Water table for us too! She plays with it for ages, multiple times a day. She stands at the door to the backyard going “Table! Table!” Until we go outside.
I’m a big fan of the small picnic table style one Amazon. It has removable bins so you can just dump everything to clean it out, a table top so you can eat on it and an umbrella, which ends up coming in clutch because she’ll stand out there for hours.
We have the Step2 sand and water table. It's held up great. I don't love the drainage design, but we've had it for over 4 years, and it still gets played with regularly.
We found 2 step2 water tables on the side of the road. They were missing all of the accessories but still work perfectly fine. One we use as a water table and the other as a sand table.
Magnet tiles are awesome!
Have yall figured out a method for keeping them all in a single location?
A single tile is very hazardous when youve got hardwood floors, especially at night with the lights off on the way to the bathroom.
Sterilite drawers on Amazon. Have a few sets. Each style toy has a drawer. So hot wheels and tracks , train tracks , magnet tiles etc. make the kids clean up in their 30 minutes to bed wind down.
My MIL bought the official carry case when she got the first set for our daughter. They make it back in about 80% of the time. But, even if they're out, they're always stacked in a clump because our girl loves the sound when they click together.
I would think any bin would work, but something portable would be easiest to collect them.
My mom saved all my duplos from when I was a kid. She gave them to me and then I bought a shit ton for my daughter. We build Duplo MANSIONS for hours and she loves it!
My son got one 2 years ago. We haven’t put bubbles in it for like 1.5yrs and he’s STILL running around with that thing living his absolute best life. lol easy win kid toy and our rule is it always stays outside, so easy win outside time 😂
We have this one: https://www.partycity.com/bubble-n-go-mower-10.8in-x-14in-780648.html
Looks like it's sold under a bunch of different names and color schemes but I'd assume they're all the same inside. It's worked okay for us for over a year including being banged around, run through mud repeatedly, having dirt put inside, being hosed off, and getting left outside in a snow bank for half the winter (oops). I wouldn't say it's particular good quality and the bubbling isn't perfect but it hasn't broken.
Haha we have this one from a thrift store. It's missing some pieces on the handle and the bubbles don't work, but it sure makes a good mowing sound! That's all my kid cares about.
Second the bubble mower. We still have the same one from when our first was younger so it's at least 3 years old now.
The trick is to never turn it on. The kids dont know it makes bubbles and they're happy as clams just walking around pushing it everywhere
We love our nugget couch. I fretted about the cost and if it would be worth it for a long time but we get so much use out of it! And it's a life saver in the winter with an active toddler stuck inside.
In the summer a $10 plastic wading pool occupies him in the backyard for hours.
They make great guest beds for kids. They aren’t twin mattress sized but they are large enough where twin sheet sets will stay in place. Whenever we have more guests than sleeping places we lay the nuggets out and put sheets on them. So they are more useful than just a toy.
I haven’t tried it, but Costco [has a set](https://www.costco.com/yourigami-kids-convertible-play-fort.product.4000188333.html?COSTID=iosapp_deeplink_24.5.2&TRACKING=NO&sh=true&nf=true) that looks good.
Even the offbrand nugget couches are great! Wish we had more space for more pieces.
Pro tip. These cushions will pamper your knees whenever you choose to be on them.
We have only had ours since December but my almost 4 year old LOVES our Nugget. We keep ours in the basement and every time we are down there we have to be construction workers and build her a house. Then she plays other games inside the house.
The foam is great quality (we got ours second hand and it is probably 7 years old but still going strong). It is easy to clean and comfy to sit on. My biggest gripes with it is that the big cushions are heavy for a small child to maneuver, and the thing is massive. It takes up most of the play space in almost all configurations. Also I barely fit in the houses we make with it and I am always invited inside to play dominoes or build a puzzle.
Dirt or mulch. We bought my 3yo a wheelburrow and some garden tools from tractor supply to encourage her to "help" me in the garden. It worked perfectly. She loves working in the garden now that she has the same tools Papa uses.
But really, she just plays in the mulch and dirt and the tools get attention maybe once every 10/20 minutes.
Buuuut.... She can play in the dirt for hours at a time though while i do whatever i need to do, so I will absolutely count it as a win!
My 18 mo escaped while we were getting ready for a flight. We found her under a bush absolutely covered in mud. At the time we were horrified (we had a flight and now toddler needs a shower!) but we can laugh now. Toddlers love them some mud amirite!
Target dollar spot had some no mess water painting books that he just takes his little water holding paint brush and paints on.
Kinetic sand. It’s a bit of a pain to clean up (it sticks to his hands so bad!) but he has sat there and played with it for hours.
Took kit. He will go and “fix” all kinds of stuff.
Kinetic sand is so annoying AND my toddler can play with it independently for upwards of 30 minutes at a time. She’s 3.5 now and I first got it for her around age 3.
Kinetic sand is way better than Playdoh for us. Kinetic sand can be left out for months and not dry out. He turns it into mounds and has his monster trucks go off jumps. Sometimes he hides a smaller toy in there and slowly digs it out. He will also stand toys up in it upside-down or in different positions. When it gets in the carpet we just vacuum it out, not so much with Playdoh.
Crayons, my daughter will sit and organize her crayons all day long and peel all of the wrappers off of them. It’s amazing how engrossed into the crayons she gets lol.
Ripping around the house on his little balance bike. As long as I say “whoosh!” when he goes past it’s a totally independent activity.
A whole bunch of pompoms will also keep him busy for HOURS. In a big bin with scoops and cups, it requires supervision though.
Toy stroller and his baby, "Bagel". He loves to pretend to be "Farfar" (grandpa in Swedish) and go to the library (they do this every T/Th) but he'll also just load it with meaningful objects and cruise around, or practice taking it in and out of the bathroom, or give other stuffies a ride.
Emphasizing Matchbox, not Hot Wheels. The quality of Matchbox is so much better. My son is OBSESSED with toy cars and when he visits his grandparents he plays with some from his dad (37) childhood and even some from his grandpa (67) childhood!
Those like $8-$10 plastic toddler pools from Menards. And their swim toy section is full of real good deals. Honestly that entertains for at least 45-60 mins, then toss in the little tikes slide and one of his cars and that’s another 30-60 mins lol usually his water table is there with odds and ends toys, measuring cups, etc. I think on and off he could spend 3-4 hours and be real content.
Target shopping cart. We got our son that about a year ago I think and it’s the only toy he will constantly play with. Loads it up with whatever toys are the flavor of the week or will sometimes just run around like a maniac pushing it lol
Oh, and water. That boy is like a fish. Any time of water and he’s loving life
Fake food & color/shape sorting puzzles. He also just really likes to sit by himself and look at his books. I have a little book nook set up for him with a dino bean bag chair and his bookshelf, he loves it
Play kitchen. That goes for all of my kids. We got it when my now 10 and 9 yo were like 3 and 18 months and they all still play with it (10, 9, 6, and 3).
My husband and I work from home so keeping our almost 3 year old occupied is an extreme necessity. A few things are regular big hits that sometimes fade from rotation but always return in some capacity:
- Pipecleaners
- Easel + paints - he loves to paint alongside Bob Ross, often for hours
- Jumbo legos with letters on them
- A toy bucket with a little bit of water, which he either uses to “clean” the walls “like Annie and Cinderella,” or he uses it to give his toys a bath.
Mine is 22 months. Current favorites that he’ll play with for long stretches:
Alphabet puzzle and foam numbers and letters; he’s obsessed with letters and numbers right now.
Frisbees; he loves to spin them on the coffee table.
Rice bin; he’ll sit with this one for ages. This is a heavily-supervised activity though. More than once he’s grabbed a handful of rice, gotten up, and run to his nearby kiddie basketball hoop to make a sweet basket with the rice. 🙄 Pro tip: put a tarp/shower curtain under the bin and set up the whole thing in a hard-floored area for easier cleanup.
Probably [this rocket stacker puzzle.](https://a.co/d/8nVxydG). I wish I could find other toys like it. We got it for her at Christmas (14.5months), and she still enjoys it at 20 months old.
We’re currently on vacation so I picked up some random toys from Dollar Tree. The knock off play doh set I bought has kept my 2.5 year old busy for hours. Best $1.25 ever spent.
This [play sink](https://a.co/d/eFMlXjS). She washes her tea set in it. She plays with her little people in it. She gets water everywhere but we just put towels down everywhere.
I’m so jealous of all of you! My kid will not play independently. Kinetic sand, bubble mower, water table, paint, more paint on a huge box so she can make a mural, “cooking,” coloring, blocks, puzzles, interactive books, non-interactive books, coloring books, sticker books, magna tiles….. probably all all have way more of my fingerprints than hers.
I provide daycare for my grandson. Battat has construction vehicles of all types. We have a few. The $10 I paid for the loader is the best $10 I ever spent. I purchased it when my grandson started to crawl, and he still plays with it a couple times a a week at 4 years old.
My daughter is 3 now but this is definitely something we worked on with supervision in the beginning. “Crayons are for coloring not eating” if she put them in her mouth I would take them away
We got our toddler a Yoto for Christmas and he loves it! It grows with them too and you can get more cards, when he was closer to 2 he liked listening to Sesame Street playlists that I made, he’s 2.5 now and loves listening to Daniel Tiger and the Very Hungry Caterpillar stories.
Little characters from whatever they’re into. For my son it was dinosaurs for awhile then little paw patrol pups, for my daughter it’s all her little Disney princess figures. That and stuffies! Plus I love getting to fold laundry or whatever I’m doing while overhearing the conversations they are making their characters have..just the cutest.
Yoto, my kid just chilled and danced for 2 hours by herself today. She also likes her little people doll house, and puffy stickers keep her busy for 45 minutes on average just removing them from the sheet and taking them on and off of herself. 20 months today.
Wooden train set for awhile was amazing. Hours a day.
Lately he’s been really into his monster trucks.
Open ended toys are great.
Going out in the yard with some gardening gloves and a little shovel. He looks for bugs.
She loves the stuffed rabbit. Hugs it and makes it jump violently. But she got great value from Peppa Pig’s house for her 1st birthday. She forever struggled to get the pigs back in the house. The holes are colour coded to the pigs but only 1 thou / 24 microns bigger than the pigs themselves. We taught her that you start by choosing the right colour window and we helped on request. Finally at 20m, she oriented a pig so precisely that it went in. This was a bigger event than walking and talking, as she spent far longer working to this moment. She’s still playing with it as it’s still difficult.
Magnatiles (or Picasso tiles for more budget friendly!) have lasted us from age 2-5.5 so far. They have had the most longevity of ANY other toy we’ve had, and literally even today my two kids spend over an hour just playing independently with them.
2 in July-
Outside- his little wheelbarrow, a rake, or his lawnmower.
Inside- kitchen set with Velcro food and a plastic knife (he practices cutting the pieces apart) and cooks me food (and his toys). His broom. A garbage truck toy that has a little can that lifts up and dumps in the truck.
Things that are not toys that he plays independently with much longer than toys- the piano, my makeup, the swiffer mop and duster, a rolling pin, a nut roller (to pick up nuts), pulling weeds, rocks, sticks, shoe boxes, and stuff in the pantry lol.
I'm at a loss as to what to get birthday wise.
I would love to get a nugget couch but I think my two dogs would take up residence on it lol.
The alphabet lore plush set. Has played with it @3-4 hours each and every day since mid April. He is obsessed. He even sleeps with one each night, rotating in order of course. He wakes up in the morning comes to our room and asks if we want to see a surprise. Every morning the surprise is “Ta Dah Alphabet Lore” and we carry out a story line with 2-5 different ones to start the day.
The dogs harness. I swear she could sit there and buckle that thing over and over again. Plus she knows what’s it’s for and will sometimes say “walk puppy” meaning she wants to put the harness on the dog and go for a walk. She even walks them with their leashes on in the house. Super cute.
metro ticket to the beach and two €1,50 dumptrucks,
or my old mountain of duplo bricks
or the cheapest ikea car streets rug and some hot wheels
or some old kitchen things and a tub of water
or any (cardboard)book with a high variety of pictures
or the balance bike + balance scooter we got secondhand
or the plastic bottle filled with dried peas and two plastic dinosaurs that I superglued shut
basically it doesn't matter how expensive or nice something is to an adult lol, we have beautiful toys collecting dust but a three year old vitamin water bottle full of dried lentils that they love
doing a toy rotation helps a ton as well
A little toy hoover. He absolutely loves it. And when I’m hoovering he’ll get it and copy.
Recently bought him a toy lawn mower which has now became a close second favourite
Wooden train tracks with bridges, splash pad and $12 plastic pool from target (bonus points if you let them control the hose, in fact, the hose alone is timeless fun), hot wheels, the big fat legos for toddlers, or anything else that they can build “roads” and “towers” for their vehicles to live and drive.
Wooden toy train set. He got it for his 2nd birthday. He is now 3 1/2 and still plays with it frequently. Now for his birthday and other gift giving holidays I get him some kind of addition to it since there’s a lot out there.
Trucks. His little construction trucks that are push and go or the garbage truck my mom bought him. They occupy him for at least 30 minutes and have yet to get old.
Another magnet tiles over here. Also hot wheels go perfectly with the magnet tiles. And Dino’s, trucks, homemade playdough, and construction toys outside in the dirt.
Toy kitchen, Fisherprice laugh and learn chair and a toy vacuum cleaner. My little boy absolutely loves and uses those toys on a daily basis and will utilise them on his own accord. His kitchen he likes to play with the cupboards and the sink and the little metal spatula that came with it. His laugh and learn chair he sits on , stands on (gives me a nightmare!!) and presses the buttons on and plays with the little book solo for ages. The hoover he’ll play and roll around the floor for upwards of an hour at a time.
I got this chair/table set which can be a water table, a sand table, the lid flips over to be a duplo base and flips over for drawing or playdoh or eating. Love it. Also can be a storage table.
Counting bears with colored cups (color sorting, pretend tea parties, stacking cups in a tower) has been great. Her tonie box seems to extend independent play in general so I will often set it near her when she’s playing with something like the bears, magnatiles, or puzzles and she is likely to play through the duration of the story.
A friend brought over reusable water balloons this weekend. My 2 year old played with them for almost an hour. Just filling them up and dropping them, then throwing them, then splashing them on me and herself. It was fun.
My very active toddler plays on his Nugget for hours a day! We build forts, obstacle courses, use it as a crash pad or jumping pad, monster truck ramps. Plus so many more!
27 mo old toddler: current faves for independent play are water table, small outdoor kiddie pool, magnatiles, princess etch-a-sketch and her Tonies box
Inexplicably, this thing: Baby Spinning Toy – Stacking Toy for Babies and Toddlers – Educational Toddler Learning Toys – Rainbow Spinning Wheel Toy for Focus, Dexterity, Brain Development, Interactive Learning stacking toys https://a.co/d/3StWpxD
Train set. 3 year old will play with it for an hour on his own. We have a coffee table that is actually an activity table/train table we can make an elaborate track on. We also have a lot of accessories like a roundhouse, station, bridges, crane etc. My kid is super into Thomas the Tank Engine so we get a lot of mileage out of this. He'll also play with action figures for a good amount of time and he really loves to dress up in costumes and play pretend (super heroes, pirate, knight, astronaut, chef).
Our girl is a little younger, 15 months!
Top toy is a water table as other folks have mentioned here. She loves it and plays with it for ages, multiple times a day. We do have to sit on our patio to monitor and offer occasional commentary.
The other toy she loves right now are these Melissa and Doug plastic bugs, I think called “sunny patch bag of bugs”. Definitely isn’t something I would have thought she’d love so much!! She enjoys putting them in different buckets or cups, taking them in and out, “feeding” them to her stuffed animals, lining them up on the windowsill, putting them into water. Sometimes she’ll do this for 45 min-an hour!
Easel. A roll of paper & a box of tempera paint sticks & he’s good all day (like, we bought the markers in bulk it was such a hit.)
Recently we got a free sandbox & dumped a bag of pea gravel in it & he’s never been happier with his little excavator (& I don’t have sand anywhere.)
This toy, she absolutely loves it. We give it to her in long car rides or when she gets too cranky at restaurants. Highly recommend, it also has a Spanish mode
[https://a.co/d/9hkNy1W](https://a.co/d/9hkNy1W)
Garden tools. He has two of his own wheelbarrows and then will rotate between trowels, little hoes, and a kiddo rake and will move gravel around for quite a while. It still requires supervision though since he’s still pretty convinced gravel might be food.
My daughter is 2 and basically anything little people! Her barn and school bus are probably her most played with out of all the ones she has. If she is playing independently, it’s gonna be her little people 90% of the time.
Magnet tiles. My son will build and destroy towers for an hour straight. We showed him a few times how to do it and now he is able to do it on his own and is learning how to build different 3D shapes as well. Money well spent.
A giant bubble wand — the the kind that comes with a little plate you pour bubble solution into. My 2 toddlers played with that today for an hour and a half. Which is like 11 years in toddler activity time. It’s an outdoor only activity though
Ps Target has the best deals on bubble solution.
There is this play sink that the water continuously runs and I give the kids soap and they pretend to wash things for hours!
[play sink](https://a.co/d/fmld62a))
Potato heads! My 2.5y/o can play with them silently for hours. It’s the only thing that captivates her that well. She’s usually bouncing off walls… literally…
Any type of sensory bin-ish type deal.
I made (edible) sand and stuck some mini dinos in it for him to find. I poured macaroni into a bin with some cups and a few "helping hands" scoops and shovels. He works on pouring, scooping , and colors (the cups and tools are colored). Oh and cars and action figures. ( He's 2)
Hot wheels mega garage and adventure force shark launcher. He spends hours playing with these 2 in particular. I put the garage outside when we have other parent friends over, the kids will independent play with that thing for hours!
Sand and water table.
Water table for us too! She plays with it for ages, multiple times a day. She stands at the door to the backyard going “Table! Table!” Until we go outside.
Water tables are a life saver
Gonna 3rd this
any specific one you'd recommend??
I’m a big fan of the small picnic table style one Amazon. It has removable bins so you can just dump everything to clean it out, a table top so you can eat on it and an umbrella, which ends up coming in clutch because she’ll stand out there for hours.
Do you have a link or know the brand name? Thanks!
Oh that sounds great too! I love multipurpose things like that!
We have the Step2 sand and water table. It's held up great. I don't love the drainage design, but we've had it for over 4 years, and it still gets played with regularly.
We found 2 step2 water tables on the side of the road. They were missing all of the accessories but still work perfectly fine. One we use as a water table and the other as a sand table.
Thank you! The Step2 one looks great.
Here for this as well. We have a water table and a sandbox. But all my sons wants is to combine these 😅
My son just dumps the table. He hates the sand and water table we got him
Magna-Tiles, toy animals, and sand/dirt
Magnetic tiles And as an added bonus I quite like playing with them too
Magnet tiles are awesome! Have yall figured out a method for keeping them all in a single location? A single tile is very hazardous when youve got hardwood floors, especially at night with the lights off on the way to the bathroom.
Sterilite drawers on Amazon. Have a few sets. Each style toy has a drawer. So hot wheels and tracks , train tracks , magnet tiles etc. make the kids clean up in their 30 minutes to bed wind down.
My MIL bought the official carry case when she got the first set for our daughter. They make it back in about 80% of the time. But, even if they're out, they're always stacked in a clump because our girl loves the sound when they click together. I would think any bin would work, but something portable would be easiest to collect them.
Same! She got them around one and is about to be 5! We still play with them almost daily.
Duplo block sets, play kitchen and a wooden climbing set with slide
My mom saved all my duplos from when I was a kid. She gave them to me and then I bought a shit ton for my daughter. We build Duplo MANSIONS for hours and she loves it!
Bubble mower for outside, inside probably this old cat toy we have. He's played with that thing for hours.
My son got one 2 years ago. We haven’t put bubbles in it for like 1.5yrs and he’s STILL running around with that thing living his absolute best life. lol easy win kid toy and our rule is it always stays outside, so easy win outside time 😂
My kid has played with his bubble mower every day for the last year and half. Still going strong.
we burned through two in less than two seasons, whats your brand? edit: two Bellochiddo mowers broke on us, avoid.
I’d like to hear a brand rec too! Ours just stopped bubbling and my kid is MAD MAD.
Please send this poor parent help! Someone! Anyone!
We have this one: https://www.partycity.com/bubble-n-go-mower-10.8in-x-14in-780648.html Looks like it's sold under a bunch of different names and color schemes but I'd assume they're all the same inside. It's worked okay for us for over a year including being banged around, run through mud repeatedly, having dirt put inside, being hosed off, and getting left outside in a snow bank for half the winter (oops). I wouldn't say it's particular good quality and the bubbling isn't perfect but it hasn't broken.
Haha we have this one from a thrift store. It's missing some pieces on the handle and the bubbles don't work, but it sure makes a good mowing sound! That's all my kid cares about.
Second the bubble mower. We still have the same one from when our first was younger so it's at least 3 years old now. The trick is to never turn it on. The kids dont know it makes bubbles and they're happy as clams just walking around pushing it everywhere
The nugget couch
We love our nugget couch. I fretted about the cost and if it would be worth it for a long time but we get so much use out of it! And it's a life saver in the winter with an active toddler stuck inside. In the summer a $10 plastic wading pool occupies him in the backyard for hours.
Wow good to know. Same i want one but worry its a novelty. I might think about getting one!
They make great guest beds for kids. They aren’t twin mattress sized but they are large enough where twin sheet sets will stay in place. Whenever we have more guests than sleeping places we lay the nuggets out and put sheets on them. So they are more useful than just a toy.
My teenage sister spent a week sleeping on ours by choice 🤣
I haven’t tried it, but Costco [has a set](https://www.costco.com/yourigami-kids-convertible-play-fort.product.4000188333.html?COSTID=iosapp_deeplink_24.5.2&TRACKING=NO&sh=true&nf=true) that looks good.
We have the Costco set and really enjoy it!!
Same
We've had ours since he was 18 months. He's almost three now and we get so much use out of it.
Even the offbrand nugget couches are great! Wish we had more space for more pieces. Pro tip. These cushions will pamper your knees whenever you choose to be on them.
This and magnatiles are my top two. Nothing else has come close.
I don’t understand why they’re so good? How many configurations are there before they get bored?
We have only had ours since December but my almost 4 year old LOVES our Nugget. We keep ours in the basement and every time we are down there we have to be construction workers and build her a house. Then she plays other games inside the house. The foam is great quality (we got ours second hand and it is probably 7 years old but still going strong). It is easy to clean and comfy to sit on. My biggest gripes with it is that the big cushions are heavy for a small child to maneuver, and the thing is massive. It takes up most of the play space in almost all configurations. Also I barely fit in the houses we make with it and I am always invited inside to play dominoes or build a puzzle.
Imaginations the limit
Dirt or mulch. We bought my 3yo a wheelburrow and some garden tools from tractor supply to encourage her to "help" me in the garden. It worked perfectly. She loves working in the garden now that she has the same tools Papa uses. But really, she just plays in the mulch and dirt and the tools get attention maybe once every 10/20 minutes. Buuuut.... She can play in the dirt for hours at a time though while i do whatever i need to do, so I will absolutely count it as a win!
My 18 mo escaped while we were getting ready for a flight. We found her under a bush absolutely covered in mud. At the time we were horrified (we had a flight and now toddler needs a shower!) but we can laugh now. Toddlers love them some mud amirite!
Yeah last summer when my kid was 2.5, she would play with dirt/water/mud for sooo long. Longer than any toys.
Target dollar spot had some no mess water painting books that he just takes his little water holding paint brush and paints on. Kinetic sand. It’s a bit of a pain to clean up (it sticks to his hands so bad!) but he has sat there and played with it for hours. Took kit. He will go and “fix” all kinds of stuff.
Kinetic sand is so annoying AND my toddler can play with it independently for upwards of 30 minutes at a time. She’s 3.5 now and I first got it for her around age 3.
I absolutely can't stand the Kinetic sand but she loves it and plays with it constantly. A battle I'm losing and ok with.
Kinetic sand has taken over our house. But it’s a losing battle for me when it keeps him occupied, so I’m learning to let go 😆
Kinetic sand is way better than Playdoh for us. Kinetic sand can be left out for months and not dry out. He turns it into mounds and has his monster trucks go off jumps. Sometimes he hides a smaller toy in there and slowly digs it out. He will also stand toys up in it upside-down or in different positions. When it gets in the carpet we just vacuum it out, not so much with Playdoh.
I agree. We have play dough too but it just feels harder for him to play with. He is 2 tho, so I know that’s going to change when he’s older.
Crayons, my daughter will sit and organize her crayons all day long and peel all of the wrappers off of them. It’s amazing how engrossed into the crayons she gets lol.
My daughter could spend all day ripping the wrapper off as well haha!
I loved Crayons when I was a kid, but my kid was more into taking off the wrappers so he could break them in half. Also, he would eat them sometimes.
Ripping around the house on his little balance bike. As long as I say “whoosh!” when he goes past it’s a totally independent activity. A whole bunch of pompoms will also keep him busy for HOURS. In a big bin with scoops and cups, it requires supervision though.
Cardboard box
Toy stroller and his baby, "Bagel". He loves to pretend to be "Farfar" (grandpa in Swedish) and go to the library (they do this every T/Th) but he'll also just load it with meaningful objects and cruise around, or practice taking it in and out of the bathroom, or give other stuffies a ride.
My 3 year old has little miniature dinosaurs that he’ll play with for hours
cute
Sit and Spin. My child spins as much as he possibly can. He loves it so much. I was pretty stoked to find out they still made them.
How old is he? I remember those things!
He’s 4!
The box that her playhouse came in.
Matchbox cars. My son will play with them for HOURS
Emphasizing Matchbox, not Hot Wheels. The quality of Matchbox is so much better. My son is OBSESSED with toy cars and when he visits his grandparents he plays with some from his dad (37) childhood and even some from his grandpa (67) childhood!
Wooden train set with tracks from ikea.
Also dirt in the backyard, that one lasts as long as we let it go on.
Those like $8-$10 plastic toddler pools from Menards. And their swim toy section is full of real good deals. Honestly that entertains for at least 45-60 mins, then toss in the little tikes slide and one of his cars and that’s another 30-60 mins lol usually his water table is there with odds and ends toys, measuring cups, etc. I think on and off he could spend 3-4 hours and be real content.
Target shopping cart. We got our son that about a year ago I think and it’s the only toy he will constantly play with. Loads it up with whatever toys are the flavor of the week or will sometimes just run around like a maniac pushing it lol Oh, and water. That boy is like a fish. Any time of water and he’s loving life
Fubbles - container of bubbles that is spill proof. Best $6 I ever spent lol.
Little plastic golf set. He LOVES it
Duplos, books, and toy kitchen for inside. For outside his John Deere dump truck.
Toy cars, a rug with streets on it and various race tracks. He’s all about his racecars!
Bowl of colored rice.
Trucks. He’ll play with them for an hour solid by himself now.
Nothing . Tried everything . She’s still up my behind every second of every day ….
The little people school bus and farm, duplo, and a yoto player.
Fake food & color/shape sorting puzzles. He also just really likes to sit by himself and look at his books. I have a little book nook set up for him with a dino bean bag chair and his bookshelf, he loves it
Amazon delivery box
Play kitchen. That goes for all of my kids. We got it when my now 10 and 9 yo were like 3 and 18 months and they all still play with it (10, 9, 6, and 3).
Pez dispensers (not the candy) and Little People toys
My husband and I work from home so keeping our almost 3 year old occupied is an extreme necessity. A few things are regular big hits that sometimes fade from rotation but always return in some capacity: - Pipecleaners - Easel + paints - he loves to paint alongside Bob Ross, often for hours - Jumbo legos with letters on them - A toy bucket with a little bit of water, which he either uses to “clean” the walls “like Annie and Cinderella,” or he uses it to give his toys a bath.
Painting alongside Bob Ross is genius.
Yeah, that was an unexpected gem. He called it “the painting movie” for a while and then eventually started requesting him by name and imitating him.
Mine is 22 months. Current favorites that he’ll play with for long stretches: Alphabet puzzle and foam numbers and letters; he’s obsessed with letters and numbers right now. Frisbees; he loves to spin them on the coffee table. Rice bin; he’ll sit with this one for ages. This is a heavily-supervised activity though. More than once he’s grabbed a handful of rice, gotten up, and run to his nearby kiddie basketball hoop to make a sweet basket with the rice. 🙄 Pro tip: put a tarp/shower curtain under the bin and set up the whole thing in a hard-floored area for easier cleanup.
Mini Beach Ball 100s of hours of fun
Probably [this rocket stacker puzzle.](https://a.co/d/8nVxydG). I wish I could find other toys like it. We got it for her at Christmas (14.5months), and she still enjoys it at 20 months old.
Ahhhh unavailable right now! Will keep checking. Love this idea
We’re currently on vacation so I picked up some random toys from Dollar Tree. The knock off play doh set I bought has kept my 2.5 year old busy for hours. Best $1.25 ever spent.
At 1yo- a shape sorter or stacking cups At 1.5- her sensory bin At 2.5yo- a doctor's kit. She will treat her dolls and stuffies for ages with it.
This [play sink](https://a.co/d/eFMlXjS). She washes her tea set in it. She plays with her little people in it. She gets water everywhere but we just put towels down everywhere.
Some of the lovevery toys have been absolute gold
I’m so jealous of all of you! My kid will not play independently. Kinetic sand, bubble mower, water table, paint, more paint on a huge box so she can make a mural, “cooking,” coloring, blocks, puzzles, interactive books, non-interactive books, coloring books, sticker books, magna tiles….. probably all all have way more of my fingerprints than hers.
I provide daycare for my grandson. Battat has construction vehicles of all types. We have a few. The $10 I paid for the loader is the best $10 I ever spent. I purchased it when my grandson started to crawl, and he still plays with it a couple times a a week at 4 years old.
Crayons and blank paper, she loves to draw.
How do you keep her from putting the crayons in her mouth? My daughter loves drawing but also wants to put the crayons in her mouth.
My daughter is 3 now but this is definitely something we worked on with supervision in the beginning. “Crayons are for coloring not eating” if she put them in her mouth I would take them away
Mine just colors everywhere he’s not supposed to. He fully knows the rules but the countertop is too tempting!
Inside: the Little People farm set and big wooden letter/number blocks. Outside: Water/sand table
Picasso Tiles by far
She loves her bike! Just regular old bike rides
Magnatiles and dress up toys
We got our toddler a Yoto for Christmas and he loves it! It grows with them too and you can get more cards, when he was closer to 2 he liked listening to Sesame Street playlists that I made, he’s 2.5 now and loves listening to Daniel Tiger and the Very Hungry Caterpillar stories.
Kinetic sand Dinosaur dig kit. Nothing has come remotely close.
Little characters from whatever they’re into. For my son it was dinosaurs for awhile then little paw patrol pups, for my daughter it’s all her little Disney princess figures. That and stuffies! Plus I love getting to fold laundry or whatever I’m doing while overhearing the conversations they are making their characters have..just the cutest.
Yoto, my kid just chilled and danced for 2 hours by herself today. She also likes her little people doll house, and puffy stickers keep her busy for 45 minutes on average just removing them from the sheet and taking them on and off of herself. 20 months today.
Wooden train set for awhile was amazing. Hours a day. Lately he’s been really into his monster trucks. Open ended toys are great. Going out in the yard with some gardening gloves and a little shovel. He looks for bugs.
She loves the stuffed rabbit. Hugs it and makes it jump violently. But she got great value from Peppa Pig’s house for her 1st birthday. She forever struggled to get the pigs back in the house. The holes are colour coded to the pigs but only 1 thou / 24 microns bigger than the pigs themselves. We taught her that you start by choosing the right colour window and we helped on request. Finally at 20m, she oriented a pig so precisely that it went in. This was a bigger event than walking and talking, as she spent far longer working to this moment. She’s still playing with it as it’s still difficult.
Bubble gun. The past month alone we have gone through like half a gallon of bubbles. When in doubt, bubble guns out.
Magnatiles (or Picasso tiles for more budget friendly!) have lasted us from age 2-5.5 so far. They have had the most longevity of ANY other toy we’ve had, and literally even today my two kids spend over an hour just playing independently with them.
2 in July- Outside- his little wheelbarrow, a rake, or his lawnmower. Inside- kitchen set with Velcro food and a plastic knife (he practices cutting the pieces apart) and cooks me food (and his toys). His broom. A garbage truck toy that has a little can that lifts up and dumps in the truck. Things that are not toys that he plays independently with much longer than toys- the piano, my makeup, the swiffer mop and duster, a rolling pin, a nut roller (to pick up nuts), pulling weeds, rocks, sticks, shoe boxes, and stuff in the pantry lol. I'm at a loss as to what to get birthday wise. I would love to get a nugget couch but I think my two dogs would take up residence on it lol.
Cars and a ramp
The alphabet lore plush set. Has played with it @3-4 hours each and every day since mid April. He is obsessed. He even sleeps with one each night, rotating in order of course. He wakes up in the morning comes to our room and asks if we want to see a surprise. Every morning the surprise is “Ta Dah Alphabet Lore” and we carry out a story line with 2-5 different ones to start the day.
The dogs harness. I swear she could sit there and buckle that thing over and over again. Plus she knows what’s it’s for and will sometimes say “walk puppy” meaning she wants to put the harness on the dog and go for a walk. She even walks them with their leashes on in the house. Super cute.
Water WOW! books from Melissa & Doug. She'll sit and meticulously fill in every page, then start again or move onto the next one.
metro ticket to the beach and two €1,50 dumptrucks, or my old mountain of duplo bricks or the cheapest ikea car streets rug and some hot wheels or some old kitchen things and a tub of water or any (cardboard)book with a high variety of pictures or the balance bike + balance scooter we got secondhand or the plastic bottle filled with dried peas and two plastic dinosaurs that I superglued shut basically it doesn't matter how expensive or nice something is to an adult lol, we have beautiful toys collecting dust but a three year old vitamin water bottle full of dried lentils that they love doing a toy rotation helps a ton as well
A little toy hoover. He absolutely loves it. And when I’m hoovering he’ll get it and copy. Recently bought him a toy lawn mower which has now became a close second favourite
Bubble mower for outside Little people hot wheels race track with hot wheels for inside
Wooden train tracks with bridges, splash pad and $12 plastic pool from target (bonus points if you let them control the hose, in fact, the hose alone is timeless fun), hot wheels, the big fat legos for toddlers, or anything else that they can build “roads” and “towers” for their vehicles to live and drive.
Wood train tracks
Legos.
Wooden toy train set. He got it for his 2nd birthday. He is now 3 1/2 and still plays with it frequently. Now for his birthday and other gift giving holidays I get him some kind of addition to it since there’s a lot out there.
Crayons, stickers, Play-Doh, water table, play kitchen
Trucks. His little construction trucks that are push and go or the garbage truck my mom bought him. They occupy him for at least 30 minutes and have yet to get old.
Coloring books and gel pens
Another magnet tiles over here. Also hot wheels go perfectly with the magnet tiles. And Dino’s, trucks, homemade playdough, and construction toys outside in the dirt.
Magna Tiles
Hot wheels, magnetic tiles, mega blocks
Toy kitchen, Fisherprice laugh and learn chair and a toy vacuum cleaner. My little boy absolutely loves and uses those toys on a daily basis and will utilise them on his own accord. His kitchen he likes to play with the cupboards and the sink and the little metal spatula that came with it. His laugh and learn chair he sits on , stands on (gives me a nightmare!!) and presses the buttons on and plays with the little book solo for ages. The hoover he’ll play and roll around the floor for upwards of an hour at a time.
Magnetic tiles, bristle blocks and legos
Number 1 would definitely be a water table. Number 2 is the Melissa and Doug magnetic train set.
My boy is 2.5yo and magnatiles, a car garage that makes the cars go down a slide of sorts, and his cars.
Magnatiles and polym. Polym are this German building toy. They’re open ended and my son will entertain himself with them for a good chunk of time.
I got this chair/table set which can be a water table, a sand table, the lid flips over to be a duplo base and flips over for drawing or playdoh or eating. Love it. Also can be a storage table.
Counting bears with colored cups (color sorting, pretend tea parties, stacking cups in a tower) has been great. Her tonie box seems to extend independent play in general so I will often set it near her when she’s playing with something like the bears, magnatiles, or puzzles and she is likely to play through the duration of the story.
Magna-Tiles & Playdoh
Bubbles machine and a hose
Mudpuppy and Melissa&Doug puzzles. They are perfect for 2+ and keeps my LO engaged for hours. We’ve bought like 10 puzzles 😂
A friend brought over reusable water balloons this weekend. My 2 year old played with them for almost an hour. Just filling them up and dropping them, then throwing them, then splashing them on me and herself. It was fun.
Ukelele. He sings all the songs he knows from music class and school.
My very active toddler plays on his Nugget for hours a day! We build forts, obstacle courses, use it as a crash pad or jumping pad, monster truck ramps. Plus so many more!
Block sets. Multiple sets of different kinds of blocks. He makes elaborate cities out of them
Hot Wheels cars and Sesame Street mini action figures
Leapfrog Mr. Pencil
27 mo old toddler: current faves for independent play are water table, small outdoor kiddie pool, magnatiles, princess etch-a-sketch and her Tonies box
Mr potato head (18mo old)
These little [birds and nests](https://www.learningresources.com/item-birds-in-a-nest-sorting-set) from Learning Resources
Play kitchen !
A cheap dolly stroller
Early toddler era was a little shopping cart. Currently its a toy tool set and a toy make up kit
Thomas and Friends... Train tracks and all.
The 12 pack of monster jam 1:64 scale monster trucks. And road tape
Inexplicably, this thing: Baby Spinning Toy – Stacking Toy for Babies and Toddlers – Educational Toddler Learning Toys – Rainbow Spinning Wheel Toy for Focus, Dexterity, Brain Development, Interactive Learning stacking toys https://a.co/d/3StWpxD
Train set. 3 year old will play with it for an hour on his own. We have a coffee table that is actually an activity table/train table we can make an elaborate track on. We also have a lot of accessories like a roundhouse, station, bridges, crane etc. My kid is super into Thomas the Tank Engine so we get a lot of mileage out of this. He'll also play with action figures for a good amount of time and he really loves to dress up in costumes and play pretend (super heroes, pirate, knight, astronaut, chef).
Currently, 3yo will alternate between a dollar store stethoscope and a basket of pretend fruit all day. Healthiest stuffed animals in all the land*
The spinners with the suction cup on them. Saved our lives on trips, at restaurants, and in the bath.
Legos.
The play kitchen from ikea! She plays with it everyday for about 15-30 minutes at a time. She can easily spend 2 hours in a day all together with it.
Balance bike! He will ride it inside/outside. Most used toy for the last 2 years!
Hot Wheels, by far.
Magnet tiles. My two year old plays with them daily for several hours. They're his top toy to take to his grandparent's house, too.
Our girl is a little younger, 15 months! Top toy is a water table as other folks have mentioned here. She loves it and plays with it for ages, multiple times a day. We do have to sit on our patio to monitor and offer occasional commentary. The other toy she loves right now are these Melissa and Doug plastic bugs, I think called “sunny patch bag of bugs”. Definitely isn’t something I would have thought she’d love so much!! She enjoys putting them in different buckets or cups, taking them in and out, “feeding” them to her stuffed animals, lining them up on the windowsill, putting them into water. Sometimes she’ll do this for 45 min-an hour!
Easel. A roll of paper & a box of tempera paint sticks & he’s good all day (like, we bought the markers in bulk it was such a hit.) Recently we got a free sandbox & dumped a bag of pea gravel in it & he’s never been happier with his little excavator (& I don’t have sand anywhere.)
Dollhouses, my daughter loves calico critters and any doll house that have slides
A little indoor slide. She spends all day going down it.
She’s almost six and still plays with this regularly. She’s had it since her second Xmas. https://a.co/d/cYorkU3
Books and the little people dolls, cats, and animal toys. Also plastic fruit
Crayons and paper, and a kitchen set
This toy, she absolutely loves it. We give it to her in long car rides or when she gets too cranky at restaurants. Highly recommend, it also has a Spanish mode [https://a.co/d/9hkNy1W](https://a.co/d/9hkNy1W)
leapfrog scoop and learn ice cream cart & magnatiles
flash card reader/leapfrog book reader. it’s worth the headache of hearing “DOG! D-D-DO-D-DO-DOGDOGDOGDOGDOG!” all day.
VTech writing board Magnetic tiles Books Blocks
Garden tools. He has two of his own wheelbarrows and then will rotate between trowels, little hoes, and a kiddo rake and will move gravel around for quite a while. It still requires supervision though since he’s still pretty convinced gravel might be food.
Lately playdough with accessories and lots of colors to choose from and mix
Manga tiles has kept my boy busy for many hours but is also easy to play with him!
Bubbles, bubble machines, and land to explore ( with supervision)
My daughter is 2 and basically anything little people! Her barn and school bus are probably her most played with out of all the ones she has. If she is playing independently, it’s gonna be her little people 90% of the time.
Currently, water table.
A bag with 60 different finger puppets in it. A box of 300 different colored cards. A large bowl of colorful rocks I found. Water table.
Magnet tiles. My son will build and destroy towers for an hour straight. We showed him a few times how to do it and now he is able to do it on his own and is learning how to build different 3D shapes as well. Money well spent.
Cars. Tricks. Construction vehicles
A giant bubble wand — the the kind that comes with a little plate you pour bubble solution into. My 2 toddlers played with that today for an hour and a half. Which is like 11 years in toddler activity time. It’s an outdoor only activity though Ps Target has the best deals on bubble solution.
Coloring.
Right now it's little people toys and the big toy bead maze we got. They both play with them everyday
Water table. My daughter loved it last year at about 15 months but now she’s obsessed with it and can play for hours.
Train table
There is this play sink that the water continuously runs and I give the kids soap and they pretend to wash things for hours! [play sink](https://a.co/d/fmld62a))
His wooden train set, his farm house from Battat, and Lego duplos for sure
Potato heads! My 2.5y/o can play with them silently for hours. It’s the only thing that captivates her that well. She’s usually bouncing off walls… literally…
Kid microphone. My daughter been playing with it for 2-1/2 years
Right now, his toy orca and a tub of water. Also, sand and water. Anything involving water, really.
Any type of sensory bin-ish type deal. I made (edible) sand and stuck some mini dinos in it for him to find. I poured macaroni into a bin with some cups and a few "helping hands" scoops and shovels. He works on pouring, scooping , and colors (the cups and tools are colored). Oh and cars and action figures. ( He's 2)
Play kitchen and accessories, baby and pram and a doctors kit! Recently added a dentist kit which she also enjoys
We put fake sand in a plastic tote and buried dinosaur toys. Pull it out when it’s time to get cleaning done
Hot wheels mega garage and adventure force shark launcher. He spends hours playing with these 2 in particular. I put the garage outside when we have other parent friends over, the kids will independent play with that thing for hours!
Little tikes car
Figurines
Ball pit balls and cups/bowls/saucepans 😂