Choosing Age Appropriate Toys for Toddlers

     Your child is starting to play with toys in a different way. As a baby, he explored the world as his senses. As a toddler, he uses toys to build, create, represent the real world, and practice new skills.

When your child was 8 months old he may have banged a toy hammer on his high chair tray just hear the loud noise. At age 2, he wants to pound golf tees intro a Styrofoam block because:

CHOOSE BEST TOYS FOR YOUR TODDLER

                    

• He enjoys exercising his hand-eye coordination.
• He likes to do things he has seen adult do.
• He wants to complete a task.

Also keep in mind that your child is becoming aware of the differences between girls and boys. You may see this in the toys he chooses. Girls often prefer dolls and crayons. Boys often prefer tend to play with blocks and toy cars

Best Toys for Toddlers

 Matching toys to your child

Before adding a new toy to your home, ask yourself these five questions:

           1.    Is this age-appropriate?

                    Consider your child’s development, skill level, and age, as well as the safety and size of toy. it should be large enough to pass a choke   tube test (the toy and its parts do not fit down a toilet paper roll).

         2.  What skills will my child learn from this?    

                   For pretend play, the best toys are open-ended and allow your child to use them as he chooses. Make believe toys are also good helping your child imaging real-life experiment like going to the doctor or cooking at restaurant.

         3. Will my child like this?

                  Think about his interest and his temperament. Also give him toys that can be used different ways, (for example, during present play stacking blow could become cooking pots or mountains for toy cars). 

         4. Does this fit in at our home?

              It is a large item (like a playhouse), do you have room to leave it up all the time? Is the toy for cooperative play (with sibling or friends), or foe one child at a time? If the toy is noisy, will it become annoying? If it become annoying? If it has many pieces, will they get lost?

        5. Will this toy last?

                 The toy should be good quality, sturdy, and able to stand up to frequent use.

Toddler 's Toys Guide

Toys to build development skills

 ·       Language 

        Ø  Board books, pop-up books, picture books. 

  ·       Intellectual

       Ø  Block and other construct toys.

         Ø   Large pieces puzzles.

         Ø   Games for matching or sorting shapes, colors, letters and  
                shape sorts.

         Ø  Nesting or stacking toys, and shape sorters.
         Ø   Musical instruments.

         Ø   CDs or digital music players.

   ·       Social emotions
       Ø   Trains, cars, and trucks.
         Ø   Dolls or stuffed animals that can be BATHED, FED, and 
                diapered.
         Ø   Hand and fingers puppets.

         Ø   Kitchen sets workshops, grocery stores, baby-care stations, 

               doctor sets, or pop-up tents.

         Ø   Dress up clothes and accessories.

         Ø   Push toys.

         Ø   Play versions of real home objective.(phones, vacuum and

               so on)

         Ø   Play scenes like a farm, zoo, or airport

   ·      Fine motors 

       Ø   Peg boards with large pegs and magnetic boards.

         Ø   Large beats and strings with stiffened tips.

         Ø   Play dough.

         Ø   Paints, fingerprints, paint brushes, crayons and markers.

         Ø    Chalk and sidewalk chalk.

         Ø    Toys for water play or send play.

   ·      Gross motor        

        Ø   Push and pull toys

          Ø    Foot-powered riding toys.

          Ø    Doll strollers, wagons, and rocking horses.

          Ø    Climbing structure, slides, foam mats, and tunnels.
          Ø    Large balls, all sizes and textures, made of form or other soft materials.