This post may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Powerful Mothering is supported by its audience, thankyou!
I love the feel of wooden toys and in my experience they seem to hold up way better than their plastic counterparts.
At first I thought of adding these by age, but so many children are either further ahead or just don’t have interest in a certain area yet. I will share some of the toys that my kids love (all 3 of them!) and that I think they would love, based on personalities and interests.
When it comes to wooden toys, you know your child best.
Join us to explore our favorite Wooden Learning Toys for under 3 year olds.
For our youngest ones the first blocks set is simply gorgeous I love that it has sensory appeal to it. I also like the triangles for their good grip and interactive fun for babies just beginning to develop basic hand-eye coordination.
From around a year and a bit we have been loving our geometric stacker which is great for building early shape, color and size differentiation skills. Both my 1 year old and 3 year old love to play with this one. That being said I also eyed the cone sorting one for quite sometime.
Music is one of the important parts in bringing up our children. A wooden drum is a marvelous way to introduce your toddler to rhythm and music, pair it with a xylophone and you are all set!
My one year old would love these patience blocks and they would keep her occupied for ages. “Things that go” have always been a fascination for my 3 kids and I bet they would enjoy the spinning wheels gear toy as part of their color recognition, hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills learning.
For more fine motor skills and pincer grasp the cute Bee Hive caught my eye. Paired with a book about bee’s I am sure it would be a wonderful activity / learning afternoon for you and your little one.
We picked up Melissa & Doug’s wooden blocks on wheels cart on last months city trip. The kids are enjoying it greatly and I love to watch what inspired stacking and building they do.
I was also pleased to discover a wooden shape sorting clock on our last trip. I just hope it is still there when next we go, I think it will make a fine tool for counting, sorting, color recognition, shape recognition, and hand-eye coordination. Not to mention a start on telling the time.
Puzzles are high on my purchase list this year. My younger 2 are loving the peg puzzle board ones. I have seen the Number Snail Puzzle which is just too cute, as well as the Animal Parade A to Z Puzzle and lets not forget my dinosaur obsessed child with the Dinosaur A to Z Puzzle.
For the older ones you have just got to love the Latches Board, great for fine motor skill and there are cute hide-and-seek pictures behind each door, although my 1 year old would definitely enjoy exploring it too! The Basic Skills Board is also in my shopping cart 😉
I have the simpler version of these Pattern Blocks and Boards, this one is on our wish list and is great for our current shapes learning. Another I would like to share is this little Square Base Pyramid, it is going to be a great source of interest and thinking to my boys.
Twisting and learning to manipulate items is also on the development list, Nuts and Bolts are perfect to develop this skill further. Sure beats the spice bottles my 3 year old is currently obsessed with opening! Then there is lacing things, I found this cute little Lacing Sheep, it is kind of like putting its wool back on?
The See & Spell is great for a little spelling practice, the manufacturer has this as 4+ years but some children love to use things like this from age 3.
There are also larger wooden learning toys that are like 5 toys into one. These are the ones I point the grandparents to when they ask what can they buy. 😉 They are My Busy Town, Mini Play Cube and an Alphabet Abacus.
And if you are a fan of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar book I highly recommend you check out our toddler and preschool wish list, there a few wooden toys in that list too.
Pin this List for later!
What wooden toys do your kids love?
Kate says
Great selection of toys. I love how wooden toys are finally making a come back. LOVE the Dinosaur alphabet puzzle! Kate 🙂
Bekkah says
I love this post! I was just looking for ideas for my son for birthdays and Christmas presents. I love the idea of wooden toys. My mom still has the wooden blocks from when I was a toddler and that is over 20 years ago. (My son loves to play with them at her house)
For Christmas last year, my mother in law bought my son *3 y.o.* the Melissa & Doug See and Spell. He loves it! Puzzles are a hit at our house and this is my favorite.
I have a baby due in August (another boy) and plan on sticking with natural toys and educational toys vs. the “normal” plastic and electronic toys.
Thank you for this post! It has helped so much!
Krystal says
Love, love, love wooden toys! Open ended and last.
Machiko Baby says
My daughter would bang any wooden toy to get a rhythm . She was obsessed with making noise. The xylophone was too pretty sounding for her.
Clarissa Hooper says
I just love wooden toys! My son always has had a preference to them. Even as an adult, I prefer the beauty of a wooden object versus a plastic one. The weight is much more interesting to hold, they carry more sensory information (love when you can smell the type of wood it is!), and the beauty of the grain lines is irreplaceable. Wish all grandparents would invest in one quality wooden toy versus 10 plastic ones this Christmas!
Michelle says
These wooden toys look fab! I have just brought my son a wooden rocking horse from ELC for Christmas.
Angela says
This is a great list – I love to give good quality wooden toys to my friends with little ones! Thanks for linking up to Anything Goes, I pinned each post you shared. 🙂
Dianna @ The Kennedy Adventures says
I adore wooden toys for my children. My only issue is keeping them organized with many small children at home. If you’ve got any tips, that would be wonderful!
Found your site on No Time for Flash Cards. Looking forward to subscribing and learning more!
Nicolette Roux says
I have a shelf and rotate the higher ones to the lower shelves every few days, that way my 1 year old has “new” toys to explore often. With the older ones I encourage putting one toy away before taking another.
Christy Garrett @ Uplifting Families says
I love these wooden toys, they are durable and will last a long time.
Melissa Klinker says
Love wood toys!! Fantastic list!
Vikrant Yadav says
Wooden toys are the building blocks in a kids life they are intuitive and fun, and also help in a holistic development of the kids, they help in increasing the hand-eye co-ordination and developing imaginary skills as well
Afterschooling for Smarty Pants says
Yes, wooden toys are classic! We had the same xylophone and wooden train from Melissa and Doug!
The Mad House says
I love wooden toys and this is a great list.
Tina Cunningham Pearson says
My boys have many of these and love them! Great ideas!
Cassondra Jaclynn Freeman says
We have a lot of wooden stuff, too. Loved this post! 😀
Chelsey Slagter Marashian says
I am a huge fan of wooden toys!!! Just love this list!!
Chelsey Slagter Marashian says
I am a huge fan of wooden toys!!! Just love this list!!
Tricia Brouton Montesano says
These are fantastic and we have many of these but see some new ones too!
Emma says
The best thing about wooden toys is that they can withstand ungentle toddler hands! This is such a fun collection of toys!
Samantha @ Stir the Wonder says
Great list! We have a couple of these toys and I plan to get some more soon!
Still Playing School says
Ohhh, the alphabet abacus for me. I mean for THEM! 😉
Devany LeDrew says
We have the Melissa & Doug stacking puzzle pictured here. Even I am drawn to it in a soothing way! Checking out the rest of your list now, thanks!
Blayne says
I absolutely love this gift list Nicolette!! Excellent job! I definitely found some new items to add to my son’s wishlist! 🙂
House of Burke says
Love love love this Powerful Mothering! Such a great gift guide!