When it comes to toys, moms are mostly the same. You don’t want to deprive your kids of toys, but you don’t want it to look like a toy store in your house! Trust me-I’m a part of the latter and can tell you my toy room constantly gets cleaned out yet we still have protruding bins of toys everywhere!
Take it from my experience-these are the toys that have stood the test of time throughout my three kids. If you’re looking for toys your kids will play with and not just collect dust in your family room, check out this list.
- Doctor Toys: All of my kids play with our doctor toys, from my 1.5 year old to my 5 year old. We love this Melissa and Doug Veterinary set, too! Having dogs in our house, we like taking care of our play pups, too!
- Dollhouse: Our girls (and sometimes they rope my son into it too) love playing “guys” with the dollhouse. They have so many to choose from! We have this Fisher Price one and the Fisher Price Barbie Dreamhouse that all my kids love!
- Play Kitchen and Play Food: Buying my kids a play kitchen and play food was one of the best investments we’ve made. They play with it all the time! My kids-and I think most kids-really enjoy “real play”. We have this Step 2 Kitchen. The play food you can buy pretty much anywhere!
- Magna-tiles: These are a little on the pricey side, I get it. But the amount of hours my kids have spent playing with these make it well worth the money spent on them. The best thing is we can even take them outside and make designs on our garage door; one time we even made a marble run on the dishwasher, there’s so much you can do with them. Find them here.
- Play Cleaning Set: I wasn’t sure how this one would go over with my kids, but my son received the set for his first Christmas. Five years later we are still playing with them! My kids sweep regularly, mop, use the “squeegee” to dust. It’s real play and helps them learn how to clean-bonus! We have this Melissa and Doug one we love.
- Train Activity Table: This table has been well used in our house. We have this Step 2 version that’s a train table but has a ply board top to make it an activity table. My son was really into trains when he was little, but now we use it as a table to play on or color. It does take up some space but, in my opinion, it’s worth losing some space for.
Obviously there are (many) other toys my kids have tried and have. The tried-and-true toys like Legos, Barbie Dolls, Baby Alive baby dolls, etc. are all great toy items. This list is the toys that have stood through all three kids and are still continually used. If you’re on the fence about which toy to buy for your kids, this is a good starting list! Happy playtime!
