Stimulation is still an important aspect when looking for toddler toys. Except, unlike infant toys, toddler toys are about stimulating physical and mental activity, such as knowledge, inventiveness, and imagination. Although play is still mostly supervised by parents at this point, both outdoor and indoor toys and games are integral in development for these types of skills. Within a few years, a toddler will be ready for preschool and, by that point, skills that should be developed somewhat are hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.



Outdoor moving games for toddlers can be done in the backyard or in a playground with equipment small enough for toddlers. This would include small slides, wooden or plastic cubes arranged in a pyramid, rocking toys, and riding toys, such as pedal-less ride-on toys or tricycles. Plastic or wooden cubes can be used for construction games that develop hand coordination, concentration, and imagination. Sand is another important outdoor toy for toddlers. Similar to blocks in that they are a construction game, sand allows for a number of shapes, as well as construction, with plastic molds, shovels, and small buckets.



Aside from specific outside toys, outdoor games include any number of activities involving running, jumping, crawling, climbing, rocking, and playing with rubber toys and balls.



Appropriate indoor toddler toys and games focus on creativity, imagination, and memory. Plastic or rubber animal and doll toys are beneficial learning toys for creativity and imagination in both girls and boys. At this point, however, dolls shouldn’t have much loose hair. Aside from dressing and body parts, dolls can be representative of roles of mother, father, and family.



Musical games can also be considered fun and educational tools. Although singing and dancing can be done can be done without the aid of toys, many toys aimed toward toddlers have musical aspects, such as playing children’s songs, sounds, and, even, Classical music by Mozart, Bach, or Beethoven. Musical toys can be hammers, animals, or cloth music cubes and boxes.



Books are still a learning toy for toddlers. Books should have some words, but, with books that are entirely made up of pictures, the parent can create stories based upon the pictures. Later, then, parents can ask questions to the child based on the story and the pictures in the book. This resembles very early listening and comprehension skills, as well as being beneficial for vocabulary.



One particular toddler toy that has gained popularity in recent years has been a laptop toy. Some toddler “laptops” are just a combination of a mirror screen and a keyboard of push-button games with letters, numbers, and sounds, but others mirror an adult laptop. These kinds of toddler toys will plug into a USB port and will run software programs that focus on hand-eye coordination.



Even if toddler laptops are a popular learning toy, many classic toys and games for toddlers still have interactive learning value. Familiar developmental toys include simple puzzles, shape sorters, peg boards, large lacing beads, blocks and stacking rings, markers, clay, and coloring books.