I always have a fun time trying to pick out new toys for my kids. I scour the Internet, looking for suggestions on new toys or fun toys or new, fun toys. Most of my Christmas shopping is done (thank goodness!), but – for those of you who still may be desperately trying to finish up shopping for kids – I thought I’d share a few of my kids’ absolutely favorite toys right now. If my kids are any indication, these would be a big hit with the 3 and 5 year olds of the world.
Both of my kids are really into pretend play. And so they both have a blast playing with dollhouses. For her second birthday, we bought our daughter this Loving Family Dollhouse from Fisher Price.
More than a year later, she still loves playing with it. (Her brother and her mother do, too!) She’s always asking to go down to the basement to play with her “pink house.” Over time, we’ve purchased additional rooms of furniture for the “pink house” and her pad is now fully furnished. It’s quite the set-up, I must admit.
Then, just a few months ago, she got this Imaginarium Malibu Beach House as a gift at her birthday party.
We were a little nervous about how it would hold up because it is cardboard. We were also concerned that it just wouldn’t compare to her big fancy pink dollhouse and she wouldn’t want to play with it. How wrong we were! We put this one up in her bedroom (the big fancy pink dollhouse hangs out in the basement), and she plays with it ALL THE TIME (including when she is supposed to be napping…). And it has held up remarkably well.
Each of our kids has a LeapPad 2 video gaming system and they are really GREAT. His is green. Hers is pink (of course).
My daughter got it it from my mother-in-law for her birthday a few months ago, and then she got my son one when we were down in Texas for Thanksgiving. My son was over the moon excited because he was ready to move on from the VTech Mobigo system that we got him last year.
That old VTech system was great, too, and he loved playing on it. But the truth is that he was outgrowing it a bit at a 5 1/2. This new system, which is equally awesome, has games that appeal to him now and games that he can grow into. It’s a little too sophisticated for my daughter at this point in time but she loves to play with it just the same and doesn’t get too frustrated with her inability to make the games do what she wants them to do. And she’ll definitely grow into it. We’re pleased as punch with these. (I am planning to do a post at some point entirely on video games and kids. We’ve struggled with how to handle the whole thing because, as he gets older, my son is developing an obsession of sorts with all things video games – handheld, Wii, computer, smart phones, etc.)
And, finally, the toys that my kids STILL spend the most time playing: their Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars.
Millions and millions and millions of cars. Everywhere. All the time. They play with them for hours and hours and hours and hours. (Did I mention that they play with them for hours? Because they do.) If I had to get rid of every single toy we had and just keep one thing, it would be the big ole’ bag of the millions and millions and millions of cars that we have that they play with for hours and hours and hours. And my guess is that they’d be perfectly happy.
