Toy ideas for 3yrs

[Ainwena]

Ok, so my daughter is 3 years old, and we are home for the summer, and I think we have played with all her toys in the last week. I took her to Toys R Us for a shopping spree for new toys (and to get me interested to play too), and all she picked out was a 24 piece spiderman puzzle.

So, I guess what I am looking for are toy suggestions/ideas to keep a 3 year old engaged. We have the tag system, which she loves. She loves puzzles (we have about 12 24/and 48 piece puzzles). She likes Disney stuff(but Ursula, Maleficient,-all evil characters-very disturbing), some Cars too. We have lincoln logs and some dolls, a kitchen, and a pirate ship.

We have a ton of art stuff, but I can only handle one art project a day.

It is going to be a long summer.

[KristinCB]

anything melissa & doug! Especially the kitchen/food items

[eranslow]

bubbles, sidewalk chalk, schleich animals (my kiddo LOVES these animals - very realistic), a sprinkler. hmmmm - go to the library each week and get new books to read?

that's all I have right now - I'll come back if I think of more

[suzann]

My 3 year old loves to play with his:
Aqua Doodle, legos, playdough, sand and water table, scooter, tricycle, moon sand, toy animals, dress up. When my daughter was three, she got a Fisher Price dollhouse and played hours and hours with it. She liked Polly Pockets a lot too, and loved to put them in a little swimming pool.

[kbbeale]

Playmobil? Girlie Legos? Pretend play, dress up - easy bake oven....I only have boys, so this is all I could come up with right off the bat, LOL

Kristen

[kristijoy]

I have a 3 year old boy, so not sure if this applies...but thought I would offer anyway.

His big thing lately has been making 'roads' and 'towns'. We pull out all the blocks we have and any thing that can be part of a town (dinosaurs, construction vehicles, Fisher price farm, etc...) we made a huge farm using 'chenille' balls for the crops and then had people in cars come buy pumpkins, flowers, corn, etc... It was great fun. He especially like breaking the road on purpose, so i would have to call the 'construction worker' guy to come fix it...then he would drive all his construction stuff over and fix it. Then we took people on tours of the dinosaur 'island'. It was really fun.

For outdoor play last year at age 2 1/2 the big hit was a water table. Kids stand around it and float boats in it, pour water into things, all over the deck, and in general just get wet. Since it's not a 'pool' they don't actually get in it. We spent HOURS doing that last summer. I would defiinately recommend buying something like this and setting it up on your deck/patio/backyard.

The big thing I find with my 3 year old is that we absolutely MUST get out and move everyday. If we just sit at home he gets cabin fever. Everyday I plan trips somewhere: the library, rec center or park to play on the playground, the grocery store, gym class, zoo, science museum, swim class, walk through the nature park, riding the commuter trains around the city, etc... I LOVE the mommy & me classes because we get to do an engaging activity and it gets us out. These saved my sanity (plus we made friends too!). We've done music class, gym classes, art classes, story time at the library, puppet shows. Then when you come home the TOYS are intersting!

Good luck!

[MandaT]

I have a 3 year old little girl... and she's currently loving: playing babys, dress up complete with her own make-up, barbies, playing Dr, cooking something, "helping" clean especially vaccuum, movies, coloring, bubbles, swing set, bike rides, wagon rides, I Spy (she always picks green/trees lol), ''school time'', projects, making her name as a text, calling Grandma (occupies at least 15 minutes & provides a good laugh), telling stories, reading books, listening to/dancing to music, dry erase board books, picnics...

[nun69]

my DD is 4 now but she still lugs around her little Fisher Price digital camera!! She takes pictures of everything! She also likes Hi Ho Cherrio the game....playdoh....since you are in AZ, what about outside water play stuff? I am in WA, but when it is nice, my kids can LIVE outdoors in the sprinkler or little kiddie pool....do you have a sidewalk? If so what about getting her something she can ride like a big wheel or little tricycle her size? that's all I can come up with

[MandaT]

Originally Posted by nun69

my DD is 4 now but she still lugs around her little Fisher Price digital camera!! She takes pictures of everything! She also likes Hi Ho Cherrio the game....playdoh....since you are in AZ, what about outside water play stuff? I am in WA, but when it is nice, my kids can LIVE outdoors in the sprinkler or little kiddie pool....do you have a sidewalk? If so what about getting her something she can ride like a big wheel or little tricycle her size? that's all I can come up with

I totally missed games & pictures, complete with her own little album.

Anna LOVES games too. Chutes & Ladders, Candy Land, Lucky Ducks, Ants in the Pants, Fishing, Memory

[ryliesmom]

DD loved her kitchen set at that age and the games mentioned above.

[MamaBee]

I have a 3 year old ds... and this is what occupies his days...

• His 3 wheel trike and his little tykes truck
• vetch laptop (obsessed with letters)
• play grocery store... just shelving with a cash register and play food... he just loves to put food in paper bags (mini gift bags)
• anything dealing with art... sidewalk chalk, crayons, markers, stamps,
• magnetic letters from the learning shop... he carries them around and puts them on the refrigerator
• reading books... ton of books, just go flips through them, "reading" them to his stuffed lamb, Rupert.
• going to the park or taking a walk in the stroller
• library to get books or PBS DVDs
• Super Why on PBS... this is how I get ready in the morning... LOL! which reminds me... it's on right now.
• Little people pay sets... it says 18 mon and older, but it's great for imagination play
• baking and frosting cookies... he loves this, my hips... not as much

Do you have a learning shop or a teacher's resource store near you? They have awesome ideas for fun things to do... I could spend hours in there and a whole years salary!!

Then the greatest thing to keep them busy... we did this for a family cookout and kids up to the age 12 were playing with it. I made a rice box... took a rubbermaid container and put in 20 pounds of rice (or you could use sand) and a few sand toys... they played with that for HOURS!

[Ainwena]

THANK YOU! I have a list of like 15 things now that I can either purchase or create. I really love the schleich animals and barn/safari idea, and creating a sand/rice table out of a rubber maid container. Another friend mentioned Polly Pockets (which I have never heard of). We only have one game (candyland), so I am def. going to buy mroe board games. Since she does lover her kitchen, I also though the grocery cash register idea would be great for her.

I also think I need to plan more out of the house activities. I looked around last night and found indoor toddler soccer (it is over 100 degrees here now during the summer in PHX) and I think we are going to bump up swim lessons to 2x a week. I am going to check out the local library and probably our local YMCA for other things to do too.

Also-I am a dolt-I am a teacher (middle school), but I totally forgot about all the things at the elementary teaching stores in the area. DUH!

Thanks again ladies!

[kristijoy]

Have a fun summer!!!! I just put all the special library events on my calendar. They have some fun puppet shows and a juggler coming this year!

[nun69]

I forgot to add that anything by Leapster is FABULOUS!!!!!

[iteach3rdgrade]

We just bought some plastic gears. My ds loves them!. I'd love to get the digital camera. I bet he'd love that.

[coopert]

I love the rice idea. We fill big rubbermaid storage containers with water too. Not sure if it is as great as the water table, but my 3 year old loves it. He takes boats and schleich animals and any other little toys he wants to use for water play. We do a lot of bike riding and walking around our neighborhood. Our favorite game is Elefun. It is really fun! We have a pretty structured schedule during the day which includes only 1 hour of tv a day. The schedule and limited tv were to solve some discipline issues. And I have scheduled in 30 minutes a day for my ds to have reading time on his own in his room. He has a very long attention span so I'm not sure if all three year olds would actually do that. Good luck and have fun!

[Shawna]

My 3yo is a boy so we have tons of dinosaurs, horses, cars and Toy Story toys in our house right now! He too loves the Schleich animals, he has just about all the horses that Target carries and several other animals and he plays with them constantly! I think they are kinda pricey but they are really well made and he plays with them enough that I think we're getting our moneys worth! We also have most of the Little People sets so he plays with his horses and the barn from the farm set a lot too! He also has a 3 wheeled Toy Story scooter that he loves, it's really perfect for his size so he rides it all over the place. I got it at Target and I know they had a Princess version for girls too.

I'd like to get him a sand/water table for this summer and he also loves playing with the food in our kitchen playset that we have on our back porch so I'm sure he'd love the Melissa and Doug food sets too.

[lovely1m]

Activities really help. Fun for both of you. My 3 year old son spends hours playing with his train table. He really likes when we play games, build with his Lincoln Logs or do puzzles together.