Age appropriate toys for 2 yr olds

My boys will be 2 this summer, but I wanted to ask YOU ladies for input vs my fellow SY ladies .

I FINALLY broke down this weekend & sifted through the boys' toys. Um, they were still playing with baby rattles & toys they had as infants! Well, maybe not 'playing', but those little items sure took up a lot of space in our bins (that they LOVE to tip over & spill out!). Now that all the baby stuff is out, my house looks bare!

So, now I'm worried that they won't have anything to play with . We have lots of puzzles, blocks/legos, trucks, & books that they do play with, but we also have some of the Little People sets (farm, bus, airplane) that they don't really seem into yet. We don't really have anything educational that they understand yet either.

I need some advice on age appropriate toys for them. I'm going to start to compile a list for birthday ideas or to watch for on sale. When I do toy searches for '2 yr olds', everything seems over their head or too babyish. We have a sand/water table, a slide/climber, lots of balls, sidewalk chalk, etc. for outside, so outside toys aren't really needed...mainly inside toys!

What suggestions do you have?

 

The stuff you have IS educational and age appropriate! Anything they can take apart and put together is great - even tupperware or empty sippy cups (if the parts aren't too small). I can't think of much else to add. Do you have any dolls? (These are great even for boys.) Do they have any ride-on toys? My kids love zooming around on those indoors. Crayons are a good idea too. Any household items that aren't lethal should also be a big hit - pots and pans, wooden spoons (mine love to "cook"!), etc. Sometimes simple games are the best - my kids love it if I take the mattresses out of the cribs for them to run and roll around on.

You're really well stocked already! Don't sweat it!

 

Dolls? Check.
Play kitchen? Check.
Pots, pans, whisks, spoons, basters, etc? Check.
Crayons? Check.

Thank you for the reassurance. I didn't think that the stuff we had was 'educational' in that regard (I was thinking of teaching colors, shapes, letters, etc).

We have ride on toys, but they seem too big for them & they're really hard to do on the carpet. Our driveway & sidewalk are both extremely hilly, so ride on toys outside are way too unsafe. I packed most of them up, but we still have 2 upstairs & 2 downstairs that they enjoy sitting on more than anything!

Thanks again!

 

Do you have any trains? My DS loves trains and we have many trains and train tracks. It keeps him very busy. Another popular toy was some plastic food, I think from Melissa and Doug. I think I bought over 100 pieces for only $20. That's been very popular.

thea

 

A suggestion we brought a used train table and trains through craiglist. It look brand new as our twins doesn't know the different between new and used yet. However they do take the train track apart (I put them away for now). I do have several trains (not mobilized ones) and used the train table for their little stuff such as cars, dinosaurs (they're crazy about it), Little People figures, and some pull toys.

We pretty much have everything for 2 years old to play with too. We haven't brought any toys since Birthday/Christmas. I have no idea what they will need when they are 3 this Fall.
RJ

 

QUOTE
I didn't think that the stuff we had was 'educational' in that regard (I was thinking of teaching colors, shapes, letters, etc).


I think they'll probably do best learning the "academic" stuff (shapes, colors, letters) from you. You can just build it in to whatever you're doing, it's easy. What color is the apple we're having for a snack? RED! And on the inside, it's white. And see what shape it is? It's round, like a circle. What else can you think of that's round? Your cup is round, the wheels on your wagon are round... How many slices do you have? 1, 2, 3... And if we cut another, then you have 4. And so on. I don't think that toys can teach this kind of stuff nearly as well as interaction with you (and DH and anyone else who takes care of them).

What you can't teach them is the stuff they're learning from their toys. Gross motor skills, fine motor skills, size and texture and weight, how things come apart and fit together, cause and effect, proprioception, laws of physics (if I stack the blocks like this, they fall down). You can provide (and are providing!) good toys to learn about all this stuff, and they'll do the rest.

I believe that the physical learning is far and away the most important part of their "education" right now. They're learning how to use their bodies and interact with the world, and that's a huge task! So good for you for providing a great environment to do it.

 

One of the best toys my boys got for their 2 year birthday was a Thomas the Train set form Learning Curve. The boys LOVED playing with them! And it's the kind of toy you can add onto with each Christmas or birthday with additional trains and tracks. At 2 years old, they just put trains together and played. As they got closer to 3, they started to have fun building their own tracks. Now at 4 years old, they still play with them and amaze me with very intricate track building that I couldn't even do. It builds imagination, practices hand-eye coordination, teaches coopertive play, and will keep them out of your hair!