10 Best Educational Toys
“Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.” -L. Drachman
I recently posted a video of our son playing with some educational toys and many friends wanted to know where I got them and which ones we use. So without further adieu, I give you the 10 best educational toys (ages 0-5).
The 10 Best Educational Toys (ages 0-5) Click To Tweet1.) Human Body Play Sets: Our son has become very intrigued with the human body and he is loving these human body play sets. This Melissa & Doug one is great for ages two and older (although the box says 36 months and up, my daughter loves it and she is only two.
3.) Videos: Hands down if you want your child to start learning another language, or maybe your little one has a speech delay, then the Signing Time videos are amazing!! Our kids have LOVED them! There is Baby Signing Time which is great for ages 0 and up.
There is also Signing Time for slightly older kids (although our kiddos watched these at about 1 year). It is totally worth the investment.
4.) Puzzles: Puzzles are huge in our home. They promote critical thinking, fine motor skills, patience and is a great activity for the entire family. Melissa & Doug makes great puzzles for the younger ones. Here our some of our favorites…
For the baby this animal puzzle.
5.) Alphabet Foam Bath Letters: Keep learning fun in the tub with these numbers and letters. At first we would just work on letter recognition, now we are practicing spelling, putting letters in order as well as going over colors.
7.) Books: We LOVE to read and I could probably do an entire post on just our favorite books, but here are a few: For ages 0-2 the 100 word book is perfect. This helps just recognizing objects, practicing vocabulary, etc..
A couple authors we love for younger readers are:
Katz
8.) Learn through Art: Kids love to learn through arts and crafts, but I don’t always want to get out the paint so here are my favorite options:
and good ole’ Play Doh numbers and letters
9.) Learning Tower: You might wonder how this stool is “educational,” but it allows kids to come up to your height in the kitchen without the fear of falling off a chair so they can help you cook, bake, even do kitchen type experiments. This has been one of the best things we have in our house for the kids! You can buy a really expensive one, or you can make this IKEA hack one for way less.
10.) Our favorite toy that you may argue is not educational, but I will gladly disagree are the Snow balls! These are the best ever!!! Put them in a bucket labeled “Snow Balls” and use them as a counting tool, throwing them in the bucket one at a time. Practice gross motor skills by learning to hit a moving target. Come on folks, I guarantee everyone will want to play with these! They are soft so that they don’t hurt and I’m not gonna lie it helps get out some frustration with your kids or even your spouse!;) If you only buy one thing off this list, it needs to be these!
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*All opinions are my own, but most items have affiliate links.
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These are great recommendations! We love Boynton books, and Signing Time. The snowballs sounds like a great idea!
Thank you! Yes, the snowballs are awesome!!!
Love this list. We have few from your list but def will get magnetic blocks. Thanks for sharing.
Great! Yes, those are so fun and really great to take on the go!
Great round up Jenny! My kids used to love watching Signing Time on Netflix, its’ a great show and I didn’t know they had it for babies too, that’s neat. And yes, Melissa and Doug make the BEST stuff!
Thank you! Signing Time is seriously the best! I’ll be singing those songs till I’m 90! LOL!
I’ve watched your kiddos enjoy these awesome toys and have had more than 1 snow ball fight including the adults! So fun!
Yes! The snowballs should be in every home (kids or not)!;)
Great roundup! My 1 year old enjoys puzzles, she would love the wooden animal puzzle!
Thank you! Yes, the animal one is a great start on puzzles!
Great list!!! Love!! Love!! : )
Thanks friend! Those snowballs…yall would love them!!
The see and spell puzzles are really fun for phonics exploration. I love the counting snowballs idea 😉
Yes! Seriously those snowballs are out every day in our house!! WE love them!!
Great picks! I still have one kid in the 0-5 range and her older brother and sister love to play with her blocks, play doh, and puzzles!
Thank you! Yes, the older ones always seem to want to play with the little ones stuff!;)
Great picks! I love educational toys and these are perfect for my little man’s bday coming up!
Thank you! We honestly use these almost everyday!!
I love the idea of magnetic blocks! And my baby loves the munchkins bath alphabet.
Yes! Magnetic blocks are great!! And isn’t the bath alphabet so much fun!?
Thank you Jenny for this. I don’t plan to buy my baby any toys but educational toys. 🙂 #firstimemom
That’s awesome! Good for you! Well, these are some great ones!