Toy suggestions for a 2 year old?

[Nuttyaboutnutella]

My son is 2 year old (he's nearly 27 months). Basically, he has toys but none that really engage him and he suddenly seems quite bored.

He's not into:
Role play/imaginative play
Jigsaws
Vehicles
Colouring or crafts

I do find it hard to engage him sometimes but it's even worse at the moment. He's usually happy to potter about, loves being outside and sensory play. However, our garden isn't suitable for him to be left unattended all day (were moving at the end of the year), and I can't keep tidying up after sensory stuff as I'm due another baby very soon. We do go to parks and soft play, but we may have to stay in a little more soon as I'm struggling with back ache.

I'd like to look into a few new toys to help stimulate/engage him. He seems to prefer wooden toys, especially if it's to do with problem solving or working things out.

Any suggestions?

---

This thread is quite old now so some of the suggestions may be out of date, but if you’ve landed here looking for toy ideas for two-year-olds, we’ve recently updated our best toys for 2-year-olds page with lots of great options, as tried and tested by Mumsnet users and their kids. We hope you find it useful.
MNHQ

Washing up plastic pots, baking etc? my son never really played with toys. He had an electronic bob the builder which you had to copy a sequence of buttons, that was popular.

The toys you have do sound quite boring. Fisherprice do a lot of toys designed to stimulate 2 year olds, cookie jar and bus is popular for children who like to problem solve. Also play work bench, with plastic screws etc.
I wouldn’t dream of leaving a 2 year old outside unsupervised no matter what my garden was like. Hope your back eases soon

DS is 27 months. He likes playing with

• train tracks, trains and cars
• Happyland
• Fire Engine and Fire truck
• Magic Sand (hate that stuff but he loves it)
• Some easy board games like a train game from Peaceable Kingdom and a couple from Haba
• Pegboards
• Cutting fruit and tea sets from Melissa and Doug
• Lacing things

One of his favourite things is taking two wooden bowls and carefully pouring/sorting things from one to the other. Or sorting the cutlery drawer.

And I agree I would never leave him unsupervised. And our garden is super duper safe.

Duplo or wooden blocks?

Play doh?

Or a ball run toy? You can get ones for under 3’s with big balls.

Or books. My 2 yr old loves being read to, but he will also happily sit by himself looking at board books from the library.

playdough is great, i linked a homemade recipe as that way if some ends up in his mouth it won't do any harm. you can get a tray (cat litter tray from poundland works) and put some playdough in, as well as some dough toys.

rocking horses can also be fun, and you can engage it in imaginative play by getting some (pretend or real) carrots and feeding it to horsey, asking him where he is riding to etc.

all the best x

He does play with playdoh for about 10 minutes but has more fun taking the pots out of the tray and putting them back in (we go through colours when he does).

As stated: he has NO interest in imaginative play, vehicles, Happyland, etc. He has this stuff, especially at my mum's but doesn't play with it.

He likes playing with sandpit, bowl of water and utensils, digging through mud and stones, and generally pulling things apart (such as Velcro wooden vegetables) and making a mess He likes sticklebricks, but again more pulling them apart and trying to post them through the letter box that's his current phase. Hes dropping naps as well which doesn't help. He has quiet time with the iPad or books in bed instead (supposed to anyway!!).

I feel like he needs a couple of toys that will gage his brain. Something to 'work out' or solve? He has jigsaws/puzzles/etc but no interest in them

What about some threading toys?

A 'mud' kitchen, often available on fb marketplace. Great for his mixing!

Your son is displaying particular schema ( patterns) in his play. Google and you can find out more about it. Once you have identified which schema (it could be more than one) then choices of toys become easier to work out. For instance one is 'transporting' where children move things from place to place, toys to support this would be barrows, buckets, etc and things to move around.

Will have a look at threading toys and interesting about the schema thing -- will definitely look into that.

My dad is making him a mud kitchen for our new house (current garden is mostly concrete and decking)

I was going to say look at schemas! (There’s good simple info on CBeebies website parents bit) Sounds like he’s interested in connecting/disconnecting, enveloping & enclosing schemas. Lots of loose parts he can use as he likes eg cardboard boxes, big bits of fabric, wooden spoons, bowls for mixing, things to put inside other things, things he can connect/disconnect. Maybe jigsaws or train tracks for connecting.

Oops just saw he’s not interested in puzzles. Unless maybe one that joins in a long line rather than peg puzzles etc? Or vehicles but maybe the tracks rather than the train might be interesting.

For posting, save kids from jars etc and cut a slit in a cardboard box & he can post them in🙂

We used to have a toy postbox, similar to this:

www.jojomamanbebe.co.uk/post-box-reward-game-d9868.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw5dnmBRACEiwAmMYGOeC0bmUeaOxzTMkhoUZMm_ge-5uQiBOGyiepO0YsGMKqLhtao8lmwRoCyLwQAvD_BwE

He might like something like that, or a shape sorter, if he’s in a posting things phase?