Our list of the best toys for 2 year olds are designed to help children aged 2-3 years old learn through play, stimulating their minds and encouraging creativity. From building blocks to puzzles, there's something for every young learner. With this list of toys, you can help your child develop language, counting, and problem-solving skills.
Please keep in mind that some of the toys listed are towards the higher end of the age group and therefore could present a choking hazard. You are responsible for ensuring that each toy is safe for your child to use.
To jump to a specific category of learning/development, click below:
Fine Motor and Art Toys
Amazon Price: $82.95
How they help in Fine Motor development:
Hand-eye coordination: While stacking blocks on top of each other without knocking other ones down.
Bonus Development:
Creative play: These blocks come in different shapes and sizes which allow children to come up with thousands of variations of structures!
Math Skills: Children can use blocks to learn about the different shapes and sizes of objects!
Amazon Price: $23.99
How they help Fine Motor Development:
Hand - eye Coordination: Similar to wooden building blocks, Lego Duplos allow children to stack with the additional bonus of needing to press hard enough and in the correct spot to get the pieces to click together!
Bonus Development:
Creative play: These blocks come in different shapes and sizes which allow children to come up with thousands of variations of structures!
Math Skills: Children can use blocks to learn about the different shapes, sizes, and colors of objects!
Amazon Price: $6.85
How they help fine motor development:
Hand - eye coordination: As children play with the pop it, they must also focus on pressing exactly onto one pop it "bubble," a great way for them to ensure proper hand position.
Bonus development:
Math: With the different shapes, sizes, and colors of pop it mats, the possibilities are endless. Roll a dice to pop that number of bubbles, call out a color and only pop those, the list goes on and on!
Haba Price: $18.39
How it helps fine motor development:
Hand-eye-coordination: The maze toy is an intriguing way for children to pracitce their fine motor skills. As they use the magnetic wand to move the balls around the must focus their eyes and their hands. Not only this, but the shape of the "wand" is similar to that of a pencil or crayon, allowing them to practice their pincer grip as well!
Bonus:
Travel: This maze is perfect to take with for keeping your child busy while on the go!
Amazon Price: $7.99
How it helps fine motor development:
Building Muscles: Play Doh is an amazing way to build up those tiny muscles in your child's hands in a fun way. Their muscles will get stronger as they squeeze and shape the doh to whichever form they choose!
Amazon Price: $22.95
How they help fine motor and art:
Pincer Grip: For this age group we like this size crayon because it is easy for little hands to grasp while working on beginning pincer grip skills!
Art: With the variety of colors these crayons come in, your child can easily create artisitic masterpieces!
Bonus:
Strong: These crayons are stronger than most which means less crayon bits laying all over the place!
Sustainable and non toxic: The beeswax is naturally created allowing for "minimal environmental impact." The natural honey smell is also great! (Just make sure your children are not allergic to the ingredient of propolis (from bees) as it is present in the crayons.
Amazon Price: $22.99
How they help art development:
Color experiences: While children use the various colors that come with this kit, they can create new ones as well! They can create whatever comes to mind with these beautiful, non - toxic paints! Paintbrush exposure: Though theses paints are marketed as "fingerpaints" children can get their first experience using paintrbushes with these paints as well!
Bonus!
Easy Cleaning: These paints are washable so they shouldn't stain hands or clothes or whatever else they land on! They also come in squeezable bottles which could help contain the mess even more!
Amazon Price: $8.99
How they help art and fine motor development:
Painting: The obvious one here is that these can be used for painting some masterpieces with your child. These are perfect for small hands because they have such a nice big handle, making it easy to hold on!
Grasp: Holding paintbrushes is another great way to start practicing the beginning pincer grasp your child will need to grip things like pencils later on!
Gross Motor Toys
Amazon Price: $89.99
How they help Gross Motor Development:
Balance: These "stones" come in different sizes making them easy for children to set up in various ways to walk or even jump on. They have grippers on the bottom so they won't slide around with use. They can simply create paths or play games like "the floor is lava" all while working on their balance!
Bonus:
Easy to store: the stones can be placed inside of each other making them easy to store when not in use.
Amazon Price: $79.99
How it helps gross motor development:
Balance: This wobble board will help your child work on balance and coordination while having a great time!
Bonus:
Games: This board can be used for other games as well - flip it over and it becomes a bridge to walk over or let cars zoom down it. There are so many possibilities!
Amazon Price: $14.99
How they help gross motor development:
Throwing and catching: These balls are ideal for children of all ages because they are made from soft foam making them less likely to hurt.
Kicking: These balls are lightweight which means that though they are great for practing kicking skills they won't go too far!
Amazon Price: $136.10
How they help gross motor development:
Climbing: These foam blocks are perfect for kids who like to climb! They can be rearranged in many ways to keep things interesting! They also have a non-slip base so they won't move around while playing!
Bonus:
Easy Cleaning: These are covered in vegan leather making them easy to wipe down if something is spilled!
Amazon Price: $14.99
How they help gross motor development:
Dance: These movement scarves are a great way for children to express their creativity while dancing!
Juggling: Movement scarves are easy to catch making them a great tool for beginning juggling skills!
Amazon Prices: $44.09
How it helps gross motor development:
Balance: Given the name, this one is pretty obvious but they bike will help your child with their beginning balance skills while on a two-wheeled bike. It does not have pedals and is therefore propelled foreward by your child walking (or running) it. Many families who start off with a balance bike don't have the need for a bike with training wheels later on!
Amazon Price: $35.99
How it helps Gross Motor Development:
Hand - eye Coordination: Your child will be able to work on their beginning hand - eye coordination skills while learning the fun game of basket ball! The hoop's height can be easily adjusted so it can grow with your child. You don't have to worry about it tipping over either as the base can be filled with water or sand.
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Language and Pretend Play Toys
Amazon Price: $42.95
Amazon Price: $26.59
How they help Language and Pretend Play Development:
Oral Language: You and your child can act out stories together and give each puppet their own personality. Talking through puppets is a great way to build up oral languge skills!
Pretend Play: As stated above the puppets can act out stories your child thinks up, giving them a great way to feed their pretend play talents!
Bonus:
Social/Emotional Learning: At this age children are developing their social/emotional skills and puppets can be a great way to help! Act out scenarios that can be difficult for children to react to. The puppet could: have a toy taken from them, get in a fight with a friend, feel sad about something and more! Work with your child to decide how to react!
Haba Puppet Theater
Haba Price: $59.99
How it helps Language and Pretend Play Development:
Oral Language: Your child can create true puppet shows while using this over-the-door theater! A theater they can "hide" behind may give them even more encouragement as they can use their puppets to talk and create a real show!
Pretend Play: Your child's stories can get even more complex as characters can "enter and exit" the scene as they leave the puppet stage!
Bonus:
Easy to use: This theater is easy to set up using the included compression rod and can be stored when folded!
Amazon Price: $34.99
How they help Language Development:
Musical awareness: This kit comes with tambourines, maracas, bells and more! It is a great introduction to not only learning the names of instruments but to hearing their sound as well. You and your child can work on creating a beat, playing a long to songs and more!
Amazon price: $12.99
How it helps Language Development:
Vocabulary: As your children search for items on the cards and explore their surroundings, they will learn new and exciting words!
Game Play: An important part of a child's development is learning and following the rules of a game, this is a fun way to work on that!
Bonus:
Travel: These are small enough and sturdy enough for travel, a great way to explore new surroundings too!
Amazon Price: $21.95
How it helps Language Development:
Overall language categories: These color of the cards match up with the colors on the cube and feature categories that are important in early childhood devlopment: "Emotions, Questioning, Counting & Emotion Recognition/Response, Letters, Colors, and Social Skills."
How Libro helps Language Development:
Listening: Libro features audiobooks for children (and adults) while also benefitting bookstores. You and your child can listen to stories while on the go or at home! They can close their eyes and envision what is happening in the story or give them the acutal book an they can listen and follow along!
How it helps Language Development:
Reading: Owl Post Books offer three subscription options based on what you would like. Each subscripton comes with one or more new books and an art project. These are great for developing a love of reading!
Price: Free!
How this helps language development: This is a wonderful resource that ships books to children 0-5 all over the United States. You will recieve one book each month along with early literacy tips! To check if it is available in your area click here.
Amazon price: $36.62
How it helps Pretend Play Development:
Doing Tasks: This lawn mower is a great way for your child to engage in a "household task" with you. You can mow the lawn "together!" Your child will love how realistic this mower looks and sounds - they can start practicing early for when it's their turn to really mow!
Amazon Price: $25.99
Amazon Price: $205.12
How they help Pretend Play Development:
Cooking: Though these items are more expensive than their competitors, we love them because they look real which will make your child feel like they are actually cooking! Some of the best pretend play happens when a child feels like they are doing an acutal task!
**If you are looking for real child-friendly cooking tools (or baking sets) for your little one, check this one out by Baketivity!
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Math and Discovery Toys
Amazon Price: $16.48
How they help Math Development:
Problem Solving and Matching: These peg puzzles are a great way for your child to problem solve as they try to figure out which puzzle piece goes where as they work through the various shapes of the puzzle pieces. They can match up the image on the puzzle with the puzzle piece to hone their matching skills as well.
Bonus Development:
Fine Motor Skills: Your child can work on their pincer grasp as they hold onto the small pegs along with their hand - eye coordination as they make the puzzle pieces fit!
Amazon Price: $21.99
How they help Math Development:
Problem Solving: Like the peg puzzles above, these puzzles will allow your child to work through which puzzle piece goes where. They are large making it easy for your child to grasp and to more easily figure out where to place the pieces.
Amazon Price: $13.99
How they help Math Development:
Shapes: These eggs feature shapes in various colors making it easier to distinguish them and learn their names!
Matching: Similar to puzzles, these eggs allow children to match up shapes to close the eggs!
Amazon Price: $12.39
How it helps Math Development:
Shapes: This tactile shape sorter will help your child learn the name and feel of shapes!
Sorting: As your child deterimines which shape belongs in which hole they will work on their beginning sorting skills!
Bonus:
Fine Motor Development: This toy requires the skill to not only grasp the shape but to properly push it through the hole making it a great tool for fine motor development!
Amazon Price: $24.99
How it helps Discovery Development:
Visual and Auditory: These tubes are a great way to engage your child in visual and auditory discovery! Place whatever objects you would like inside and let your child discover! If you place items with different scents inside you can use the small vented holes to work on their sense of smell!
Amazon Price: $13.99
How this helps Discovery Development:
Visual: This shatter proof magnifying glass is a great way for your child to look at different objects up close! They can observe so many things both small and large while out and about!
How it helps Discovery Development:
KiwiCo offers a multitude of subscription boxes and toys/activities in general to get your child asking and answering questions on their own. They are free to learn and discover with all of the fun acitivites KiwiCo has to offer!
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That's all for now! Do you have any other toys you enjoy, let us know!
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