40 Best Educational Toys for Toddlers’ Birthdays and Christmas Gifts that also develop Fine Motor Skills
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“Got any ideas of gifts for the kids?”
I’m so grateful and blessed to have the family thinking of our kiddos!
But somehow I feel stumped. What do my kids like? What do they play with? What do they need?
So many questions.
And if you landed on this page, it’s probably because it’s important to you to include some educational toys that will support their development in a fun way. Knowing what milestones your child is developing and what toys and activities will stimulate their development is so key to their success.
So here are a few ideas of type of toys to take a look at getting for your toddler’s birthday or Christmas (or even just for fun!) But they’re also toys that can develop your little ones fine motor, perceptual and many other skills.
Fine Motor Toys for Toddlers
These cute toys are great for toddlers aged 1-3 years old. At this age and stage, toddlers are learning a host of skills and slowly refining their gross motor movements to be able to do more fine motor tasks.
So one of the ways we can help them practice those skills is through play! These toys are simple enough to keep little one’s interested and engaged without being too over-stimulating.
The younger your little one is the more supervision and support they’ll need to explore how the toy works and how they can play with it.
Practice fine motor skills and color recognition with this cute little “piggy-bank” style toy. Using their finger tips, have your little one drop the colorful coin through the slot at the top.
This one’s quite a busy toy but your little one will enjoy all the fun bits. There are cogs to twist, beads to move along, a xylophone, shapes to fit through the correct holes, bits to pull and push, practicing a host of fine motor and perceptual skills.
My kiddos had a very similar toy to this and they LOVED it! The little animals pop up when the knobs at the bottom are twisted or pushed or slid across. This version of the toy also has some fun music and lights to add another sensory experience as well.
This one’s a great one for the younger toddlers. Place the balls at the top of the structure and hammer them through onto the little “gutters” and watch them roll from one to another. Great for developing hand-eye coordination and proprioception.
This fun toy car will keep your little one entertained as they push down on the button and see it whizz off.
Sometimes the most simple toys are the most versatile! Wooden blocks are a classic toy that toddlers LOVE to play with and that can be used to practice so many skills while giving your child the opportunity to exercise their creativity.
Use this shape sorting cube to teach your toddler their shapes and practice visual spatial perception, build the muscles of their little hands and fingers as they hold the shapes and push them through the correct holes.
Stacking toys are ideal for toddlers as this is one of the first fine motor skills they are beginning to master in this stage! You’ll be able to use this one throughout their toddler years as you can adjust how complex you want playing with it to be.
These magnetic building tiles are an investment. Your toddler will really enjoy sticking them together and pulling them apart and building simple structures. But as your child gets older they’ll be excited to build more complex creations.
This busy board has a host of exciting parts to keep your little one busy and engaged while they practice their fine motor skills. With puzzles, buttons, zippers and shoelaces. It’s perfect for travelling in the car or on the plane as well!
This shape sorting toy is more interactive and has a music and light function to engage your little one even more, while your little one builds their fine motor skills.
This stacking toy is ideal for older toddlers as it offers more of a challenge. Practice shapes and colors while mastering the fine motor skills needed to place the correct pieces in the correct places.
My kiddos love playing “shop-shop”! This cute sorting set will help your child practice their colors and identifying different fruits and veg and then organizing them based on those characteristics . It’s also a great tool for imaginative play.
This is a really good set of toys for building the strength and coordination needed for twisting on or off caps and a host of other items. It also has the added benefit of including letters so when they’re in preschool they can practice matching their upper and lowercase letters as well.
This busy book is is such a gem. Not only can you pack it when traveling to keep your little occupied in the car or on the plane. But it gives them so many opportunities to work on their fine motors kills at the same time. With laces and buttons, belt buckles and puzzles.
Someone bought a similar magnetic drawing board for my kiddos and they LOVE it. As toddlers they scribbles and had fun sliding the little button from left to right. But even now as preschoolers they enjoy using it to draw interesting things! You won’t lose the “pen” and it can go anywhere! it’s a great tool to get toddlers used to the idea of holding a pencil or crayon.
Develop your Toddlers Cutting Skills with these Tools
Cutting with scissors is a skill that your child will need for success in school and beyond. But it is a skills that requires using both hands in a coordinated way (bilateral integration), hand-eye coordination and visual spatial perception among other things. These toys and tools will make learning the foundations of this skill easy and effective.
A great starting point for toddlers learning to use scissors. These scissors are plastic and have a plastic “blade”. They cut through paper but can also be used with playdough and other soft materials to get your toddler used to holding and using scissors to cut.
This stunning activity pads are perfect for older toddlers and preschoolers. They have vibrant pictures that can be cut in different ways practicing very basic to more complex cutting skills.
Older toddlers can start using these scissors with the stainless steel blades. They also have this nifty little lever to help open up the scissors between cuts.
Fine Motor Tools for Developing your Toddler’s Threading Skills
Threading skills are a precursor to things like sewing and knitting and even lacing up and tying your shoelaces. You’ll be surprise at how much “threading” you actually encounter in your life! These tools are a great way to build the necessary fine motor skills!
Threading activities are so great for bilateral integration and a host of other fine motor skills. Start your toddler off with stacking the beads onto the wooden stacker. Slowly progress towards threading them onto the shoelace. Later when they’re a little older, the they can copy the sequences given on the sequence cards.
These cute lacing cards are so fun for littles to refine their threading skills.
This set of beads and shoelaces are a basic must-have for developing your child’s fine motor skills as well as shape and color recognition and you can even use them to practice counting and sequencing.
These wooden lacing cards allow your child to practicing different lacing techniques while they learn about different animals.
Grab these colorful shoelaces to practice threading and lacing with other tools like pasta and cereal loops.
Puzzles for Developing your Toddler’s Fine Motor Skills
Puzzles use and develop SO many skills in your child! From their fine motor skills to color and shape recognition, matching, completing pictures, visual spatial perception, proprioception and so much more. Your toddler is going to start building these skills by building pegboard puzzles and slowly they’ll be able to do more difficult versions of these and eventually they’ll be building jigsaw puzzles too!
Pegboard puzzles like these are a perfect starting point for toddlers building puzzles. Encourage your toddler to use their finger tips and eventually their thumb and index finger to hold the knobs in the pieces.
These colorful wooden puzzles are a bit more challenging. These are best for older toddlers and challenge your child’s visual spatial perception and fine motor skill.
This pegboard puzzle is a great way to teach your child a variety of shapes and colors as they practice matching and developing their pincer grasp too!
These wooden puzzles have some really cute themes and the smaller pieces offer a greater fine motor challenge for your toddler.
Playdough Tools for your Toddler
Playdough is hands-down one of the most effective tools to build strength in those little hands and fingers. You can use it for learning in a variety of ways and developing the muscles needed for many other tasks like cutting with scissors, writing and more.
These are a stunning complete set of playdough tools allowing your toddler to explore what they can do with their fine motor skills. There are cookie cutters, different rolling pins with fun patterns, scissors and it comes with playdough as well!
This kit has 44 tools your toddler can use to play with their play dough and build strength and coordination in their little hands in a variety of ways. I LOVE those little syringes – how cute!
Playdough is a must-have for developing fine motor skills! These little air-tight tubs offer a variety of colors and are the most wonderful consistency for little hands!
Painting and Coloring Tools for Developing your Toddler’s Fine Motor Skills
Painting and coloring are a great way for your toddler to express their creativity and build the skills they’re going to need later to effective writing.
These are perfect crayons for little hands. They have a triangular shape which assists your toddler with developing the tripod grasp they’ll need for writing skills later on.
Twistable crayons are a great for older toddlers who are getting ready to refine their correct tripod grasp and use bigger and thinner crayons and pencils. They’re the perfect link between crayons and pencils.
This cute water paint pad is better suited to older toddler and preschoolers. The colors are embedded in the page so all your child needs is water and the paintbrush. Choose from a variety of theme options and let your little get creative!
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Having paint available for your toddler to play and learn with is vital. From finger painting, to painting with pompoms and q-tips, this washable kids paint will be a great tool to have!
This large finger painting paper pad is a great tool to have! Specifically designed for finger painting, having this paper pad around will make it so easy for your child to explore all they can create with those little hands.
This magical, mess-free finger-printing pad is so great to take with where ever your go, including while travelling in the car or plane.
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