Updated November, 2023
Your child has officially exploded past being a baby and is now a stumbling, fun, bouncing toddler. This is easily one of my favorite ages as your child constantly picks up new vocabulary, develops new skills, and challenges life for everything it throws at them. Let’s give them some new materials to keep them on their toes by looking at the best 18-24 month toys.
Books that are songs or offer sensory experience can be especially fun at this age. Around two, if familiar with these books, your child might even sit down and “read” their first book themselves. The easy, repetitive nature makes them easy to learn and fun to practice.
Top Picks
Blocks
Puzzle blocks are more like puzzle pieces than blocks. This toy works your child’s small motor skills and challenges them to put something together with intention. My one caveat to this toy is if your child is still in a phase where they are putting things in their mouth a lot, I might wait until they outgrow that stage.
Bristle blocks are easy to put together and offer a lot of building options because they stick together. More than that, they offer a great sensory experience. If you have a child who likes to put things in their mouth, expect a lot of mouthing of these.
The small habitat idea is more of a staging toys idea. Letting your child have full control over a little world of their own can help them feel empowered and confident. Plus, it’s a lot of fun to line all the animals up exactly where your child thinks they should go.
Dramatic Play
It’s doll time! Playing with baby dolls will really start to manifest in these six months. They want to take care of them, feed them, pat them to sleep, and rock them. While a bed or highchair might be a nice accessory, they certainly aren’t required. A warning when it comes to dolls would be that it is surprisingly difficult to find a baby that isn’t white in the store. I wanted a non-white baby for Monster and had to take to the internet to find one. Also, remember that baby dolls are great for your child, regardless of their gender.
Table Toys
If your child likes to put small things in their mouth, be careful of these counting bears because they can be a choking hazard. If you can get them though, sorting and counting and making patterns with these bears is a lot of fun. They are great for developing basic math skills.
If you were already working on some simple puzzles with your child in the last 6 months, they may have started to master them and are ready to graduate to slightly harder puzzles. You still want to keep the pieces large and easy for their small hands to use.
Practice for lacing requires a lot of fine motor work. As your child gets older, you can use the lacing to teach about making patterns and matching shapes or colors. Definitely go with wooden beads though. I once invested in large beads that were hollow and I have to say, don’t! These beads are way too hard for this age group. Stick with something medium sized and solid.
This fun picture matching game is great at this age. As your child gets older you can change the game to make it harder. For now, it’s great to practice new and different words. As a mom with a child in speech therapy, it has also been great to practice saying the words on each picture. It’s way more fun than just flash cards.
Art
Fun new dot markers to use at the table can spice up art at this age. They are lower mess than paint, although my toddler is determined to prove otherwise. Still, they are fun and a different type of art than we normally explore.
Science
Help your toddler explore mixing and matching colors with these fun color paddles. They like to hold them up to their eyes and walk around with them at first. I always name the color they are looking through.
Large Motor
To be completely honest, I can’t find the bike I really want to recommend. We had them at the last Early Learning Center I worked at and they are perfect. I do highly recommend a riding bike like this though. These large bikes are fun to push, pull, drag, ride, and cruise on. They don’t typically require the help of an adult to use. While I do my best to recommend wooden toys most of the time, investing in something plastic that you can leave outside is pretty convenient.
An outdoor climber for your toddler can be great to challenge them physically. Again, I went with plastic for this and the slide so it can be left outside and won’t crack or weather.
