Choosing the right toys for your child
Choosing the right toys for your child can be quite a challenge. In many ways one can argue that in this area, less is more as long as the quality is right. Read more on how to find a good balance both for your child’s development, the environment and your wallet in this article from Becoming You.
We loved this article from Kathryn Rossiter on “10 toys every child should own”/a>.
For tips on where to purchase presents or where to rent toys, have a look at our Toys & Things listings.
Here’s Kathryn’s Top 10:
1. A doll’s house with little people – a family or various small figures to “pretend” play. A few animals are also great in order to build a farm or zoo! Open ended toys that allow some imaginative play. Often kids need a little bit of a kick start in setting up the scene but after a few minutes of play I find I can leave them to it. Duplo, Fisher Price Little People, Playmobil or WOW all make great people figures. Another option are the lovely wooden dolls houses that come with furniture and wooden people such as Eichhorn or KidCraft.
2. Toy cars and vehicles such as “dinky” cars. If you have a train mad boy a train set is also a classic. WOW toys make a wonderful range of friction powered vehicles and have options for both boys and girls. We have recently started a small collection of these lovely toys and they have been a big hit. We can’t wait to add a few more…
3. A play kitchen, cooking utensils and pretend food can lead to many games including tea parties, a restaurant or shop as well as making “supper”. We have these items in plastic but there are great wooden versions from Melissa and Doug as well as online tutorials on how to make felt food if you are feeling creative!
4. Dress up clothes, hats and accessories. As they get older you can add jewellery and high heels. We try to avoid weapons but with little boys most sticks turn to some sort of gun or sword! We currently have a small collection of hats (fireman, builder, pirate etc) but this is definitely something that is always popular so we could use a few more outfits. I’m sure as my daughter gets bigger there will be requests for princess, fairy and bridal outfits…. I am planning to ask our grannies, aunties and great gran too if any of them have bags or outfits which lend themselves to dress up clothes!
5. A variety of musical instruments to encourage the muso in your midst! These should include a drum, triangle, tamborine, xylophone, cymbals, and a few homemade shakers too….
6. Wooden blocks – colourful basic blocks are a must for the very young but even older children will have hours of imaginative play with them. Some come in a little push trolley which is also really useful for toddlers learning to to toddle!
7. Art supplies – crayons, paints, scissors, koki pens, pencils, stamps and an ink pad, lots of paper and card. Keep an area aside for kids to get creative and try to ignore the mess (especially the little paper snippets) Cutting with scissors is one of the best fine motor skills a child can do as it uses all the correct muscles need to write. One of my sons favourite activities is painting but I limit this to occasional as he does get to participate at school and I find it quite stressful…. I try to encourage him to paint on large sheets so we can reuse these for wrapping paper. Art supplies of all sorts are great gifts as they always need replenishing and crafts are especially useful in winter to while away rainy days.
8. Construction toys such as Lego, Duplo, Mega Bloks, Meccano, Zoob – the list goes on. Try to find one or two which your child enjoys and build a collection over time.
9. Dolls – a rag doll or baby doll in a pram is always a hit with a little girl of any age but I have tried to have one on hand even when I only had a boy Not that he paid it any attention!! Soft toys were more his thing. Speaking of which a few to have a tea party with is probably enough – we need to do a serious purge in this department.
10. Age appropriate puzzles and games such as Snakes and Ladders, Dominos, Playdough and cutters, Uno, Zingo, Hi Ho Cherry O, Snap – there are literally hundreds of options and kids often master one quite quickly. These always make good gifts. If you have friends or family with kids of similar ages why not see if they would be open to swopping these resources occasionally to save some money!
Other essentials which I have not included on this list of mostly indoor toys are a variety of outdoor toys such as balls, bats, sandpit and water play toys, a swing, a tent (or playhouse), trampoline and/or jungle gym (if space and budget allows!) Also a push bike and bicycle as they get older are essentials. We recently bought a second hand bike for our son as he had outgrown his first little bike and his birthday is only in October. In 2 days we have more than recovered our spent cash as he has literally spent all his time on it. (Remember a helmet too!)
And of course what can a list of toys for kids be with the biggest, best gift of all – an enjoyment of BOOKS. I am of the opinion that you can never have enough books so they are my favourite gift to give to kids of all ages…My best spot for kids books at reasonable prices is Readers Warehouse in Tokai.
A huge array of toys is not necessary to keep kids entertained, really if you leave kids to their own devices they are usually happy to play with whatever is on offer (you might just have to ignore the whining to watch a dvd or tv for a short while in order for them to feel bored enough to discover something new to do….).
For the full article with more tips, visit Kathryn’s Blog.
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