I know as a mom, we want to buy so much for our kids for Christmas. If your kids are like my son, they play with only a small selection of their toys, and the rest just get thrown all over for us to pick up later.
I’ve found in the past year that keeping my son’s toys organized and more minimal has helped him to play better independently. I have also been a lot more thoughtful on Christmas this year, so he doesn’t just have more stuff that he will only play with a couple times.
my son will be four next month, and these are some of the ideas I have bought or have on our list:
- magnatiles: I feel we can never have enough of these! We build things together multiple times a week, and he plays with them with his race cars and farm animals. I also got him the road magnatiles this year.
- Nerf guns: these are played with constantly when my husband is home. This one is easy for young toddlers to pull back, but some I’ve noticed my almost four year old still struggles with.
- kid’s digital camera: my son always wants to use my phone to take pictures of me and things around him. I also am excited for him to be allowed to take it wherever he wants, and see what things catch his eye. It has a screen to look at the pictures and its own memory card.
- wooden train set: at daycare my son is always playing with the train set. He’s been asking for one for a long time. I bought a smaller set, but also told other family member that he wanted this. Most are interchangeable, so you just keep expanding your collection.
- hot wheels: my son has fell in love with hot wheels the past few months. My mom bought his a large track for their house, and we have a smaller one here. I also threw some Track and ramp pieces in for stocking stuffers.
- board games: I love finding board games at thrift stores because they are usually like new, and way cheaper than buying new. Even if my son doesn’t play them the correct way, they entertain him for a decent amount of time. My son likes trouble, kerplunk, whack a frog, and jenga to name a few.