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10 best educational toys and gift ideas for toddlers

Toddlers are balls of energy that are easily entertained.

Constantly exploring, pre-schoolers are learning sponges.

And this is why there are lots of toys out there geared towards pre-schoolers that can be both fun and help develop their vital skills.

Children these days get an excessive amount of screen time thanks to numerous cool things online - my children are definitely not an exception. Even I’m hooked on repeatedly watching Hey Duggee, Cocomelon and Pink Fong.

I chose durable unisex toys that can help develop their social skills, speech, sharing and turn-taking.

What I love about the selection below is that they keep my children entertained for hours and aids their creativity.

Plus, I also get a bonus of playing with great toys that weren’t around during my pre-school days.

LEGO Duplo Bakery

A childhood staple, LEGO allows you to create a world beyond your wildest dreams. This Duplo Town Bakery playset comes with a cafe van as well as the cutest unicorn cake and food processor. The dinky cupcakes are so cool and the best thing about Duplo is that they’re big enough not to be swallowed by my tiny testers and they are compatible with other Duplo products, we were able to make this part of our Duplo Big Fair and High Street sets. I must admit, I squealed when I got this set even though I’m 10 times older than my children.What I love about Duplo is that it helps toddlers develop fine motor, social and emotional skills as they build, play, redesign and play again. It’s entirely battery free and it’s powered by the children’s imaginations. My little ones enjoyed building scenarios where they’re busy baking and serving food in the toy cafe whilst one of them were “driving” the van to deliver the cupcakes.

£34.99 | Amazon

Little Dutch Kitchen

Imaginative play is a very important part of a child’s education. Not only does it aid intellectual development, it also improves their creativity. We absolutely love how the Little Dutch Kitchen appeals to both boys and girls. This Scandi style play kitchen, fits into any living room or play corner and we’re talking hours of endless fun with this. We also love that this kitchen comes with extra 6cm that you can place under the kitchen legs, so that my budding cooks can use this kitchen set for a few more years.

£114.95 | Scandiborn

VTech Kidizoom Duo Camera 5.0

It’s the perfect first camera. My young ones can drop it and it won’t shatter. The little ones can actually take decent photos and videos with this dual lens 5MP camera by VTech. We love the fun effects, stamps and frames that can be added to the photos and videos. The voice effects have also been a big hit with our little testers. This camera is also handy when travelling as it has games, so it kept them entertained even more. It’s so nice to see how my children have developed a love for photography thanks to this camera.

£42.99 | Amazon

Toniebox

It’s an interactive boombox speaker packed with great stories and songs. The colourful collectible figurines called Tonies add a cool touch as they control the portable speaker. The headphone jack allows the Toniebox to be used at quieter times. Setting up is easy, once I’ve connected it to our home’s WiFi, it was all good to go. The little ones loved choosing from the figurines that have their own content like audiobooks, audio plays, music or educational content. A starter set includes three figurines - a Story-Player, Music-Player and a Creative-Tonie (a figurine you can personalise via the Tonie App or Toniecloud), which has space for you to upload 90 minutes of your own audio content. Ours had Maya the Bee, nursery rhymes, The Highway Rat and a customisable Tonies. It’s so good for story time, that we got more Disney’s Little Mermaid and The Jungle Book as well as Princess Lillifee.

£59.45 | John Lewis

Melissa and Doug Learn-to-Play Piano

Our mini Mozarts enjoyed playing on this colourful upright piano. With 25 keys and two full octaves, our little testers enjoyed exploring the concepts of high and low notes, soft and loud. For the more experienced “maestros” there’s a colour-coded songbook to learn nine kids classics like Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Row, Row, Row Your Boat. And for oldies like me, I really enjoy playing Baby Shark, so we can have our own sing along.

£43.52 | Amazon

Personalised Paddington Bear book and plush toy gift set

This personalised set includes a book and plush. I totally love how you can personalise the book with our little ones’ names and they got to see their names at the top of every page. Story time became extra special as our young bookworms cuddled the plush toys whilst they listened to the adventures of Peru’s finest bear.

£39.95 | Prezzybox

Le Toy Van Honey Market

British designed luxury wooden toys company Le Toy Van has created this wonderful Honeybake Shop and Cafe. My little testers had fun creating their own grocery stall, bakery, toy shop, takeaway cafe and even newsstand with this reversible shop and cafe. It’s sturdy, beautifully made and has entertained the little ones for hours as they enter a world of make believe.

£55 | Amazon

Lunii My Fabulous Storyteller

Storytelling is a long-standing art that has allowed families to create connection, evoke emotion and stimulate imagination for centuries. I still remember my mum taking the time to read me a book a night before bedtime. Fast forward to 2020, I now have my own babies to read to. What’s really impressive with this interactive story creator from French children’s brand Lunii is that it gives children from the age of three the opportunity to build their own bespoke audio stories. Slightly larger than a walkman (remember those?), little ones can personalise the stories by selecting from a range of characters, settings and objects with an easy to use wheel. It then narrates a personalised audio narrative, which makes it part of the fun and help them flex their creativity by inventing a whole new world based on a library of more than 1,500 stories that can be loaded onto the device. And for parents with two children, the headphone has a jack that allows another headphone to connect, so story time still is a shared experience.

£69.90 | Amazon

Chad Valley Playhouse

Works indoors and outdoors, this playhouse allows children to step into their own world using their imagination. Easy to assemble, the UV resistant playhouse is also a nice chill spot for reading and comes in different colours and themes like Magic Unicorn and Wendy Playhouses. You won't necessarily think that a playhouse is an educational toy, but not only are playhouses excellent retreats, they are also a place where your child's imaginations can be let free and where their creativity can really take flight.

£50 | Argos

LeapFrog Scoop and Learn

There are 20 playing pieces in this ice cream cart that gives hours of open-ended play. The best feature is the magnetic ice cream scooper (which I think is pretty cool) that recognises the ice creams and toppings which allows the little ones to learn about colours, numbers, sequencing, memory and matching. There’s also a catchy tune as my bubbas pushed the cart around. It’s fun and practical, perfect for curious and active pre-schoolers.

£44.99 | Smyths Toys

Verdict

You just can’t beat the LEGO magic and so my top pick goes to LEGO Duplo Bakery. For the cool factor,LeapFrog’s Scoop and Learn and VTech’s Kiddizoom Duo Camera 5.0 are worth a mention.