As I was doing toy rotation this week (birthday = I feel like our not quite 1900 square feet are closing in around me and I frantically rotate toys – and purge old broken ones), I thought I might do a post on some of our favorite toys (and books) for the 18 – 24 month set. And as I was narrowing it down, I realized that absolutely everything on the list is something T still adores – so let’s call it Toys for Boys 18 months to 2 years and beyond. I’m sure I’ll have a new list by the end of the week with all the new toys we got, but I figured I should share these while my sleep deprived mind still had a grasp on them.
A few things of note: Thomas loves puzzles, books and sports. He loves to talk about cars and trucks and trains and plays with them, too, but for absolute favorites, I narrowed it down to the 5 groups below. And also, I don’t love to have lots of toys around (though you wouldn’t know it if you walked into my house right now) – we rotate toys frequently from the basement to the playroom – just switching up the location of toys (we play in the basement a lot, too) does wonders for making things fresh and new.
1. Melissa and Doug peg puzzles. Specifically these three – which I bought as a set on Amazon. Also, Melissa and Doug puzzles are my favorite gifts to give – chances are if you invite me to your kid’s first birthday party, they’ll get a jumbo knob Melissa and Doug puzzle – they’re reasonably priced, not plastic, and generally appreciated by parents.
2. Books for Boys. Thomas loves books and I listed a lot of our favorites here, but these three are loved by B, me and Thomas. Lost and Found is absolutely charming and perfect for a little boy, Duck and Goose is a new classic, and Charlie the Ranch Dog is long but adorable – and Thomas loves looking for the chipmunk hiding on every page.
3. B and I joked that Thomas was an intellectual (please note the sarcasm) until he discovered sports. One blisteringly cold week in February I was suffering from cabin fever, so Thomas and I went and bought a golf set. And from that day, our lives have never been the same. Over the last few months he’s expanded his horizons – basketball is a close second – but golf remains his #1 love. I like the Little Tikes golf set and basketball hoop, but we also have a $5 golf set from Walmart and Thomas loves it just as much.
4. Melissa and Doug Chunky Puzzles. I searched and searched for a next step from peg puzzles, and bought a small jigsaw puzzle – which he wasn’t ready for until recently – until I found the Melissa and Doug Chunky Puzzles. We started with this one so that T could get the hang of putting together a simpler puzzle without a specifically carved out spot for each piece (the puzzle pieces fit together, but the picture behind them gives visual guidance of what goes where). Then we moved onto this 18 piece fire truck puzzle and he loves it. These challenge him more than the peg puzzles (which he still enjoys), but aren’t so complicated that he gets frustrated.
5. Bathtub letters and numbers were possibly the best $3.99 I’ve ever spent at Target. Thomas loves letters and numbers – he points out every letter and number we pass. Since I’m not a “sit down and formally learn something at the age of 18 months” kind of mom, I know that his recognition of letters and numbers is based 100% on playing with them and our talking about them while he plays.
So, those are our top 5 toys for boys (or at least my boy) – and maybe girls – ages 18 months – 2 years. And now he has a whole slew of new toys to play with – so I’m sure this list will evolve. But these were our favorites for the last 6 months.
Ooh…my son’s 20 months, so this post is both a blessing and a curse. He too loves letters, so I’m going to have to order that set from Amazon and break my “no buying new toys, he has too many” pact! Thanks for the post.
Lizzy LOVES Charlie the Ranch Dog too! I have to admit though that I was totally clueless about the hiding chipmunk…new fun game for us, ha!
I love these posts even though I don’t have kids yet! I hope you will do one for Ms. Nell too!
I love this list, mostly because T’s favorites are so very different from C’s. We are all about trains, trucks and cars, and not much into puzzles. Peg puzzles are still the way to go at our house, and even then aren’t too interesting. Although, we recently received one of Melissa and Doug’s sound puzzles (the vehicle one, surprise), which is a big hit.