Toys for a 2 y o

[Harrizeb]

I'm not sure where the best place is to put this question so I'm trying here first

I hope that all you experienced Mner's might be able to give me some suggestions for good toys for a 2yo. DS is getting bored with his toys, he's out grown most and some are role play stuff that he really isn't into yet, he does have quite a few and I am going to weed out all the really baby ones and some of the older ones that I think he really isn't interested in at the moment, but could do with some ideas of what toys your 2 yo really found interesting.

Any and all suggestions would be gratefully received.

Many thanks
H x

I have only girls but some of the things she had for her second birthday that are still played with now ( she's nearly 4) are

kitchen - fab fab fab. this was the best thing
little dolly stroller
lego
teaset

I guess they are conventional girly things, but would work for a boy as well.

oh and mr potato head, she still likes playing with that
puzzles

Agree with hana, ds loved all of these at this age (still plays with the ELC play food at nearly six although now he is making sandwiches for his invisible "slober mutant" - sic - army).
We never actually got him a kitchen of his own so dd, who is 2 in August and also loves all of this, will be getting that.
He did have a cheap as chips plastic shopping trolley from the local pound shop and played with that all the time though...

Humm cool ideas, have to admit I have no problems with him having stereotypical girls toys - he currently sleeps in a pink fleece sleep suit that is a hand me down

Jigsaws he's done and finished with for the moment he was mad on them for weeks and then lost interest.

Harder jigsaws?

Books

Musical Instruments

Playdoh

Crayons

Phonics Radio was my ds's favourite at this time.

Stuff you can push around, but can become role play later on (shopping trolley)

Chess pieces and a box to put them in! Good old playdough. If the weather is warm outside play with a bowl of water and some cups, let him do some tipping. Let the child make a 'stew' in a dustbin with leaves or whatever weird crap he finds lying about, put a bit of water in it and watch him stir it solemnly with a big wooden spoon.
Inside let him destroy old magazines and newspapers (he might not be able to rip them up himself yet but will enjoy sorting thru the scraps if you tear them up a bit first.)
Give him big whiteboard marker pens and let him scribble on the fridge (I'm a teacher and always had lots of these lying around - they can be easily cleaned off most hard surfaces.)
Old cds that you don't care if he wrecks, birthday candles or popsticks to sort thru and put in and out of containers, old birthday cards to look at and sort thru,or make a 'postbox' out of an old box and let him post objects into it.
It has been my experience that the child is much better at entertaining him or herself once s/he is two plus. recently my dd (two and a bit) has gotten into pretend play with dolls etc more and that keeps her going for a long time! It gets easier....

dd is only 18 mnths but at the moment she is playing with wooden bricks, duplo lego, cars, her wheelie moo (sit on push around), doll which she pushes round in the trolley the wooden bricks came in and her brothers power rangers. She likes books and jigsaws too. Stacking cups are another fav and great for pouring water, sand mud etc.

She si desperate for a bike too tho a bit young for one yet and her absolute fav thing is a trip round the garden on dss's bike

Can someone give us a re-cap on homemade playdoe please!

Anyone?

plain flour, water, food colouring and a good dose of salt, but not sure of the quantities. I'll google and see what I can find for you.

H x

How long does it keep for as well?

Ok here you go, try this one

home made playdough

good luck

H x

Oooh fab, thanks

Everyone has mentioned everything my ds played with at that age.

One thing i do for both my children(ds 5 & dd 2) is rotate their toys on a weekly basis. Ds has a play table & i change the theme weekly-he loves this & it keeps his interest alive in what would be ignored toys.

With dd i have a box of toys in my front-room & i swop these with those in her bedroom weekly.

Just one thought-how '2' is your ds? My ds used to love buying magazines like 'toybox' & doing the activities in there.

leappad ds loves this. I know it says 3 + but ds got his for his 2nd birthday and was ok with it (although now he is older he plays on his own with it, at first I sat with him)

ds loves transportation - all thomas things are a hit with him, but also this garage

this is good - ds has the lego version. it is a play table and you can build lego on it to here

puzzles are a hit. he also likes colouring and books. finger painting is good (but really messy)

ds really wants this thomas table but look at the price!! no way!

coldtea - love you play table theme idea - what a good idea!

We bought this, the top one
We bought it for £99.99 before christmas. Friends have bought it at the same price in previous years, so it will probably go down again.

Hi thanks for all the tips, there are some really great ones, some stuff that we already have so that reasures me that we are looking in the right lines.

Any and more ideas gladly welcomed, I'm away for a week so sorry if I don't reply until then but will be checking back with anticiptation when I get home .

Coldtea, love the idea of the theme's - but a little short on imagination, could you give me a couple of ideas of what you do just to get me started please?

many thanks everyone

h x

These are the themes i do for my ds, he's 5 though he still plays with a lot of his younger toys.

Last week we had farm week-all animals with their houses bought from ELC

This week we have playsets-thunderbird island + 2 micro-machine cars which unfold to make a playset.

In previous weeks we've had

Garage set up with all cars inc plastic road maps.

Train sets-we have 2 that fit on the table, one that the table came with & one thomas the tank engine.

Toy Story week-all Toy story related items on table inc skittles & juggling balls

Fun fair week-fruit machine, pinball & tin can alley + till to pay!

Pirate week-Pirate ship, fort, peter pan island & loads of pirates.

I'm sure there are more but i can't think. Sometimes i just put out things he hasn't played with for a while like a puppet show he has.

I can really vouch for this, i change it every thursday & he comes home, runs upstairs & can't wait to see what the theme is!

Hope it works for you!

Etch a Sketch Tescos 3.50!

Has a wooden railway been mentioned yet? My 2 yo ds loves ours. Also, plastic cars and a garage.

wooden railway sets

Any transport stuff

Buggies and pushchairs

Construction ( or rather, destruction!) toys

'Home corner' role play stuff - cooker, sink, table, playfood etc

My DD is only 20 and a bit months... but the toys she loves are:

• My first Cd player from Boots (£9 - bargain!) with microphone. Spends hours turning it off and on, dancing etc. Also ELC do an echo microphone for £3 too.

• The ELC play food that sticks together and you cut with a pretend knife.

• The "Mini" car from Woolies (£5). With the wheels that makes it go by itself. Again is 3yrs+

• Books, Books Books - with tabs, lift ups, and things she can talk about or do.

• A photograph album with lots of pics of herself and family members. This is one of her most favourite toys.

• A 98p (Tescos) Beach ball - blow up one so she can throw it about in doors. Loves it.

• Old Argos Catalgoue. Spends hours finding the babies and ripping the pages etc.

• I also have a box of adult things that she can play with, but are not toys if you know what I mean... It has things like a zip in it, a jar that she can open, cotton reels to try (and fail) to thread) These get changed over regularly, but are just adult stuff that she can play with for a while and then I take away.

• Pasta play... for emptying pasta into containers. She loves containers.

I am now beginning to realise what a cheap skate I sound... so at this point in time, I think I'll shut up now

Hope it helps, anyway!

Hi everyone,

Thank you for so many really excellent ideas, I have a shopping list and a plan worked out and will endeavour to get it working very soon so that, hopefully, we'll get a bit more use out of his toys and he'll have more fun.

Thanks again

H x

ps the less expensive ideas are great trying to do as cheaply as possible adds an extra challange to the process