Few Things that my 1 and 3 year old kids are playing with these days…

Me: “It’s Leela’s birthday coming up. She’s turning three – what do we buy for her?”

Hubby: “We don’t know what she likes so why don’t we give her something that is a hit with our own 3 year old. Hopefully she will like it too.”

That was a conversation we had last weekend. I find it difficult buying toys / gifts for kids whether our own or others’ – we don’t know what will and what will not catch their fancy.

Kid’s toys are expensive these days and when we buy something for our children we always hope that they will play a long time with them. Pheww! if only things happened the way we want! Parents would know how kids want a particular thing and few moments after getting it, the novelty wears off and it is shoved aside beside a heap of other ‘forgotten’ toys! Been there, right?

There are very few toys/books in our house which have been well played with and are winners with our two kids – the 3 year old El Mono and 1 year old El Gato. I am listing down a few here.

El Mono loves to play with picture puzzles nowadays. It makes him very happy to finish putting them together and scream ‘Hooray’ every time. Being the super active monkey that he is, this is the time he spends sitting down and giving me a break!

The zoo picture puzzle I got on an impulse from ELC is just amazing with the touch and feel effect, big pieces and is not too expensive.

Doesn’t it feel great when an impulse buy turns out to be so good?!

And I love seeing him complete the full puzzle himself.

Duplo or building blocks are a hit too ! My preschooler has just started making houses, boats and cars with these (with a little help of course), a great improvement from just stacking them up to make what he would call a “tall tower”! I like it that he patiently tries to complete a structure like a house, car, etc and then pretend play with the toy kids and animals who are supposedly his friends.

All animals are friends in my little boy’s world -The lion lives in peace with the dog, pig, deer and goat!

My jumping jack loves to listen to stories too, but he only wants to listen to Jack and the Beanstalk since the first day we told him a bedtime story! Recently on his birthday he got The Gruffalo book and Oh My Goodness, isn’t that a gem of a story! He cannot stop looking at the pictures and asking me to read it to him every day these last few days. His thirst for all things scary is fully satisfied by the tale of this ugly monster!

No wonder it is an award winning book! A highly recommended storybook for young readers to enjoy.

Cycling and scooting are two of his favourite things to do when he goes to the playground every evening. I can’t imagine what he would do at home if he didn’t get his dose of physical activity for few hours in the day!

So glad that we had invested in a good sturdy scooter last year, which would endure the impact of frequent collisions with the door, table, even the wall (when in the house). The heavy weight of the scooter also prevented him from toppling over when he was a newbie at it. Still going strong and I am now thinking of handing it down to my toddler after a few months.

My Aunt had given a shape sort and stack activity board when older one was one year old. He found it extremely fun arranging bright coloured fun shapes into the pegs on the board. This would keep him busy for quite sometime during the day. Recently the little Gato (my second boy), who also just turned one, has a newfound interest in the same toy. Every time he stacks the little doughnut shapes into the peg with his chubby fingers, he claps! Such innocence!

Fellow parents, I would love to know what toys your kids are playing with. Please use the comments section. 

Have  a good day.

xo

Links to the Items mentioned in the post:

Shape and Colour Sorter

Zoo picture puzzle

The Gruffalo book

Duplo

14 inch Bicycle

YGlider Scooter