This post may contain affiliate links.
Want to gift a little smarter this year? Want to encourage learning and brain development through play? When children play with educational toys, learning naturally follows. Unfortunately, not all toys are created equal! Lucky for you, there are many educational toys specifically designed to encourage learning and promote brain development. Learning doesn’t have to be boring!
Educational Toys for Babies 0-12 months
When looking for toys to stimulate baby’s rapidly growing brain, look for toys that encourage comparing, sorting, balancing and building. Luckily, most toys for babies fall into one of these categories.
Here are the top picks:
Melissa & Doug Geometric Stacker
Babies will love to hold these colorful pieces! Stack them, sort them, line them up and play with them in endless ways! This is definitely a toy that will grow with baby through the years.
First 100 Words
This isn’t really a toy, but it’s a great gift for babies. I like to ask my baby something like “where’s the duck?” and have her point to the duck. It is interesting to see how much your baby actually knows!
Melissa & Doug Deluxe Pound and Roll Wooden Tower Toy
Help build early shape, color, and size differentiation skills with the brightly colored balls. Baby learns hand-eye coordination while hammering away.
My Little Mozart Musical Bench
What baby doesn’t love music? It is said that learning and playing music at a young age profoundly influences brain development.
Dear Zoo book + Animal Rescue Shape-Sorting Truck
What a fun gift idea! Pair a favorite book with a toy that goes with it. I can think of about a dozen books that you could pair with a fun toy.
PlayGo Rainbow Stackin’ Cups
I have yet to meet a baby that is not infatuated with these colorful stacking cups! They are so simple yet so much fun! You can even use them in the tub or kiddie pool.
Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Piggy Bank
My little girl’s personal favorite! She could sit on the floor and put the colorful coins into her piggy bank for at least 15 minutes. (That’s like 3 hours in baby time!) I say the color of each coin and count them as she puts them in.
Educational Toys for Toddlers 1-3 years
Toddlers do a lot of learning and growing which is why educational toys are so popular for this age group. Look for toys that encourage patterns, letters, numbers, and logic.
Here are the top picks:
Melissa & Doug Alphabet Sound Puzzle
A perfect combo! A fun puzzle that helps teach toddlers letters and words. My little ones love learning their ABC’s while completing this puzzle that says the letter and a word.
Learning Resources Super Sorting Pie
A personal favorite in our household. This colorful pie teaches early math skills and helps toddlers learn about grouping, sorting, and counting. They can strengthen their fine motor skills and develop pre-writing pincer grasp with jumbo pinchers.
Toddler Busy Book
Not only are these books super cute (and handmade!) but they are full of educational fun! The book has 9 colorful, educational pages. I’ve been wanting one of these for my toddler for car rides, dr. appointments and quiet time.
The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game
A Cute and colorful board game designed to teach your children about colors while they develop matching skills, strategic thinking, turn-taking, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills.
bluum Monthly Subscription
blumm boxes are a monthly subscription box for babies & kiddos from birth through age 5. If you want to give a gift that keeps on giving, this one’s for you! Not all of the products in the boxes are toys but either way, this is a great gift.
Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar Book? + If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book
Another book and toy combination pairs a favorite toddler book with a cute cookie jar that teaches counting, numbers and early math skills.
HABA Town Maze Magnetic Game
This toy helps to develop fine motor dexterity, visual-spatial skills, counting and color-learning with one fun activity.
Educational Toys for Pre-K (4 and 5-year-olds)
Educational toys for this age group focus on learning words, creativity, life skills and math as they prepare to enter kindergarten.
Here are the top picks:
Sight Words Pizza Board Game
This yummy pizza activity teaches children sight words while providing repetition of sight words through writing, spelling, & reading challenges.
The Giving Tree book + toddler lace-up tree toy
Combine a childhood favorite book with a toy that goes right along with the story! Encourage comprehension and listening skills then play with a fun toy afterward that works on fine motor skills, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination.
Wooden Shape Sorting Clock
This is the age that children are curious about time. Teach them the basics with this colorful wooden clock. Children can also work on counting, sorting, color recognition, shape recognition, and hand-eye coordination.
Melissa & Doug Scissor Skills and Tape Activity Books Set
There is something about cutting and taping that little kids love! Encourage your child to learn real-life skills with these two activity books.
Marble Run
This STEM approved toy teaches kids to learn important science and engineering concepts and develop fine motor skills while having fun!
Math Abacus Number Learning Toy
A child can start learning addition and subtraction while playing with this colorful abacus that teaches counting, sorting, math, and colors.
Learning Resources Mental Blox 3D Puzzle Game
These 20 blocks help build critical thinking skills while allowing children to follow verbal instructions, asking questions and problem-solving skills.
Spelligator Board Game
Encourage your child to learn word building with this fun alligator game that teaches phonemic awareness, letter patterns, and positioning.
Looking for more gift ideas for the kids in your life? Check out these amazing ideas from my mommy-blogger friends!
Want More Gift Ideas?
Do you have a creative and artsy child in your life? Paper Heart Family is sharing the best gifts for kids who love to be creative!
Do you have a child that would benefit form calming toys that will help them unwind from a day full of excitement? My friend over at This Mom Life is sharing the some great toys that encourage calmness and relaxtion.
Loooking for a gift for the child that already seems to have everything? (Which is pretty much all children!) My friends at The Salty Mamas are sharing their favorite toys for those children who need more toys like they need a box of rocks!
Love how you have this guide split up by age! I’ll be using this during the holiday season, for sure!