Welcome To
Favourite Toddler Play Products
Here you’ll find our favourite toddler toys/activities & products. We are huge, huge fans of Melissa & Doug in our home. Their products are (natural) wooden, hand crafted, and offer so many wonderful types of play that promote all styles of development.
I’ve also included any other wonderful toddler products that we’ve found and links to where we purchased them.
This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on my links at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Melissa & DougWooden Fresh Mart (Grocery Store)
This. Is. Seriously. Cool. This was our birthday gift to our then 2 year old and I have to say, it is one of our favourite things to play with at home!
From the fridge to the actual beeping food scanner, this is one of my top rated kids’ toys. The Fresh Mart Grocery Store has detailed produce signs, a credit card that fits into an actual slot (swipe or chip reader!!!), a moving conveyor belt, fridge, and more! My son loves to draw himself on the keypad where one would actually sign their signature after they swipe their credit card. The cash drawer is great for him to practice his counting, as is the keypad and calculator!
There is a ton of room in terms of shelving. I ordered their extra set of grocery store items and we still have so much more room for other items too!
The bagging area is adorable – Joey loves to engage in social play. My toddler acts out what he sees at the grocery store and incorporates that into our play. Overall, the Grocery Store supports so many different types of development and offers endless hours of play. Also, it’s very straightforward to build.
Melissa & Doug did an amazing job at designing this. There is so much detail everywhere you look, down to the chapstick, magazine, gift card, gum, and granola bar that they offer at check out.
Seriously cool.
Melissa & Doug Jumbo Barnyard Animal Puzzle
I am a huge fan of Melissa & Doug’s Jumbo Knob puzzles! We’ve had this for ages and my son still loves to play with it.
I highly recommend these vibrant puzzles as they promote gross and fine motor skills, and the natural wooden materials is a huge bonus to play with too!
Magnetic Fishing Puzzle (Melissa & Doug)
This puzzle is a hit in our home! Both of my children learned not only great gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they have spent so much time perfecting their fishing game, but patience as well. This calming activity is such a colourful, different style of puzzle that I always leave out in our family room for the boys to play with. We discuss each animal they see as they fish them out, then start the whole fun process over again.
Bath Drops
Some nights are a struggle to get my little guys to take a bath, and others they are more than willing to jump in! Luckily, these bath drops actually make baths more fun for those days when my oldest rather skip it (let’s face it – when our kids NEED a bath, we just know they have to take one no matter how badly they’d rather skip it).
You can mix the three primary colours that they offer to make orange, green, and purple too!
Round Around The Town Mat (Melissa & Doug)
The “Round Around the Town Road Rug & Car Set” is the perfect mat for your little ones to explore! It comes with a set of four colourful cars and has different settings: a beach, a school, grocery store, farm, and more!
What I especially love about it – the parking spaces are numbered, which helped Joey quickly learn his numbers. I move the mat around the house as we have so many cars upstairs and downstairs. It’s a great way to rotate toys around this way!
Also – don’t limit the road to just cars. Joey brings his sensory bins over and covers the city in plastic snow or leaves depending on the time of the year!
Click the photo on the left to check out the Road Rug on Melissa & Doug’s Website!
Manhattan Baby Doll
I have always wanted to normalize boys playing with what some people deem “girl toys”. When I would tell parents that their son spent most of his time in the play kitchen in daycare, a lot of them were surprised! A kitchen teaches children about social play/development with their peers, and they also learn how to act out what they see in their own lives in this type of dramatic play (aiding in cognitive development).
The same goes for baby dolls! Before we had Theodore, my son showed interest in his cousins’ baby dolls. He cared for them, kissed them, and rocked them to sleep. It was then that I decided this was the perfect time for him to learn more about babies!
After we purchased this plush baby doll, my son was so excited. He changed its diaper, fed it with an empty bottle, gave the baby its magnetic soother to calm him down, and to this day Joey still has to sleep with his baby by his side.
Certain toys allow children to explore their creative sides, their emotions, and more which are all crucial to their development.
Reusable Water Activity Pad
With two children home, it’s hard for me to get a lot of one on one time with my toddler during the day. For those moments when I’m rocking baby to sleep or nursing, I leave out these water reveal activity pads for Joseph to play with!
He adores painting, and if I’m busy with the baby, I don’t have to worry about paint getting all over the house!
How it works: you unscrew the paintbrush and fill it with water. Your kids have different pages to colour and discover with. Once every page has been filled, it only takes about 5 minutes or so for them to dry and be painted once more!
We haven’t tried bringing it in the car yet, but I imagine that these are amazing for trips!