Best Types of Natural Toys for Growing Toddlers

Playing is a toddlers most important job and it is the job of parents to provide them with appropriate toys for play. Through play, toddlers develop essential developmental skills and allows them to stretch their pliable little minds.

The best toys for toddlers are toys that are safe, educational, durable and fun. With these guidelines in mind, what follows is a list of some of the best natural toys for growing toddlers.

Wooden Blocks

Wooden blocks are perhaps the most simple of natural toys, yet one of the most versatile and beloved by both children and adults. They have stood the test of time and will continue to be a staple toy well into the future.

Deceivingly simple, wooden blocks are the perfect wooden toy for toddlers. Blocks allow toddlers to learn how to build shapes with their own two hands. Fitting blocks together to create shapes and objects, develops problem solving skills, planning and counting. They also help toddlers with hand eye coordination as they manipulate the blocks into different objects. Colored blocks have the added benefit of helping toddlers to recognize primary colors.

As one of the best wooden toys for toddlers, blocks are a wonderful toy because they provide endless entertainment and growth for both solo play as well group play. It is also one of the few childrens toys that adults have not seemed to have grown out of!

Puzzles

Puzzles made from natural wood are another wonderful toy for growing toddlers. Puzzles offer so many benefits to children, they exercise the mind by challenging thinking as well as develop problem solving and manual dexterity skills, among many other benefits. 

Puzzles for toddlers are made with simple wooden shapes that are generally thick and easy to grasp. Puzzle pieces can also be used by themselves for pretend play.

Natural wooden puzzles come in a wide range of shapes and themes such as numbers, letters, colors, animals and people, foods and transportation. Themed puzzles help toddlers to grasp different relationships and subjects, improving their understanding of the world around them.

As toddlers solve a puzzle they must develop a strategy and think about how they will achieve their goal. When successfully completing a puzzle, children feel a sense of achievement that boosts their self esteem, confidence, and level of childhood learning and development.

Dolls

Children have been playing with dolls for probably as long as humans have existed. Dolls made from safe, natural materials are wonderful toys for toddlers.

Dolls allow children to mimic the adult world they see around them through role playing. Using dolls, toddlers and children explore their feelings and express them through re-enactment.

Through role playing with dolls, children can practice social interactions, developing important language skills such as listening, talking and looking.

Imaginative play with dolls can also act as a way for toddlers to relax and find security and companionship (like a security blanket).

Wooden Play Kitchens

The last natural toy for toddlers we well discuss is the wooden play kitchen. Although this toy requires the most investment out of the others mentioned, it should not be overlooked. Wooden play kitchens offer so many wonderful developmental opportunities for growing toddlers. They will also take much longer to be outgrown.

Wooden play kitchens, like dolls, enable children to role-play and mimic what they see in the adult world around them. The sharp observational skills of a toddlers growing mind will pick up on mom and dads activities in the kitchen and transfer what he or she sees in to the play kitchen.

With a wooden play kitchen, your child will whip up all sorts of pretend meals and in the process, he will be practicing some essential life skills. These include fine motor skills, hand eye coordination, and social skills.

Play kitchens are great for playing with one or more kids, where social skills can be practiced. Kids can work together in the kitchen as they discuss and negotiate what should go where and who does what.

Natural Toys Are The Natural choice

When looking for natural toys for toddlers it is important to keep in mind safety, versatility, durability, education, and of course fun. Toys made from natural materials like wood are the better option over plastic, as they will ultimately be more durable, less toxic and last much longer.

With these top best natural toys for toddlers, you will be setting up your toddler with the tools he or she needs to grow (disguised as a whole lot of fun). Don’t forget that toddlers learn through play and play is their number one job, so make sure it’s fun!