Toddlers love staying active! Here are a few excellent toys for toddlers that will encourage their innate urge to move.
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Active play and movement are vital to a toddler’s development, but with kids spending more and more time playing video games or watching shows on a tablet, they are spending considerably less time playing outdoors than before. It’s important to keep things balanced for them, but it’s also difficult to encourage them to be active when technology can be so enticing. While providing opportunity for your child to participate independently in unstructured playtime, there are a number of great toys for toddlers out there you can throw into the mix to encourage movement if they’re just not getting enough exercise otherwise. Active play doesn’t necessarily have to happen with outdoor toys. There are plenty of indoor toys that encourage kids to move and use their whole bodies.
Blocks are a wonderful toy option for so many reasons, but since we’re talking gross motor skills here, I really encourage parents to consider supersizing them. Larger blocks, like Edublocks, challenge your kids to construct creative structures while practicing squatting, reaching, grasping, balancing, and motor planning. These are made of soft and sturdy foam, so they’re safe if someone’s tower gets stacked a bit too high and falls over. For an added challenge, you can encourage walking and crawling by spreading the blocks around the room so that your child has to maneuver around to pick up the pieces.
For a different twist on blocks, you can consider Giant Blocks, which come in different shapes and can be stacked together to make all sorts of creative settings. These can become a castle’s tower for your princess-at-play, or a bridge for your small explorer to cross on his way to his next adventure. Building, as well as then crawling, jumping, and climbing through their finished product promotes motor planning and gross motor skills. Since these are even larger in size, picking them up and moving them around also encourages bilateral coordination (use of both hands) and promotes upper body strength, which is needed for tasks like writing and cutting.
If your toddler is one who loves to jump from one activity to the next during playtime, you might benefit from incorporating a toy that provides new ideas and instructions to guide you along in the process and keeps your child engaged with one item for a longer period of time. A toy like Move and Groove incorporates social interaction and movement, and the continuous switch-up of activities can help to keep your child excited to see what comes next. To play, your child would roll the large dice, and then act out the action on the card that corresponds with the color they land on. If any of the movements are unfamiliar to them, just use it as an opportunity to be a little silly and act it out for them first.
More formal games can also be a great opportunity for your toddler, in that many can encourage physical movement while also providing the added benefit of keeping them engaged and focused on the end goal. A game like Crocodile Hop is a really cute movement game that encourages kids to get from start to finish. Kids roll two dice, one color and one shape, which helps to reinforce both concepts as playing is happening. They then jump, hop, and skip from place to place until they reach the end. Aside from the physical activity, this also encourages visual attention, socialization, and turn-taking. Seek-a-Boo is another great game for toddlers. It’s a matching game where the large game pieces are scattered around the floor. Kids have to walk and squat to turn each piece over until they find all of the matches and complete the game. This is also great for visual memory and language development.
If you’ve got a little adventure-seeker on your hands, you may want to consider toys that provide an opportunity for imaginative play, along with physical activity. If your toddler is anything like I was when I was younger, and good ol’ classic game of “The Floor is Lava” will get them every time. Only this time, you can incorporate a toy like Gonge Riverstones, which can be placed around the room to encourage your child to jump from stone to stone without touching the floor. Toys like these are often used in physical therapy to promote balance and coordination. Each stone also varies in steepness and difficulty, which makes them a great challenge and a great addition to any obstacle course. While we’re on the subject, an obstacle course is another great option for your super adventurous toddler. The challenge of completing each part will keep them interested, and they’ll be getting great exercise all the way through. Incorporate things like tunnels to keep it interesting. These make a big exciting show for your toddler, but easily fold up into almost nothing if you’re worried about storage space.
Possible for indoor play, but even better for outdoor play, target and throwing games are another perfect option for toddlers. If they can throw their dinner around the kitchen so expertly, then they can certainly participate in one of these. You can start with a simple game of throw and catch with your younger toddlers. Using balls that are an appropriate size and material can really make all the difference when they’re just starting out. Consider something like Gertie Balls, which have a soft texture. Playing with them will motivate kids to squeeze, throw, run, and catch. A classic game of ring toss, like Ring Toss, is a great opportunity for active play and promoting the development of eye-hand coordination, motor planning, sustained attention, turn-taking, and problem-solving. Increase the benefits of a throwing game even more by selecting something like the Turtle Target Toss Game. It provides the same eye-hand coordination and shoulder stability benefits as ring toss, but also teaches numbers and counting along the way.