Ever since I shared my daughter’s sensory sand bin on IG a few months ago, I’ve had people DM me to ask for recommendations on what to get for their kids, or what to gift for others’ kids. I always feel on the fence about writing about Toddler/Baby/Kid stuff because every kid is so different and every child grows and learns at different rates so what my daughter is loving and obsessed with, may not be your kids cup of tea and vice versa. It’s because of that, that I don’t like “mom groups” (you can read the post here if you haven’t already!) I don’t like how the whole social part of motherhood revolves around comparing milestones and comparing children.

I’ve always been a very instinctual person so I allow that to guide my parenting decisions and if I need advice or to talk to someone, I go to those in my inner circle who’s judgement I trust for a multitude of reasons- for example, my cousin in law 😉 she’s raising two girls and has been through the toddler phase (x2) and survived it so I know I’ve got her knowledge and experience in my back pocket should I need it. My girlfriend who’s in the thick of it with 2 under 2 (and did a guest post here) is also a wealth of knowledge because we bounce ideas of each other and learn from each other as we’re getting through things, like hey is your kid doing this all of a sudden because mine is (our kids are close to the same age). All of this just to say- I don’t think you need to necessarily listen to a stranger’s advice when it comes to your child. Use the people around you who know you already, and more importantly, know your child already.

SO, with that little rant over, take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt. I’m not sure if these things will entertain your kid like they do mine. Avery might play with something for an hour that your kid will spend 5 minutes on. Nevertheless, I’m going to share some of the educational tools/toys that Avery is loving right now. Some things are solo play, others require me to work with her. Saturday’s are our Mommy/Daughter days so we usually do some “schoool-esque” related activities because I like to teach her things. For reference with all these activities, Avery is going to be 2 1/2 at the end of this month.

+ Leap Frog 2 in 1 LeapTop Touch : this comes in two colors, pink and green. It’s a little “laptop/tablet” that takes kids through a variety of learning activities. This is a great one for road trips and when you’re eating out! Avery’s favorite game to play is called “Pop the Bubbles” and she has to tap all the bubbles on the screen to clear them, then a letter of the alphabet comes through and a picture of an animal who’s species starts with that letter. Now she’ll make the noise that animal makes once it pops up, it’s super cute.

+ sensory sand bin : this is a good one because it comes with the tools to roll out the sand, make castles and blocks, and also carving tools!

+ Learn with me Flashcards : these are super fun because they require your child to think. They have the simple “what animal is this” flash cards but then also have ones that have pictures that require your child to count or find one specific image out of multiples, like which flower is blue?

+ Opposite Puzzle Pairs : Avery loves this one! They match the pictures but the pictures display opposite actions. Once Avery finds the similar cards, she’ll put the puzzle together and then I’ll read and demonstrate what the action is/means.

+ Alphabet Bath Letters/Numbers : I show Avery letters at bath time and now right when I ask her the letter, she can tell me which letter it is. We also learned our ABCs in the bath by me singing it and pointing to the letters as they hung dried to the shower tiles. In one book I read pre-having a baby, it said find a way to make bath time fun and educational, and for some reason I’ve always stuck with that. I used to read Avery these books at bath time too, and they’re actually still in the bathroom LOL. They can get wet and be completely submerged in water and will dry just fine.

+ Hide and Seek books : We have quite a few of these that we read throughout the day or before bedtime. Linking Avery’s favorite one as the main link and here are some other ones we have : Mickey Mouse , Disney Characters , Disney Princess , and we don’t have this one, but I just found it and now I need to order it- PIXAR.

+ Tonie Box : seriously the best gift Avery has ever received. We play with this daily and have started having a little princess dance party every morning. Avery asks for a tutu and makes me put on a dress as well (lol) and she’ll pick one of her princess characters and when they start singing, we’ll dance like princesses around her room. One of these days I ‘ll have to get it on camera because it is just SO cute and has become my new favorite ritual.

Well, those are all the things I can think of right now, I literally just went through our day today and all of the things we played with to come up with the list. You can also add coloring to the list too! I believe coloring is super educational and also gives kids time to solely focus on one task. Every time my daughter gets the crayons out, she’ll grab a coloring book for her (usually a Disney Princess one or Bluey) and then she’ll hand me whatever one she isn’t going to use because she knows if she’s coloring, that mom’s going to come color too! And I do, because I also find it very therapeutic (that is until she starts coloring the very page I’m coloring and then my OCD kicks in LOL.

Hope this helps!