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QUESTION:Jordan is almost two, and he's outgrowing his toys!!! I bought him a
Fisher Price garage on Thursday, and he's totally enamoured of it.
It's a toy that he's pretty much ready for it, but it also has some
"growing room". I'm looking for suggestions of other toys that might
be a good fit for him right now.
Toys he loves: duplos, wooden blocks, balls, his new garage, ride on
tractor, shape sorter
Lots of his toys, though, are being ignored, because he's pretty much
moved past them.
I'd like ideas for toys in all sorts of categories: small enough to
play with in the car, medium sized, big expensive gift for his second
birthday....
ANSWER: Sam, 2 years 2 months, has really moved into "let's pretend" play. I highly
recommend toys that support this type of play (although almost any can). For
his second birthday we gave him a kitchen set, and it has been a huge success.
An outdoor favorite of Sam's is the 20" ball we got him. We have a large yard,
and a favorite activity is to kick/roll the ball and chase it around. It also
serves to really tire him out.... (Since Jordan likes balls perhaps he'd really
enjoy this also.)
A small toy I recommend is the Fisher Price Tumble Tower (I think that's the
correct name). It's about 10" tall, clear plastic, with beads in it that you
must maneuver from one level to the next.
*Huge* successes with Sam (have been for a long time, still are--and are great
for car travel!) are the "sound" books in which each button down the side plays
a complete (simple) song. Inside the book, typically each song gets a double-
page spread with words to the song and illustration. (Also, typically, the
picture on the button appears at the top of the page so there's an easy connec-
tion made between the page and the button to push....)
We've had lots of fun with sidewalk *paint*. (Sidewalk chalk wasn't as
well-received.)
Even at this age, Sam loves his Brio train set. Requires parental participa-
tion (nope, we don't mind--we're almost always "participating" anyway) to get
the track set up.
(The next few suggestions may be *especially* specific to my child, since he
has a tremendous love of construction machinery.)
Sam really likes playing with trucks/machines that *do* something, especially
combining them with other toys (such as blocks). A current favorite is a
Sesame Street forklift, driven by Ernie, with a forklift that he can make go
up and down. (It's rather small, maybe 5" high, 8" long, plastic.) He moves
individual Duplos around with it. He also loves his Tonka dumptruck and front
end loader (again, using Duplos or wooden blocks with them).
Another current favorite: the huge Little Tykes excavator--the one big enough
for him to sit on and operate. We put it right in the middle of his sandbox
and it keeps him occupied for lots of time....
Toys that were failures (and, again, these may just be specific to my child):
Although Sam likes to build things with his Duplos and wooden blocks, the Little
Tykes waffle blocks were never a success with him. So far, at least, he hasn't
shown much interest in the Little Tykes piano, either.
You pose a good question, Beth, and I'm very interested to see what other
people recommend for this age. I hope you will find some of these suggestions
helpful.
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