-nex. I'm not sure, but I think there are 2 types. there seems to be a larger pieced version for the hungrier babies. Stickle bricks are nasty when you stand on them in your bare feet.

Nevyn

deisemum wrote:

It would be great if there were toy libraries here like there are in the UK, you could just borrow a toy for a short period especially as children quickly lose interest in a lot of toys.

Some places do have them, there are two in the dublin 15 area, again the local baby nurse should know of them.