At Christmas time, it is sometimes hard to know which the best toys to purchase for young children are. You want them to have something that they will enjoy playing with and you want it to last longer than a month or two before they lose interest.

With boy/girl twins, Mr. Right and I have had the opportunity to see how our children have enjoyed lots of different toys. We have, admittedly, purchased way too many toys for them in the past. As they have grown older, we have tried to limit the number of toys for birthdays and Christmas gifts.

There are a few guidelines we have developed for purchasing toys, such as:

1. The toy should grow with the child. The child should be able to use it for longer than a few months.
2. The toy needs to be durable. It should not break too easily.
3. Timeless toys are some of the best toys. Toys such as this include: such as wooden blocks, rattles, dolls, and cars.
4. The toys need to spark my children’s imagination and encourage creative play (such as Legos, Little People, etc.). If the toy has so many bells and whistles that my children cannot pretend with it, then I typically steer clear of these toys.
5. Typically, but not always, we stay away from a lot of the commercialized toys based on tv and movie characters. This is more in an effort to keep them from asking to watch too much television and not because we have anything against these type toys.

With that being said, here is what we have found the children enjoy the most and we like for them to play.

First and foremost for any age group, books are the best thing to have. The stories spark imagination, help children learn to read, and are vitally important to any toy collection.

Babies (0 to 9 months)
If you already have babies, you will surely have some if not all of these toys already. People give these as shower gifts. These toys soothe and entertain infants.

1. Infant Swing - I wish they had a plug-in version of infant swings when my twins were little. We would have saved tons of money on batteries.
2. Bouncy Seat - You can get some of these as bouncy seat rockers, which might allow you to use them longer than a regular bouncy seat. We did not have the rocker kind but a few of our friends did.
3. Baby Gym - I, personally, would skip the kinds that make a lot of music and noise. The noise did not seem to make an impact on my children’s play. I would get one with a mirror. They enjoyed looking at themselves in the mirror.
4. Exersaucer - My children spent countless hours playing in their exersaucers. They loved this toy. I loved the fact that they could entertain themselves in this toy.
5. Rattles and Teething Rings - These are timeless, ageless toys that have staying power. Babies love the cause and effect that shaking a rattle teaches them. The teething rings soothe while they are teething and they take care of the babies’ need to explore items by mouthing them.
6. Soft Stuffed Animals - Another toy that never goes out of style. Babies seem to love stuffed animals and children can continue to play with them as they are older.

Babies (9 - 24 Months)

1. The exersaucer, rattles, teething rings, and stuffed animals will carry over into the 9 - 24 months age group.
2. Discovery Toys is a brand that is very durable.
   • Measure Up Cups - With these cups, the children can stack, sort by color, knock things down, and make up their own games. When my children were about 9 - 12 months, they loved for me to stack them up so they could knock them down. Then they would crawl and get the cups for me to start all over. As they got older, they loved stacking them on their own. They would stack all of them or sometimes just by color. We would take these on overnight trips. It is easy to tell exactly how many you have on the way home so you do not leave anything in the hotel room.
   • Working Trio Dump Trucks - My children loved chasing these trucks around the room. You push them backwards, let go, and they move forward. Also, they can stack up on top of each other.
   • Stack Tivities Activity Center - Another stacking toy that has several parts on each toy toddlers can manipulate.
3. Fisher Price Peek-A-Blocks - The children loved looking at the item inside each block. They had fun manipulating the blocks to watch the item inside move. They also enjoyed stacking the blocks up and building with them. Santa first gave them some of these toys in their stocking when they were 9 months old and they played with them until they were about 3 1/2.
4. Fisher Price Little People - I cannot rave about Little People enough. I loved them when I was a child. My children love them now. The first Little People set they got was Noah’s Ark for their first birthday. When they were 1 year old, we would name the animals and the sounds that the animal makes. Now that they are 4, they still play with them, only they play by themselves making up elaborate stories and activities for them. These toys truly spark the imagination!
5. Push Toys - My children really liked their shopping cart and stroller push toys. I personally liked the doll umbrella stroller the most because it folds up compactly and does not take a lot of storage space.

2 - 4 Years Old

1. My children enjoyed and played with all of the Discovery Toys and Fisher Price toys mentioned in the 9 - 24 month old section above well into their Preschool years. They are 4 and they still play with the Little People. While we do not have any PlayMobil toys, I think these would probably be a good replacement for Little People as they continue to grow.
2. Art Supplies, Coloring Books, Crayons, Markers, Paint, and Blank Paper - We keep a stash of coloring books and crayons in our family room for the children to play with at all times. They color everyday!
3. Cardboard Blocks - A dear friend of mine, who happens to be a grandmother, recommended the cardboard blocks. She was so right! My children enjoy building tall towers, castles, mazes, and cities with these blocks. They are very sturdy and hold up well when toddlers and preschoolers stand on them. Please note: cardboard blocks take up a lot of storage space!
4. Puzzles - For younger children, the wooden puzzles are great. As the children get older, 24 piece jigsaw puzzles are good. My 4 1/2 year old twins are now working on 60 and 100 piece puzzles. They need a little assistance with these but are getting the hang of them nonetheless.
5. Wooden Unit Blocks - These blocks have withstood the test of time. The possibilities for what children can do with wooden blocks are endless. My father-in-law gave my children these blocks for Christmas when they were 3. They love them and play with them often.
6. Other Block and Building Toys, such as Legos, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Marble Runs (for ages 4 and up), and Wedgits - Each of these toys allows children to use their imagination to build things. They also grow with the children. As the children grow older, their buildings become more complex and intricate.
7. Train Set - There are many options for a train set including brandless wooden train sets, Brio, Thomas, and GeoTrax. I recommend only getting one type and sticking to it. Personally, I found that a train table was a HUGE waste of money. You can set up a small train set on it but as you add pieces you wind up needing to put the train set on the floor.
8. Doll House - Santa gave our daughter the Fisher Price Twin Time Loving Family Doll House when she was 2. She was a bit young for it at the time. She does enjoy playing with it more now that she is older.
9. Rescue Heroes, Space Heroes, and Imaginext - My son has a lot of fun playing with his Rescue Heroes and my daughter could care less about them. He also has fun playing with his friends’ Imaginext and Space Heroes toys.
10. Mirco Toys such as Micro Rescue Heroes, Polly Pocket, and Disney Mini Playsets - Much to my dismay, the children love these small toys. There are so many little pieces that these toys are a pain to clean. Nevertheless, they like to dress the dolls and carry these small toys in their pockets in the car.
11. Matchbox and Hot Wheels Cars - My son loves playing with the matchbox cars that Santa has left in his stocking over the years.
12. Baby Dolls, Barbies, Disney Princess Barbies, Stuffed Animals, and Groovy Girls - My daughter loves to play with her baby dolls and Barbies. Both children like to play with the stuffed animals, even the ones they got as baby gifts. They sleep with some of these dolls and animals. They pretend to be the animals or to create a zoo. My daughter also likes to play with doll furniture.
13. Kitchen, Wooden Food, Cooking Accessories, and Tea Sets - The plastic kitchen, food, pots, and pans, and tea sets have brought my children hours and hours and hours of fun. They pretend to be a waiter at a restaurant, a chef, mommy cooking, and many other ideas that their little minds come up with. These have been tons of fun for them. The plastic kitchen my children got from their grandparents for their 2nd birthday is not an elaborate, crazy big kitchen. This was at my request. I tried to find one in a consignment sale but could not find one. I see the Step 2 Grand Walk-In Kitchen with little stools and think “Oh, how cute! They could sit at it, walk in it, and feel like they are in a real kitchen.” Then reality sets in and I think “Thank goodness I do not have to find someplace to keep that in my house! As Mr. Right says it is not like children sit on stools to play. The smaller kitchen they have has still brought hours of fun and they really do not know any different. I am glad we lots of quality accessories rather than a crazy big kitchen.”
14. Anything Melissa and Doug I do not think we have ever been disappointed in any Melissa and Doug toy. When in doubt, look to this brand for ideas of what to purchase for your children.

On a semi-related subject, and to give some Linky Love, have a look at these cute posts:

• Quotable New Baby Sayings
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