Tag: favouritetoys

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Favourite Toys – 3 year old boy

My son has definite preferences when it comes to toys. He tends to play with the same favourites over and over. If I do a toy rotation and introduce something new, he will of course be interested in it, but he always goes back to the tried-and-true. Here are his 6 favourites.

6. Play Food

Both my kids love play food. They love to get my husband and I a “coffee” in the morning with some treats on the side. The food is used in picnics, birthday parties, pretend shop play and so much more. I don’t think brand matters much to them; they play happily with all of it. I do try to vary the material of the food – felt, wood, plastic, resin, etc. – to give a little extra sensory experience.

5. Trains

Our trains and wooden tracks are out all the time. My son has a favourite steam engine that he will drive endlessly around the tracks. He also likes to see how many trains he can connect in one strand and how far he can pull it without breaking. We have a few varieties of tracks that all work great – Brio, Hape, Ikea, Bigjigs – but when it comes to the trains, Brio is the clear favourite.

4. Large Trucks

My son loves vehicles, especially large trucks. He will lay down flat on the floor and move the truck so he can watch the wheels turn. He finds it fascinating and will spend long periods repeating this over and over. When he is working on the rotational schema, this is one of his favourite activities. Again, we have a variety of brands, but the Fagus trucks are probably out the most. They are beautifully made, sturdy (he will sometimes ride them), and easy to manouver. To me, they are well worth the investment.

3. Play Couch and Foam

I can’t have a favourites list without including the play couch. We have a Nugget that has been a house, a slide, a monster, a table, and so much more. We also have slippery wedges from Arches Magoo that my son can’t get enough of sliding down. The play foam is such a great way to for kids to burn off excess energy. If we had the space in our house, I would invest in more.

2. Animals

Now we get into the farm play. My son has had a love for farms and farm animals since he was about 18 months. He loves his Schleich animals. He will set them up in little scenes around his barn (see below) and make up all kinds of fun stories for them. It is his preferred small world play.

1. Barn

My son’s number 1 favourite toy has to be his Fisher-Price barn. When we go away for a few days – he misses it and talks about when he will see it again. This barn was passed down to us from friends before my daughter was born, so it’s probably about 10 years old. My daughter used to love it too. It’s still going strong and gets used pretty much everyday in our house. Many times I have thought about buying my son a fancier barn, but this one is just so loved, it doesn’t really make sense to replace it. It’s red and his favourite colour is red. It has swinging stall doors, a grain silo he can drop things down, and it’s light-weight so he can easily take it out and carry it where he wants it. I’m not sure what other features we could really ask for.

So that’s my son’s top 6. What are some of your 3 year olds’ favourite toys?

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Favourite Toys – 5 year old girl

My daughter is a generalist when it comes to toys. She likes everything, especially new and novel toys and activities, and doesn’t express strong preferences for any one thing. However, when I thought about it, there are certain toys that she does play with much more frequently than others. Here is her top 6.

6. Play Food

My kids love play food. They love to serve it to us, sell it to each other, bake and cook with it, and the list goes on. If my daughter is looking for something to do in the morning, she will often gravitate over to the play kitchen and take out some food. She doesn’t have a preference when it comes to brand, but she does love play ice cream. We have the Scoop and Serve and Scoop Ice Cream Counter and Stack magnetic set from Melissa and Doug and they both get a lot of attention, along with our Jellicat ice cream cones.

5. Dollhouse

My daughter’s dollhouses are in her room and when we go upstairs after dinner, this is often her first stop. She also knows that I have a weakness for dollhouses and Maileg, so if she asks me to play, I will likely say yes. Our dollhouses are Pottery Barn that I (very, very fortunately) found on marketplace, the furniture is a combination of Maileg, Ikea, Pottery Barn, and vintage items, and the critters are Maileg.

4. Magnetic Tiles and Ball Run

What kid doesn’t like magnetic tiles? My husband and I even like playing with them. My daughter especially loves to build castles and houses with her magnetic tiles. Once the house is built, she will bring in tiny pillows, blankets, food and people to complete her pretend world. She also loves when my husband will build a ball run with her. The Picasso Tiles ball run that we have is very fun, but it does require some adult help to set up.

3. Wood Castle

This toy was a risk I took that thankfully paid off. We started my daughter’s collection of Ostheimer castle pieces a year and a half ago. These pieces are expensive, so I teamed up with some family members to buy her a few. At first, they didn’t get a lot of attention, and I was worried. But, more and more she started pulling them out to the point where they started getting used almost every day. We invested in a few more pieces for Christmas because they are so popular. I think part of the appeal is that just pulling out one tower creates an instant magical scene. They are whimsical and beautifully made (and smell amazing) and they inspire my kids (my daughter especially) to build imaginative castles and villages. They have become a clear playroom favourite.

2. Translucent Cubes

I think if there is one small toy that my daughter uses the most, it has to be the Bauspiel Lucent Cubes. I got these cubes for her as part of a Bauspiel sampler set from Scholar’s Choice and I was surprised how much she loved these cubes. They look unassuming, but they are brightly coloured, feel very smooth, have a satisfying weight, and are so open-ended. They are my daughter’s “treasures” that she uses in small world play, to decorate wooden block builds, as play candies, in sensory trays, and much more. Pretty much, whatever she is building or creating, she adds in these lucent cubes.

1. Play Couch & Foam

My daughter has lots of energy and loves sports activities. When she’s at home, she will often have a lot of excess energy to burn and so the thing she loves most in the playroom is the play couch (Nugget) and foam slippery wedges (Arches Magoo). She loves to build forts with the couch and blankets and bring her play food inside. Whenever the slippery wedges are configured into a slide, she will run straight toward it. These foam pieces take up a lot of space, but my husband and I both agree that the enjoyment the kids gets from them, makes it well worth it.

I love hearing about playroom favourites. What are some of your 5 year olds’ favourites?