An Ideal Baby Toddler Toy

A baby toddler toy can be anything at all. Little people have a marvelous talent for co-opting anything they find and turning it into a toy; so don’t be surprised if you one morning you find your egg whisk doing double duty as a drum stick (the laundry basin as drum) . If you’re missing your toothbrush, it may well have been requisitioned by your little girl for use as a doll brush.

The Co-Opt Game

Our toddlers are so good at making anything into a toddler toy that one might almost think we don’t have to go toy shopping at all. And if you thought so, you’d be half right: you don’t need to. Sometimes, though, it’s nice to have egg whisks and toothbrushes in their own proper places, ready for when you actually want to use them. And then it’s nice to have something for the toddler to do that doesn’t involve either egg whisk or toothbrush when you’re brushing your teeth or whisking eggs.

Since your toddler will use anything for a toy, you can buy your baby and toddler toys anywhere—in the cooking department, in the home decoration section—anywhere you like. Just make sure that whatever you choose to bring home to the toddler is entirely safe, and as far from breakable as possible.

A ‘Real’ Baby Toddler Toy

A baby toddler toy that is sold as a toy for babies or toddlers is often a good choice because it’s already been checked for safety—and is, moreover, especially designed to appeal to your toddler’s imagination and perhaps encourage his development.  That said, there is lots of junk on the shelves in toy shops too.  Your toddler doesn’t need a whole army of electronic devices, beeping, blinking, and bouncing at him all day long. The best baby toddler toy may be one of the simplest; a toy that allows a child to actually think peacefully and long as they discover all its secrets.

If I could choose one baby and toddler toy—just one—for my baby to use from the time he was a year up to seven years old, I would choose a box of duplo. Here’s a toy your toddler can use in a thousand different ways. At first, it will be exciting to learn how to fit two blocks on top of each other—than three, then four. As your toddler grows, he’ll learn to make towers. Somewhere around two or three you can expect your toddler to begin imaginative play, making houses or cars for little people and telling himself long, involved stories about what happens to them, their friends, and their families. 

Lego Duplo Creative Play All-in-One-Box-of-Fun

Play helps children…

• Analyze
• Problem Solve
• Imagine
• Understand

There’s something magic about toddler play, because it’s not just toddler play. Your toddler plays to learn, plays to think, plays to discover; every game is an adventure in development.  As you watch him play, you become more and more in tune with that development, and you get a front row seat on what is happening in his mind. So don’t belittle play. Toys are important because play is important; one of the most important activities your child will ever be involved in. 

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