Best Toys for 3-Year-Olds and Preschoolers 2025

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3-year-olds are like little explorers, diving headfirst into play, learning, and independence. It’s an exciting time for them as they’re building skills, starting to understand the world around them, and testing their own creativity. Toys for this age are all about encouraging imagination and coordination, letting kids play in ways that spark new ideas and help them grow. Whether it’s pretend play, building, or creative arts, the right toys can turn playtime into something truly memorable.

At this age, toys that are open-ended, easy to handle, and encourage hands-on learning are winners. They’ll love toys that let them role-play, create, and experiment, while you’ll love knowing they’re building essential skills along the way. From blocks and puzzles to toy kitchens and art supplies, let’s look at the top toys that make playtime fun and educational for 3-year-olds!

Why You’ll Love These Toys

You’ll love these toys because they’re built to engage three-year-olds’ curious minds and keep up with their big imaginations. Each one is designed to encourage independence, fine motor skills, and creativity, making them ideal for growing minds and active hands. Plus, they’re versatile and durable, perfect for hours of play without worrying about wear and tear!

The Best Toys for 3-Year-Olds and Preschoolers

Talking Microphone

Karaoke Microphone

Binoculars

Surprise Powerz STEM Dolls

Prepare your little girl for tomorrow today with these adorable. STEM role models. STEM role models matter for early learners and particularly for girls in preschool and kindergarten. These kids are not too young to learn STEM! Surprise Powerz dolls are made with Fun Science, Tech, Engineering and Math Early Learning Frameworks! Made with real girls’ voices to reflect a true representation of their culture. And made to inspire girls to break barriers.

A toddler’s tape measure

I was so excited when I saw this one. My kids are ALWAYS playing with measuring tapes. Now they can have one fo their own! Kids can explore the physical properties of the world around them with this working tape measure, which measures 3 feet long! As they explore, your kids will build observation, critical thinking, and other essential STEM skills!

Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids

Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.

Melissa & Doug Pattern Blocks and Boards

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game

Your forest friends are hungry and they need your help. Spin the spinner, squeeze the matching colored acorn with your squirrel squeezer, and place it into your log. Be the first to fill your log with delicious acorns and you win. For grades Pre-K+/Ages 3+. Develops matching, sorting, strategic thinking, hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and pre-handwriting skills.

Crayola Building Blocks

This Crayola Building Blocks set comes in an easy to carry tote – great for storage once your child has finished building their own creations. Tote makes it easy to take on trips, or bring to a friends house for play. This set includes tons of blocks for building whatever the imagination dreams up!

Go Go Gears!

Pick one of the five double-sided puzzle cards and slide it into the slot of the wooden frame. Each one features a vibrant picture with outlines of gears arranged throughout. It’s up to your little puzzler to fit the right-sized gears into the slots of the puzzle board so they connect just right over the picture. Motor skills, matching skills, and cause-and-effect exploration combine in a way that really gets the mind spinning.

Connetix Magnetic Tiles

I first bought these amazing magnetic tiles when my kids were toddlers and now I am just adding to their sets. Their imaginations are bigger and more tiles lets them keep creating.

Wooden Blocks

You probably have a ton of wooden blocks for your little, which are a great toy for kids. These uniquely shaped blocks are a great addition to that collection.

Dress Up Costumes

Pretend play at this age the best. Feed their imagination with these fun superhero costumes for boys and girls.

Tea Set

Tea party play set are an awesome way for kids to develop strong creative thinking and imaginative playing skills. They also promote memory development and color recognition.

Small Animals

There little under the sea animals make a great bath toy, sensory bin filler or even a beach toy!

Baking Set

This adorable cake set will quickly become your preschooler’s favourite kitchen toy. Great for pretend baking or bakery play!

Baby Doll

Dolls are perfect for all children, independent of their gender and key to developing key social skills. Getting a doll that is outside your race (especially if you are white) is a great way to combat subtle anti-racist messaging about other races your child may be getting from other sources, such as cartoons and school.

Cash Register

This realistic cash register is great addition to any pretend play scenario for your preschooler. With a real calculator and realistic money and coins its a great way to introduce money to your child.

Hands-On Learning Games

Playful practice for pre-readers that is compatible with an iPad or Fire Tablet. Build letters with squishy, colorful Sticks & Rings in ABCs. Or create anything you want and watch your creations come alive.

Play Dough Sensory Kits

Play is at the core of learning during the early years and it can take many forms. One of the most important of these is sensory play because it engages all of a child’s senses (taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing) and has a enoumous positive impact on brain development.

My Sensory Play Kits are a fun and easy way to keep your child engaged while at the same time capitalizing on the benefits of sensory play to nurture their mind!

Grocery Stand

Grocery stands are just fun to play with they are great way to develop new vocabulary, problems solve and strengthen their interpersonal skills while learning about entrepreneurship.

PlanToys The Green Dollhouse

Pet Care Play Set

Play vet set are amazing for your preschooler to cultivate their love, patience and sense of responsibility for animals and enhance their imagination.

Puzzles

Puzzles are a great way encourage independent play, which is a great boost for self-esteem. But they are also a wonderful way to develop social skills and collaborative skills.

Prextex Pack of 2 Radio Control Cars

Quintessential for young children and toddlers beginning to play with remote control toys for the first time. Vehicles have different frequencies, so two players can play together. The cars are easily maneuvered and the buttons are made simple to press, rendering them perfect for small children. The remote has been crafted with big simple buttons allowing to speed left, right, forward, and reverse.

The Original PlasmaCar

The PlasmaCar is easy to operate, and helps your child develop coordination, balance, and motor skills while harnessing the natural forces of inertia, centrifugal force, gravity, and friction. PlasmaCar is adult-friendly too: it doesn’t require an expensive power source that needs constant replacement, it provides kids with plenty of exercise, and it is quiet, the only sound you’ll hear is the sound of the wheels.

Peg Perego John Deere Ground Force Tractor with Trailer

Pretend Play Sets

Board Games

Trampoline

Teeter Popper

Fine Motor Lacing

Unique Building Toys

Reusable Stickers

Construction STEM Toys

Doodle Mats

More Toy Guides for Every Age

Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers

There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!

But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.

Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.

Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!

These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!

Click here for more information: Play2Learn

Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids

Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids image

Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.

Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.

Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.

Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids

Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids image

Find out more and grab your copy here.

Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.

Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids

Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.

350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.

Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!

Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.

TV Show: Curious Crafting

I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.

Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!

Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.

In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.

Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.

This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.