Homemade Preschool Toys
🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🏃 Physical Development — Active toys that promote running, riding, balancing, throwing, and climbing develop the gross motor skills, cardiovascular fitness, and physical confidence that health and sporting activity require.
- 💬 Language & Storytelling — Toys that prompt storytelling — figurines, dollhouses, puppets, vehicles — develop narrative language: the ability to construct, sequence, and communicate a coherent story that underlies reading comprehension and writing.
- 🎵 Musical Development — Musical toys — drums, xylophones, keyboards — develop auditory discrimination, rhythm, and early musical intelligence, with the cognitive benefits for language and mathematics that music education consistently produces.
- 🧩 Problem Solving — Toys that present problems to solve — puzzles to complete, mechanisms to figure out, structures to build — develop the persistence, logical reasoning, and satisfaction-in-solving that transfer to academic problem solving.
The Box
Imagine a toy that is a pirate ship one day and then an airplane the next. Your preschooler has a wonderful imagination, and they can turn an ordinary box into an extraordinary toy in a matter of minutes. You might have noticed this at Christmas time when your preschooler removed an expensive, flashy toy from the box and then proceeded to play with the box more than the toy. One thing is for sure, preschoolers love their boxes.
If you have just bought something that came in a rather large box, why don’t you give that box to your preschooler. Give your child a box of crayons or some non-toxic paint, sit back, and see what your preschooler will come up with. If you do not have any boxes around the house, go to a local appliance store. They have the boxes that the floor models came in and they are usually more than happy to get rid of the large bulky boxes that are taking up precious space. If you take them into your back yard, these large boxes will turn into forts or grand ships in the mind of your preschooler.
If the box becomes too covered in crayon or paint, simply cover the box with paper or paint it white to give your child a clean easel to work with. If the box starts to fall apart, duct tape can go a long way. Don’t just leave the fun of playing with a box to your preschooler. Play with them. Preschooler’s love it when their parents play their imagination games with them. You might find yourself loving that box just as much as your preschooler does.
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Helpful Tips for Parents
- Hand-me-down and second-hand toys are often the highest-quality toys available — older children's toys were made to last, and natural materials like wood age better than cheap plastic.
- Avoid toys with very loud sounds — preschoolers' hearing is more sensitive than adults', and toys that exceed 85dB can damage developing auditory systems.
- Declutter toys regularly. A child overwhelmed by too many toys plays less deeply and less creatively than one with fewer, well-chosen options.
- Open-ended toys — blocks, art materials, playdough, loose parts — last from age 1 to age 10+ and are more developmental than toys with a single correct use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are STEM toys worthwhile for preschoolers?
STEM toys vary enormously in quality and actual developmental value. The most valuable are those that genuinely engage children in scientific thinking or mathematical reasoning rather than those that simply carry the marketing label. Best actual STEM toys for preschoolers: simple coding toys (Bee-Bot, Code-a-Pillar) that make programming concepts tangible, construction sets (Magna-Tiles, KEVA planks) that develop engineering intuition, balance scales and measuring tools that make physics observable, and magnets and magnifying glasses. The worst "STEM" toys are traditional toys with a STEM label applied for marketing.
What are the best toys for a 3-year-old's developmental stage?
Best toys for age 3: Duplo or large-piece construction toys (spatial reasoning), art supplies and play dough (fine motor and creativity), dress-up clothes and dramatic play props (social-emotional and language), simple puzzles with 12–24 pieces (spatial reasoning and problem-solving), and ride-on toys or balance bikes (gross motor and spatial navigation). At age 3, children move from parallel play (playing near others) into early cooperative play — toys that can be used with others (blocks, role-play props, art supplies) become more valuable than strictly solo-use toys.
Related reading: See also our block building guide and our sensory bin ideas for more ideas on this topic.
