Little Kingdoms Holiday Gift Guide 2024 (Part 1)

Please supervise your infants and any child still mouthing toys while they engage with these materials!

Dramatic Play

1) Playsilks: Playsilks are the epitome of an open-ended material. They have a place in pretend play as blankets and scarves and in STEAM play to explore concepts like weight and gravity, all the while offering a peaceful sensory experience.

2) Projector: This digital projector automatically boosts any kind of dramatic play. Find looped videos of city streets, underwater scenes, or automobiles and the scene is set for some lifelike pretending.

3) Medical instruments: These doctor classics give kids access to tools with a real function. They show trust and offer the opportunity to learn a new skill. These are also something they’ll be

Building

1) Yoga Blocks: Young children can build with yoga blocks or use them for a balance challenge like a beam or stepping stones. They’re light and mobile, but offer fun play with scale as toddlers can build structures as big as themselves when they have enough at their disposal!

2) Plus Plus Blocks: These are a must have toy. They challenge children (and adults!) for hours with their unique interlocking mechanism. They can be built into 2D patterns or 3D structures and are small enough to double as a transportable travel toy. They also offer color recognition and pattern making opportunities because they come in so many different hues!

3) Super Space: Similar to Magna-Tiles, these large magnetic shapes allow children to practice building and problem solving as they create endless structures. Because the tiles are large and a bit heavier, they’re perfect for children who have extra energy to expend and need heavy work to do. Afterwards, they can use their creations for dramatic play.

Atelier

1) Clay: Clay is such a diverse material. It can be used as an art medium to create pinch pots and self-portraits or used in gross motor and sensory activities. Throw it at a target, step on it with bare feet or drop it from a chair).

2) Wire: Wire is a staple in Reggio Emilia classrooms and can be manipulated into shapes, letters, sculptures and braids. This sturdy material can be used in threading and beading projects for fine motor practice, or on its own!

3) Tape: One of my most valuable pieces of knowledge as a former preschool teacher is that sometimes all children want to use is tape. Colorful painter’s tape can be used in so much more than just art projects. It can delineate traffic directions on the ground, seal an important note, or act as the walls of a 3D laser maze… up to them!

Gross Motor

1) Wobble board: A wobble board’s use is twofold. Flipped like a “U” a child can stand inside and practice balance. Flipped like a rainbow it can be used as a small slide or “high height” for risk taking.

2) Rainbow Stapelstein: This open-ended set can be used for gross motor play, game creation, color recognition, memory games, stacking, throwing and catching.

3) Pikler Triangle: A Pikler Triangle is a gross motor staple that grows with children. This version comes with different features that make the climber more challenging as children get older and develop more skills. It even has a “tent” attachment so it can become a small fort.

Literacy

1) Buddha Board: A buddha board’s writing mechanism is just novel enough to make letter-learning fun! After dipping the brush in water you drag it across the surface before the marks slowly disappear. It can be used for doodling and more intentional pre-literacy practice.

2) Alphabots: These integrate letter recognition into play. If you have a child who is resistant to learning letters, but interested in small world play or play with “guys” or figurines, these could be a game changer!

3) Sensory Letters: These letters offer endless opportunities to interact. Your child will become familiar with and curious about these letters as they use them in sensory and building activities. Because they’re individual pieces, they can be combined to form words or used in letter recognition games.

Outside

1) Striders have become a popular alternative to training wheels. Kids often go from a Strider straight to a real bike now because it promotes balance. It’s also satisfying for children looking to play at high speeds, one of the eight kinds of risky play. Some children genuinely feel this need more than others and this is a great way to foster that!

2) Wagon: These offer children autonomy and control and are perfect for a child working through a transporting schema. It’s empowering for them to engage in something they see adults do. They can use this wagon to pull around a baby doll or fill with items they find on a walk. When it becomes full it will also offer an opportunity for heavy work, so if you have a child who needs more sensory input, you can direct them to the wagon for some challenge.

3) Milk crates: These are, admittedly, an odd “toy” for children. But they’re just as good of a building material as blocks. Their large size means children can make life-size forts, and their specific linking mechanism requires trial and error and persistence.