{30 Days of Simple Toddler Toys}

Walk down any aisle in the toy section of a store and you will find that the majority of toys move, make noise, require batteries and/or little to no imagination whatsoever.  Shane and I have always preferred G to have simple toys, ones that require him to use some sort of imagination when playing with them.

Don't misunderstand me.  We have our fair share of battery-operated toys in our house, but they often end up in our own makeshift "Land of the Misfit Toys".  You will usually find the power button of any flashy or noise-making toy in the "off" position and that's not because they drive us crazy, (okay, it's partially because they drive us crazy).  It's mostly because we prefer to see G using his imagination and hear G making those tractor sounds rather than the pre-recorded digital sounds coming from speakers.

I realized while shopping for G's first Christmas that finding the simple toys that we were looking for was not an easy task.  We were looking for wooden alphabet blocks, that's it.  I had to visit 3 different stores before settling on a gift set that had wooden blocks, but also included legos, puzzles, and more that G obviously wasn't ready for at only 8 months old.  While this turned out to be a great toy that I didn't regret purchasing (we put the toys he wasn't ready for back for gifts later in the year), I still couldn't believe how difficult it was to find plain, simple, time-tested wooden alphabet blocks, like these.

The idea for this series of blog posts came to me as we were making G's Christmas list this year.  Other families have to be struggling to find simple yet engaging toys for their toddlers.  I will feature one type of simple toy each day in hopes of helping other families choose some imagination-inducing options for their children for the holidays!

Day 1:  Gear Boards
Day 2:  Play Dough
Day 3:  Wooden Blocks
Day 4:  Soft Play Climbers
Day 5:  Play Kitchen
Day 6:  Play Food
Day 7:  Dolls
Day 8:  Puzzles
Day 9:  Costumes and Dress-Up Clothing
Day 10:  Building Blocks
Day 11:  Books
Day 12:  Lacing Cards
Day 13:  Lacing Beads
Day 14:  Art Supplies
Day 15:  Bathtub Art Supplies
Day 16:  Peg Boards
Day 17:  Sorting Board
Day 18:  Alphabet Letters
Day 19:  Musical Instruments
Day 20:  Nesting Blocks
Day 21:  Toy Vehicles
Day 22:  Trains and Tracks
Day 23:  Sensory Bins
Day 24:  Puppets
Day 25:  Bubbles
Day 26:  Shape Roller Coasters
Day 27:  Shape Sorters
Day 28:  Cooperative Games
Day 29:  Flannel Board and Felt Pieces
Day 30:  Box

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