Ari's Favourite Toys

It's just about one month post-Christmas and we have been VERY busy playing indoors this winter.  I thought I'd put together a little round up of some of Ari's favourite inside play toys -- toys that would be great for toddler boys if you're needing ideas!  Here are our top ten:

1. Vehicles of all kinds.  Trucks, cars, tractors, combines, heavy equipment, and so on.  Anything with wheels!  Ari loves his Tonka and John Deere toys, but he also loves his Battat fire engine and garbage truck.  I love these because they are geared for the toddler age bracket and are made of sturdy plastic and have simple moving components that are fun to play with.

2.  Fisher Price Little People toys.  This is the Racing Ramp Garage, but we also have a number of other Little People toys that have been passed down to us and they are a lot of fun for imaginative play.

3.  Train set.  Pictured is the Melissa and Doug train set, but we have a less expensive set from Kid Craft that was supplemented with some Thomas the Train accessories and expansion tracks over Christmas.  We also found a used train table locally to set it all up on.  GREAT toy for imaginative play.

4.  Dinosaur figures.  Ari has become quite interested in dinosaurs lately.  We are lucky to have the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre right in town for afternoon field trips.  He also loves playing with his dinosaur figures and 'digging for dinosaur bones'.

5.  Related to #4 -- Digging is Ari's top activity right now.  These CAT mini machines are a great size for taking along places and for table top play.  After his machines 'bulldozed' my houseplants (he needed dirt), we discovered kinetic sand.  We love it because it doesn't dry out like Play do, so it can stay out all day in a tray we have set out for digging work.  The black sand looks exactly like dirt and is easy to clean up if it falls on the floor because it sticks together.

6. A play tunnel is a lot of fun -- especially for creating ramps off the couch!

7.  Kitchens aren't just for girls.  Ari loves playing kitchen and pretend cooking and serving food.  Another toy excellent for imaginative play!  We have the Little Tikes Super Chef kitchen.

8.  This was a knock it out of the park Christmas gift for Ari from his aunt and uncle -- a mini stick net set!  We have tons of fun playing hockey together.

9.  Building sets of all kinds are a lot of fun.  We enjoy our Mega Blocks and Lego Duplo, but, we recently got a K'nex Education (aimed at pre-schoolers) set and it is by far our favourite.  The versatility of the building pieces allow us to make all kinds of creatures.

10.  Ari isn't too big on arts and crafts, however, Melissa and Doug have a lot of excellent products aimed at the toddler age level and we have found a few that pique his interest.  I especially like that they have many themes, including vehicles, that make the art more interesting to Ari.  We have been enjoying the paint with water art pad and the vehicles reusable sticker pad.  (And, I was super impressed that the stickers actually are reusable, unlike some other sticker books that claim to be.)

And those are our favourite toddler toys for indoor play!

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