educational books & toys

31 Best Educational Toys for Toddlers, Preschoolers and Big Kids

Parents, kids and Good Housekeeping Institute pros agree these learning toys are the most fun!

To find toys that strike the right balance, the Good Housekeeping Institute Little Lab tests toys throughout the year. For parents, they look for quality of construction, ease of use and frustration level. For kids, they make sure that the toys are fun (the most important factor), and something kids return to and are engaged with for long periods of time. They're mostly geared for little ones but there are a few selections for older kids to keep in mind for the future (or for older siblings). If these aren't enough, you can also check the Good Housekeeping Institute's age-by-age guide to toys and gifts for more recommendations, including STEM toys , sensory toys , family board games , and gifts for 1-year-olds and 2-year-olds (including gifts for toddlers and even stocking stuffers for toddlers !) all the way up to gifts for teens .

These are the the best educational toys for toddlers, preschoolers and elementary school students in 2022:

Learning Resources Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog

This cute hedgehog helps with fine motor coordination, since kids have to put the colorful spikes in the holes at different angles. It's also great for counting and color recognition. Parents loved that the quills easily store inside the back so you won't lose pieces! And if the kids become Spike fans, there's now a whole line of Spike toys, including a fidget toy , a sensory playset , a rainbow stacker and a puzzle . Ages 18 months+

RELATED: The Best Sensory Toys for Exploring Different Textures, Sights, and Sounds

Peaceable Kingdom Button, Button, Belly Button Game

Kids learn same vs. different, matching, colors and turn-taking when they play this board game, which challenges players to match their cards to the buttons or bears on the board. Good Housekeeping's testers requested this one over and over again. Ages 2+

RELATED: The Best Board Games for Kids, According to Parents and Experts

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Piggy Bank

Kids open the piggy bank to remove the colorful, numbered coins. The toy can play more than 40 fun songs, tunes and phrases to interact with your child. In the baby stages, kids use it to practice their fine motor coordination skills while putting the coins into the bank. As they get older, they can use it to learn counting and adding. Ages 6 months+

RELATED: The Best STEM Toys for Kids, According to the GH Institute

LEGO Education SPIKE™ Prime Set

Let your imagination run wild with this open-ended playset. After constructing with colorful Lego building elements (bricks, sensors, motors, etc.), kids can layer on drag and drop coding based on the popular Scratch platform to create endless unique configurations, or use one of the 40+ guided lessons to learn more about the basics. As they develop their coding knowledge, they can explore text-based Python coding. While testing, we saw first-hand how early exposure to engineering and physics can help kids get excited about STEM. These products are a fun way for kids to learn through play, and help reinforce skills like experimentation and problem-solving. Ages 10+

Mega Mega Bloks Big Building Bag

This classic 80-piece building set includes blocks of different shapes and colors for kids to construct whatever their minds' dream up. Testers whipped up everything from towers and trains to castles and animals. This set is great for helping to develop gross motor skills and promotes open-ended creativity . Plus, you can easily store pieces in the travel-friendly bag when playtime is over. Ages 1+

Educational Insights Design & Drill Creative Workshop

This construction kit helps foster STEM learning as budding builders learn about different drill bits (Phillips, socket and flathead) for their motorized drill to use on their colorful bolts. The toy also includes a screwdriver and combination wrench to help complete the activity cards or create their own designs. For younger ones, the Design & Drill Bolt Buddies adds in colorful characters and playsets. Ages 3+

The Learning Journey Count and Learn Cookie Jar

Kids learn to recognize numbers and count to ten with this electronic cookie jar. They practice fine motor skills to insert the cookie and when they do, the jar says the number that's on the cookie, so the number-learning is reinforced. Ages 2+

Educational Insights GeoSafari Jr. Talking Microscope

Kids can insert the slides to see beautiful, up-close images of wildlife. Then the voice of Bindi Irwin explains what they're looking at , so kids can learn science even if they don't know how to read yet. Ages 4+

Magna-Tiles Magna-Tiles 32-Piece Clear Colors Set

Offering endless hours of fun, Magna-Tiles are a creative way to introduce educational topics like shapes, colors, engineering, principles of magnets, symmetry and more. They're also great for helping develop fine motor skills. Various sets are available with different piece counts and color options (think clear or glow-in-the-dark ). Ages 3+

Melissa & Doug Wooden Peg Puzzles

This set includes three wooden peg puzzles designed for tiny fingers and helps develop fine motor and hand-eye skills . The 10-piece number set has illustrations of each numeral, the 26-piece alphabet set has illustrations of words starting with the letter it corresponds to, and the fish puzzle has the name of the color for each. Ages 2+

Shifu Orboot Augmented Reality Interactive Globe

The best-selling globe on Amazon, this interactive world map pairs with an app that will let kids focus in on any region that interests them and learn more. There are more than 1,000 world facts loaded up in the app for them to explore. Ages 4+

Step2 Great Creations Art Center

This art center has it all: an art desk station with built-in storage, as well as a double-sided easel that has one side chalkboard, and the other a large whiteboard . Ample storage areas allow for crayons, markers, Play-doh, paint and more to be readily accessible and organized. Bonus: Three kids can easily create at once! Ages 3+

HABA Symphony Croc Music Band Set

This cute croc includes a drum with two mallets, a xylophone, a guiro wooden block (played by rubbing stick along notches on snout) and a bell. Multiple kids can play at once to help foster a sense of rhythm while developing motor skills . Ages 2+

LeapFrog LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set

Compatible with any magnetic surface, this set features interactive alphabet tiles. Placing a letter on the bus window enables your kids to hear the letter and related words . Plus, it includes fun, kid-friendly songs like the "Alphabet Song" and "Wheels on the Bus." Ages 2+

Melissa & Doug Learn-to-Play Piano

Have a budding Mozart? With 25 keys spanning two octaves, kids can experiment with high and low notes as well as loud and soft sounds. It includes a color-coded songbook that's great for older kids to use to play real songs. It comes in blue, pink and multi-colors. Ages 3+

Learning Resources Learning Resources Coding Critters

Kids can get into the basics of coding without using a screen. The 22-piece set comes with coding challenges that do things like help the bunny find its carrot or pull the cart. A storybook walks kids through the challenges. In addition, there's a "play mode" where kids can use the pieces for imaginative free play. Different animals are available, including a dog, cat and dinosaur. This year, they've added MagiCoders, which come in the form of a unicorn or a dragon . Ages 4+

ThinkFun Roller Coaster Challenge

This is both a building toy and a board game all rolled up into one. Players pick a challenge card that asks kids to use certain pieces to build their roller coaster track. If they can use them to build one, and then have the car ride from start to finish with no disasters, they win! It helps them develop engineering and logic skills at the same time. Ages 6+

Good Housekeeping Good Housekeeping Amazing Science

Kids get to play the role of at-home scientist, going from room to room and looking into the science behind phenomena like why bathroom mirrors get foggy or how to de-stink shoes. There are more than 80 hands-on experiments for them to try, using items that are commonly found around the house. Ages 7+

hand2mind Numberblocks MathLink Cubes

If you know little fans of Numberblocks on Netflix, they'll love this counting set, a 2021 Good Housekeeping Best Toy Award winner. Kids can build their favorite characters from the show with the linking cubes, practicing counting in the process and also play with the math-based, wipe-clean activity cards included in the set. Ages 3+

RELATED: The Good Housekeeping Best Toy Awards

VTech Get Ready for School Learning Desk

This desk is basically a command center, loaded with parts that let them practice time-telling, track the weather and the days of the week or learn about the alphabet, numbers, counting, music, shapes, colors, the human body. But the true stand-out feature is the light-up projector, which lets kids trace numbers and letters with a stylus on a built-in interactive writing pad. Flip it over and there's also a chalkboard and easel. Ages 2+

Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; she previously wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother . She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found dominating the audio round at her local bar trivia night or tweeting about movies.

Rachel Rothman was the chief technologist and executive technical director of the Good Housekeeping Institute for over 15 years , overseeing testing methodology, implementation and reporting for all GH Labs. She also managed GH's research division and the analysis of applicants for the GH Seal and all other testing emblems. 

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The best educational toys for kids

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• Children learn by playing, and educational toys encourage the development of essential skills like creativity, thinking outside the box, and problem-solving.
• STEM toys, in particular, enhance divergent and innovative thinking, help children develop hand-eye coordination, and better promote spatial skills. Not surprisingly, the educational toys in this guide are all STEM.
• Of all the expert-approved educational toys, the Magna-Tiles Clear Colors 100-Piece Set is our top pick. This must-have toy is deceptively simple, but it's packed with fun.

Like it or not, the toys we choose to buy for our kids can make a difference in their development. During your child's growing years, it is important to provide them with educational toys that allow them to learn while they play. Different types of toys require children to use different skill sets and tap into different learning areas of the brain. 

While any toy can offer value to a developing brain, there are certain toys, usually referred to as educational, learning, or instructional toys that provide specific value to children. The beauty of educational toys is double fold, as they appeal to both children and parents. At their core, they are still toys, so they don't seem like homework or a burden to children, yet they conveniently, almost secretly, provide learning benefits.

That's why we've done the research to find the best educational toys for kids of all ages. Before we get into our picks, here are some scientific benefits to educational toys. 

Benefits of Educational Toys

• Innovative and creative thinking: When playing with educational toys and games, children can develop perception, intuition, and reasoning as they partake in a creative activity.
• Cognitive skills: Educational toys can help children connect to their thought processes and further develop their capabilities to think freely. Common toys that help boost cognitive skills include puzzles and number games.
• Motor skills: With the right educational toys and games, children develop their motor skills in conjunction with their cognitive skills.
• Soft skills: By giving children a well-guided play experience, children develop what are considered softer skills such as appropriate social interaction (dictated by social values, principles, and sentiments), language skills, and emotional development (i.e. handling certain situations, such as losing a game, helps them learn to accept challenges, to overcome them, and to gain mental strength).

We've handpicked five of the best educational toys that provide a firm foundation for learning and education, thereby giving your child a good start early in life. Certainly, different learning toys are best for certain age groups, but rather than focus on individual age groups, we sought to present the best toys on the market hands down, regardless of age. Most toys on our list are suitable for children six years and older, although some may be used by children as young as 3 years old.   

All picks ended up being STEM toys, not by intention, simply by nature of finding the best products out there for educational purposes, from science experiments and engineering toys to robots and apps . Our selections are based on online research and hands-on reviews ranging from parenting bloggers to tech analysts as well as independent expert rankings. In this category, we also took into consideration the type and number of awards and recognition the toys received from educational institutions and researchers. Read more about our top educational toys in the following slides.

Here are the best educational toys for kids:

• Best educational toy overall: Magna-Tiles Clear Colors 100 Piece Set
• Best educational toy for learning about electricity: Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 Electronics Discovery Kit
• Best educational toy for learning about science: Scientific Explorer Mind Blowing Science Kit
• Best educational toy robot: Wonder Workshop Dash Robot
• Best app-based educational toy: Osmo Genius Kit

Prices and links are current as of 4/03/2020. 

The best educational toy overall

The Magna-Tiles Clear Colors 100 Piece Set is loved by children, educators, and parents for its ability to develop spatial, fine motor, and creative skills.

Magna-Tiles come in various sizes, shapes, such as right, equilateral, and isosceles triangles, and colors. Each tile has magnets along the edges and the unique ability to attract to other tiles even when they are flipped, which provides seemingly endless possibilities for use.

The tiles allow children to create anything they can dream up on either a flat surface in three dimensions. The tiles are great for all kids above the age of three. Younger children learn basic shapes by stacking and creating objects such as hexagons, while older children develop math and science skills by perfecting patterning, shape recognition, building, spatial, and fine motor skills.

As children grow, they can proudly transition to become Magna-Tile architects building more complex projects. The set comes with 100 pieces of translucent tiles to create cubes, pyramids, and other geometric shapes, but they are also compatible with other Magna-Tile sets. The more pieces or sets you combine, the more complex objects children can make. The company shows off kids' creations on its site, including skyscrapers, rocket ships, tea party tables, and more. 

The tiles are translucent, so your child can build a structure and put it in direct sunlight to get a colorful reflection, use them on windows to create illuminated window decals, "look" inside 3D shapes with a flashlight, see through them with a light table, or use them with a projector to seemingly enlarge the sizes of pieces and projects.

Magna-Tiles have received numerous awards and accreditations , including the Global Educator Institute Seal of Endorsement, which recognizes the very best in classroom-tested, teacher-approved learning products using a rigorous assessment process. The tiles have also won the Purdue University Engineering Thinking & Design Toy Award, the Brain Child Award by the Tillywig Toy & Media Awards, the commended medal in the construction category in the 2014 Independent Toy Awards, and an "Excellent" play's accreditation by the research of Jørn Martin Steenhold, C.Phil. Wirecutter also recommends Magna-Tiles in the Building Toys category of its top educational toys. 

If the 100-piece set doesn't fit your budget, check out the more affordable 32-piece set with fewer pieces. That way, you can add to your collection over time instead of paying so much upfront.

Pros: Spans various age groups, can be used in countless activities, hands-on, nearly no learning curve to start using them, enhances various skill sets

Cons: Pricey

The best educational toy for learning about electricity

The Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 Electronics Discovery Kit will fill your child with knowledge about how basic electronics function.

The Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100 Electronics Discovery Kit gives kids a hands-on education in electrical circuits so they can better understand the devices they use every day. The kit comes with 30 parts, including snap wires, slide switches, an alarm circuit, a music integrated circuit, and a speaker. It includes kid-friendly instructions to build more than 100 projects, such as a sound-activated switch, a musical doorbell, a voice-controlled lamp, a flying saucer, a lighted police siren, and more. 

The projects build on each other and allow children to advance at their own pace, starting off with a simple electric light and switch, and advancing to more complex projects. Along the way, kids get to build replicas of real circuit boards found inside televisions, radios, and other electronic devices.

Beyond teaching valuable lessons about wiring that some adults may not even know, the STEM learning toy promotes building skills and teaches kids how to follow instructions. So as to not be overwhelming or discouraging to any child, the kit conveniently comes with a project manual that features large, colorful illustrations and simple directions for each project. Additionally, each of the 30 pieces is numbered and color-coded for easy identification. Intended to be a DIY toy that does not require parental supervision, there's no soldering or additional tools required. Rather, as the product name suggests, the pieces just snap into place.

The beauty of buying this starter kit is that it's a toy that progresses as your child grows. While more than 100 projects will certainly take a good amount of time to complete, the learning doesn't stop there. Once children have mastered several of the techniques introduced in this kit, they can use the components along with a little creativity to experiment and create their own customized circuits and electronic devices.

Additionally, all Snap Circuit kits are fully compatible, meaning once this junior set has served its purpose, you can upgrade your kit to the Snap Circuits SC-300 Original Discovery Kit , Snap Circuits Sc-500 Pro , or Snap Circuits SC-7500 Extreme . You don't even have to buy an entirely new toy with each upgrade, as Snap Circuit conveniently offers more affordable 'upgrade' kits.

Keeping your budget in mind, since all modules are fully compatible, purchases of additional kits only grow, rather than replace, your child's Stem Circuits collection.  

Snap Circuit products have been recognized by The National Parenting Center with a Seal of Approval, and it has racked up more than 30 awards from the likes of the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA), Tillywig, and others. In addition to the plethora of awards Snap Circuit kits have received, they are also featured in Wirecutter . 

Pros: Cost-friendly, easy to expand your set rather than replace it, gives kids a hands-on learning experience with electricity, various add-on options to complement each child's unique interests

Cons: Pieces may not be super sturdy, batteries required

The best educational toy for learning about science

The Scientific Explorer Mind Blowing Science Kit teaches kids all about chemical reactions, which is less scary than it sounds.

The Scientific Explorer Mind Blowing Science Kit allows kids aged six and up to make "magic" (aka science) appear in front of their eyes, by teaching them about how chemicals can be added together to create reactions.

The kit consists of open-ended tools to construct, engineer, explore, and experiment with. It comes with "chemicals" that are all kid-friendly and safe, such as red cabbage powder, citric acid, baking soda, three color tablets, a cross-linked polyacrylate copolymer, vegetable oil, and cornstarch. You'll also get tools, including two cotton swabs, three test tubes, three plastic cups, pipette, two measuring scoops, and an activity guide.

To learn the basics of chemical reactions, with this starter kit, kids can create 11 different hands-on, fun, and educational experiments such as a sunset in a test tube and a color-changing volcano. To complete experiments, you will need some in-home products such as water and baking powder.

Once kids have had their fair share of fun with this popular starter kit, there are a long list of  other Scientific Explorer kits  from the same company that your child can upgrade to for more science-learning fun, such as the  Scientific Explorer Disgusting Science Kit , the  Scientific Explorer My Own Perfumery , or the Scientific Explorer Ice Cream Science Kit .

Pros: Price, multiple supplementary kits and add-ons to accommodate each child's unique interest, hands-on, safe  

Cons: May not entertain or excite children not interested in science, many projects/lessons could be done or taught without the purchase of the kit

The best educational toy robot

Make learning to code, solving problems, and developing patience fun for kids with the Wonder Workshop Dash Robot .

When this Robot was first launched, our own Matt Rosoff  got a chance to test out the robot collection with his kids and they enjoyed it. Intended for kids aged six years and up, the Wonder Workshop Dash Robot works with free mobile apps. Your child uses the apps to make the tiny robot dance, light up, make sounds, avoid obstacles, and react to their voice. 

The robot is responsive to its world, so your child can really bring it to life through the hundreds of diverse coding adventures and projects available. As a plus and major time saver, it comes fully assembled and features built-in learning tools like the Go App, so your child can begin to learn and play with Dash right out of the box.

In addition to teaching children to code, the Wonder Workshop Dash Robot helps them develop patience and build problem-solving skills, as there are endless possibilities for freeform play. Dash also won't tire out as quickly as other toys, as apps accommodate different age groups, learning levels, and playing styles.

For example, the Blockly app introduces kids to fundamental programming concepts including algorithm design, command sequences, flow controls, and creative problem-solving. The Xylo app introduces children to programming through music and helps foster skills such as algorithm design, command sequences, and control flow, and loops.

To ensure children never get bored, the robot comes with various optional add-ons for further learning, including a  Wonder Workshop Launcher for Dash Robot , which turns the robot into a programmable launching machine, and the  Wonder Workshop Build Brick Extensions , which lets kids use Legos to build the robot into anything they can dream up.

The Dash Robot has received numerous awards from the likes of Dr. Toy, the National Parenting Publication, Good Housekeeping, and more and holds high reviews on established tech sites, such as an 8-out-of-10-star review on Digital Trends and a 4-out-of-5-star review on PCMag . The robot is also featured in Wirecutter and The New York Times .

Pros: Makes coding fun, guided setup and learning process, hundreds of use cases, multiple apps accommodate different learning styles

Cons: Best for a certain age range, reports of trouble pairing the product with certain mobile devices

The best app-based educational toy

The Osmo Genius Kit enhances skills from math to drawing and incorporates hands-on digital learning.

The Osmo Genius Kit allows you to transform your iPad into a hands-on learning tool for your child. This starter set includes five games that foster creativity and problem-solving skills through hands-on and screen-based play, although additional games are available as add-ons for continual learning.

Designed for kids ages 5 through 12 years old, you can pick the type of learning that is best for your child based on the apps you give them. For example, Tangram lets kids arrange wooden puzzle pieces to match on-screen shapes to encourage visual thinking, while Newton, a drawing game that allows you to place any object in front of the screen and manipulate falling balls on the screen into the target zones to recreate the object, encourages problem-solving with 60 different levels of difficulty.

We really like that you can completely customize the learning kit to your child's particular learning structure and although there are only nine core games, the games have so many levels they can adapt to your child at any stage of learning within the intended age levels. 

The kit turns core subjects into fun games. Kids can tackle math with the app Numbers, which has kids arrange physical tiles, including dots and digits, to make numbers and complete levels. Meanwhile, the spelling-focused Words app has 150 puzzle images that ask kids to guess and spell out the hidden word on screen by tossing down real-life letters.

The Osmo Genius Kit comes with the basic Osmo stand and reflector, as well as five core apps and games: Masterpiece (drawing skills), Numbers (math), Tangram (spatial thinking), Words (spelling), and Newton (creative problem-solving).

The learning toy has received rave reviews from dozens of online experts ranging from   Consumer Reports and Wirecutter to Wall Street Journal . Osmo was listed as one of Time's 25 Best Inventions of 2014 , was a Toy of The Year Finalist is 2015, and the company was listed as one of Fast Company's  10 Most Innovative Companies In Education 2017 . 

Pros: Lessons (games) build on each other for continual learning as your child grows, various apps with hundreds of levels to advance to, teaches various skill sets and schools of study, uniquely incorporates hands-on learning in a digital environment

Cons: No detailed instructions for use, price, requires a tablet.

The importance of play, educational toys, and STEM

What makes a toy educational?

To be considered an educational toy, the toy must meet certain criteria. It must also be designed to stimulate learning or provide educational value, such as helping a child develop a certain skill or learn about a specific subject. Generally, educational toys claim to enhance intellectual, social, emotional, and/or physical development. Many are designed to target developmental milestones within appropriate age groups. Most importantly, educational toys encourage kids to play.

Play increases the size of the prefrontal cortex, meaning that the brain is more efficient at making plans, solving problems, and regulating and identifying emotions — basically all things required for a successful life.

Play is so important, in fact, that it's recognized by the United Nations as a human right for children. The importance of play for children wasn't thoroughly researched or even really considered until the second half of the 20th century but we can sum the research that has resulted thus far with the famous proverb, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

How to pick an educational toy

Here are some basic questions to ask yourself when picking an educational toy for your child:

• What areas of learning will this toy allow my child to tap into?
• What new skills will my child develop by playing with this toy?
• Are there different ways for my child to play and engage with the toy?
• Will the toy grow with them and last for years to come?
• Can the toy be played with independently and cooperatively?

Why are STEM toys so popular?

Recently, the big buzzword surrounding educational toys is STEM learning. STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and STEM Toys are learning toys developed with an educational focus in one (if not more) of those four principal areas of study.

The idea here is that more jobs will be coming out in future years that require science, technology, engineering, and/or math skills and thus introducing children to these concepts at an early age can give them a leg up on their fellow students — aka future job candidate competitors. STEM learning is becoming so popular that earlier this year, that brands like KiwiCo deliver monthly educational toys to children.

The benefits any STEM toy provides depends on the subject matter it is intended to teach, but in general, STEM toys go a bit further than regular educational toys to enhance divergent thinking, enhance innovative thinking, help children develop hand-eye coordination, and better promote spatial skills.

However, just because these toys are STEM-focused, that doesn't mean they're not creative, artistic, or educational in other ways, so don't get hung up on the labels. As long as your kids have fun and are learning while they play, that's all that matters.

Check out our other great toy guides

The best STEM toys

STEM toys are not only enjoyable to play with, but can also teach skills that will help kids excel in careers later in life. Many STEM toys lead to development of more than one ability, honing skills in mathematics, logic, problem-solving, and more.

The best wooden toys

While it's admittedly not as easy to find wooden toys in today's sea of plastic as it once was, they're still out there and they're still going strong. We've gathered up our favorite wooden toys and games for all ages.

The best beach toys

Whether it's you and the kids or you and the crew headed to the beach, we've assembled a list of some of the best beach toys for ensuring you have a great time. We found toys for playing in the sand, water fights, kite-flying, and more.

Subscribe to our newsletter. You can purchase syndication rights to this story here. Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

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• Baby and kid

Learning Toys and STEM Toys We Love

By Courtney Schley

We don’t think there’s a right or wrong way for kids to play. For this kid-oriented gift guide, we focused on learning toys—open-ended games, kits, toys and crafts that promote lifelong skills like critical thinking, problem solving, logic, and even coding. To choose from the hundreds of toys available, we spent more than 30 hours trying 35 recommendations from experts, educators, and parents, including a reporting trip to the Katherine Delmar Burke School’s tinkering and technology lab in San Francisco, California.

And, of course, we spent some time playing with our picks at home with our own kids. Here are the learning toys we love. We think the kids in your life will love them too.

The research

What are learning toys, how we picked and tested, building toys, electronics/circuitry.

The types of toys featured in this guide are often called STEM toys because they can help develop skills that would be useful in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. But we prefer the term “learning toys,” because, as the educators we spoke to told us, these toys and games promote creativity, logic, problem solving, collaboration, experimentation and other aptitudes that are relevant in all types of learning.

We didn’t focus exclusively on toys that are labeled “educational toys” for this guide, since that terminology on its own is largely meaningless. (Many companies make claims about the educational value of their toys that are often backed by little evidence, according to Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a psychologist specializing in child development and learning quoted in a New Yorker article about STEM toys.) Rather, we turned to educators and parents for leads to toys that have played well in the classroom and at home.

We’re not saying these toys will make kids into future inventors, programmers, or poets. Mostly we like these toys—and think the kids in your life will like them too—because they are open-ended, adaptive, flexible, provocative, and, most importantly, fun.

In fact, some research in child development has shown that kids have more fun with toys that help them learn. In a New York Times op-ed , 1 developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik described how kids learn through play: “New studies of ‘active learning’ show that when children play with toys they are acting a lot like scientists doing experiments. Preschoolers prefer to play with the toys that will teach them the most, and they play with those toys in just the way that will give them the most information about how the world works.”

To identify toys and games for this guide, we visited Katherine Delmar Burke School, an all-girls K-8 school in San Francisco. A few years ago, Burke’s built a large learning lab, dubbed it “ the Makery ,” and filled it with toys, games, computers, electronics, tools, building materials, and craft supplies. Students from kindergarten to middle school go to the lab to design, prototype, experiment, and create any number of projects (from robots and software to furniture and clothing) as well as play logic games and practice coding skills. (Full disclosure: I learned about this lab because my sister teaches there.)

We spoke with Mike Matthews, the director of curriculum and program innovation at Burke’s, and Jenny Howland, the kindergarten-through-4th-grade technology teacher, to find out what they think makes a good learning toy and which ones would be good choices for kids to play with at home. We tried out a number of games, toys, and kits in their lab ourselves and learned which ones have been most successful—and fun—for the students.

We also talked to Wirecutter staff with kids in their lives to find out their favorite learning toys, paying particular attention to recommendations we received from multiple sources. While we didn’t do full comparative testing to see how each toy measured up against its competitors (like we would for, say, drills), we’ve spent hours of hands-on time using everything in this guide either in Burke’s learning lab, by parents on our staff, or both.

For the 2017 update to this guide, we’ve added a recommendation from our guide The Best Robotics Kits for Beginners , for which we spent an additional 35 hours researching and testing the best kits for learning robotics.

Our research, expert interviews, and hands-on experience led us to identify several criteria that make a great learning toy:

• Open-ended: Whether a simple set of building blocks or a codable robot, the toys we recommend here can be played with, disassembled, reassembled, and interacted with in a variety of ways. Many of the games have no single solution and require the players to collaborate. These qualities spur kids toward creativity, exploration, and a deeper understanding of rules, patterns, logic, and how things work.
• Accessible: We focused on toys that won’t require extensive adult help or supervision (though we think adults will find most of these toys equally as fun as kids do). The toys we recommend don’t force kids to follow a specific set of instructions, but rather encourage play through experimentation, exploration, and trial and error. “It’s very important to let kids take things apart,” Howland told us.
• Replayable: Most of the toys and games on our list can be enjoyed by a wide range of ages, either because they offer different modes or difficulty levels, or because they allow increasingly complex interactions as the player builds skills. This means kids of multiple ages can play together and that a toy can grow with a kid.
• Fun: The fourth criteria, less easy to quantify but obviously the most important, is the “fun factor.” All the toys we chose have been vetted by kids—either enjoyed regularly in classrooms and the Makery lab at Burke’s, by our own staffers’ kids, or both.

We divided our recommendations into five categories: games, building toys, electronics/circuitry kits, robots and crafts.

Like chess, the ultimate learning game, these analog games are logic-based, multi-solution, and require planning moves in advance. They also offer new challenges, fun storylines and brightly colored pieces and game boards. The deceptively simple sets have few pieces and are easily packable for play in the car or at friends’ houses, but each offers multiple modes of play and delightfully tough logic puzzles.

A logic traffic jam

Navigating a car through different traffic jam challenges requires breaking down problems into discrete parts in this one-person game.

Buying Options

Rush Hour , a single-player game which has brightly colored pieces that snap onto the game board, was recommended by the teachers at Burke’s. Using different challenge configurations, the player has to move other cars so the red car can make its way out of a traffic jam. “It requires thinking ahead through multiple steps and stages, similar to chess,” Matthews told us.

The official recommendation on age for this game is “8 to adult,” 2 but in our experience, different challenge modes can make it fun for kids in 1st and 2nd grade as well as older elementary. Wirecutter writer Doug Mahoney says his 7-year-old loves it, and his 4-year-old even plays along too.

Three Little Piggies Deluxe

A geometry puzzle.

A single-player or team game that uses geometry, pattern recognition, and puzzle solving.

Three Little Piggies , which requires positioning the three little pigs’ houses in different ways to keep them safe from the big bad wolf, is a hit with the kindergartners at Burke’s but also offers more challenging play modes for older kids. “It teaches spatial awareness, pattern recognition and problem solving,” Matthews told us. Though technically a single-player game, multiple kids can work together to solve the puzzles.

Robot Turtles Game

Teaches coding skills.

A simple card-based board game for 2 to 5 players that stealthily teaches basic principles of programming.

Launched on Kickstarter and praised by the New York Times , NPR , and elsewhere, the four-player game Robot Turtles  uses symbol and color-based cards to navigate turtles through a maze in pursuit of jewels. Along the way, the game stealthily teaches principles of programming like commands and outcomes, lines of code, functions, and debugging. The game has play modes for preschoolers (with grown-up participation), elementary ages (independently), and even adults. Wirecutter science editor Leigh Krietsch-Boerner plays Robot Turtles with her 4-year-old and likes that they can make up some of their own rules. The game instructions encourage parents to give younger kids minimal input on how to play and let them figure out the rules and logic on their own. Of her 4-year-old, Krietsch-Boerner says “I was pretty surprised at how quickly he got the gist.”

According to ongoing research by early childhood education specialists at Eastern Connecticut State University who rank toys according to how well they promote thinking, problem solving, social interaction and creativity among young kids, one of the best-performing toys is a simple set of wooden blocks. These building toys are variations on basic wood blocks, incorporating magnets, flexible connectors, and gears to allow kids to build complex and creative structures.

Shapes and structures

Colorful magnetic triangles, squares, and pentagons create 3D structures and clean up easily.

Magna-Tiles Classic 100-Piece Set

More shapes and sizes.

Magna-Tiles are also great building toys with strong magnetic edges and great colors and shapes.

MagFormers’ set of flat shapes with internal magnets lets kids make free-form structures that go way beyond the typical block tower or castle. Kids figure out how the triangles, squares, and pentagons fit together to create 3D structures like geodesic domes and trapezoidal bridges, introducing basic concepts of geometry and engineering. Members of our staff also love Magna-Tiles , which come in additional shapes and sizes, and Wirecutter writer Doug Mahoney says his 7-, 4-, and 2-year-old kids enjoy playing with the blocks together. He also points out that the magnets make for easy cleanup: “They just pop against one another, so you don't really have to individually pick each one up (this is huge for anyone used to picking up Legos).” Editor Harry Sawyers adds “this can be frustrating for an early preschooler, but the design is brilliant, and you really see the kid’s skills develop as they learn to build more complex stuff. I’ve actually caught myself playing with these while I’m ‘cleaning up’ after the kids go to bed.”

Curves, joints and bends

Kids can build things that bend, curve, and move with these colorful, jointed pieces.

This 250-piece set of connectable pieces have ball joints that snap into U-shaped brackets, allowing kids to build shapes and structures with curves, bends and joints. The basic Zoob set is great for kids six and up, though parents should be aware that it contains Lego-sized pieces and requires a similar level of dexterity. (If 250 new small parts at home sounds intimidating, there’s also a 125-piece set.) The Zoob Jr. set has larger pieces that are easier to manipulate for younger kids, though it only comes with 30 pieces. Wirecutter science editor Leigh Krietsch-Boerner says her 4-year-old likes that he can make things that move, such as walking dinosaurs and musical instruments.

Gears! Gears! Gears!

Mechanical gears.

Kids connect colored gears to build complex horizontal and vertical structures—and to see if they can keep the gears turning.

Gears! Gears! Gears! Is basically what you’d guess: a big box of colored gears that snap together with axles and extenders to create complex, moveable structures. The challenge is figuring out how to align and order the gears so they’ll all turn in unison and not get jammed up.

Wirecutter writer Chris Heinonen says his 4-year-old and 6-year-old have the gears set in their room and build with it all the time. “Lots of the time it’s just seeing how large of a thing they can build and still have all the gears turn.” Wirecutter editor Harry Sawyers has a set as well, and his 2- and 4-year-old enjoy it together. He adds one caveat: “It’s pretty loud, especially on bigger projects, so keep that in mind if you have a baby or another kid sleeping nearby.”

These toys help kids jump into experimenting with electronic circuitry and computing (with no soldering required). Each of these kits can be played with on its own to experiment with connections, signals and inputs and to understand how electronic circuits and computing systems work. But the real fun comes when you use them as the electronic guts and brains for your own projects.

LittleBits Rule Your Room Kit

Ready-to-go circuits.

Magnetic, color-coded, ready-to-go circuit blocks can form the electronic guts of any number of projects and let kids learn how to connect power sources with inputs and outputs.

Recommended for ages eight and up, LittleBits are ready-made, modular circuits that snap together with magnets. Colors designate their types: blue for power sources, pink for inputs, green for outputs and orange for wires. Kids can connect a battery-supplied power source to, say, on/off and dimmer inputs, followed by a servo motor, to see how they work together to power and modulate the speed of the motor. “I hide the instructions,” says Mike Matthews, the curriculum director at Burke’s, instead having students experiment with combinations and configurations on their own to learn how connections, switching, and splitters work together.

The base kit comes with 10 circuits, including a power source (connected to a 9-volt battery), on/off button, dimmer switch, and servo motor (which can spin or rotate back and forth). But you can also buy LittleBit circuits a la carte , choosing from over 50 options including a USB-connectable power source, an Arduino microcontroller, timers, touchpads, MIDI players and more. This opens up the real possibilities of LittleBits: kids can use them to add motion, sound, and programming to any of their other toys and creations, from, say adding a motor to a Lego car, smart lighting in a doll’s house or scary sounds to papier-mâché Halloween decorations. The ready-to-go circuits may also spark a deeper interest in learning the fundamentals of circuit theory and transitioning to experimenting with breadboards and wiring on their own.

Elenco Snap Circuits Classic

Experiment with real circuits.

Color-coded snap-in components let kids design real circuits and create projects like radios, alarms, and doorbells.

SnapCircuits let kids explore the fundamentals of electronics and circuit design by using basic components (power sources, switches, resistors, capacitors and wires of different sizes) that snap together on a flat surface (essentially a large, easy-to-use breadboard). Kids can model various types of working circuits, follow pictorial instruction cards to create projects like radios, alarms, and doorbells, or experiment on their own.

The beauty of SnapCircuits is that, unlike with kits using ready-made motors and electronic components, kids are actually building and designing real circuits (including a short circuit, if you’re not careful)—much in the same way an engineer would prototype circuits, albeit in a simplified and accessible form. The color-coded, plastic-encased components are all marked with the standard electronic symbols (i.e., for switches , capacitors and inductors ), which develops familiarity with symbols and values used in actual circuit design.

SnapCircuits targets ages eight and up (like LittleBits), 3 though younger kids may be able to enjoy SnapCircuits with some adult supervision. Wirecutter’s Chris Heinonen says the components and instructions are accessible enough that his 6-year-old and 4-year-old play with the circuits together, sometimes draining batteries in the process.

Kano Computer Kit

A build-your-own computer.

Kids put the Kano computer together on their own and then have fun learning coding and playing games using the unique OS.

May be out of stock

We recommended the Kano Computer Kit in our 2015 holiday gift guide as a great gift for “a curious kid of any age who has mastered Lincoln Logs, Erector sets, and LEGOs but isn’t quite up for soldering (or old enough for an electrical engineering degree program).” The kit, which is accessible for kids as young as six, has you assemble a small, portable computer using a Raspberry Pi 3 processor with 1 GB RAM, a wireless keyboard and touchpad, a speaker, and cables. We know that’s lot of money for what is effectively a $35 Raspberry Pi 3 processor, speakers and wireless keyboard, but you're paying for the convenience of a "kit" that a kid can access and the accompanying apps, which get updated/enhanced over time.

The computer can pair with any display with an HDMI port, so you can use it with your TV or home monitor. Or, you can buy Kano’s Screen Kit , which includes a carrying case for the whole computer. The Kano’s simplicity may seem limiting (the components just snap together, so it’s really more “putting together” than building a computer), but this is part of its appeal: Kids can figure out how the basic parts of a computer work together and can feel like they “built it” without needing to be guided by an adult. Wirecutter senior editor Dan Frakes says his 9-year-old daughter “really liked the idea behind ‘I built a computer.’”

Once assembled, kids can use Kano to learn coding (with Python and Javascript), play games (including Minecraft) on Kano’s OS, and use a number of other free apps available through Kano.

Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit

Drive a car, plane, and submarine with cardboard contraptions.

One part craft kit, one part STEM toy, and one part video game, Labo and its brilliant instructions help you turn pieces of (not very durable) cardboard into interactive games.

If you own a Nintendo Switch and have a patient child who loves building and craft projects, you should look into Nintendo Labo, a line of clever cardboard construction kits that bring Switch games into the real world in the form of toys you build yourself. The Labo Vehicle Kit is our top choice after spending 25 hours researching and testing three kits before handing them off to a test panel of school-age children and their parents.

The Vehicle Kit incorporates five projects—a car steering wheel, pedal, key, joystick for steering a plane, and a submarine-like contraption—into the same game: an open-map island where you can explore at your own pace. The cardboard pieces take anywhere from a few minutes to 2 hours to build. Following interactive building instructions displayed on the Switch’s screen, you fold the cardboard pieces along premarked lines and insert tabs into slots to make 3D shapes. The structures are ingeniously engineered; the steering wheel really turns and the pedal pushes down. When you’re ready to use the steering wheel, you insert a cardboard “key,” which has one of the Joy-Con controllers inside, to pair everything with the Switch tablet. Then you’re free to steer a car around the virtual play space displayed on your television.

Thanks to its thorough instructions and seamless integration with the Switch, Nintendo Labo is a fun and approachable way for children ages 6 and up to learn about building and, if they want, programming. It isn’t quite like any building kit we’ve used before, and the clever design charmed us: Turning flat pieces of cardboard into functional toys feels a bit like magic, and each toy is different enough from the last to feel like a fresh building experience. Although the cardboard won’t last forever and the price is a bit high for a one-time-use kit, we think Labo can be a worthwhile accessory for Switch owners who want to encourage a child’s interest in STEM topics.

Robots are increasingly making their ways into the classroom, and some computer science and educational researchers have concluded that robots have great potential for allowing kids as young as four to engage with technology, programming, and engineering and to develop abstract skills like storytelling, creativity, and visual memory.

We think the robots recommended here are great for play at home, too: they’re open-ended, adaptable, and responsive; help kids of all ages explore fundamental programming concepts; and are lovable to boot. Or, check out our full guide on beginner robot kits .

A little robot with a big personality

The cute, one-eyed robot rolls, dances, and talks, teaching programming to kids from kindergarten through upper elementary.

“Dash is one of the best-designed robots for kids imaginable. It has a personality,” Mike Matthews of Burke’s told me. Students from kindergarten through eighth grade use Dash in the classroom to learn programming, geometry, algorithms, and more.

The small, Cyclopean robot (Dash is about six and a half inches high and weighs under two pounds) is Bluetooth-enabled, rechargeable, and rolls agilely on three wheels in response to voice cues or app-based commands from an Android or iOS device. Five included apps let you manipulate, program, design new behaviors, and play music with the robot. Younger kids can use an intuitive app called Path to draw a route for Dash to follow around the room, dropping in pictorial commands for the robot to make sounds, dance, flash lights, and perform other actions. Along the way, kids learn how to account for obstacles and to map their 3D environment onto a 2D drawing.

Older kids can use Dash’s introductory-level programming app, Blockly , which lets them build nested commands with conditionals, loops, triggers and algorithms. More advanced users can move onto the Wonder app, which uses its own coding language and a series of challenges to teach new concepts and allow kids to build their own open-ended programs for Dash. Kids can build code to make Dash guard their room, for example, or deliver messages. The bot lends itself well to group play, fostering brainstorming and ideation, especially among kids of multiple ages: a preschooler can come up with ideas for what Dash should do while an older child programs the commands into the app.

At its price, Dash is not a cheap toy, but other educational robots we looked at (such as the Sphero and KIBO ) are in the same price range or more expensive. For the investment, you get a versatile, responsive toy designed to continue to remain challenging and interesting as your child grows and develops new skills.

A bigger, expandable robot kit

The Boost kit is a joy to put together and easy to program, and because it’s based on Lego, there’s lots of possibility for creative expansion.

Thanks to the familiarity of Lego pieces, the 847-piece Lego Boost is one of the easiest and most fun to build among kits of its size. And because any Lego block can be used, there’s a massive opportunity for expansion right out of the box. The Lego Boost also has more add-ons than other kits we tested. The Boost’s instructions (through an accompanying tablet app) are completely visual—no reading required—and guides you through each step of assembling the robot. Lego’s programming language is also graphical, using a library of recognizable symbols that you drag and drop to create command sequences. As you build, the app interjects short programming challenges, which helps kids learn how each part of the robot and its sensors function, before moving onto more complex and fun tasks like singing, dancing, or avoiding obstacles. Lego says the kit is for ages 7 to 12. We recommend younger kids start off with a grown-up’s help; Wirecutter writer Signe Brewster can confirm that Boost is challenging and engaging for grown-ups, too.

Many traditional crafts have a great deal to teach kids about engineering, math, and design. In Burke’s Makery Lab, students experiment with a range of crafts—knitting, sewing, felting, weaving—alongside mechanical and electrical engineering projects. Technology teacher Jenny Howland says crafting teaches kids how to harness different materials, tools and techniques to create. “It’s all about different materials. What’s the best way to hold two things together? Is it yarn? Is it a glue dot? Is it a screw? For me, a lot of crafting is exactly that: discovering how different materials work together.”

Howland says she keeps a variety of supplies on hand like burlap, yarn, needles, lace, embroidery hoops, doilies, cork, paper clips, and more to allow her students to experiment with techniques and materials.

Because older kids can use adult-sized tools and materials, and because not everyone has a closet full of craft supplies, we focused here on ready-to-go kits designed to introduce small hands to handicrafts.

Hape Foxy Tote Sewing Kit

Animal sewing projects.

These animal-shaped sewing projects with precut pieces and seam holes help young kids learn about patterning, shapes, and materials.

Wirecutter staff writer Jackie Reeve recommends Hape’s animal-shaped craft kits, such as the Foxy Tote Sewing Kit , as a way to get kids as young as 4 started with simple sewing projects. The felt pieces have precut holes along the seams and come with plastic needles and string that are suited for small hands and developing fine motor skills. Kids will learn about geometry, following patterns and connecting materials, and can choose to make  puppies , penguins , or elephants , too.

Seedling Create Your Own Designer Dolly Kit

Make your own doll.

A simple cloth doll is a blank canvas for kids to experiment with stitching, cutting, and clothing design.

Jackie also recommends Seedling craft kits, noting their gender-neutral design and great variety of make-your-own projects ( superhero capes  and  tote bags are just a few examples of their offerings). Recommended for ages 5 and older (kids will need to be able to use scissors to cut the fabric and thread), the Create Your Own Designer Dolly Kit includes an 11-inch cloth doll, fabric and felt swatches, color threads, and a set of needles, helping kids develop cutting and sewing skills. The Seedling kits all take a hands-off approach with their instructions, with an emphasis on letting kids explore materials and create their own designs.

The New York Times is our parent company.

Our families have played with some toys outside of the official age range recommendations. If in doubt, parents should defer to the age ranges printed on the boxes, especially regarding choking hazards for younger kids. The CPSC has more info on this topic.

The LittleBits reviews on Amazon have pretty thorough comparisons to SnapCircuits about the target audiences, features, and other details of each set.

Meet your guide

Courtney Schley

Courtney Schley, a senior editor covering sleep and appliances, has been at Wirecutter since 2014. She has held several roles at Wirecutter, including research editor, as well as supervising editor of baby and kid coverage.

Further reading

Our Favorite STEM Toys for Kids Stuck at Home During Coronavirus

by Signe Brewster

For kids stuck at home right now, STEM toys and kits can offer open-ended and educational exploration. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorites.

Some of the Best Online Learning Games for Kids

by Courtney Schley

We spent 40-plus hours testing more than 50 recommendations from educators, experts, and parents to find the best educational apps and games for kids.

The Best Electronics Kits for Kids and Beginners

We tested electronics kits with kids ages 7 to 12 and got feedback from parents and makers to find the most engaging ways for kids to learn about electronics.

The 30 Best Gifts for 4-Year-Olds

by Kelly Glass, Caitlin Giddings, and Wirecutter Staff

Toys that encourage building, puzzling, role-playing, and creating will engage curious 4-year-olds.

Interactive Learning Toys for Growing Minds

Get kids excited about learning to read and more with LeapFrog ® ! Each interactive learning system includes a stylus that reads invisible dots on compatible books, triggering questions, challenges, songs, jokes and more.  

LeapStart ® Library

Explore the LeapStart ® library for 750+ replayable activities that help teach over 50 core skills at every learning level.   

LeapStart® Go! Go! Cory Carson® Cory Carson Superhero School™

Read & Write Communication Skills

LeapStart ® Mr. Pencil Sharpens Creativity™

Peppa Pig™ Playing Together  

Alphabet Adventures  

Around Town with PAW Patrol

The Best Educational Toys To Keep Kids Engaged And Learning

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Playing is learning—the two activities go together like peanut butter and jelly. That’s why it’s important to equip your kids with the best educational toys for their downtime, whether it’s between naps or after their schoolwork is done for the day.

“The right toys can help spark creativity, critical thinking, and imagination, as well as promote skills like emotional regulation, problem-solving and other soft skills to help kids thrive later in life” notes Alanna Gallo, founder and CEO of Play. Learn. Thrive . According to the mother of four and former teacher, toys that encourage active play, where the child does the majority (90%) of the “work” are optimal. These toys are often the most basic too, with no singing, dancing or lights to distract little learners.

The best educational toys for kids are open-ended, help them explore a variety of interests and ... [+] teach them something new.

Open-ended toys like building blocks, balls and simple dolls offer children a variety of ways to play and will grow with them. “A toddler might throw blocks or put them into a truck and zoom them around, for example, while a 12-year-old might build a city with the same set,” says Gallo. “A baby will roll a ball back and forth, which can be used for teens to play catch.”

For older, tech-savvy kids, there are so many cool toys and gadgets to help them learn robotics and computer programming, work on math and logic skills and nurture their creative instincts.

Of course, the best educational toys are the ones that speak to your kids’ interests. That’s why we’ve rounded up a wide assortment of toys to help engage their intellect while entertaining them at the same time. After reading this story, you may want to check out more of our toy and gift articles like the best gifts for teens or the best toys for 1-year-olds .

Best Educational Toys For Babies

A set of soft, sensory-rich blocks.

Follies Playsets

Follies Baby Bauhaus Soft Blocks

These beautifully-made soft blocks, designed for your little ones’ developing brain, engage your babe from the newborn stage all the way into the early toddler years. Spoiler alert: My baby loves these. They’re super soft and sensory-rich with high-contrast graphics, tags and a rattle to entertain and develop those fine motor skills and pattern recognition.

Not only do they look nice in the playroom, but they also come with free Montessori-inspired activities for parents to make the most of awake time. Babies will enjoy looking at them (and themselves in the block’s mirror), tossing them, stacking them, rolling the ball and shaking to hear the rattle.

An Extraordinary Play Gym That Grows With Them

The play gym.

If you’re looking for a play gym to practice tummy time or to keep your little one content while you get things done around the house, the Lovevery Play Mat is my absolute favorite for the first year. There’s so much for babies to do and explore, with five developmental zones, detachable activity toys and teethers and high-contrast images to capture their attention and support visual development. It also comes with a play guide with stage-based tips and suggested activities to help parents play with a purpose with their kiddos, which as a busy mom, I really appreciate.

Once they’re a little older, throw the play space cover on top to turn the mat into their own tiny toddler fort and let the fun continue.

Silicone Sensory Stacking Cups

LOULOU LOLLIPOP

Loulou Lollipop Stacking Cups

My baby pretty much has one of these stylish sensory stacking cups in his hand at all times. They’re made of 100% food-grade silicone that’s soft and won’t hurt when he inevitably launches one across the room. You can stack them, put snacks and other small stuff inside, and even take them into the bath.

Stacking cups are an amazing open-ended toy that helps promote hand-eye coordination, teaches spatial relationships, cause and effect and supports the development of gross and fine motor skills. As children become more sophisticated with their play, they can practice counting, sorting and size recognition.

They'll Have A Ball With This Six-Piece Set

Infantino textured multi ball set.

Ball. It was my oldest child’s first word, and from the time he could sit up, it was one of his favorite things to play with, whether he was throwing it, kicking it or watching it roll across the room. This top-rated sensory ball set from Infantino includes six different-sized balls that are bright and easy for infants to grab with a soft, textured design to help babies develop their tactile senses.

While seemingly super simple, a basic ball can teach babies so much, from visual tracking to hand-eye coordination and encourage their fine and gross motor development. The best part? They’re incredibly inexpensive and kids love them.

Best Educational Toys For Toddlers And Preschoolers

To help them work through all those big feelings, solobo emotions montessori coin sorter.

Encourage natural speech development through play, and help little ones identify and communicate their own emotions from a young age with this durable, wooden Montessori-inspired Coin Sorter. It comes with 30 brightly colored coins that showcase six emotions: happy, sad, angry, surprised, silly and anxious. In addition to being an excellent social emotional learning tool, this toy will help boost your toddler’s hand-eye coordination, memory building, language development, fine motor and problem-solving skills. They’ll also learn to count, identify colors and match the emotion to the coin as they get bigger.

Pretty Play Silks To Get The Creative Juices Flowing

Sarah's silks earth playsilk.

Play silks are quite possibly the most versatile and best educational toy you can purchase for the playroom. While they’re essentially a simple piece of soft, silky fabric (Sarah’s are sustainably made), these play silks provide children with a world of pretend play opportunities. A quick Google search uncovers hundreds of ways littles can use them, but chances are, your kid will come up with more than enough creative ideas all on their own—from using the silks as a superhero cape to turning them into a picnic blanket or tying them together to create a river or rope. They don’t take up a ton of space in the playroom either, which is great if you’re trying to minimize the toy clutter.

A Solid 100-Piece Wooden Block Set

Melissa & doug wooden building set.

It doesn’t get more classic than wooden blocks. In four colors and nine shapes, this durable 100-piece block set from beloved toy brand Melissa & Doug is a wise choice for parents looking for the best educational toys that’ll stand the test of time (aka your kid won’t be over it in two days). Aside from creating cool towers and mazes to race toy cars through, kids learn so much from playing with blocks, including social skills, problem solving, mathematics, science, spatial perception, language and the development of literacy skills and abstract thinking.

Realistic Dolls Representing A Diverse Spectrum Of Kids

Miniland baby doll.

A number of studies have found dolls a beneficial plaything, especially when it comes to empathy and social and emotional skills. The tough part often is finding a baby doll that looks like your child, which kids tend to love. Miniland dolls address the issue, along with a few other brands, by offering a diverse selection of anatomically-correct dolls—handmade in Europe—that represent various ethnicities, hair types, skin tones and disabilities. They’re incredibly well-made and realistic looking. While they come dressed in simple white clothes, you can purchase extra accessories so your kiddo can play dress up, from sleep sacks to baby carriers and plenty of outfits, too.

Five Magnifiers For Closer Scientific Examination

Brainstorm outdoor adventure bug viewer.

Toddlers especially seem to have such a natural fascination with spiders, worms and all things creepy-crawly. This Bug Viewer allows kids to gently collect insects outside and inspect them up close and personal, from all angles, with five magnifiers.

The lid is completely escape-proof and there’s a watertight bottom section to take a peek at water creatures—it even has breathing holes to ensure no animals are harmed in the process. For budding gardeners, this viewer can be used to take a better look at plants and flowers too.

Best Educational Toys For Kids Ages 5–8

Hands-on play meets digital fun with this genius kit, osmo genius starter kit.

No screen time simply isn’t realistic for most families. While digital, Osmo uses tangibles to engage the spacial center of your kids’ brains too. It’s a series of educational games and activities in an app for your Android tablet or iPad, but the games cross over into the real world so your kids interact with actual physical game pieces—instead of only going cross-eyed staring at a screen.

You get an accessory that clips to your tablet and a base for the tablet to stand on. Your kids will complete puzzles, challenges and games using real-world game pieces and see them interact with the game environment on the screen.

There are different starter packs aimed at different ages. The Osmo Genius Starter Kit, for example, is aimed at kids age 6 to 10. Various games help build visual problem-solving skills, including puzzles, math and freehand drawing, just to name a few. Kids also gain listening skills, improved spelling and build their vocabulary over time. Kids seem to really love Osmo, and they’ll never run out of activities because you can purchase expansions to build on your starter set.

STEAM-Based Projects Delivered Direct To Your Door Monthly

Kiwico kiwi crate.

For busy parents, there’s no greater gift than educational activities magically showing up on your doorstep monthly—for those days they’re bored and you just can’t even. KiwiCo makes a number of our favorite subscription boxes for kids , delivering enriching art projects, science experiments and more for children each month.

You choose the line of boxes according to their age and interests, from geography and culture to cooking, science, art and more. With the Kiwi Crate STEAM kit, for example, kids can create their own arcade claw with pom-pom prizes or build a kite and stomp rockets to fly. Every kit comes with illustrated kid-friendly instructions too so it’s mostly DIY.

Let Their Imaginations Run Wild With This Modular Building System

Wundernook core collection.

Kids are constantly creating, turning a blanket and chairs into a fort or an old Amazon box into a playhouse. To foster those STEM skills and encourage even more pretend play, we love this clever modular building system from Wundernook, which allows children to plan, construct and bring to life whatever wooden structures they can dream up—from a play kitchen and lemonade stand to a puppet theater.

It comes with 11 Baltic birch panels and a whole slew of accessories, including connectors, hinges, a stainless steel sink, play faucet, handles, magnetic door latches and more. Parents can also purchase extra accessories, such as a fabric kit and decals, to expand their kid’s pretend play options.

Create The Coolest 3D Structures

Clixo rainbow 42-piece pack.

If your kid is obsessed with Magna-Tiles like mine, they’ll love the creative flexibility (literally) Clixo offers. Instead of being rigid squares and triangles, Clixo can bend every which way, allowing kids to flex their mental muscles, sharpen fine motor skills and improve spatial reasoning by constructing 3D airplanes, towers, crowns, bags, jewelry and honestly anything.

The entire 42-piece pack weighs in at less than a pound so it’s the perfect lightweight, open-ended toy to take on airplanes, vacation or to restaurants in place of an iPad. You can snag the 60-piece set for even more building options—or grab a few and combine them.

Make Slime, Glow Worms And More

Crayola color chemistry set.

A few decades ago, home chemistry sets for young kids were popular, but shockingly irresponsible considering the chemicals that were included to help little ones conduct their experiments. The Crayola Color Chemistry Set is a modern, safe take on those chemistry sets of old, and it’s aimed at kids from 7 to 10 years old—though can safely be done with a parent for younger elementary-age children.

Kids can make an erupting volcano, homemade slime, glow worms or a lava lamp, for starters. The kit comes with everything you need to perform 16 experiments right in the box, and it includes instructions for another 34 experiments with supplies you likely already have around the house.

Best Educational Toys For Kids Ages 9-12

This kid-safe 3d printing pen, 3doodler start+ essentials 3d pen set.

Art enthusiasts will freak out for this futuristic 3D pen, which is essentially a sort of glue gun you can make 3D structures with—as you draw in the air with the pen, it extrudes a plastic filament that becomes rigid up more or less instantly. But that’s also the reason most 3D pens aren’t good for kids: The freshly extruded plastic is too hot to touch. This is where 3Doodler Start+ comes in. With no hot parts and a freshly extruded plastic that’s cool to the touch, it’s the only kid-safe 3D pen you can buy.

Good for kids ages 6 and up, 3Doodler Start+ lets young kids create 3D art, sculptures and models as simple or complex as their imagination. It’s also compatible with a mobile app that teaches your kid how to make 3D projects, which they can follow along with in real time to make their own version.

Polish Rocks And Their Earth Science Skills

National geographic rock tumbler kit.

This one is perfect for the mini rock collector and gemstone lover in your life. There’s something about watching a grimy, mundane stone transform into a fascinating gem that can be awe-inspiring for kids and adults alike—and spark a lifelong passion for polishing gems and studying earth sciences.

This rock tumbler is built to last with a durable motor and a barrel that’s surprisingly quiet. It’s battery-powered, so you can set it up anywhere, including the garage. In addition to the tumbler, you get a collection of rocks to start polishing right out of the box, as well as a supply of rock polisher to give your stones a gorgeous sheen.

Get Their Brain In Gear With This Epic 3D Wooden Model Kit

Ugears globe.

A lot of kids love to build models, but the excitement is often over the moment the model is complete. Ugears models, on the other hand, have serious staying power. The company describes its models as “3D puzzles.” They’re not, really—it’s hard to describe something as a puzzle when it comes with step-by-step instructions—but the laser-cut wooden pieces can feel a little puzzle-like.

Suitable for kids 8 and up (and even their parents because these things are very, very cool), there are  a lot of models in the Ugears catalog , and many of them actually feature moving parts and working mechanisms. This globe spins with the help of a complex gear assembly, rubber band motor and features a lever to set it in motion. Two satellites (Sputnik and a space shuttle) orbit the spinning globe.

A Safe And Exciting Introduction To Electrical Engineering

Elenco snap circuits jr. sc-100 electronics exploration kit.

This award-winning kit (and a 4.8 out of 5 with more than 16,000 reviews on Amazon) comes with everything curious tweens need—including snap wires, slide switches, music-integrated circuits and more—to make over 100 different electronic gadgets as they learn the nuts and bolts of basic electrical engineering. Each piece comes numbered and color-coded so identifying everything is a breeze, and large color illustrations with easy-to-follow instructions set them up for success.

Kids can create working circuit boards just like the ones found inside their own TVs and devices at home. Some other cool example projects include a musical doorbell, a voice-controlled lamp, flying saucer and a light police siren.

Best Educational Toys For Teens

Take their rubik's cubing to the next level, gocube edge.

In many ways, a Rubik’s Cube is the perfect childhood toy. It’s a 3D puzzle that teaches logic, problem-solving and persistence, and once your kids master the basics, they can turn it into a competitive sport, honing their hand-eye coordination and reflexes. So how do you improve on perfection? With the GoCube Edge, of course.

The GoCube is a connected, electronic Rubik’s Cube that talks to a mobile app on your phone via Bluetooth. And that means this cube has all sorts of capabilities that your childhood Rubik’s Cube couldn’t dream of. It can interactively teach your kid how to solve the puzzle, for example, breaking the process down into easy-to-follow mini-steps. The app knows the state of the cube and even how you’re holding it, so it’s impossible to get “lost” in the instructions. Once your kid masters the basics, the app tracks their performance with timed challenges. GoCube Edge can match them with other players for real-time Rubik’s Cube competitions or they play head-to-head with other GoCube-equipped friends.

A Classic Lego Set You Can Do Together

Lego ideas home alone set.

Lego is a timeless toy with staying power. For older kids, they can be a great alternative to screen time, improving teens’ focus and concentration, dexterity and creative problem solving skills—especially when working on a set with a sibling, friend or parent. They’re also a great way to unwind and focus kids’ minds on something else other than the daily stresses of school and friends.

While the Classic Creative Gift Box for ages 4 to 99 is always a wise choice, this Home Alone -themed set is too good to pass up. Kids can build the McCallister house alone or with parental help (consider it bonding time), and once you’re done it doubles as a decoration for the holidays.

Gas Vs. Electric Dryers: Which One Is Right For Your Home?

Here are the best hoka deals available right now, how we chose the best educational toys for kids.

To help curate this list, I spoke with Alanna Gallo, a play expert with a Master’s degree in Education, a former public school teacher with 10+ years of classroom experience and a mom to several busy kids herself, four to be exact, to discover what she looks for in educational toys. She’s also the founder of Play. Learn. Thrive., where she helps fellow parents raise confident, independent and critical-thinking children by using play and other educational tools. So to say she knows her stuff when it comes to the best educational toys for kids is an understatement.

As a mom to three littles myself, I also used my own experience with several of the picks on this list, including only toys I felt brought lots of learning and longevity (in terms of how long it kept my children’s attention) to the table. I also made sure to include lots of open-ended and STEM toys, which have been proven to have tons of educational benefits for children.

And lastly, I looked at reviews, age-appropriateness and overall ease-of-use to be sure the toys included were worth purchasing.

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The Best Educational Toys for Toddlers to Combine Fun and Learning

Inspire little minds with building, reading, matching, and more educational toys

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more .

Verywell Family / Amelia Manley

Educational toys are great for toddlers because they help stimulate learning , whether it’s through stacking blocks or simply reading a book, as young children reach developmental milestones. Look for toys that will add educational value to your child’s playtime and hone in on any of their interests to keep it entertaining. 

To begin our research, we surveyed 875 parents about what toys their children love to play with, how they play with them, and why they love to continuously use them. We also spoke with a pediatrician and reviewed guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on how to buy safe toys and what to expect during the toddler years (ages 1 to 3). Moreover, we reviewed developmental milestones for toddlers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). When reviewing products, we carefully considered age recommendations, toy safety, milestones, design, ease of use, and value . Lastly, a board-certified pediatrician from our Review Board reviewed this article for accuracy on how to evaluate safe and age-appropriate educational toys for toddlers.

• How We Selected and Tested
• What to Look For

Why Trust Verywell Family

More toys for kids, best overall, melissa & doug grocery cart push toy and puzzles.

Versatile (several activities in one design)

Wood material is durable and high quality

Push handle isn't adjustable

Why We Recommend It

Melissa & Doug is a well-loved brand among parents we surveyed because of the company’s high-quality materials and educational toys—and this toddler grocery cart is no different. One of our writers received a free sample of the company’s Wooden Shape Sorting Grocery Cart and says the toy is even cuter in person. The cart arrives nearly fully assembled, minus attaching the handle with a screwdriver, which is a piece of cake. 

This toddler grocery cart is all about learning; it features a built-in matching game , two puzzle boards, 12 shape-sorting pieces that double as puzzle pieces, and a play coffee cup with a lid for imaginative play. Whether littles—ages 1 and up—play with the puzzles or sort shapes, the Melissa & Doug grocery cart encourages fine and gross motor skills , color and shape recognition, counting, problem-solving, and more. 

While the handle doesn’t adjust, kids can push the grocery cart thanks to moving wheels that glide on carpet and tile. The beautiful and durable wood is just the cherry on top.

Best Building

Mega bloks 80-piece big building bag.

Budget-friendly

Practices problem-solving and fine motor skills

80 blocks included

Only blocks in storage bag

The Mega Bloks First Builders Bag is our top pick because this set of blocks provides endless playtime possibilities . Blocks provide an opportunity for you and your little one to practice problem-solving and fine motor skills , as well as a great base for non-stop pretend play. 

The top criteria for a good set of blocks are durability, a safe and fun size, and disinfecting ability. The Mega Bloks are a parent favorite because they come with 80 colorful building blocks , including special shapes for under $20. They click into each other nicely without too much pressure (good for little hands) and can be stored easily in the zip bag they come in.

Best Matching

Kidzlane egg toy for kids and toddlers.

Durable case included

Teaches color matching

Easy to grab for little hands

Some eggs don't stay together

May be hard to open for some toddlers

Whether it be with colors, shapes, or even animals, matching is a great skill to work on with toddlers. This affordable egg toy is designed to help your toddler learn to count, sort, and match . The set includes 12 plastic eggs, each of which has a different color and a number of small pegs that match up with another half with the same layout. 

Kids love to click and pull apart these eggs, and they are easy to grab for little hands . They come in a durable plastic egg carton, which also acts as a carrying and storage case. You can even use these eggs with pretend play for a fun learning experience in the play kitchen.

Best for Sensory Learning

Democa quiet book for toddlers.

Nine engaging activities

Machine-washable

Some pages not as engaging

Keeping a toddler busy and entertained is a full-time job. The deMoca Quiet Book makes things a lot easier with nine engaging activities built into a brightly colored fabric, machine-washable book. 

The activities include matching velcro-colored shapes, learning to tie shoes and button buttons, and a clock to tell time. The book is perfect for sensory development and encourages dexterity and spatial awareness . This travel-friendly activity book will keep your toddler busy, and there aren’t any pieces or parts to lose.

Best Flashcards

Learnworx flashcards for toddlers.

101 flash cards included

Large print

No shapes, colors, or numbers

Flashcards are a little bit of an old-school learning method but are much loved by parents, teachers, and toddlers because they’re easy, fun, and great for on the go. We love this flashcard set from Learnworx. The set comes with 101 large-print, extra-thick cards that feature cute and bright pictures of objects and scenes like animals, foods, and household items.

On the back of the cards, prompt questions encourage counting, spelling, and more, like “How many lions do you see?” The cards wipe clean and store easily in a toddler-friendly box.

Best Puzzle

Melissa & doug farm animals sound puzzle.

Realistic animal sounds

Puzzle pieces have peg for easy grasping

Wood is sturdy

Batteries not included

Another solid educational toy for toddlers is this Melissa & Doug Sound Puzzle. Parents we surveyed recommend this educational toddler toy because it promotes fine motor skills , and kids can play with it independently. Each puzzle piece includes an easy-to-grasp peg for little hands. Once children place the puzzle piece into the correct spot, they’ll hear realistic animal sounds . While we love the farm animals theme, it also comes in musical instruments, vehicles, pets, and zoo animals.

ToyVelt Dinosaur Take Apart Toys

Helps with hand-eye coordination

Not recommended for children under 3 years old

Even though the concept of STEM might seem a little advanced for your toddler, encouraging exploration and play that involves invention and problem-solving are all part of it. This colorful set includes three or six dinosaurs and tools .

The idea is for your toddler to take apart and reassemble the dinosaurs using kid-friendly tools. Although this toy may not be right for a 1-year-old, a 3-year-old child will love the process of taking apart and fixing the dinosaurs. They will work on their hand-eye coordination, creative problem-solving, and patience , all while having fun.

Best for Fine Motor Skills

Learning resources spike the fine motor hedgehog.

Quills fit into hedgehog for easy storage

Works on fine motor skills

Does not make sounds/noises

Want to know how to work on your toddler’s fine motor skills? Find a toy that keeps their attention! Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog gets rave reviews because kids love it just as much as parents and grandparents. The brightly colored peg-shaped pieces can be placed in and out of the friendly hedgehog and are easy for kids to grasp. 

With this cute toy, you can also work on color recognition, sorting, and counting skills, then simply store it away as one piece. Good for a young toddler and your budget, and your toddler will love this fun little hedgehog.

Best for Memory

Banana panda suuuper size memory game.

Practice matching, focus, and sorting

Easy to learn

Only animals or vehicles offered

Best for ages 2 and up, this giant Banana Panda memory game is a good way to practice matching, focus, and sorting . The game itself is easy to learn and fun to play. You can also use the cards as flashcards to introduce new words. 

The Banana Panda game has adorable colorful animal illustrations and the pieces are made of thick cardboard and are large enough for a toddler to see and grab. These easily store and are portable for travel or play on the go.

Best for Reading

Leapfrog learning friends 100 words book.

Introduces toddlers to 100 vocabulary words

English or Spanish offered

Batteries required

Touch can be sensitive

You can count on LeapFrog to make an interactive educational toy that both you and your toddler will love. With the Learning Friends Interactive book, your toddler will be introduced to 100 vocabulary words and be able to touch the words and pictures on each page. The book also has fun facts, music, and sounds and can be turned to Spanish for language learning. 

The word categories in the Learning Friends Book include pets, animals, food, mealtime, colors, activities, opposites, outside, and more . Take this book with you in the car or while you grocery shop, and your toddler will be happily entertained.

Best for Art

Betheaces aqua doodle magic drawing mat.

Six drawing templates

No toxic ingredients

Pens may leak

As any parent will tell you, any toddler art activity that doesn’t involve mess is a sure winner. With the Aqua Doodle Magic Drawing Mat, there is no mess, no toxic ingredients, and no ink . The magical pen transforms water into a mess-free color and disappears after a few minutes, so the fun doesn't have to end,

The Aqua Doodle also includes four drawing templates, four pens, and four shape stencils . The water drawing mat itself has a bright and colorful border and is large enough to be shared and played with outdoors (but it also folds up and is easy to take with you).

How We Selected and Tested Educational Toys for Toddlers

• Expert Input: We spoke with Whitney Casares, MD, MPH , pediatrician, author of “Doing It All: Stop Over-Functioning, and Become the Mom and Person You’re Meant to Be” (releasing January 23, 2024), and founder of Modern Mommy Doc, to find out what to look for in educational toys for toddlers. We reviewed guidance from the AAP on how to buy safe toys and what parents and caregivers can expect during the toddler years, ages 1 to 3. Moreover, we reviewed CDC guidance on developmental milestones for toddlers.
• Parent Survey: We surveyed 875 parents to learn more about what toys their children play with, how they play with them, and why they love them. Additionally, we asked parents and caregivers about their favorite brands and what makes them well-loved among their families.
• Design and Features Research: After reviewing guidance and insights from our expert, the AAP and CDC, and parents, we studied the design and features of more than 30 educational toys for toddlers on the market.
• Safety and Convenience Assessment: We considered toy safety, age recommendations, ease of use, developmental milestones, and value when reviewing products.

What to Look for in Educational Toys for Toddlers

The good news with toddlers is that they are naturally curious, so they can find interest in just about any toy. Also, little ones this age just love to play in general, and since there are so many opportunities to learn through play, that leaves a huge selection of educational toys to choose from.

According to Dr. Casares, toys that facilitate problem-solving, like shape sorters, are a great option for toddlers because of their natural interest in exploring the world around them. Additionally, consider interactive toys and toys that teach natural associations, like a horse in a barn, or a fish in the ocean.

Development is still a major consideration when shopping for toys for toddlers because they’re still working on mastering many skills. Dr. Casares says play helps with every aspect of development, including gross motor, fine motor, social-emotional, and cognitive skills. In order to find the best toys for toddlers, it helps to keep some common milestones in mind when you’re shopping.

• Cognitive Development : The Kidzlane Color Matching Egg Set is an educational toy for 1- and 2-year-olds that encourages problem-solving. 
• Fine Motor Skills : Spike the Hedgehog helps toddlers strengthen their fine motor skills, like grasping.
• Language Development : Naming objects is a milestone for toddlers between 1 and 2 years old, and LearnWorx Flashcards are great for helping little ones learn and identify new objects and expand their vocabulary.

Entertainment Value

While toddlers have a wide range of interests, their attention spans are typically short, so looking for entertaining and engaging toys is essential. It’s important to provide a wide range of activities for toddlers, according to Dr. Casares, so a toy that can be played with in multiple ways is more likely to keep a toddler’s attention.

Additionally, she suggests looking for toys that offer some kind of sensory or imaginative play because they’re not only entertaining for toddlers but also really great for supporting their development.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! During the toddler years , children grow and change rapidly in the areas of cognitive, physical, and social development, and educational toys can help them learn and grow. Toys that encourage building, matching, and moving pieces around help kiddos improve their hand-eye coordination, motor skills, and problem-solving skills, while those that encourage creative or imaginative play will help them learn and identify new objects and build their language and social/emotional skills.

Children start to learn and refine many skills between 1 and 3 years old. These include cognitive skills like reasoning and thinking things through and social skills like asking for help, building independence, and playing appropriately with others. Language skills also take a big step forward during this phase, as kids go from using just a handful of words to connecting words with images, speaking in complete sentences and communicating more complex thoughts.

While it's smart to have a variety of toys that will encourage the development of different skills (such as blocks for motor skills and books for language skills), too many toys can actually lead to overwhelm—and research shows children who have fewer toys played with each longer and played more creatively.

To keep your playroom from getting overloaded , store or give away toys that your child has outgrown, put toys on display (and encourage little ones to put them away at the end of playtime), and make books and educational toys the most accessible.

Deanna McCormack is a freelance writer and creative consultant based in Scottsdale, Arizona. She enjoys working with start-ups and regularly covers product launches in the lifestyle, beauty, and motherhood space. A self-proclaimed expert at baby registries and gift ideas, Deanna has two kids and is the co-founder of Loonie Kid, a Canadian clothing company for kids and toddlers.

Additional reporting by  Ashley Ziegler and Katrina Cossey .

When it comes to toys for kids, our team has you covered. The Verywell Family team of editors (who are parents or have nieces and nephews of their own) have tested, gifted, and personally recommend every item we feature. Find more of our top toy picks for every developmental stage and personality phase here:

• The Best Christmas Gifts for Kids
• The Best Developmental Toys for Babies
• The Best Tummy Time Toys
• The Best Active Toys for Toddlers
• The Best Outdoor Toys for Toddlers
• The Best Toys for Toddlers
• The Best Phonics Toys for Preschoolers
• The Best Toys for Learning Letters and Numbers
• The Best Musical Toys for Children of All Ages
• The Best Montessori Toys to Encourage Thoughtful Play
• The Best Sesame Street Toys
• The Best Outdoor Toys for Kids of All Ages
• The Best Dinosaur Toys
• The Best Toys for Fine Motor Skills Development
• The Best Toys for Independent Play
• The Best Snow Toys for Kids
• The Best STEM Toys for Kids
• Best Laptop Toys for Kids
• The Best Social Emotional Learning Toys
• The Best Robot Toys
• The Best Ride-On Toys
• The Best Cleaning Toy Sets
• The Black-Owned Gift Guide

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Important milestones: Your child by 2 years .

American Academy of Pediatrics. How to buy safe toys.

American Academy of Pediatrics. Ages & stages.

Dauch C, Imwalle M, Ocasio B, Metz AE. The influence of the number of toys in the environment on toddlers’ play .  Infant Behav Dev . 2018;50:78-87.

By Deanna McCormack Deanna McCormack is a beauty, parenting, and lifestyle writer who has written for Bustle, Byrdie, TheEverymom.com, and more.

35 Educational Toys That Will Help Your Kids Learn Through Play

Playing = learning

If you buy something from the links on this page, we may earn a commission. Why Trust Us?

Playtime can easily be turned into learning time with the right toys. The toy market is so vast these days, and there seem to be learning toys for everything. Whether you have a silly scientist who seems to take to biology or a little learner who's an empath at heart, there are toys that encourage intellectual development across the board. And if your kid is looking to conquer basic math and vocabulary or go deep into robotics and engineering, there are toys for them, too.

Maral Amani, pediatric physical therapist, and child development expert at Lovevery , says, "Playing with educational toys is one of the easiest ways a parent can support their child’s development since play is truly how children learn. Children develop skills in a specific pattern, with one skill building on another; for example, the palmar grasp develops (whole palm) and paves the path for the pincer grasp (tips of pointer finger and thumb) to develop. As a pediatric physical therapist, I love to recommend The Lovevery Play Kits to the families I work with because each comprehensive kit is full of playthings that target specific skills in the precise order of development."

Lovevery is not the only toy maker that is killing it in this niche, either. LeapFrog , Melissa & Doug , Educational Insights , and more come out with new educational toys every year that set kids on a path of learning adventure.

Take a look at our favorite educational toys below.

Toddler Microscope

Your kiddo will have a blast using this real working microscope to get a closer look at leaves, flowers, shells, and blades of grass under the magnifier. Designed to fit your toddler's tiny hands and face, they can grab any object to take a closer look and jot down their observations.

More: The Best Toys for Kids

Straw Constructor 600-Piece Set

Kids will use their creativity to build large or small constructs out of colorful straws and multi-directional connectors. The opportunities are endless in what your little engineers can build. We have this set at home, and our kids spend hours working together to build some pretty impressive structures. Full disclosure: Even with 600 pieces in the set, they still fight about who gets more, because siblings.

Quadrilla Cliffhanger Wooden Marble Run

This is no Rube Goldberg trap — this is a fully functional marble-run kit made of solid wood.

The two kids of the parenting editor here at Best Products absolutely love the Hape (pronounced “hah-pay”) marble-run kits. They're completely malleable, allowing for tons of open-ended play.

Magic Adventures Telescope

You don’t have to be an astronomer to appreciate a close-up view of space. This digital telescope offers 110x zoom so that kids can see the stars, planets, and moon clearly at night, or kids can get a closer view of nature during the day.

Over 100 NASA videos are included giving kids the opportunity to discover more about the cosmos and space discovery.

My Own Leaptop

Little ones don’t need their own laptop, but they’ll feel like they’re a big kid with the LeapFrog My Own Leaptop. Our kids have this one, and as parents who work from home, it’s a fun way for them to sit alongside us and feel connected.

The adorable device offers four learning modes: ABCs, messages, games, and music. It’s easy enough for your kids (it’s designed for ages 2 to 4) to figure it out on their own after just a couple of times using it.

Light-Up Dinosaur Terrarium Kit

This terrarium kit includes everything kids need to build their own dinosaur habitat with real plants. It’s super fun to put together while giving your child a sense of responsibility in making sure the plants don’t die.

We bought this terrarium for our kids with the hope that they have more of a green thumb than we do. They do not.

Preschool Search and Find

Take this search and find activity set on the road — whether by actual car or by plane — and thank us later. There are 22 dry-erase activity sheets included for your child to practice matching and spotting differences, counting, tracing, and even more fun activities on the reverse side of the mat.

As a bonus, a writing mat is included for writing practice along with a drawing sheet on the back.

Boost Robot Building Set

Using coding, this robot can be built and animated. Designed for kids ages 7 to 12, they’ll spend literal hours working, playing, and learning. A tablet with access to the app is required. There are five different versions to be built: Vernie the Robot, Frankie the Cat, Guitar 4000, M.T.R. 4 (a truck), and Autobuilder, an automated production line.

Subscription Box

When you have a perpetually bored kid on your hands, having a new activity for them consistently keeps you both sane.

Kiwi Crate is a subscription service that sends your kiddo age-appropriate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) projects for them to complete. Each project combines creativity and learning in a way that your kid will love. Plus, they’ll get a package in the mail every month addressed to them, and that’s super fun in and of itself.

USA Map Floor Puzzle

It's never too early to get a jump-start on memorizing the 50 states and capitals. This oversized jigsaw floor puzzle makes it so fun, your kids won't even realize they're learning while putting it together. The 51 sturdy and extra-thick pieces are just right for little hands to hold, and, once assembled, it's a great size to display in their room. It doesn’t hurt that you’ll probably get a refresher on your geography knowledge.

Linkimals Smooth Moves Sloth

Your toddler will get a kick out of this adorable interactive sloth from Fisher-Price. With lights, sounds, music, and games, your tot will be practicing numbers, colors, and letters while clapping and bopping around to the music. One thing we love is that the toy is interactive with kids and with its companion toys, making it even more fun and interesting for little ones.

Magnetic Human Body Anatomy Play Set

Whether you have a budding doctor at home or a kid who is fascinated by how the human body works, this magnetic wooden anatomy set from Melissa & Doug makes for a great learning toy.

From the skeleton and muscles to the happy face once it's complete, this is a wonderful introduction to learning the parts of the body while helping kids visualize the body’s organs and systems.

Instead of Words With Friends, we call this one Words With Kids. This popular crossword puzzle game is perfect for kids 7 and up. It’s a race to see who can use up all of their letters first by creating words.

The water-resistant tiles pack up neatly into the banana-shaped tote for trips to the park, and its compact size doesn’t take up too much space at all.

Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set

The wheels on this cute bus don’t go ‘round and ‘round, but the whole magnetic set will allow your kids to explore the alphabet.

Place it on your fridge and let your tot insert any of the magnetic letter tiles into the open window. Press it once to hear the letter’s name and sound, and press it again to hear that letter used in a word and sentence. Hit the music note to sing along to the “Alphabet Song” and “Wheels on the Bus.”

22-Piece Play Kitchen Accessories Set

Your little sous chef will be ready to whip up their favorite snack with this 22-piece kitchen accessories play set. So, now you can be the one demanding a snack every 5 minutes, even if it’s pretend snacks.

Whether you're adding this set to their existing play kitchen or using it on its own, your kiddo will serve you the tastiest imaginary food you've ever had.

LeapFrog Learn and Groove Musical Table

Is it super difficult to get your kiddo to calm down and pay attention? We hear you! Gift them an educational activity table so your little one can take all of that energy out in a productive way.

This musical table has more than 70 learning responses, sounds, and songs, plus activities that will increase your kid's knowledge of numbers, letters, colors, and shapes. It’s also a great stability tool for little ones who are just learning to stand.

Osmo — Little Genius Starter Kit for iPad

Our kids are obsessed with everything offered by Osmo. They started out with this Little Genius Started Kit for iPad, which feels like a magical adventure. It's a bit spendier, so it makes for a killer birthday or Christmas gift.

The Osmo learning kit is a fusion of real-life block play with an iPad game and connectivity. It's a completely safe, closed system that helps teach your children things like numbers, the alphabet, and shapes. Whatever your child creates on the pad, Osmo instantly transfers it to the screen, which kids can’t get enough of.

This is the starter kit, which is perfect for kids ages 3 to 5, and it comes with multiple shaping blocks, the Osmo Base and reflector for your iPad, cardboard costume cutouts, and storage for the blocks.

Glow-In-the-Dark Set

There are entire Instagram pages dedicated to offering creative and unique ideas for Magna-Tile play. If your kids are as obsessed with magnetic tiles as ours are, they will be thrilled with this glow-in-the-dark set.

The set includes 16 pieces that glow in the dark, which might be an enticing way to get your little ones to stay in their room when they wake up before sunrise.

As a bonus, once your kids grow out of playing with blocks, they're super fun to hang on the fridge and play with while you wait for the water to boil.

Easily one of the best parts of high school biology is dissecting frogs and fetal pigs. You learn so much, and honestly, it's just super cool. While your little one is too young to be wielding scalpels, you can provide them with a similar experience with this dissection kit — only this one doesn’t smell like formaldehyde.

The toy includes a jelly-like frog, tools similar to what you'd use in a real lab, and all the internal parts of the frog along with explanations for each, all safely and without sharp edges. If your child prefers a different animal, they also have the choice of a bat, piranha, salamander, or dinosaur.

Weather Science Lab

This kit is so much more than just making tornados in 2-liter bottles the way most of us did as kids, although that experiment is also included. In addition to DIY tornados, the kit includes 20 all-weather science activities that are made to inspire your budding meteorologist. Who knows, with these baby barometers, maybe your little one will be the next Al Roker.

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15 Indoor Toys That Have Multiple Uses And Benefits

Babies: How They Play

Toddlers: how they play, preschoolers: how they play, final words.

Sometimes, your child is stuck inside the house with nothing to do and you’re tired of trying to entertain them. Having a robust set of indoor toys and games for those long, boredom-filled afternoons is essential so that they can be engaged and you can enjoy your nice cup of joe without having to worry about your little one. 

Presenting an age-specific guide to indoor toys for children: these toys serve not only as sources of entertainment but also as tools for understanding the world, honing skills, and promoting holistic growth and development.

In the first year of life, play is a journey of discovery. Our little ones engage their senses, exploring textures and interactions. Initially, it’s about mouthing and manipulating objects. As motor skills advance, babies grasp, transfer, and use finer pincer grips. Play starts solitary, evolving to parallel play by their first birthday. You, their favourite playtime buddy, can facilitate learning through interactive activities, building language, social understanding, and cause-and-effect activities.

Indoor Toys For Babies

1. tiger on wheels.

Your baby’s crawling companion!

2. Spin Around Drum Toy

Your baby’s ticket to crawling and reaching fun!

3. Grasping Bars

This toy takes your baby’s grip game to the next level!

4. Spinning Discs

Your baby’s VIP pass to visual tracking triumphs!

5. Rolling Drum

Your baby’s crawling adventure buddy!

Toddlers are curious about the things around them. They wish to explore object functions by acting just like the people around them – like mimicking phone chatter or using spoons and cups like adults do. Interesting and adorable indoor toys play a crucial role in keeping curious toddlers engaged in a fun and constructive manner. They offer the best opportunities for imaginative play, allowing children to mimic real-life scenarios and learn about object functions. Toys like shape sorters enable toddlers to explore their environment in a safe and stimulating way. Repetitive play does not just keep them busy but also aids in skill development and boosts their confidence in understanding the world around them.   This phase sets the foundation for more purposeful play in preschool and understanding the role of objects in daily life!

Indoor Toys For Toddlers

1. rolling ball tracker.

Your toddler’s ticket to visual tracking mastery!

2. Balls And Coin Box

Your toddler’s adventure to discover the logic behind peek-a-boo!

3. Hide & Seek Shape Box

Your toddler’s sorting game with a twist!

4. Twist & Fix Set

Your toddler’s ultimate twist and fix challenge!

5. Shape Sorter

Your toddler’s shape-sorting fiesta!

Preschoolers love to use their imagination when they play. They might turn a blanket into a secret hideout or use clay to make pretend pizza. They believe they have special powers and can be superheroes or princesses. Sometimes, they might have imaginary friends. Indoor toys are invaluable tools in keeping these little preschoolers engaged and aiding their holistic development. Toys that encourage imaginative play, such as building blocks and art supplies, provide limitless opportunities for creative expression. These indoor toys can transform a regular boring day into a fun-filled adventure, fostering children’s imaginative thinking and problem-solving skills. Moreover, these toys can enhance fine motor skills, spatial awareness, and cognitive abilities – isn’t that amazing? The benefits are multifold! Playing indoors with friends and sharing toys also promotes social skills, empathy, and cooperation. In essence, indoor toys serve as catalysts for holistic growth, making playtime a dynamic and enriching experience for preschoolers.

Indoor Toys For Preschoolers

1. tick-tock shape o’ clock.

2. Letter & Object Maker

Your preschooler’s fun guide to learning the alphabet and more!

3. Linking Star

Your preschooler’s starry interlocking adventure!

4. Shape & Colour Bingo

Your preschooler’s memory booster toy!

5. Hide N Seek Vegetables Tray

Your preschooler’s go-to veggie directory!

Now we’ve learned why investing in indoor toys is a fantastic way to keep your little ones active and engaged. From crawling tunnels to artistic toys, these toys not only provide hours of entertainment to your little one inside the house but also foster learning and development. It’s essential to prioritise their holistic growth, and these toys are wonderful tools to achieve that. So, consider adding some of these enriching playthings to your indoor arsenal. Don’t forget to explore our curated selection of indoor toys today and create moments of joy and growth for your little munchkin. Don’t let the winter chill dampen the spirits—let the indoor playtime begin! 

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40 Facts About Elektrostal

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 31 May 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy , materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes , offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

Elektrostal's fascinating history, vibrant culture, and promising future make it a city worth exploring. For more captivating facts about cities around the world, discover the unique characteristics that define each city . Uncover the hidden gems of Moscow Oblast through our in-depth look at Kolomna. Lastly, dive into the rich industrial heritage of Teesside, a thriving industrial center with its own story to tell.

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Moscow Oblast Regional Investment and Business Guide Paperback

• Publisher Int'l Business Publications, USA
• ISBN-10 073970849X
• ISBN-13 978-0739708491
• See all details

Product details

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 073970849X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0739708491

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