10 TOYS MY KIDS ACTUALLY PLAY WITH | Best Educational Toys for Kids 2024

[@SevenInAll]

Let me know--what toys get the best cost-per-use in your home?

[@monikakamila]

Dolls dolls and more dolls . Can never have enough dolls esp baby born

[@colorswordsandlearning]

Soft toy animals and building blocks , cars , puzzles , bicycles are good 👍, cards in their interests , calculators , globe .Musical toys , yes . Fidget things . Art supplies and Blank papers . We hang a rope ladder for the kids to climb and swing on it . My boys are 9 now .

[@jellycheah]

This is timely as Christmas is around the corner!

[@SevenInAll]

Yes it is!

[@RachelDee]

I forgot about those Velcro mitts! Great idea Agreed on a ton of these. • playskool blocks • Magnatiles (and the cars) • duplos • Matchbox cars • trains and train track sets • The same car wash station (except Melissa and Doug quality has changed in my opinion so I found it secondhand) • magnifying glasses • a pull or push wagon (even better if can be operated by a larger child and fit other children in it) • the large/midsize real metal construction trucks • child size plastic traffic cones • painters tape or colored duct table. They create obstacle course paths, vehicle roads, forts out of boxes, whatever you can think of • on the expensive end, a gymnastics hanging bar or doorway swing

[@SevenInAll]

On the gymnastics bar--you reminded me, we have gymnastics rings hanging off of our carport outside---those were very inexpensive to order, and now every single time we leave the house the boys have to run and grab them and swing while I'm locking doors and stuff. If they actually want to do flips then the rule is they need to put down a foldable cushioned mat we got from Ikea.

[@RachelDee]

@@SevenInAll yeeeep. With boys at least, a cushioned gym mat is a must

[@valerie6709]

My 4 yr old is obsessed with magna tiles and Picasso tiles. She never gets bored of them. She also loves her paw patrol figurines. She would build houses for them with the Picasso tiles.

[@SevenInAll]

awww-yes, my boys are always using magnatiles to build things for their animal figurines or lego minifigures. I love to see their creativity!

[@Hswamp2008]

Sidewalk chalk and any other washable art supplies. Our favorite type has been colored pencils as they don't dry out like markers that have been forgotten to be capped, and they dont break as easily as crayons.

[@Hswamp2008]

Pumpkins! The small jack be littles and sugar pumpkins. We both grow them in the yard and buy them if we cant. They paint them, roll them down their slide, use them as balls, carve them, we do experiments on them(elephant toothpaste, grow the seeds), hammer golf tees into them, help older kids drill holes into them. Good thing is it offers cheap seasonal fun and we can toss out when theyre done with them or they rot.

[@SevenInAll]

That sounds fun!

[@michellebatac1336]

Legos from the DUPLO to the regular ones, in sets and just a big box. We have magnetic blocks and wooden blocks, all these are used daily. We have 4 boys and 1 girl and we can’t get enough cars and trucks…art supplies and lots of different paper, construction, cardstock, tracing, and copy paper all get used and made into various ramps, dioramas, and of course the airplanes. Have fun everyone!

[@SevenInAll]

Sounds pretty similar to my house--there are also some constructions and creations going on building "worlds" for their cars and legos and animals.

[@teresanorris4769]

Some other ideas that has lasted through time at our house. Our wiggle car is still being used after 10 years and adults have been known to use them. A little tykes doll house. My MIL has had one for 50 years and ours is 25 years old. Every child who comes over loves to play with it. Wooden train set has longevity for all ages.

[@SevenInAll]

I have always had a special place in my heart for dollhouses! And a wooden train sounds so fun!

[@elgabenedicta]

My twin toddlers are obsessed with animal figurines, especially the realistic ones! Blocks and all kinds of sensory toys (playdough, sand, slime etc)

[@SevenInAll]

Animal figurines are so fun for pretend play!

[@elizabethlotus4214]

Great ideas.

[@SevenInAll]

Glad you like them!

[@Kiki-fe2le]

I agree, my kids play with their Storypod, Yoto, magma tiles and my son loves his cars and trucks.

[@SevenInAll]

It's fun to see how creative they can be with their toys!

[@bradbruxvoort8789]

Love the zip ties on your car! Legos are a bit pricey but worth the investment in regards to use and creative sparks!

[@SevenInAll]

lol...the zip ties were originally holding on a 3D printed piece that grandpa had added to help fix an issue with the steering....that is one "well-loved" car. (shhhhh....a new one will be arriving for Christmas...I figured with a new toddler coming up, it was time to replace the car with one that doesn't have a broken steering column. ha!) And yes--we are firmly in our legos phase with the older boys!

[@sarahfelsinger5495]

Boys from toddler age and up LOVE to play dress up/imaginary play! I hope you’ll add some dress up items to your boys’ toy selections.

[@SevenInAll]

I have actually tried with the dress up--a few years ago got a firefighter outfit and a spiderman one, but it's so HOT here in the tropics (our house is a very traditional open-air house so it doesn't have air-con throughout) that they just don't get the use I thought they would. A couple of Darth Vader and Stormtrooper masks, sure, but not the clothes that they actually have to put on. They have constant imaginary play going on, though. haha!

[@angelicaclaudio-cortes6952]

Toys that can be used in multiple ways get the most use in our home (kids ages 7G, 5G, and 3B). We have most of the same toys: blocks, duplos, magnatiles, playdoh, food toys, and animals. But we also have barbies/action figures, babies, dress-up clothes, and kinetic sand. I've also got some river gong stepping stones for inside, a mini trampoline, and slide for when the weather is uncooperative. My kids often use my sofa cushions for play, too, so I'm thinking about getting a figgy play couch for Christmas. My girls are getting into games, too... they love playing Uno, Sequence, Memory, and Go Fish.

[@SevenInAll]

We've definitely started getting more into games this year--Uno and Monopoly Deal (the card game) are great quick ones, and now my oldest also wants to play chess every day (I've never been the biggest chess fan, but I'm definitely learning to improve my game for him--haha!)

[@WildChildrenHappyMama]

Nuggets! We have really enjoyed our Nuggets. All my kids ages 15 down to 1 will play with them for hours.

[@SevenInAll]

Those look fun!

[@Hookhamhomestead]

100% all of this We also have found cinch sacks for outdoor exploration to be a huge hit for collecting anything and everything their hearts desire The Melissa and Doug tool sets have been a huge hit with my young son but the building actual things from the book has been a hit with my early elementary daughter Stamps, stickers, Paint sticks, pastels, chalk, crayons, markers and a pad of paper. Magnifying glass Kinetic sand or sand box toys for outdoors too Water table

[@SevenInAll]

Yes--art supplies are always good to have on hand for when the creative mood strikes!

[@monikakamila]

Toys are very important . I will always love toys My whole apt is toys 😊

[@SevenInAll]

They are important!

[@nateandrosannaengebretson3996]

Legos for the win! Probably have thousands of $ of Legos in our house (they buy them for themselves or each other these days) and have probably spent thousands of hours playing with them. And yes to the big square bases and to mini figures! Boy #1: Balls, anything sport Girl #1: Tinker toys…? Boy #2: Puzzles, dinosaurs, stuffed animals, cars, Legos all the way. At about 5 he had a mental inventory of every piece he owned 😂 Boy #3: Balls, anything wheels, Lego robotics, Lincoln logs… Boy #4: Cars, stuffed animals, Legos… Girl #2: Baby dolls and stuffed animals. Also glider bikes! And Rubik’s cubes and Perplexus…

[@SevenInAll]

My oldest has started to save up his own money to fund some of his lego dreams, which is a good thing! ha! None of mine have ever seemed to latch onto stuffed animals somehow! I think my oldest might like Rubik's cubes...

[@victoriasbooktalks8882]

Legos! My son is also into action figures, lots of open-ended play with his action figures.

[@SevenInAll]

Yes--little figurines are great for open-ended play. I love listening in to the dramas happening between lego minifigures. ha!

[@pixelated23-b9z]

Puzzles puzzles puzzles!

[@SevenInAll]

My boys have just recently been getting into puzzles!

[@lauren-b1h]

Vehicles are definitely the biggest hit over here. Other toys are used mainly as accessories for the vehicles (blocks, kinetic sand, etc.).

[@SevenInAll]

Everything with wheels--all day, every day!

[@bdhesse]

My oldest was always that kid that doesn't "get" toys. She was always so high energy and get constantly wanted physical play. So we would wrestle in the bedroom or go outside to just run around. We ended up getting a play couch and just collected things like cushions and dog beds (the flat ones) over the years. Anything she could crash on and not get hurt. But bikes? No interest until this summer (we finally got her riding a two-wheeler at 7). Blocks? Meh. Dolls? Only to draw on (we have a lot of "weird Barbies" 🤣). Toy cars and animals got a bit of play. But nothing ever lasted more than 5 minutes. My youngest is completely different. My youngest will play with the play food and blocks and cars and animals. Honestly, I would say she's always got a few toys going. But she still does not like ride-on toys. For dress-up clothes, we go to the thrift stores around halloween and buy a whole bunch of costumes for like $6 a piece. Building blocks are definitely a hit here as well. My oldest actually has gotten into lego more recently. I think that's the first toy that has really kept her interest. But I would say any small animal or person toy (mostly the animals) is what gets the most use here. That and toy cars. My youngest was just trying to trick me into picking the wrong Pringles can in a "guess where the car is" game 😂.

[@SevenInAll]

Thrift stores are awesome for dress-up clothes. And yes--individual children's personalities can very much be seen in the way they spend their playtime, it can be so different from one to the other!

[@fordfamily-zl9bc]

My kids magatiles and duplos

[@SevenInAll]

Those are great!

[@sophiecbeique]

BRIO Trains

[@SevenInAll]

Those are awesome!

[@stevo-dx5rr]

All of the toys mentioned here are great. Stay away from almost everything else. It’s mostly plastic trash that will become the bane of your existence.

[@SevenInAll]

hahaha "ban of your existence" is a good phrase.