Mamas & Papas-
Any suggestions for much loved puzzles, matching games and other toys for a soon to be 3 year old boy? He's enjoying pretend play with his firestation, and gas/station garage toys. He's into all sorts of cars, things that go "fast", his sit and spin, and the laundry. He knows and recognizes all his colors, letters and numbers 1-100. The toys need not be "educational" per se, it would be nice if they were hard wearing though as DS can be a bit rough with things.
Thanks a bunch,
F. B.
Rescue bots. Dress up fireman outfit. They sell this water gun pack that is a fire hose. My son plays with his dress up stuff everyday. We leave the hose dry :-)
Traffic jam puzzle game. My son didn't get it at 3, but he is now solving the puzzles and loving it --he's 3.5,
Keva planks ---worth every penny!!!!!!
Fireman Sam books, videos or toys.
The Doug and Melissa wooden puzzles are so nice and so sturdy.
Magna-tiles are great ! They are fun for all ages . We got our at a childrens museum but you can order them online too . He can build things for hours !
Wedgits. Indestructible!
I know you said they don't have to be educational, but Discovery Toys has some really awesome products for this age. The new fall catalog will come out in September and is bringing back several of my old favorites! If you want to check back then (www.discoverytoys.com), look for the following:
Playful Patterns
It's A Match
Busy Bugs
Busy Farm
Seriously, I love these games. I just took out Busy Farm with my daughter (turning 3 in July) and she had a great time with it. My son (6) still likes all of them.
Discovery Toys has tons of other great products as well. I'm not actively selling right now, but could definitely answer questions or give you any help you need if you want to check them out.
Every toy comes with a lifetime warranty, so if they break from normal play, you can get replacements at no cost.
Matching games-- have you considered 'real life' type things, like a fruit and veggies set that can be 'cut' with a wooden knife and then velcro'ed together?
Ravensburger makes some childrens matching games and the cards are on much thicker stock. They have "4 First Games" and one you might enjoy is a very simple 'Snail's Pace Race'-- the beauty of it is that it teaches very basic counting/moving (up to two), and it's cooperative everyone is moving the snails along. No worries about losing.
Another toy which might appeal are self-correcting matching cards. Ravensburger has an Animal Babies and their Mothers game which the kids I taught loved to death. They also have an alphabet/picture match (the first phonetic letter of each illustration corresponds to the letter, cards are self correcting) called Airplanes to Zebras.
Letting him play and sort with collections of things is also fun. Go to the beach and collect a bunch of colored rocks; sort them into different colors. Ditto for buttons or if you have a wide collection of thread spools (my son used to get into my plastic case of thread, take them all of the spindles in the case and stack/sort them... he LOVED this at this age).
Lastly, I cannot forget to mention Playdough. Those fine motor skills are vastly improved with playdough play. It's a safe medium for learning how to cut with scissors (roll them in to skinny 'snakes' and let him cut them), cut with molds/cutters, to pinch and shape. You can do lots of teaching about letters/numbers, shaping them with the dough. You can make lots of little things and count how many of each. Give him craft sticks to use-- my preschoolers loved to make 'happy birthday cakes' and sing the song, complete with craft stick 'candles'.
And if you want a fun math game, here's one with lots of room for adaptations, the link is to my post on this game "Dino Drop" I wrote for my own blog:
http://skyteahouse.blogspot.com/2012/02/dino-drop-introdu...
Have fun!
