Today I’m here to share links to our most loved and played with toys. We recently moved and pared down quite a LOT. We donated about half the toys we owned- which felt like a clean slate. Now that we’re beginning to feel settled in our new home, I’m starting to notice which toys our children return to over and over again. Here’s our tried-and-true list.
Felt cowboy hats (red and pink) + ukulele (we also have a loog guitar, which is more pricey, but also more beautiful- although our children cannot tell the difference). Our children LOVE playing “guitar”, we have a couple different ukuleles and the small loog guitar around the house. They play with them constantly and are one of their most reached-for toys. We have purchases a lot of other toy instruments and to be honest, these are the only ones that have really made the cut. Since Jeremy is a musician he often takes them downstairs to play with his real instruments and do karaoke with his microphones, which is the cutest thing ever!
Building sets. Our other most loved toys are definitely our building sets! I am going to link all the ones we have here. When we moved we started a new thing that they can get out one every day and have to put it away before getting another one out- that is helping quite a bit! These toys are good for both our kids ages- although Nova can play independently for much longer
Lincoln Logs. This is one of those toys that I wanted because it was from my childhood, but it turned out that they love it and it really is a timeless toy. They’re more expensive, so maybe save it for a holiday or birthday. I love toys where you can grow a collection over the course of a few years, and this is definitely of those those toys.
Melissa + Doug Classic Blocks. This is the only toy we keep out in our living space because it’s neutral and doesn’t make our living space look bad, even when they’re scattered all over. These are a great basic blocks set that our children have got a ton of use out of.
Beginners Building Bag. My mom got these for a gift and the next holiday we asked for a second bag- exactly the same- so they can build even bigger towers. These are very loved in our home.
Soft Blocks. These are for toddlers, but Nova still loves playing with them too. They had these at our library and she loved them so much that we added them to our Christmas list last year. Love these, especially for kiddos Goldie’s age.
Magnet Building Blocks. These are our most recent addition.
We have one closet in our home that holds all these different building sets and that method is working really well for us since we can take the kids in there and let them choose which one they want each day.
I have always been in love with Bla Bla toys. For each of the girls I bought a couple when we were waiting to adopt them. They are so high quality and collectible.
We also have a lot of Cuddle + Kind and love both their quality and their promise to provide meals for kids with each doll purchased.
We keep our dolls in a big basket all together and they come out when our girls want to play “school” or “hot lava” usually.
The wicker toy stroller I have is sold out, but here’s a similar one from Etsy.
100% honesty…. I’ve bought a lot of wood toys just because *I* love them. The wood toys our children play with the most are the toy cameras. we have two or three (link– link– link) and they are definitely worth collecting. If it’s not obvious by now- I love toys that look cute as a decoration in our home when they kids aren’t playing with them… and wood toys definitely check that box!
I’ll balance that last one by saying- we absolutely do buy mainstream toys and I don’t care. Above you can see Nova’s little disney park collection. I’ve found that it makes these sort of toys more special if they are attached to a memory- so we get one every time we go to a Disney park (which is not that often, but often enough to form a collection over her childhood). I’m sure the collection will ramp up as soon as Marigold is old enough to want toys too (she currently hates stuffed toys so it’s just a Nova thing for now).
The other mainstream toy that sparks a TON of joy for our children is this Daniel Tiger Karaoke Machine. It’s a little annoying, but it brings them so much joy that we don’t care at all. It plays DT songs and kids can sing along, and even record themselves singing.
Silk butterfly wings. Sparks so much joy. We have a costume basket that’s a mixture of actual kids costumes like this and my old clothes and they love it! There’s nothing more magical than dress up play!
We have a huge Calico Critters collection that we’ve been adding to for about two years now. It’s pure joy!
When I was a little kid we had an elderly neighbor across the street. We used to go over there a lot so my mom could visit with her (I love you mom) and she had a toy box behind her couch that I always got to play with. These toys are 100% going in MY old lady toy box. 🙂
Beyond this list we have a lot of puzzles and games that are used constantly as well as books. But I’ll save those for another post sometimes. You can see our amazon shop here, which I add to often. Of course- buy them local if you can! Our favorite local shop in Nashville is Arcade– that’s where we got our loog guitar.
I know this post was full of shopping links, so the last thing I want to say is something totally free that we’ve been loving- picking flowers and arranging flowers.
Last year, when we were still house hunting, we also toured a lot of schools and preschools. One we toured was a Montessori school and one of of the things I loved about it (besides the abundance of wood toys) was that they had stations for Nova’s age group to practice cooking and arranging flowers. Although we didn’t end up joining that school, it inspired me to focus more on teaching her to make practical things for our home. She has since been cooking weekly for our family- usually cutting fruits and vegetables with her kids knife set. She’s also been helping to water our outdoor plants as well as pick flowers to make her own flower arrangements.
This is pure magic and I have no doubt will be one of her memories from childhood. She’s so proud!
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