Choosing toys for toddlers is typically approached in one of two ways. Either you can assume (correctly) that a 2-year-old will be thrilled with anything colorful and made of plastic, or you can make an effort to find toys that not only entertain them for a few minutes, but can actually keep them entertained for a significant period of time. And if the toy you choose also benefits them in other ways, it’s even better!

Both experts and experienced parents tell us that the best toys for two year olds are those that introduce or enhance critical gross and fine motor skills. These include toys for gross motor skill enhancement such as those that encourage climbing, crawling, kicking, tossing, dancing, and other fun motor activities. Fine motor skills involve using the hands and fingers to physically manipulate buttons, levers, pegs, blocks, beads, and to discover the joy of interactive toys that respond to a purposeful touch.

While toys for fun alone are also important, children learn through play, making some of the best toys for 2-year-olds those that include early education skills such as animal sounds, letter and number skills, and body parts and shape recognition.

When choosing a toy for a tot in your life, the idea is to find one that offers early life-skills learning wrapped up in a bright package of fun!

Experts in early childhood development agree that some of the best toys for 2-year-olds are home and kitchen playsets for kitchen role play. The Step2 Best Chefs Kitchen Playset is a great choice for children between ages 1 and 3, and ideal for 2-year-olds who are learning critical role play and socialization skills.

This play kitchen is naturally colored, rather than being gender-specifically colored in pink, making it more user-friendly for both boys and girls, as well as more true to life. It has realistic lights and sounds, with a burner (requiring two AA batteries) which glows red when activated, and makes both sizzling and bubbling sounds for pots and frying pans. This playset includes realistic play appliances, with oven, stovetop, and refrigerator for pretend cooking and food preparation. The built-in, open pass-through window is ideal for allowing play with multiple children, improving social skills as well as fun.

The Step2 Best Chefs Kitchen comes with 25 cooking accessories, including play pots, pans, mugs, spoons, utensils, cups, bowls, coffeemaker, and recycle bin. This allows toddlers many hours of play while they develop living skills and increase fine motor function with many buttons, knobs, hooks, and utensils for manipulating.

A play kitchen is also ideal for toddlers to develop critical thinking skills as they can stack cups, plates, and pans, and attempt to fit items into spaces such as a refrigerator and oven.

The Step2 Best Chefs Kitchen is a wonderful choice for both home and daycare environments, as it is large enough to allow multiple children room to play together, yet small enough to fit in close spaces, making this one of the best toys for 2-year-olds.

Key Features
  • Realistically operating children's kitchen playset
  • Open design with 25 accessories for play cooking
  • Stovetop burner lights up and emits sizzling sounds
  • Working doors on cabinets and appliances
  • Includes sink, oven, burners, and coffee maker
Specifications
  • For Ages: 18 months to 5 years
  • Batteries Required: Yes
  • Assembly Required: Yes
  • Interactive: No
  • Number of Pieces: 26 including accessories
Pros
  • Realistic colors makes this friendly for both boys and girls
  • Includes play recycle bin and many other realistic accessories
  • Ideal for home use and use in daycare environment
  • Realistic light and sound effects for more effective play
  • Enhances fine motor skills with button, knobs, hooks, and other manipulatives
Cons
  • No pre-made holes so a drill is necessary for assembly

The VTech Smart Shots Sports Center may be the best toy for 2-year-olds you can find if you are looking for a fun toy that can help your child develop both gross and fine motor skills and includes many fun learning features. This vibrantly colored sports center contains both a basketball hoop and soccer goal and comes with a soccer ball and basketball perfectly sized for small hands. An LED scoreboard keeps up to ten plays counted with lighted numbers and offers children encouraging positive feedback for scores and goals with both sound and animations, such as cheers and scorekeeping.

Tossing and kicking balls toward goals helps young children to develop essential gross motor skills, while the included turning gears, buttons, and flip-pages encourage fine motor skill development as well.

The VTech Smart Shots Sports Center also includes over 50 sounds, songs, and phrases for learning and listening fun. Shape buttons can be pressed to introduce shape recognition with fun, friendly, interactive feedback. The Sports Center also includes fun features for number learning, scorekeeping, and fun and playful songs, melodies, and sounds.

The VTech Smart Shots Sports Center comes in frustration-free, easy-to-open packaging and is easy to assemble. All parts wipe clean easily, and space for ball storage is included in the toy’s leg features for easy cleanup and storage after playing.

The VTech Smart Shots Sports Center requires three AA batteries for interactive functions and a battery power-saving feature will shut the toy off after several minutes of inactivity. It can function in full sound, quiet mode, and silent mode.

This toy is ideal for children between 12 months and 3 years old, and is designed to allow children to play from both seated and standing positions, making it the best toy for 2-year-olds that have crawling siblings who may also want to play.

Key Features
  • Basketball and soccer sports center
  • LED scoreboard counts up to ten plays
  • Interactive positive feedback
  • Over fifty songs, phrases, and sounds
  • Includes educational features to teach shapes, numbers, and sounds
Specifications
  • For Ages: 1 to 3 years
  • Batteries Required: 3 AA batteries required
  • Assembly Required: Yes
  • Interactive: Yes
  • Number of Pieces: 5
Pros
  • Gives encouraging interactive feedback
  • Fun, action, and learning all in one toy
  • Refines both gross and fine motor skills
  • Frustration-free, easy open packaging
  • Ball storage space in legs of the toy
Cons
  • Screwdriver required for assembly
  • Toy is smaller than appears in photos

One of the best toys for 2-year-olds for the purpose of increasing essential fine motor skills during fun play, is Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog by Learning Resources. Spike is a cute plastic hedgehog with a purple nose and adorable smile. Children can engage in dexterity-building motor skills with colorful, chunky, peg-shaped “spines” that can be pulled out of holes and then replaced, rearranged, counted, and sorted. Peg holes are numbered so children can work on several skills with one fun toy. Skills include sorting, color recognition, fine-motor dexterity, and counting.

The pegs are ergonomically designed to be grip-friendly for tiny fingers and come in bright primary colors such as purple, orange, red, and green. Children can sort them according to warm or cool colors, or arrange them in patterns. Plugging them in and pulling them out is a satisfying sensory activity for toddlers. Young children don’t realize that they are learning and developing critical skills while having fun playing with a colorful toy.

Spike the Hedgehog is constructed of durable plastic and easily wipes clean. It is simple, bright, and colorful, made to be attractive for children ages 18 months to 4 years old.

Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog has a removable back cover and allows for easy peg storage for clean up when playing is done.

Spike may be one of the best toys for 2-year-olds to develop multiple skills, all while playing with a bright colorful toy that offers fun with a friendly little face.

Key Features
  • 12 colorful spikes to remove and replace
  • Spikes are ergonomically designed to be easy to grasp
  • Spikes can be color-sorted, counted, and arranged in patterns
Specifications
  • For Ages: 18 months to 4 years
  • Batteries Required: No
  • Assembly Required: No
  • Interactive: No
  • Number of Pieces: 8 pieces
Pros
  • Increases motor skills
  • Spikes store easily in hedgehog's back
  • Teaches color recognition and sorting skills through fun play
Cons
  • Storage space is hard for toddlers to open and close without help

One of the best toys for 2-year-olds is the Alex Discover Sound and Play Busy Table. This is a bright and colorful activity table that makes a wonderful addition to any play area or children’s room. Not only is it cute, colorful, and attractive, but it offers children many different play options with music, tactile play, and sensory activities to keep busy toddlers occupied.

The Alex Discover Sound and Play Busy Table has six expert-recommended toys to optimize play time for early childhood development, including peek-a-boo doors, curvy bead maze, drum and xylophone with a wooden mallet, sliding toy cars on a built-in track, and a series of turnable, interlocking gears. Children are given the ability to slide, pound, peek, explore, and make their own music—all in a cute, whimsically designed play table that sits low to the floor and is roomy enough to seat up to three toddlers for social play.

Alex Toys specialize in toys that introduce young children to the world through vibrant and bright colors for visual stimulation, as well as toys for tactile stimulation to develop critical fine motor skills, cognitive development, socialization skills, music appreciation, and cognitive development.

Alex Discover Sound and Play Busy Table is easy to assemble with legs that are easily screwed into place in only minutes. It is sturdy and well-built, designed to be low enough for children to sit on the floor while they play, and low enough to avoid injuries if toddlers sit on the play table. The many entertaining and skill developing activities included in this play table make it one of the best toys for 2-year-olds for home play or daycare center play areas.

Key Features
  • Play table with 6 activities for toddlers
  • Includes peek-a-boo doors, drum, xylophone, gears, sliders, mallet, and bead maze
  • Fits up to three toddlers for play time
  • Cute and whimsical appearance attracts children for play
Specifications
  • For Ages: 18 months and up
  • Batteries Required: No
  • Assembly Required: Some assembly required
  • Interactive: No
  • Number of Pieces: Table with six activities
Pros
  • Many manipulatives for developing fine motor skills
  • Includes musical play toys
  • Includes bead toys for critical thinking
Cons
  • Table is low at only eight inches height so children can't stand and play

If your child loves cars, race tracks, and little people toys, the Fisher-Price Little People Loops ‘n Swoops Amusement Park may be one of the best toys for 2-year-olds that you can buy. The extra height of this roller coaster-type car track allows 2-year-olds to stand upright while they send the little cars flying down the track with the press of a button. This track has ramps, tracks, loops, and curves for racing fun, along with a lights-and-sounds feature at the end of the track.

With the Fisher-Price Little People Loops ‘n Swoops Amusement Park, a child can develop cognitive skills such as cause and effect, as the cars race downward and set a star spinning when the vehicle speeds under the adorable monkey feature. Fine motor skills are employed as children manipulate cars and toys as well as pressing levers and buttons for fun reactions.

The Fisher-Price Little People Loops ‘n Swoops Amusement Park includes both the park track and an additional loop-de-loop, but also two little people race cars and drivers. The lights and sounds features are activated by three AA batteries which are included, but the remainder of the track features run-on gravity and doesn’t require batteries.

The vehicle can go around and around on the bottom loop to thrill toddlers with gravity-defying loops and upside-down action as an ending ramp gives the ability to send the cars flying off the ramp and into the air.

Fisher-Price Little People have long been a childhood favorite, and this super tall amusement park race track will be the favorite of both boys and girls between the ages of 24 months and 5 years, making this one of the best toys for 2-year-olds that will give years of lasting fun.

Key Features
  • Roller coaster type ramp with two cars and little people
  • Spinning star feature
  • Lights and sounds
  • Racing fun for toddlers with loops and ramps
  • Easy assembly
Specifications
  • For Ages: 24 months to 2 years
  • Batteries Required: 3 AA batteries required
  • Assembly Required: Yes
  • Interactive: No
  • Number of Pieces: 3
Pros
  • Easy-open package with less waste
  • Tallest little people play set allows for standing play
  • Easy push-button release
  • Includes fun sounds and songs
Cons
  • Snap-in tracks may come apart if a child moves the toy
  • Some problems keeping lights and sounds working long-term

One of the best toys for 2-year-olds is My First Touch Lights Musical Doodle Board. This keeps toddlers entertained both at home or during travel with no-mess doodling in a reusable coloring tablet. This tablet is also a great tactile sensory experience for developing toddlers. It contains a fun-to-squish gel formula beneath a screen, so small hands can create artwork, doodles, and scribbles, while enjoying the fun and soothing effects of backlit gel.

The My First Crayola Touch Lights Musical Doodle Board comes with 12 light colors and simple instructions. Toddlers can enjoy accompanying music while they play and create, or they can play with this doodle board with the board in silent mode for quiet play.

The gel is contained inside the backlit screen, but is safe and non-toxic for worry-free play for toddlers of 24 months and up. This multi-functional toy can also soothe a child to sleep by activating the lights and music feature at bedtime.

The My First Crayola Touch Lights Musical Doodle Board is an excellent choice for those looking for sensory stimulating toys for toddlers. It offers toddlers tactile sensation as they doodle through the gel, and then the fun of exploring cause and effect as they make patterns with their fingers through the gel and lights. Creativity is sparked as they can create designs, doodles, and patterns with multiple backlit color choices. Music is added for further fun, as well as auditory stimulation.

The combination of multi-sensory stimulation makes the My First Crayola Touch and Lights Musical Doodle Board one of the best toys for 2-year-olds.

Key Features
  • Doodle board for toddlers
  • Touch-reacting lights in 12 colors for drawing
  • Includes 6 songs and 12 lights
  • Mess-free drawing
  • Non-toxic gel surface
Specifications
  • For Ages: 24 months and up
  • Batteries Required: 3 AA batteries required
  • Assembly Required: No
  • Interactive: No
  • Number of Pieces: 1
Pros
  • Mess-free and reusable
  • Lightweight and portable for fun at home or for travel
  • Encourages fine-motor skills
  • Two modes for music or silence
Cons
  • Gel has to be smoothed for erasing
  • Lights are very subtle and only show brightly in a dark room

The Kiddey Children’s Dual Play Tent with Tunnel may be one of the best toys for 2-year-olds and can last through years of both indoor and outdoor play. This tent and tunnel structure is easily assembled and collapsed with a simple pop-up design, and easy collapse and fold for simple storage.

The Kiddey Children’s Dual Play Tent with Tunnel contains one cube-shaped tent and one teepee tent with a fun connecting crawl-through tunnel. The pieces can be connected into one large play structure or used separately for versatile fun. It can be used indoors, or the tear-resistant, water-resistant fabric also makes it fun to play outdoors.

This is an ideal toy for kids ages 12 months all the way to 12 years old, for long-lasting fun, as well as for encouraging gross motor skill development as children can sit, stand, crawl, and stoop for play. Balls can be added to one or both tents for ball-pit fun.

Both tents and tunnels are made with premium-quality polyester fabric for resiliency. The play tents and tunnels can be collapsed and popped up countless of times and easily transported for play at parks, beaches, playdates, and more.

The play tents have easy open and close flaps with velcro, giving toddlers the opportunity to choose an open or closed play space for early independence.

The cozy tents can also be filled with pillows and blankets to make a cozy space for naps or sleepovers, making this one of the best toys for 2-year-olds for versatility of play as well as for longevity, durability, and the potential for years of fun.

Key Features
  • Double play tents with connecting tunnel
  • Versatile tents and tunnel can be connected for one piece play or separated for separate play pieces
  • Pop-up design for easy set up and collapsing for storage
  • Square tent and tee-pee tent included
Specifications
  • For Ages: 12 months to 12 years
  • Batteries Required: No
  • Assembly Required: Yes
  • Interactive: No
  • Number of Pieces: 3
Pros
  • Velcro-closure tents may be filled with balls for ball pit fun
  • Durable play structures are waterproof for indoor or outdoor use
  • All three pieces are tear-resistant for rough-housing
Cons
  • Attachments between tents and tunnel needs improvement
  • Tee-pee tent is more difficult to collapse than the cube tent

One of the best toys for 2-year-olds who enjoy music is the M Sanmersen Piano Mat Musical Keyboard. This fun, fluffy, brightly-colored floor mat allows young children to explore their musical creativity by dancing across a large keyboard and playing music with their feet. The keyboard also works when toddlers sit or lay down and press the keys with their hands to make music. Eight different tones are included in eight piano keys with clear musical notes. The colorful mat comes in three different color combinations with adorable pictures.

The M Sanmersen Piano Mat Musical Keyboard has three volume levels to make it comfortable for any child or parent to enjoy. Also included on this playmat are animals to be identified. Pressing the animal pictures results in cute animal sounds to aid children in animal recognition. The ability to make music, the vibrant colors, and cute animal pictures along with interactive sounds will keep toddlers occupied and excited.

The M Sanmersen Piano Mat has an on-off switch, but also has an energy-saving automatic shutdown feature that turns the power off after three minutes of disuse. The soft fabric mat is designed to wipe clean easily, and folds small for simple storage or transportability. It is large enough to allow up to three children at a time to play and create music.

This cute, interactive keyboard playmat makes an ideal gift for any child of age 12 months and up.

This piano keyboard playmat helps to foster musical creativity in young children and allows them to explore the concept of cause and effect as they make sounds by dancing on piano keys. It also teaches animal recognition and enhances both gross and fine motor skills as toddlers manipulate the musical keys with either their feet or fingers.

The M Sanmersen Piano Mat Musical Keyboard may be one of the best toys for 2-year-olds to inspire creativity in a fun way that keeps them happy and busy for long periods of time.

Key Features
  • Piano mat with multiple functions
  • Soft fluffy, quilt-style playmat with 8 piano keys for stepping or pressing
  • Includes 8 animal sounds and pronunciation
  • Foldable and easily transportable
Specifications
  • For Ages: 12 months and up
  • Batteries Required: 3 AA batteries
  • Assembly Required: No
  • Interactive: Yes
  • Number of Pieces: 1
Pros
  • Easily wipes clean
  • Encourages music creativity
  • Volume level is adjustable
  • Folds small for easy storage
Cons
  • Mat is slippery on hard-surface floors
  • Mat is smaller than appears in pictures

One of the best toys for 2-year-olds for combining learning with fun in an endearing and cuddly package, is the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Smart Stages Puppy. This is a soft, lovable, and cuddly stuffed puppy with big eyes and a vibrantly colored shirt and buttons to attract babies and toddlers from ages 6 months to 3 years.

The Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Smart Stages Puppy has a light-up heart feature that responds interactively to a child’s touch. This cute puppy offers toddlers over 75 sounds, including songs, sounds, tunes, phrases, alphabet, and counting features and more—and has the option of three separate learning stages to adapt to a developing toddler’s learning needs. This toy is interactive and fun for toddlers, and it teaches 100 first words, the alphabet, counting skills, shapes, colors, body parts identification and more.

Learning levels are easily changed through a hidden switch in the puppy’s foot, while the light-up heart feature allows access to songs, phrases, and more, easy for toddlers of all ages. The interactive features encourage toddlers to sing along, count along, and respond to cues, phrases, and other interactive games and activities for fun and learning.

The Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Smart Stages Puppy is available in a boy-type stuffed puppy with blue ears and primary colors, and also a puppy that looks more typically girl-oriented. This version is called Smart Puppy Sis, and it offers the same fun and developmentally-friendly features in pastel colors with cute pink bows over the puppy’s ears.

The Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Smart Stages Puppy is one of the best toys for 2-year-olds who are looking for a new best friend!

Key Features
  • Soft stuffed puppy toy with multiple functions
  • Includes 75 songs, tunes, words, and phrases
  • Introduces key skills such as body part recognition, shapes, numbers, and alphabet
  • 3 stages of learning levels
  • Light-up heart feature
Specifications
  • For Ages: 6 months to 3 years
  • Batteries Required: 3 AA batteries included
  • Assembly Required: No
  • Interactive: Yes
  • Number of Pieces: 1
Pros
  • Batteries included
  • Available in boy-type puppy, and girl-puppy versions
  • Three learning stages to grow with your child
  • Includes music, songs, counting, alphabet, animal sounds, and more
  • Learning features applied in a fun, interactive toy
Cons
  • Child may accidentally change learning level
  • Songs are short

One of the best toys for 2-year-olds to introduce early education in a fun format is the ABC Sound Book for Children by Boxiki Kids. This child-friendly, brightly-colored interactive book with six fun learning activities in eight pages is a favorite of children and parents. It includes over 100 sounds with songs and melodies, making this the best learning book for toddlers ages 24 months and up.

The ABC Sound Book for Children gives learning a boost with three fun learning modes including letter and word recognition skills, spelling, shape recognition, and counting. It also includes spelling and quiz mode—and all presented as a fun and entertaining game for toddlers and young children.

The ABC Sound Book is great for hours of fun and learning at home, but also makes an ideal travel toy for toddlers and young children. The hours of activities are all wrapped up in a convenient, lightweight interactive book format that’s perfect for on the go in cars, air travel, trains, or any long trip.

The ABC Sound Book for Children enhances fine motor skills such as button pressing, page turning, and key functions. The voice narration is clear and vibrant, and holds appeal for children of all ages as they turn pages, press response keys, and enjoy an early introduction to learning.

The ABC Sound Book makes a great gift idea for any young child in your life and includes many activities for fun and interactive learning. The “Where is?” quiz game is fun for all ages and the music and melodies are upbeat, lively, and entertaining.

One of the best toys for 2-year-olds is one that can be used for several years as their learning levels develop and mature. The ABC Sound Book for Children is a fun interactive toy and learning tool for toddlers and young children to introduce them to the world of learning.

Key Features
  • Interactive book for fun learning
  • Over 100 sounds, songs, and tunes
  • 8 pages of learning
  • 3 learning modes with 6 activities
Specifications
  • For Ages: 24 months and up
  • Batteries Required: 3 AAA batteries required
  • Assembly Required: No
  • Interactive: Yes
  • Number of Pieces: 1
Pros
  • Great for travel entertainment
  • 3 modes of learning for multiple skill development
  • Multiple activities for extended entertainment
  • Orator has clear and appealing voice
Cons
  • Alphabet page shows only capital letters

While playing may look like it’s all fun and games, for 2-year-olds, playing is actually serious business. Children learn about the world and their role in it through active play. Exploring objects with their hands, learning cause and effect, understanding how their actions have the power to affect outcomes, and even early creativity in art and music, all come about through play during early childhood. The best toys for 2-year-olds are those that allow a child to explore the world through lighthearted fun.

Playing also enhances important motor skills and introduces a child to the world of education through toys designed for early learning in critical skills such as color and shape recognition. In fact, the best toys for 2-year-olds are those that offer these essential skill-building features in a way that brings children the simple joy of play.

Understanding How and Why 2-Year-Olds Play

Today, the best toys for 2-year-olds are those developed by experts in early childhood development who understand how children of each age level play. By age 2, children have left behind the early toys that functioned mostly as teething tools and noise makers with squeaks and rattles, and have begun to embark on the journey of more purposeful play.

Two-year-olds will happily engage in role playing, and enjoy imitating adult behaviors such as cooking, driving cars and trucks, fixing things with tools, and more. Two-year-olds have developed the fine motor skills necessary to enjoy games such as puzzles, building blocks, and toys with interactive buttons, gears, and levers. These help to enhance a 2-year-old's developing fine motor skills, often at the same time as they are acquiring other important developmental skills such as counting, learning the alphabet, and recognition of shapes, colors, and body parts.

Two-year-olds also use play as a way to develop critical gross motor skills, as they are gaining more control over their muscles and body movements. This is the time to introduce the fun of kicking and tossing balls, as well as climbing, crawling through tunnels, jumping, dancing, and swinging.

Some of the best toys for 2-year-olds are those that keep a toddler entertained for at least six minutes, which is the approximate attention span of the average 2-year-old. In order to achieve this, a toy has to be fun, engaging, and offer multiple means of entertainment to keep a child’s attention.

Making Time for Play

When choosing the best toys for 2-year-olds, it’s important to consider the crucial importance of play. Despite the evident value of playing in early childhood development, play time for young children has steadily declined in recent decades. Families have tighter schedules—typically with both parents working—and often have scheduled after-school activities. Screen time has also hugely increased, with the ability to take screens beyond the living room television and bring them around from room to room and in the car, greatly diminishing the amount of play time for young children.

In fact, due to the decline in average play time, the American Academy of Pediatrics has begun recommending that doctors send 2-year-olds home with a “prescription for play,” to underline the importance of play for early childhood development.

Resources— ZerotoThree.org, Parents.com, HealthyChildren.org

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